| Hearthstone Arrives on Android Tablets Posted: 16 Dec 2014 06:34 PM PST Welcome to the world of Hearthstone  Hearthstone has been a major success for Blizzard that boasts, at last count, 20 million players. Released in March, the digital collectible card game continues to grow at a rapid pace and is available for PC, Mac OS X, and iPad devices. However, Android users have been left out until now. On Monday, Blizzard announced that Hearthstone is now available on Android tablets.
Android tablet owners can now download the game, based on Blizzard's Warcraft franchise, for free on Google Play or the Amazon Appstore. Initially, the Android version of Hearthstone was available only to players in Australia Canada, and New Zealand as part of phase one, but is now available globally. However, Blizzard advises those who picked up the Android version through a third-party channel should delete that version and download it from Amazon or Google Play. The announcement comes shortly after the release of Goblins vs Gnomes, the latest card expansion for Hearthstone. As an incentive, those who decide to give the game a try on their Android tablet will earn a free pack of classic cards. All you have to do is play a complete game of Hearthstone in Play, Arena, or Practice mode and, win or lose, you'll earn the free card pack. For those wondering if they Android device can handle the game, the minimum requirements for an eligible device is a 6-inch screen or larger, runs Android 4.0, and 1GB of RAM. Some of the Android tablets that can run Hearthstone include Amazon Kindle Fire HD 6, Asus Google Nexus 7, Nvidia Shield Tablet, and the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0. For a list of all Android tablets capable of running Hearthstone, feel free to visit Blizzard's support page. As for when Hearthstone will be available on smartphones, Blizzard stated that more news will be provided in early 2015 Follow Sean on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Best of the Best: Now Updated! Posted: 16 Dec 2014 01:32 PM PST  Maximum PC's "Best of the Best" List Gets Updated
The holiday shopping is in full swing, and though Black Friday and Cyber Monday have both come and gone, deals and savings are all over the place. If you're going to shop for computer hardware, this is one of the best times of the year to do it. And as an added bonus, you can write some of this stuff off on your taxes if you're building a new system for work chores. Deciding to buy new hardware is the easy part. Where it gets difficult is in deciding which hardware to purchase. To help make things easier for you, we've gone and updated our "Best of the Best" list one last time for 2014. We have refreshed entries for graphics cards, CPUs, motherboards, and storage. You can check out all of our new pics in the gallery below, though keep in mind this is a small sample of the complete list, which you can view here. And hey, we know these things tend to stir up controversy, so if have a different pick in any given category, feel free to post it in the comments section along with a note as to why you think it's the best. |
| Asus ROG Poseidon GTX 980 Lets You Choose Air or Water Cooling for $640 Posted: 16 Dec 2014 01:02 PM PST  Choose your own adventure (in cooling)
Asus Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced the Poseidon GTX 980 with DirectCU H2O, a hybrid thermal solution that lets users choose between air or water cooling. The cooler sports a custom vapor chamber that comes in direct contact with the card's GPU for better heat dispersal, while copper heat pipes and extended cooling fins help whisk heat out and away from the card. Using water cooling, Asus ROG says the Poseidon GTX 980 can achieve temperatures that are up to 27C lower compared to reference, which the company claims will translate into up to 10 percent faster performance in Watch Dogs and 7 percent in Battlefield 4 (through less throttling, presumably). Asus said it used high end components for longevity -- things like black metallic solid state capacitors, 10-phase Super Alloy Power chokes, hardened MOSFETs, and Digi+ VRM for clean and stable voltage. There's also a tough backplate made of aluminum alloy and a die-cast thermal armor with thermal pads to prevent bending. The Asus ROG Poseidon GTX 980 will be available soon for $640 MSRP. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Nvidia Gives Shield Hub a Material Design Makeover Posted: 16 Dec 2014 12:10 PM PST  Nvidia was all nestled all snug in its bed, while visions of Lollipop's Material Design danced in its head
Nvidia today announced that its Shield Hub received some major updates along with a new look, improved GameStrem experience in console mode, and better connectivity to GRID, the company's on-demand game streaming service that resides in the cloud. The new layout comes hot on the heels of Android 5.0 Lollipop making its way to Nvidia's Shield Tablet, which is where the "Material Design" comes into play. Following the redesign, you can see more of your games with less scrolling in the Shield Hub. It's supposed to be easier to navigate with large lists that make finding games a cinch. It all reflects Google's Material Design language introduced in Lollipop with subtle animations, layers, and updated iconography. There's also an improved GameStream experience in console mode. If you have a fast Wi-Fi connection (5GHz 802.11n/ac required), you can configure a display output of 1080p at 60 frames per second. Just go to My Games > Streaming Setting (top right) > Show Advanced Options > Quality and set the Max Resolution to 1080p and Frame Rate to 60fps. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Newegg Daily Deals: MSI GE60 Apache-629 Gaming Laptop, Intel 730 Series 240GB SSD, and More! Posted: 16 Dec 2014 11:49 AM PST  
Top Deal: Gaming on a smartphone is fine in a pinch, and the same goes for tablets, but there's only so much Flappy Bird, Angry Bird, and whatever-bird a person can take. At some point, the need for real gaming kicks in, and if you're a road warrior, then a gaming laptop is the way to go. Luckily there are a bunch of options, including today's top deal for an MSI GE60 Apache-629 Gaming Laptop for $899 with free shipping (normally $1,199; Free Intel software bundle with purchased, limited off). This 15.6-inch machine sports a Full HD 1080p resolution powered by an Intel Core i7 4710HQ processor, 8GB of RAM, and a GeForce GTX 850M GPU. Storage duties are handled by a 1TB HDD, givinbg you plenty of room to install the $199 in free Intel software that's included. Other Deals: Intel 730 Series 240GB SSD for $120 with free shipping (normally $270) G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2x8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600 Desktop Memory for $125 with free shipping (normally $150 - use coupon code: [EMCWHWD35]) G.Skill Ripjaws Series 8GB (2x4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600 Desktop Memory for $60 with free shipping (normally $78 - use coupon code: [EMCWHWD34]) Acer K242HL Bbid Black 24-inch 6ms HDMI Widescreen LED Backlight LCD Monitor for $110 with free shipping (normally $120 - use coupon code: [EMCWHWD27]) |
| Lite-On to Unveil Zeta Solid State Drive for Consumers at CES Posted: 16 Dec 2014 11:11 AM PST  Look for Lite-On to light up the SSD scene
Tired of seeing the same old players participate in the solid state drive wars? If so, you'll be glad to know another warrior is entering the battlefield. That warrior is Lite-On, and come CES, the company that's perhaps best known for manufacturing affordable optical drives (dating back to when optical drives weren't necessarily affordable) will try its hand at making consumer grade SSDs. The company partially spilled the beans in a press release on its website, saying it will unveil "ultra high-speed" SSDs featuring True Speed Technology. "TrueSpeed is a technology that works to prevent the drastic write speed degradation that can occur with SSDs and delivers highly stabilized long-term performance, which provides enterprise, corporate, and OEM customers with a real-world performance advantage," Lite-On explained. Chinese-language website expreview.com tipped the can all the way over and spilled the rest of the beans. If the site's information proves accurate, Lite-On's first consumer SSD will be called Zeta. It will use Hynix 16nm MLC flash memory and come in 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB capacities. All three will offer up to 520MB/s read transfers, while write speeds will be rated at up to 150MB/s for the 128GB model, 290MB/s for the 256GB model, and 430MB/s for the 512MB model. Lite-On isn't going after the speed crown obviously, and instead is focusing on price. While it's early, pricing at the moment looks to convert to around $71 (128GB), $129 (256GB) and $258 (512GB) -- respectable, though not spectacular by any means. Here's crossing our fingers that domestic and street pricing end up a bit lower. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Pirate Bay Crew Breaks Silence, Talks Raid and Possible Return Posted: 16 Dec 2014 09:41 AM PST  Admins of the recently raided torrent site The Pirate Bay speak out
Swedish authorities took down The Pirate Bay (TPB), once considered the most popular torrent site on the planet, following a raid in which police seized computers, servers, and various other electronic equipment. While TPB co-founder Peter Sunde had some scathing remarks to share about the site and its crew, the current admins had remained silent following the raid, until now. "We were not surprised by the raid. That is something that is a part of this game. We couldn't care less really," Mr. 10100100000 relayed to TorrentFreak through an encrypted channel. "We have however taken this opportunity to give ourselves a break. How long are we supposed to keep going? To what end? We were a bit curious to see how the public would react." Flat out, the current admins don't know if a comeback is in the cards, though if TPB does rise up again, "it'll be with a bang," Mr 101001000000 added. He didn't elaborate on what exactly he meant by that. In the meantime, copycats and mirror sites have popped up, some of which are adding new content. As for which is the best alternative torrent site to visit while TPB decides its future, Mr 10100100000 says that's something the "swarm" has to decide. Image Credit: Flickr (thierry ehrmann) Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Microsoft Issues Hotfix for Windows 10 Update Issue, 12 Percent of Users Rejoice Posted: 16 Dec 2014 08:27 AM PST  All is good again
Around one out of 10 Windows 10 users ran into trouble when trying to install a update intended to fix a problem that was causing Explorer.exe to frequently crash following an upgrade to Windows 10 Build 9879. The problem was further exacerbated by the fact that Microsoft said it didn't have a new build planned until early 2015. If you're one of the people who ran into trouble, here's a heads up that Microsoft has released a hotfix to address the issue. According to Microsoft, the problem affected about 12 percent of PCs when installing the update. In those instances, the update would fail to install, and after doing some digging, Microsoft determined there were two underlying bugs that needed squashed. The first is that in Build 9879, Microsoft introduced some new System Compression code that systems with SSDs can take advantage of to reduce disk usage by the OS. However, the logic for low-space detection would get inverted in some instances, and Windows compresses automatically as a background operation. A second bug appeared on PCs that had system compression enabled. It would muck with how the file system tracks deletes, causing the installer to think the temp files failed to extract correctly. There was a workaround for the problem, though now the easiest solution is to apply the new hotfix that's now available through Windows Update, according to Microsoft's Gabriel Aul. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
