| Newegg Daily Deals: Samsung 840 Evo 1TB SSD, Windows 8.1 64-Bit, and More! Posted: 26 Aug 2014 09:57 AM PDT |
| Spotify Brings Free Streaming to Windows Phone Users Posted: 26 Aug 2014 09:14 AM PDT  Rock out with your Windows Phone out, for free!
Sometimes the Windows Phone platform gets forgotten or otherwise overlooked by developers. Such has been the case with Spotify, which has been serving up free tunes to Android and iOS users for some time now, but hadn't extended the same courtesy to Windows Phone. Well, that changes today -- Spotify has finally brought the free mobile music experience to Windows Phone users around the globe. "From today, Windows Phone owners can enjoy access to millions of songs across their smartphones for free," Spotify announced in a blog post. "Listen to all your playlists, discover new music, or simply sit back and dig into your favorite artist's entire back catalog." The Spotify app for Windows Phone now lets WP users stream all the playlists they've created along with playlists of people they follow without ponying up for a paid subscription (albeit only in shuffle mode). They can also discover new music, save, re-shuffle, and share. In addition, Spotify introduced a series of improvements throughout the app, such as making search results look better and making it easier to browse artists. You can download the Spotify app for Windows Phone 8/8.1 at the Windows Phone store. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Seagate Goes Big, Ships Industry's First 8TB Hard Drive Posted: 26 Aug 2014 08:56 AM PDT  Go big or go home
Anybody remember when hard drives were measured in megabytes? How far we've come from those primitive days in computing. Further distancing us from the stone age of storage, Seagate today has begun shipping the world's first 8TB hard drive. The feat comes a mere five months after Western Digital's HGST subsidiary shipped the first 6TB HDD -- could a capacity war be at hand? We're not sure, though Seagate did previously mention 10TB models in the not-too-distant future. For now, 8TB is as capacious as single HDDs get in the 3.5-inch form factor. Details of the new drive are in short supply, though Seagate did confirm that it sports a SATA 6Gbps interface and features multi-drive RV tolerance for use in high-density environments such as data centers. "As our world becomes more mobile, the number of devices we use to create and consume data is driving an explosive growth in unstructured data. This places increased pressure on cloud builders to look for innovative ways to build cost-effective, high capacity storage for both private and cloud-based data centers," said Scott Horn, Seagate vice president of marketing. "Seagate is poised to address this challenge by offering the world's first 8TB HDD, a ground-breaking new solution for meeting the increased capacities needed to support the demand for high capacity storage in a world bursting with digital creation, consumption and long-term storage." Seagate seems to be taking aim at data centers and cloud computing providers, though the thought of slapping several of these drives in a NAS box has us salivating at the sheer amount of storage space. In any event, the 8TB drive is shipping now to select customers and will be more widely available next quarter. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Research Firm Expects All-in-One PC Shipments to Decline in 2014 Posted: 26 Aug 2014 08:34 AM PDT  Was the push for all-in-one systems just a fad?
Poke your head into Best Buy and take a peek at the computer section. In it you'll find lots tablets, laptops (including hybrids), and all-in-one systems, along with a small selection of desktop towers. AIO PCs have been around for many years now, but only recently became popular, in part because of dropping prices. You have to think that the prominence of touchscreen displays helped matters too. However, at least one research firm believes AIO shipments will drop this year. Digitimes Research projects a 2.4 percent year-on-year decline in AIO shipments in 2014 because enterprise and consumer buyers have both used their budgets to purchase conventional desktops. In addition, Sony has dropped out of the PC market, so there's one less vendor to feed the AIO sector. As it stands, Apple and Lenovo are the top two vendors in the AIO category with a combined 60 percent share of the market. Other vendors, such as HP and Dell, have seen their share decline. Time will tell if Digitimes Research is correct in its prediction, though if prices keep coming down, we suspect the allure of a space saving design will prevent AIOs from slipping into obscurity, if at all. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Nvidia Retains Lead in Discrete Graphics Card Business, Shipments Down Overall Posted: 26 Aug 2014 08:11 AM PDT  Tablets and embedded graphics are eating into the add-in board market
The latest report from Jon Peddie Research (JPR) shows that graphics add-in board (AIB) shipments during the second quarter of 2014 declined 17.5 percent compared to the previous quarter. JPR says the market is behaving according to past years, though the decrease was more than the 10-year average. What's also interesting is that the drop in discrete graphics card shipments coincided with a 1.3 percent increase in desktop PC shipments. According to JPR, tablets and embedded graphics caused part of the decline. However, "PC gaming momentum continues to build and is the bright spot in the AIB market," with Nvidia reaping the lion's share of the rewards. Nvidia's share of the discrete graphics card market slipped sequentially from 64.9 percent to 62 percent, though barely budged compared to the same quarter a year ago when Nvidia held a 61.9 percent share of the market. Meanwhile, AMD ended the quarter wit ha 37.9 percent share, up from 35 percent in the previous quarter and down slightly from 38 percent a year ago. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Digital Storm Targets Gamers with Bolt II Battle Box Titan Z Special Edition Posted: 26 Aug 2014 07:35 AM PDT  Liquid cooled and ready for the heat of battle
Digital Storm today unveiled its Bolt II Battle Box Titan Z Special Edition, which is a specially priced Bolt II small form factor (SFF) rig wielding a dual-GPU Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan Z graphics card. In addition to adding a Titan Z, Digital Storm went back to the drawing board and redesigned the Bolt II to accommodate a new Hardline Cooling System consisting of a 240mm radiator, pump, and "stunning" acrylic tubing with yellow coolant. "Nvidia launched the GTX Battle Box Program to allow gamers to play AAA, combat-focused games at max settings and super high resolutions," said Harjit Chana, Chief Brand Officer. "But gaming in 4K requires much more than simply upgrading components. Our Hardline Cooling System allows gamers to unlock the Bolt II's full potential and experience games in ways they never thought possible." The Bolt II Battle Box is available now for just under $5,000, down from what its regular selling price should be, which is $6,658. At that starting price, the Bolt II Battle Box comes with a painted chassis, an overclocked Intel Core i7 4790K processor, Asus Maximus VI Impact motherboard, 16GB of DDR3-1600 memory, Blu-ray player, 250GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD, 1TB Seagate HDD, Titan Z graphics card, liquid cooling, internal lighting, 700W power supply, and Windows 8.1 64-bit. You can find out more (and/or place an order) on Digital Storm's website. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
