| GOG.com Kicks Off Autumn Sales with Free Games Posted: 12 Nov 2014 01:19 PM PST  Get titles like Mount & Blade and The Witcher 2 at no cost
GOG just launched its 2014 DRM-Free Big Fall Sale with plenty of deals, plus a free game with the chance to snag more no-cost titles. For the next 48 hours, you can grab Mount & Blade for free from GOG's website, no strings attached. Other freebies include The Witcher 2: Assassin's of Kings and the movie The Gamers: Director's Cut, though you have to earn them by visiting GOG's website every day and collecting special stamps. Grab seven and you're golden. When you're not collecting stamps or playing Mount & Blade, you can browse the site's collection of discounted titles -- there are over 700 games on sale, with discounts that go as deep as 90 percent. There will also be daily deals and flash sales to take advantage of. For example, the Ultimate Dungeons and Dragons bundle is back by popular demand. It's marked down to $21.10 for the next 24 hours and includes a collection of ten D&D classics -- once the deal expires, it will be shoved aside for another daily offer. Check it out, and happy gaming. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Asus ROG Readies Maxwell for Water, Announces Poseidon GTX 980 Posted: 12 Nov 2014 12:39 PM PST  Hybrid thermal solution offers both air and liquid cooling options
Feeling indecisive these days? Don't sweat it -- Asus Republic of Gamers (ROG) this week announced its Poseidon GTX 980 graphics card with DirectCU H20, a hybrid cooling solution capable of keeping temps at bay by air or water, dealer's choice. The benefit of having both is that you can cool the card by air today and make the leap to liquid cooling down the line, if that's your longer-term goal. According to Asus, the new card runs up to 27C cooler than reference (with water), is three times quieter, and offers 10 percent faster gaming performance in games like Watch Dogs. That's all thanks to the custom vapor chamber that comes in direct contact with the GPU, along with copper heat pipes and extended cooling fins. "ROG Poseidon GTX 980 is also loaded with ROG technologies and innovations, including dual dust-proof fans for increased card longevity, die-cast thermal armor for improved cooling in the crucial MOSFET area, Digi+ voltage-regulation modules (VRMs) with black metallic capacitors for incredible stability and up to a 5X-longer lifespan than reference," Asus says. 
This is the first Maxwell-based card to receive the ROG treatment, which in addition the above includes things like LED lighting and a sturdy backplate. Connectitivy options consist of a native Dual-Link DVI-I port, HDMI 2.0 output, and three Native DisplayPort 1.2 outputs. No word yet on when the card will be available or for how much. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Asus X205TA Windows Laptop Pops Up Online Starting at $179 Posted: 12 Nov 2014 12:17 PM PST  The return of the netbook?
We're beginning to notice more low-cost Windows laptops in the $200 range, though one thing we haven't seen is a manufacturer revive the netbook nomenclature. Fair enough, since these machines are more powerful than yesterday's netbooks, and generally cheaper too. The least expensive so far is the Asus X205TA Signature Edition, a $199 laptop that's been reduced to $179 in the Microsoft Store. The Asus X205TA sports an 11.6-inch HD (1366x768) display powered by an Intel Atom Z3735F quad-core processor (1.33GHz to 1.83GHZ, 2MB L2 cache) and 2GB of DDR3L-1333 memory. It also features 32GB of eMMC storage, a microSD card slot, 480p webcam, 802.11n Wi-Fi (Miracast enabled), Bluetooth, a pair of USB 2.0 ports, micro HDMI output, headphone/microphone combo port, 2-cell battery good for up to 12 hours of run time, and Windows 8.1 with Bing (32-bit). Asus calls it an ultraportable companion, a seemingly accurate description considering it measures 0.68 inches by 7.61 inches by 11.25 inches and weighs just 2.11 pounds. It's available now at the Microsoft Store, and also on Amazon, albeit for $199. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Watch Out Subscription Music Services, YouTube Just Entered the Game Posted: 12 Nov 2014 11:38 AM PST  YouTube Music Key is a slightly better name than Google Play Music All Access
Google has figured out there's big potential in the streaming music business, it just has a hard time coming up with names that don't roll around the mouth like a fistful of chipped marbles rubbed in hot sauce. By that we mean first there was Google Play Music All Access, and coming soon, Google is getting its YouTube subsidiary into the subscription music game with YouTube Music Key. To Google's credit, it isn't the only company having a difficult time naming its music services (Samsung Milk Music, anyone?), and Google Play Music All Access is now just Google Play Music, which sounds much better. But whatever, this about the content and not the name. So, beginning today, there will be a new home just for music in your YouTube app for Android and iOS, and on YouTube's website. It will show your favorite music videos, recommended music playlists, and playlists of trending music across YouTube. You'll find all this under a new Music tab. As for YouTube Music Key, it's an ad-free subscription service that's rolling out in beta form. Like Google Play Music, it will debut at the promotional price of $7.99 per month before going up to $9.99 per month. It will include background play, offline viewing, and a subscription to Google Play Music with its catalog of over 30 million songs. "Thanks to your music videos, remixes, covers, and more, you've made YouTube the biggest music service on the planet. To turn YouTube into your perfect music service, we're launching YouTube Music Key as a beta with our biggest music fans first, and then we'll bring YouTube Music Key to the whole world together," YouTube says. "So, if you see an invite in your app or email, try it out for six months for free." While we haven't been able to confirm this yet, CNET claims that a subscription to either service includes access to both, so if you're currently a Google Play Music subscriber, you'll get YouTube Music Key at no additional cost. If that's the case, it will be interesting to see if those who are paying $9.99/month for Google Play Music will be dropped down to $7.99, or if that will only happen by cancelling service and re-upping through YouTube Music Key's promotional period (which is currently by invite only). Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Microsoft Gives Office 365 Subscribers "Clutter" to De-Clutter Outlook Posted: 12 Nov 2014 10:52 AM PST  De-cluttering your inbox
Microsoft this week started rolling out Clutter to Office 365 business customers to help them better manage their emails. Previously known as Delve, Microsoft's Clutter tool uses machine learning to de-clutter your inbox by moving lower priority messages into a dedicated folder. In theory, what gets left behind are more urgent emails that need your immediate attention. Clutter works its email management mojo by learning from your actions the types of emails you're most likely to ignore. Using that information, it then begins automatically moving less important messages out of sight as they arrive, though you can still access them any time you want. "It gets smarter over time, learning from your prior actions with similar messages, and assessing things like the type of content and even how you are addressed in the message," Microsoft explains in a blog post. "The Clutter experience is personalized to each individual and reflects an email experience that adapts to your actions and preferences without you having to do anything. The information Clutter learns from each user's actions are only applied to that user's experience and are not shared with anyone else." Though it's being rolled out right now, Clutter is disabled by default. You can turn it on as soon as it's available, and if you end up not liking how it works, you can turn it back off at any time. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Feets-on with the Hendo Hoverboard (Video) Posted: 12 Nov 2014 09:49 AM PST The hover board is here and we've ridden it Ever since I saw Back to the Future Part II in 1989, I've had dreams of riding a hover board. Twenty-five hover board–less years later, I had lost all hope of ever getting my feet on one, that is, until now. The hover board is here, and I have ridden it. Check out our feet-on impressions of the Hendo Hoverboard in the video above. Created by California-based company Arx Pax, the Hendo hover board uses a magnetic field architecture to transmit electromagnetic energy. One downside here is that it needs a metal surface to hover. As someone who skates and enjoys digging his wheels into the ground to carve out the asphalt beneath me, I must admit that the hover board is much harder to control, since there are no wheels that grip anything. The board hovers almost an inch off the floor, and trying to turn on it generally leads to you falling off. The hover engines are also surprisingly loud. 
The Hendo Hoverboard currently hovers a little under an inch off the ground. In the grand scheme of things, however, the Hendo hover board is really just a proof of concept for a much more ambitious endeavor. The real deal here is what the technology can offer to the transportation sector, particularly trains. Arx Pax tells us that unlike the Maglev trains in Japan and Germany, its technology is much cheaper and much more maneuverable. So maneuverable that vehicles should be able to turn on a dime. In addition to transportation, Arx Pax sees its hover engines being used to one day levitate buildings. The company asserts that this could be used to protect structures in areas that are prone to earthquakes. It remains to be seen whether any of this will end up panning out as intended, but the company will soon be selling a white box developer kit with four hover engines that users can experiment with, for $200. If all else fails, hopefully we get some hover parks out of this. |
| Microsoft's Patch Tuesday Update Squashes 19-Year-Old Windows Bug Posted: 12 Nov 2014 08:51 AM PST  A critical bug went unaddressed since Windows 95
The second Tuesday of every month is known as Patch Tuesday for Windows users, and if you didn't install yesterday's batch of security updates, there's a good reason why you might want to put it on your short-term list of things to do. One of the patches in yesterday's Tuesday roundup addresses a critical bug in Windows that went unnoticed for 19 years and is present in every version of the OS from Windows 95 on up. A security researcher for IBM discovered the bug, which an attacker use can use for drive-by attacks to remotely run code and take over a victim's PC. The vulnerability also allows a remote attacker to sidestep the Enhanced Protected Mode (EPM) sandbox in Internet Explorer 11, as well as the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) anti-exploitation tool Microsoft offers for free, the researcher says. The bug affects Windows Server platforms as well. It's been compared to Heartbleed in potential severity, and though it doesn't appear it's been exploited in the wild, nor does a proof-of-concept exist, now that it's been made public, there could be attacks on unpatched systems. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Newegg Daily Deals: Dell 23-inch IPS Monitor, Intel 530 Series 120GB SSD, and More! Posted: 12 Nov 2014 06:24 AM PST  
Top Deal: We love living on the cutting edge of technology, so we won't begrudge all those pricey 4K monitors and emerging 5K panels, and if a manufacturer wants to release an 8K monitor for a king's ransom, then so be it. Of course, our budgets always slap us back to reality, and there's no shame in owning a Full HD 1080p panel, especially since they're less demanding on your GPU for gaming at their native res. If you're in the market for one, check out today's top deal for a Dell P3214H 23-inch IPS Monitor for $150 with free shipping (normally $190 - use coupon code: [EMCWWWW83]). It has nice viewing angles, can switch between portrait and landscape mode, and mulitple connectivity options (VGA, DisplayPort, DVI-D, USB). Other Deals: Intel 530 Series 2.5-inch 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive for $65 with free shipping AMD A10-7850K Kaveri 12 Compute Cores (4 CPU + 8 GPU) 3.7GHz Socket FM2+ 95W Desktop Processor for $150 with free shipping (normally $160 - use coupon code: [EMCWWWW224]) Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit for $80 (normally $100 - use coupon code: [EMCWWWW89]) Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card for $240 with free shipping (normally $290 - use coupon code: [EMCWWWW42]; additional $30 Mail-in rebate) |
