General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article


Head 2 Head: Wordpress vs. Squarespace

Posted: 16 Apr 2015 02:49 PM PDT

Wordpress vs SquarespaceEvaluating website builders

So, you've decided to build a website but don't know where to start, is that it? You're not alone. This is the Internet era, after all, and there are countless reasons why you might want a website of your own. It could be something as simple as an online photo album to share with family and friends, or a blog for your ramblings on whichever topics tickle your fancy. Or maybe your needs are more professional in nature and you're looking at constructing an e-commerce site to sell your one-of-a-kind thingamajigs.

You have options. Lots of them, actually. One of them is to buckle down, learn the ins and outs of HTML, and code your site from scratch. If you don't have the time or gumption for that, there are website builders that streamline the process so that anybody at any skill level can build the site they're looking for. Two of the more popular are Wordpress and Squarespace. Which one is the overall better option? Let's find out!

ROUND 1: Ease of Use

Building a website can be stressful. Or it can be fun. Part of that depends on your skill level, though the onus here falls on Wordpress and Squarespace to streamline the experience so you don't feel like Hulk-smashing your keyboard when things don't turn out the way you want them to. When you dive into one of the paid options, Wordpress spreads its wings beyond a robust blogging platform and into a bona fide website builder, and though it tries to hold your hand along the way, it's definitely geared more toward users who already have at least some experience building webpages.

Squarespace, on the other hand, is a bit more nurturing to first-time or still-green users. The interface is fairly intuitive, allowing you to hop in and create a relatively professional-looking site without a lot of effort or, just as important, time. And if you do get stuck, there are several helpful video tutorials available.

Squarespace

Winner: Squarespace

ROUND 2: Themes and Templates

One of the easiest ways to go about building a website is to take an existing template and tailor it to your specific content and needs. As Squarespace has become more popular, it's library of templates has grown. It's also easy to narrow one down, as they're broken up into categories—Featured, Businesses, Porfolios, Stores, Personal, Musicians, Restaurants, and Weddings. However, there just aren't that many to choose from, only a few dozen by our count. Wordpress has over 1,700 themes, and if that's not enough, you can hit up the web for even more from various marketplaces. They're not organized as well as Squarespace's, and that might account for something if Squarespace had a few hundred to choose from. It doesn't, and given the enormous disparity here, Wordpress gets the nod.

Winner: Wordpress

ROUND 3: Price

Squarespace breaks down its subscription option into three tiers:

  • Personal: $10 per month, or $96 billed annually ($8 per month)
  • Professional: $20 per month, or $192 billed annually ($16 per month)
  • Business: $30 per month, or $288 billed annually ($24 per month)

There is no free tier, though Squarespace does allow you to try out any of the paid options at no cost for 14 days, and without a credit card, which is nice. All three options come with unlimited storage and bandwidth, and both the Professional and Business subscriptions allow unlimited pages (Personal is limited to 20). Integrated commerce is part of each package too, though you can only sell a single product on the Personal tier; Professional and Business allow for up to 20 products and an unlimited amount, respectively.

Wordpress also offers three options. They include:

  • Basic: Free for life
  • Premium: $99 per year
  • Business: $299 per year

It's tough to beat free, though if you're serious about building a website, there are several perks to upgrading to the Premium tier, such as more storage (13GB versus 3GB), no ads, the ability to store videos, a custom domain, and advanced customizations. The Business tier ups the ante with over 50 premium themes included, e-commerce functionality, unlimited space, and live chat support.

Since Wordpress offers a free tier, it should get the automatic win, right? Not so fast. That's certainly an advantage, but to build more than a glorified blog, the paid tiers are the way to go. And when comparing the paid tiers, it's really a wash, as both offer a good value for the money.

Winner: Tie

ROUND 4: Flexibility

With Squarespace, it doesn't take a lot of time to build a good-looking website: You pick a template, fill in the blanks and/or replace the existing content with your own, and you're all set. It takes a bit longer to build a comparable looking website with Wordpress, but while the learning curve is steeper, the level of fine-grain control runs deeper. There are more templates and themes, tens of thousands of plugins to play with, and it's open source. If you're an experienced website builder or programmer, you can get lost in customizations. And if you're relatively new to the world of website building, you'll find that as you grow, there's more you can do in Wordpress—the ceiling isn't just higher, it's pretty much lifted altogether.

Winner: Wordpress

ROUND 5: Support

Wordpress claims it's powering 23 percent of the web. That may or may not be accurate, but there's no disputing its immense popularity. And since Wordpress is so popular, there's a vast amount of knowledge and support out there, both on Wordpress's own support forum and in various corners of the web. There are video tutorials on YouTube, forums for help with plugin coding, and guides galore.

The amount of support for Squarespace isn't as robust, though like the service as a whole, it's about convenience and ease-of-use. You can browse through topics in the knowledgebase, seek community-sourced answers, view several video tutorials, and even go to one-on-one workshops if you happen to live in New York.

We're inclined to call it a draw in this category, and if we revisit the topic in another year or so, perhaps we will. But for now, Wordpress again benefits from being the popular kid on the block—there are simply more resources available to Wordpress users in need of help.

And the winner is...

Wordpress

If you're new or simply inexperienced with website building, you're likely to have an easier time with Squarespace. You're also apt to outgrow (eventually) what it has to offer. That's not to say Squarespace isn't a good option, or even a great one, but Wordpress is simply better with more templates and themes, plugins for nearly every situation, and an extensive support network. The learning curve is steeper, but the reward for toughing it out is the ability to build a website exactly as you want it, without compromises.

Newegg Daily Deals: WD Black 4TB Internal HDD, Logitech G601 Gaming Mouse, and More!

Posted: 16 Apr 2015 01:13 PM PDT

 

WD Black 4TB HDDNewegg

Top Deal:

So, you've gone and picked up a speedy solid state drive for your new build and plan to use it as a boot drive -- that's a righteous plan. Now, what to do with all those vacation photos, work documents, home videos, and all the other data that won't fit on your SSD, at least not without uninstalling a stockpile of games? Don't stress, the solution is simple -- just look at today's top deal for a WD Black 4TB Internal Hard Drive for $200 with free shipping (normally $213 - use coupon code: [ESCARKR48]). While not on the level of an SSD, it is a 7200 RPM HDD with 64MB of cache. And it's backed by a 5-year warranty.

Other Deals:

Logitech G602 Black 11 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB RF Gaming Mouse for $43 with free shipping (normally $50 - use coupon code: [EMCARKR54])

WD Black 500GB 7200 RPM 2.5-inch Internal Hard Drive for $55 with free shipping (normally $59 - use coupon code: [ESCARKR49])

Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive for $70 with free shipping (normally $77 - use coupon code: [ESCARKR47])

WD Green 3TB IntelliPower 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive for $90 with free shipping (normally $100 - use coupon code: [ESCARKR46])

Microsoft and Yahoo Revise 10-Year Search Agreement

Posted: 16 Apr 2015 12:56 PM PDT

YahooAmended search partnership gives Yahoo more flexibility

Yahoo search is changing, though you won't notice it right away. As is stands now, Yahoo search is powered by Microsoft's Bing search engine. For the majority, that won't change, though for others, it might. As part of the new search deal between Yahoo and Microsoft, Yahoo will be allowed to display its own search results and ads for up to half the searches performed by visitors to its sites and applications.

Yahoo boss Marissa Mayer says her and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella have been working together for the past several months to revise the original search agreement, which was put into place in 2009.

"This renewed agreement opens up significant opportunities in our partnership that I'm very excited about to explore," Mayer said in a statement.

As Mayer explains it, Yahoo will have more flexibility to enhance the search experience on any platform, since the partnership is non-exclusive for both desktop and mobile. She claims that Yahoo will still serve Bing ads and search results for the majority of its desktop traffic.

In addition, Microsoft will be in full control of the salesforce for ads delivered by Microsoft's Bing Ads platform, and likewise, Yahoo will remain the exclusive salesforce for its Gemini ads platform. In other words, Yahoo now has the ability to sell search ads to advertisers through Gemini, while Microsoft will begin taking over sales of all ads for Bing search.

That's all the companies were willing to share at this time, so we'll have to wait and see how this revised arrangement affects real-world search results.

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Asus ROG Unveils Sleek and Slim GR6 PC Game Console

Posted: 16 Apr 2015 12:04 PM PDT

Asus ROG GR6Small in size, quiet in operation

We still have a few months to go before official Steam Machine systems enter the market, but in the meantime, OEMs, boutique builders, and hardware players continue to get a jump start on the category with PC gaming consoles built around Windows 8.1 and Steam's Big Picture mode. One such model is the Asus ROG GR6, the newest PC game box that's sure to grab attention from your entertainment center.

It's an ultra-compact system built inside a 2.5-liter chassis that measures all of 238mm by 245mm by 60mm and weighing 128kg. Asus says it's also whisper-quiet, producing 20dB when idle and 28dB at full load.

The GR6 features a 5th Generation Intel Core i5 5200U processor, 8GB of DDR3L-1600 RAM (supports up to 16GB), HDD and SSD storage options, Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M graphics, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, GbE LAN, two USB 2.0 ports, four USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, DisplayPort, audio jacks, and Windows 8.1.

It also has Steam installed and will boot into Steam Big Picture mode with the tap of a button. In addition, Asus says it's working with Valve to ensure the GR6 works "perfectly" with Steam OS and Steam Controller down the line. For now, an optional ROG Gladius mouse and M801 keyboard or ORG Sica mouse and RA01 keyboard comes bundled with the system.

No word yet on price or availability.

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Razer BlackWidow Tournament Edition Chroma Keyboard is Now Available

Posted: 16 Apr 2015 08:59 AM PDT

Razer BlackWidow Tournament Edition ChromaLook at the colors!

Can't decide on whether you want a blue or red LED backlight on the your keyboard? The neat thing about the current crop of RGB keyboards is that you don't have to decide -- you have around 16.8 million colors at your disposal, so you can change your mind on a whim, or combine different colors for different parts of the keyboard. So it goes with Razer's BlackWidow Tournament Edition keyboard, a mechanical plank with lots of LED backlighting options that's now available to purchase.

The Tournament Edition here is a tenkeyless (TKL) plank, meaning it doesn't have a number pad. So, if you're an accountant by day and a gamer by night, this wouldn't be the best option, unless you already have a separate number pad and/or don't mind swapping out keyboards.

In addition to myriad color options, you can also configure the keyboard to light up in a number of different ways, including Wave, Spectrum Cycling, Breathing, Reactive, and more.

This is a mechanical keyboard that uses Razer Green switches, which are tactile and audible. Razer claims they've been designed from the ground-up for gamers, though I suspect they're based on Cherry MX Blue switches. When I played with a Razer BlackWidow Ultimate keyboard, also with Green switches, I felt the type action was very similar to my Das Keyboard 4 Professional. In any event, you can read more about the Green switches here.

If you're sold on the Razer BlackWidow Tournament Edition Chroma, you can pick one up direct from Razer for $140.

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