General Gaming Article |
- Commodore Comes Back as an Android Smartphone
- Windows 10 Technical Preview Rollout Halted
- Mozilla Currently Blocking Flash in Firefox
- Newegg Daily Deals: Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM, Asus GeForce GTX 980, and More!
- Wi-Fi Aware Will Connect Your Devices without a Wireless Connection
- SanDisk Connect Wireless Sticks Puts the Cloud in Your Pocket
- Windows 10 May Not Be Pre-Installed On Devices Arriving July 29
- QNAP TVS-871 NAS Review
| Commodore Comes Back as an Android Smartphone Posted: 14 Jul 2015 04:51 PM PDT A Commodore for the modern era As I explained before, my roots in computing date back to the Commodore 64, which is generally recognized as the best selling PC of all time. Like many thirty-somethings and over, I cut my computing teeth on that system and get a sense of nostalgia any time I see the name Commodore. That's what the makers of the Commodore PET are banking on. No, not the original Commodore PET, which predates the Commodore 64. The Commodore PET I'm talking about is an Android handset that a pair of Italian entrepreneurs strategically named after the decades old system. This is an obvious play on the name, as the Commodore of today is the not the Commodore of yesteryear -- the brand went bankrupt long ago, while the company's assets and Commodore trademark has changed hands on more than one occasion. It's even made some comebacks as a nettop and other forms, though this is the first time I'm aware of that it's been attached to a smartphone. The folks at Wired got in touch with the designers and extracted some info about the device. It will sport an aluminum frame and interchangeable polycarbonate covers, and of course the iconic logo will be splashed on the back. Other features include a 5.5-inch IPS display with a 1920x1080 resolution, Gorilla Glass 3, 1.7GHz Mediatek 64-bit octa-core processor, ARM Mali T760 GPU, 8-megapixel front camera with an 80-degree wide angle lens, 13-megapixel rear shooter with a Sony sensor and bright f/2.0 aperture, 3,000 mAh battery, and dual SIM 4G connectivity. What about storage and RAM? There will be two different models, one with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of built-in storage that will sell for around $300, and another with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage for around $365. Both will also have a microSD card slot. On the software side, the Commodore PET will run a custom version of Android 5.0 Lollipop with a pair of pre-installed emulators -- VICE C64 and Uae4All2-SDL Amiga. The designers are also working with software companies to bring back some 1980s games to include with the handset. There's no shipping date yet, though you can sign up for notifications on the product's website. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Windows 10 Technical Preview Rollout Halted Posted: 14 Jul 2015 11:48 AM PDT Microsoft Insider boss Gabe Aul stated on Monday that the company will be suspending releases of Windows 10 Technical Preview for a brief period. The company wants to move deployment into the production channels, the same channels that will provide updates to PCs with the retail copy. "Starting tomorrow, we will also not be delivering any additional ISOs at this point as we really need Insiders to be using, stressing, and validating our distribution and upgrade processes," Aul said on Monday. "We'll make ISOs available again in the future, but for now we ask you to upgrade your current build via Windows Update once the next build is released." That said, for the next 24 hours, Insiders will not be able to update to Build 10162 or Build 10166. If they try to update, they will get a message indicating that their current platform is "up to date." Microsoft is also pulling ISOs of Build 10162 and suspending the validity of prerelease Windows 10 Technical Preview keys. "Once we have a new build available we'll let you know through here with a blog post, Insider Hub, and on Twitter," Aul said. Despite what's going on with Windows Update, Aul insists that Windows Insider participants continue to provide their feedback during the release "blackout." News of the release halt arrives after Microsoft introduced Build 10166 to the "fast" ring last week. This build was the last in a string of updates that were released over a two-week period. For Build 10166, Microsoft is merely smashing pesky bugs and throwing in a bit of polish. There was talk last week that Windows 10 RTM would be finalized on July 10, but the "gone gold" release didn't happen. That means OEMs won't have the time to install Windows 10 on their devices before the July 29 launch date. Instead, customers will see Windows 10 devices rolled out in two waves: one in August and one in September. On July 29, Insider participants will have two choices to make: either stay in the program and continue to provide Microsoft with hands-on feedback, or drop out and get updates with the rest of the world. Either way, Windows 10 updates will be rolled out in "rings": the fast ring will be for the adventurous and the slow ring will be for those who like their OS cooked "well done." Microsoft is betting heavy on Windows 10. The platform will be a free upgrade for those on Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.1. Customers on Windows 8 will need to update to Windows 8.1 before tackling Windows 10. The new OS will be more desktop-friendly than its predecessors and will include a new Start Menu, a built-in virtual assistant, and more. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mozilla Currently Blocking Flash in Firefox Posted: 14 Jul 2015 11:37 AM PDT Mozilla suspends Adobe Flash support in Firefox Mozilla announced on Monday that it has blocked all versions of the Adobe Flash plugin in Firefox, even the most recent version of the plugin, 18.0.0.203. Mozilla's Mark Schmidt added via Twitter that the plugin will remain blocked until Adobe releases a version of Flash that's not "actively exploited by publicly known vulnerabilities." The news arrives after several zero-day vulnerabilities in Flash Player were discovered last week. According to a report from FireEye Labs, several hacking groups were found using the first Flash vulnerability, CVE-2015-5119, in a large number of attacks. A second zero-day vulnerability was also discovered, CVE-2015-5122, in leaked data provided by Italian security company The HackingTeam. "The vulnerability is triggered by freeing a TextLine object within the valueOf function of a custom class when setting the TextLine's opaqueBackground," FireEye said regarding CVE-2015-5122. "Once the TextLine object is freed, a Vector object is allocated in its place. Returning from valueOf will overwrite the length field of Vector object with a value of 106. (Initial length is 98)." "Exploitation continues by finding the corrupted Vector object by its length, which will be greater than 100. This enables the object to change an adjacent Vector object's length to 0x40000000," the company added. Once the exploit achieves this goal, it scans for Kernel32.dll in the machine's memory to locate the ExportTable and drum up the VirtualProtect address. Once VirtualProtect marks the exploiter's payload class as READ_WRITE_EXECUTE, the payload can be uploaded to the machine. Alex Stamos, Facebook's chief security officer, stated via Twitter on Sunday that it's time to retire Adobe Flash. "Even if 18 months from now, one set date is the only way to disentangle the dependencies and upgrade the whole ecosystem at once," he said. The call to end Flash has been around for years. The late Steve Jobs even wrote a long letter in 2010 regarding why Apple wouldn't allow Flash on its products. "Flash was created during the PC era—for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs," Jobs wrote at the time. "But the mobile era is about low-power devices, touch interfaces, and open web standards—all areas where Flash falls short." Internet giants like Facebook and YouTube are already working to move away from Adobe Flash and support video based on HTML5. Stamos pointed out on Twitter that "compatibility with all modern browsers needs work." Most of the browsers we use now, including Microsoft's new Edge browser for Windows 10, support HTML5 video. Hackers seemingly attack Flash vulnerabilities because Adobe's platform is used on almost every website on the Internet. With HTML5 gaining momentum, Adobe may end up retiring the Flash platform in the near future after all. Is retirement overdue? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Newegg Daily Deals: Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM, Asus GeForce GTX 980, and More! Posted: 14 Jul 2015 11:33 AM PDT Top Deal: Windows 10 is peeking around the corner and ready to pounce once July 29 rolls around. Of course, if you're running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, you can upgrade for free, otherwise you'll need to fork over funds for a license. Even so, that doesn't mean you have to pay full price. Instead, check out today's top deal for Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM for $90 with free shipping (normally $100 - use coupon code: [EMCAVKR222]). This is a pre-order sale, and take note that Newegg lists the release date as 7/31, not 7/29. Other Deals: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro - 64-bit - OEM for $120 with free shipping (normally $140 - use coupon code: [EMCAVKR223]) Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200 RPM 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive for $85 with free shipping (normally $90 - use coupon code: [ESCAVKR29]) Asus GeForce GTX 980 4GB Video Card for $489 with free shipping (normally $509 - use coupon code: [EMCAVKR33]; NVIDIA GIFT Batman: Arkham Knight) Corsair 760W AX760 Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply for $130 with free shipping (normally $140 - use coupon code: [EMCAVKR45]; additional $30 Mail-in rebate) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wi-Fi Aware Will Connect Your Devices without a Wireless Connection Posted: 14 Jul 2015 11:19 AM PDT Paving the way for context-aware services The past few years have seen several advances in wireless technology with things like beamforming, faster 802.11ac routers, and the such. Not resting on its laurels, the Wi-Fi Alliance is keeping the good times rolling by announcing a new certification program for a technology called Wi-Fi Aware. What is Wi-Fi Aware? "Wi-Fi Aware makes contextual awareness more immediate and useful, enabling personalized applications that continuously scan surroundings, anticipate actions, and notify of services and selected preferences," the Wi-Fi Alliance explains. "Wi-Fi's widespread implementation in mobile devices offers potential for vendors, operating system (OS) developers, and application makers to create innovative services based on proximity." Put in more simple terms, Wi-Fi Aware is a contextual awareness technology that allows for compatible Wi-Fi devices to detect and communicate with other devices and apps, even without a cellular, Wi-Fi, or GPS connection. There are several nifty scenarios where this could come into play. One such example is if you're riding a train or bus and playing a mobile game. Using Wi-Fi Aware technology, the game could look for other users who are nearby for multiplayer action. Wi-Fi Aware continually looks for nearby devices and apps before making a connection. It even works in crowded environments -- maybe you're attending a concert and would like to share photos with others in attendance. Or you could be in an art museum and have exhibits beam information to your mobile device. It sounds like a power drain, though the Wi-Fi Alliance insists that Wi-Fi Aware is an energy-efficient technology. Hopefully we'll find out soon, as vendors have already begun to certify Wi-Fi Aware technology for next-generation mobile devices. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SanDisk Connect Wireless Sticks Puts the Cloud in Your Pocket Posted: 14 Jul 2015 09:39 AM PDT Mobile storage sharing made easy SanDisk today announced its new generation Connect Wireless Stick. About the size of a USB flash drive, the drive enables easy sharing and transferring of photos, videos, and other data between mobile devices and your PC. The primary selling point is wireless connectivity. We're all used to plugging USB flash drives into our PCs to move files about, but when it comes to a growing reliance on mobile devices, not all gadgets have full-size USB ports. This is where SanDisk's stick comes into play. Armed with its own wireless network, any Wi-Fi enabled device can tap into the Connect Wireless Stick, which you can store in your pocket, briefcase, or wherever is most convenient. The Connect Wireless Stick supports up to five simultaneous connections, and three can stream at a time. It also has a built-in battery that can support a single stream for up to 4.5 hours on a single charge. Should it run out of juice, you can plug the stick into a USB port and transfer files just like a USB thumb drive. SanDisk has a free Connect app that facilitates media playback and other functions. It's available for Android, iOS, and Amazon Fire devices. The SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick is available in 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB capacity options. Prices range from $30 to $100 MSRP. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Windows 10 May Not Be Pre-Installed On Devices Arriving July 29 Posted: 14 Jul 2015 09:37 AM PDT Bloomberg reports that devices likely won't have Windows 10 pre-installed on the platform's launch day, July 29. Why? Because there just isn't enough time to get the OS installed. Instead, consumers will likely see Windows 10 on a number of devices making their debut in August and September. Previously Microsoft was supposedly stamping the RTM seal on Windows 10 this past Friday, but Yusuf Mehdi, vice president of Windows and device marketing, told Bloomberg that the RTM build has not been released to device manufacturers. He didn't provide an exact date of when the company expects the RTM to go live. "You will see computers running with Windows 10 installed very soon after the 29th and then in the fall a whole new class of machines for the holidays," he told Bloomberg. In a separate report, IFA announced that Nick Parker, corporate vice president, OEM Division, Microsoft, will present a keynote during IFA 2015 on September 4. According to the organization, he will present new Windows 10-based "tablets, 2-in-1s, premium notebooks, gaming devices and all-in-ones." That said, customers looking to purchase a device with Windows 10 out-of-the-box should wait until August or September. However, customers wanting to purchase a new device on July 29 will receive help in upgrading to the new platform at special stations in Microsoft's stores and additional retailers. On July 29, the 5 million Windows Insiders participants will receive the "retail" build of Windows 10 first, followed by the consumers who signed up to reserve a spot in the Windows 10 rollout through the "Get Windows 10" campaign. These reservations will be fulfilled in waves. Mehdi told Bloomberg that customers who choose not to update their new device in participating stores will instead be pushed up the Windows 10 rollout ladder so that they can get the platform "when they wish." July 29 is an important day for Microsoft, as the company can finally move away from the mess that is Windows 8. Of course, the company cleaned up the platform a bit with Windows 8.1, but customers installing Windows 10 later this month should feel more at home on their desktop or laptop. Microsoft did the right thing by opening up Windows 10 to customers willing to undergo the development process. Thanks to these individuals, Windows 10 is partially shaped by the consumer. There are no surprises with Windows 10, as the press, the Insiders and Microsoft itself have been completely transparent. Some of the features Windows 10 customers can look forward to include the built-in Cortana virtual assistant, a new Start Menu, better settings management, better security, and for gamers, DirectX 12. Microsoft seems highly enthusiastic about the launch of Windows 10 and consumers will see why on July 29. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 14 Jul 2015 01:35 AM PDT The NAS that does it allIf you're serious about storage, you're probably going to consider some type of NAS (network attached storage) system for your home. And if you're serious about a NAS, there are few companies you should consider. And of the ones you should consider, there are fewer still that have the right chemistry of performance and features rolled into one unit. Take a quick look through QNAP's website and you'll find a host of NAS options with very compelling features, that are fit for home use. Sure, QNAP makes products for large-scale enterprises and for people who are bent on using a server rack in their home closet, but its consumer line of NASes borrows some of the best features from the company's more serious offerings. Today, we'll look at one of QNAP's enthusiast-grade options, one that should satisfy even the majority of blood-thirsty storageivors. The QNAP TVS-871Enter the TVS-871, a beast of a NAS. The TVS-871 is a NAS that has everything except the kitchen sink thrown into it. Coming in several flavors, the TVS-871 can be configured with drool-worthy features such as 10Gb Ethernet, and up to an Intel Core i7-4790S processor. Our unit came preconfigured with the following make-a-standard-PC-jealous specs:
The list above covers just a very small portion of what the TVS-871 is capable of. For the full list, check out the TVS-871's specifications page. We configured our NAS with eight Red NAS 4TB drives (WD40EFRX) from Western Digital, but you can configure the TVS-871 with whatever you wish. The TVS-871 supports SSD caching for increased outbound/read performance by installing an SSD in one of the bays, but we opted to fill all 8 bays with HDDs. Thinking back, it's a shame we didn't go with Western Digital's 6TB drives for more storage ridiculousness. Western Digital's Red series are positioned as NAS drives specifically. These drives are tuned to operate around the clock and the 4TB version can be had for roughly $150. If you're looking for higher levels of reliability, you may want to consider the company's Re-series, which cost more but are designed for high availability deployments and carry a longer 5-year warranty.
Officially, the TVS-871 currently supports up to 8 TB hard drives for an insane total 64 TB of storage (in RAID 0 or JBOD modes), but HGST recently announced the availability of its Ha10 Active Archive 10TB monster, which would have been extra sweet. If QNAP updates the firmware on the TVS-871, you could conceivably have yourself a whopping 80TB NAS at home. Now, why would you need such TB-awesomeness? We all know. For those who are in the market for a backup solution, getting a NAS would serve this purpose well. However, if you intend to use a NAS as a primary haven for your content such as videos, images, and personal files, keep in mind that RAID is not a "backup" solution. Thankfully, the TVS-871 supports backing up itself in numerous ways, including to another NAS, or popular cloud storage solutions such as Dropbox, Microsoft Azure, and even Amazon S3. Getting things up and runningSetting up the TVS-871 was a breeze: we simply installed the hard drives into their cages, and plugged them in. You're able to configure the storage array via the TVS-871's built-in screen or by logging into its web interface. We opted for setup using the web interface, since there's only so much you can do with the two-line built-in display. Upon login and the obligatory administration setup, we immediately configured the TVS-871 to RAID 6. The system recommended RAID 6 by default, but you're able to choose whatever RAID level you desire. On a NAS like this, there's really no point in using RAID 0, since performance won't be realized over 1 Gbit Ethernet, and you'll want some sort of redundancy. At our 32 TB of total system capacity, RAID 1 would get you 16 TB and allow up to four drive failures before complete catastrophe, but halving our total capacity seemed wasteful. We went with RAID 6 because you get the best combination of performance, redundancy, and capacity. RAID 6 is essentially like RAID 5, but with support for double drive failures. With RAID 6 configured, we were left with a total usable capacity of 24 TB. Because we filled up all the drive bays in the TVS-871 for the array, no drives were left to act as a hot-spare, so we kept another Western Digital Red NAS drive on hand as a cold spare. Virtualization on a NASThe TVS-871 isn't your average storage-only NAS, though. QNAP has integrated a wealth of kick-ass features, including: virtualization, Plex media server, web server, VPN server, MySQL server, TFTP server, and much more. You're able to download apps from the QNAP app center, and run CMS, gallery, and forum back-ends. Essentially, the TVS-871 is a complete standalone server on its own, with a focus on NAS storage. As a matter of fact, you're also able to use the TVS-871 as a full desktop PC running QTS Linux. The built-in HDMI output supports 4K output at 60Hz. Windows OS is not supported. However, since the TVS-871 can run virtual machines, you can install Windows and other OSes through the VM. We tested this feature using Lubuntu 15.04 and the TVS-871 handled it without a hitch.
Windows 8.1 also installed as expected. Compared to more advanced VM solutions such as VMWare, you won't get advanced features though, such as Direct3D 9+ support, so running games is out of the question. Thankfully, no one is going to buy a TVS-871 to play games, so we don't see a problem. The TVS-871 allows you to control your VMs through an HTML5-based browser interface, or you can enable VNC remote in the configuration. The VNC feature on the NAS allows boot-time control of your VMs, so you're able to do normal OS installs without ever requiring an attached monitor. Media streaming and downloadingQNAP pitches the TVS-871 as a very capable media-delivery box. The unit comes equipped to serve out your movies utilizing KODI (a.k.a. XBMC), but you're more than welcome to go with Plex. We downloaded the Plex server client through QNAP's app repository and upgraded it to the latest version. Plex is more flexible about serving and transcoding your video files to a multitude of devices, and also allows you to serve your content over the public Internet, if you choose, with little fuss. We set Plex's transcoder to "make my CPU hurt" for maximum quality. With the Core i7-4970S's QuickSync hardware transcoding, streaming media to our tablets and phones was a breeze, taking up just a hair of the TVS-871's ample processing power. Playing through a Plex client on another PC, there wasn't any transcoding at all, as you're able to set the client to play the original file. One interesting feature that heavy downloaders will appreciate is the TVS-871's ability to act as a torrent client. Utilizing QNAP's Download Station, which is essentially an app built for the TVS-871, you're able to queue up a bunch of torrents on the NAS directly, without running anything on your PC. The TVS-871 will download and save directly to your volume. Download Station can be managed via your browser, and you're able to see the usual data you would see on a desktop torrent client. TestsWe tested several features of the TVS-871, including RAID fail, rebuild, and throughput. Unfortunately, the unit we have did not have its 10 GigE card installed, so we weren't able to test the full throughput potential of the TVS-871, but it lets you see performance on typical gigabit networks. Tests were done with the following hardware:
Note: Thanks to CyberPower PC for supplying the Samsung 850 Pro 1TB SSDs! The benchmarks:
As shown in the above throughput tests, the limiting factor is our gigabit network. QNAP estimates that with a 10 GigE network and an array of SSDs, the TVS-871 would be able to hit 1,168 MB/sec writes and 1,178 MB/sec reads. Double that for a dual 10 GigE setup. Here are benchmarks for 10 GigE and dual 10 GigE performance from QNAP: It's worth noting that QNAP utilized a RAID 5 array in its benchmarks, which is less taxing than running a RAID 6 array due to the NAS having to compute half the parity. However, RAID 6 can withstand two drive failures while RAID 5 can only take one. One thing we wish the TVS-871 had, although it's unlikely that any home user would utilize it, would be support for RAID 60, which is RAID 6 with striping. The TVS-871 has eight drive bays, and RAID 60 requires at least eight drives to operate. We can only conclude that running RAID 60 would be too detrimental to performance, and so was left out. QNAP uses SSDs installed in the TVS-871 in its test to demonstrate maximum sustained throughput, which by all accounts is impressive, as one might expect. If you have such a network available to you, throughput will vary based on RAID type, the type and number of drives you have installed, cable, and client configuration. The QNAP all-in-wonderThe TVS-871 has something for everyone, and in excess. Some people prefer having everything stored on multiple drives, installed directly inside their PCs for the absolute fastest access. But there's something to be said about a NAS that can handle multiple duties, freeing up precious CPU cycles for more immediate tasks, such as playing a game. The enormously capable TVS-871 will serve multiple PCs and devices simultaneously, handle a myriad of tasks, and not even even break a sweat. There is a drawback to all of this though: The TVS-871 performs at its peak when you're on a 10 GigE network. If we're talking about a desktop PC at home utilizing onboard gigabit Ethernet and a consumer-grade router, forget it. To maximize performance, you'll need to overhaul your entire network. This means getting an expensive network switch, as well as popping in a 10 GigE copper-based network card. Oh, and CAT5 cabling won't do either. Be prepared, as the costs can add up pretty quickly. But if you're well-heeled enough to get a TVS-871 for your home, perhaps cost isn't an issue to begin with. There's a lot to be said about the QNAP TVS-871, far more than can be written in this review alone. Depending on your needs, the TVS-871 can be a straight-up storage unit, or it can be much more. Those who are into some serious home-theater setups will appreciate what QNAP has done. All the fancy features aside though, having an obscene amount of terabytes at your disposal is drool-worthy by itself anytime—just make sure you have the cash for it. |
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