General Gaming Article

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• Rumor: Windows 10 Will Be Finalized By Friday
• Newegg Daily Deals: WD Green 6TB Hard Drive, Corsair 850W Power Supply, and More!
• Intel May Launch Unlocked Skylake-S CPUs on August 5
• Samsung Bumps Capacity of 850 Pro and 850 Evo SSDs to 2 Terabytes
• Firefox 39 Arrives with Social Sharing and Bug Fixes in Tow
• LG’s In-Cell Touchscreens Could Make Laptops Thinner, Lighter
• Transcend Intros 8TB External Hard Drive
• The New Settings 'App' in Windows 10
• Microsoft Acknowledges Activation Issues With Latest Windows 10 Preview Builds
• Parts of Reddit Go Dark, Petition Seeking CEO Dismissal Grows

Rumor: Windows 10 Will Be Finalized By Friday Posted: 06 Jul 2015 03:23 PM PDT Windows 10 is expected to go RTM by Friday The latest rumor surrounding the upcoming Windows 10 platform is that Microsoft plans to finalize the operating system by the end of the week. Currently, the most recent build of the Technical Preview is 10162, which was the third release in just a week that also saw the release of 10159 and 10158. That said, a few more builds could arrive before Microsoft stamps the Windows 10 RTM seal of approval by Friday. News of the possible RTM build arrives after Microsoft's Terry Myerson revealed last week how Microsoft plans to roll out Windows 10. First on the list will be the RTM build for OEMs, so that they can load the platform on their new devices. After that, Microsoft plans to release a build to retailers across the globe. Participants in the Windows Insiders club won't see the "finished" build until launch day, June 29. "If you reserved your copy of Windows 10, we will notify you once our compatibility work confirms you will have a great experience, and Windows 10 has been downloaded on your system," Myerson said. "If your system is not ready yet for your upgrade to Windows 10, we will provide more details during the upgrade experience." According to a report from BetaNews, the most recent release spotted in the wild is Build 10176, which is supposedly undergoing testing as a RTM build. However, screenshots were leaked by Wzor surfaced on Sunday, based on Build 10163, and show not only the installation process but the Calendar app revealing an RTM sign-off date of July 9, 2015. Note that these screenshots could be fake, so take them with a grain of salt. In a report on Monday, Windows watcher Paul Thurrott seemingly backed up claims that Windows 10 will go RTM this week. He suggested that OEMs will need the RTM build "within days" so that they can have Windows 10 on their new devices in time for the July 29 launch. "Common sense tells us that Windows 10 will need to be finalized soon," he stated.. The big deal about Windows 10 is that Microsoft isn't releasing the platform and then immediately jumping on development of an upcoming service pack. Instead, the company is choosing to update Windows 10 on a regular basis with bug fixes and features. Windows 10 is essentially the last full release of an operating system from Microsoft. Of course, the other big deal with Windows 10 is that it brings back the Start Menu. Even more, Windows Insiders have helped shape the platform, and that should be good news for consumers who aren't keen on Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. As we've reported over the last several months, the Start Screen still exists; it's just turned off for Windows 10 desktop customers. Microsoft plans to make Windows 10 free for an entire year to customers on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. The update will roll out in waves, so reserve your spot in the launch now.

Newegg Daily Deals: WD Green 6TB Hard Drive, Corsair 850W Power Supply, and More! Posted: 06 Jul 2015 11:57 AM PDT Top Deal: Maybe you've heard that Samsung introduced new 2TB capacity 850 Pro and 850 Evo solid state drives. With SSD capacities on the rise, you can run a large, single SSD for OS chores (rather than two in RAID 0) and a single, even larger hard disk drive for storage duties. If that sounds like a solid plan, then check out today's top deal for a WD Green 6TB Internal Hard Drive for $220 with free shipping (normally $240 - use coupon code: [ESCAVAP28]). This 3.5-inch drive offers lots of storage capacity, has 64MB of cache, and is backed by a 2-year warranty. Other Deals: Western Digital RE 4TB 7200 RPM 3.5-inch Enterprise Internal Hard Drive for $225 with free shipping (normally $250 - use coupon code: [ESCAVAP27]) Mushkin Enhanced Stealth 16GB (2x8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600 (PC3L 12800) Desktop Memory for $85 with free shipping (normally $95 - use coupon code: [EMCAVAP32]) Corsair HX850i 850W Full Modular Power Supply for $150 with free shipping (normally $160 - use coupon code: [EMCAVAP34]; additional $20 Mail-in rebate) Dell E2715H Black 27-inch 8ms LED Backlight LCD Monitor for $190 with free shipping (normally $210 - use coupon code: [EMCAVAP39])

Intel May Launch Unlocked Skylake-S CPUs on August 5 Posted: 06 Jul 2015 11:36 AM PDT The wait is almost over If you've been champing at the bit (or chomping, if you want to get loosey-goosey with the original idiom) for Intel's Skylake-S launch, you can rest easy knowing that you're in the homestretch. Well, probably. While nothing is yet official, we've been hearing for some time now that Skylake-S chips will be announced at Gamescom on August 5, 2015, and that still appears to be the case. Chinese-language website Benchlife supposedly got its hands on some launch details for Skylake-S (Skylake for desktop), which will consist of the Core i7-6700K and Core i5-6500K processors debuting on August 5. The launch will also see the introduction of Z170-chipset motherboards (thanks to WCCFTech for the heads up). Both processors are considered "Enthusiast" level chips with 95W TDPs, The flagship Core i7-6700K will sport 8MB of L3 cache, 4GHz base clockspeed, 4.2GHz boost clockspeed, and support for DDR4-2133 and DDR3L-1600 memory. It's a quad-core chip with eight threads. The Core i5-6600K is also a quad-core part but with no Hyper Threading support. It will be clocked at 3.5GHz (base) and 3.9GHz (boost) with 6MB of L3 cache. Memory support is the same as the Core i7-6700K. If previous reports hold true, these will be naked processors, meaning they won't come with a retail heatsink/fan solution. That shouldn't be a big deal to most enthusiasts and overclockers, as who really wants to slap a stock cooler on a high-end CPU? Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Samsung Bumps Capacity of 850 Pro and 850 Evo SSDs to 2 Terabytes Posted: 06 Jul 2015 10:22 AM PDT Double the capacity We've come a long way since solid state drive makers tried pushing paltry 64GB and even 32GB capacity SSDs on consumers. Sure, you can still find them, but these days, much higher storage options are available. Such is the case with Samsung's 850 Pro and 850 Evo lines, both of which are now offered in up to 2TB capacity. Previously, both lines topped out at 1TB. Using Samsung's 3D Vertical NAND (V-NAND) flash memory, these 2TB drive options come with lengthy warranties -- 10 years or 300TB of written data for the 850 Pro, and five years or 150TB of written data for the 850 Evo. This is the beginning of bigger things to come. "Samsung experienced a surge in demand for 500GB and higher capacity SSDs with the introduction of our V-NAND SSDs. The release of the 2TB SSD is a strong driver into the era of multi-terabyte SSD solutions," said Un-Soo Kim, Senior Vice President of Branded Product Marketing, Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. "We will continue to expand our ultra-high performance and large density SSD product portfolio and provide a new computing experience to users around the globe." The new 2TB options remain in the same 7mm, 2.5-inch aluminum case as the lower capacities models in each line. However, they sport an upgraded MHX controller that allows for the higher capacity, along with 128 individual 32-layer 128Gb 3D V-NAND chips. There are obvious benefits to having more storage capacity in a single drive, though Samsung's main pitch is that we're in the 4K era. With 4K video en route to becoming mainstream, video editing and viewing is going to require more space. Looking ahead, Samsung also plans to release 2TB SSD options in both the mSATA and M.2 form factors. We've reached out to Samsung for pricing information and will update this article when hear back. Update Samsung tells Maximum PC the MSRPs for the 2TB 850 Pro and 2TB Evo SSDs are $1,000 and $800, respectively. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Firefox 39 Arrives with Social Sharing and Bug Fixes in Tow Posted: 06 Jul 2015 09:09 AM PDT A better browser Ever since Mozilla switched to a rapid release schedule for its Firefox browser, new versions have lacked the same excitement that came when upgrades were fewer and farther between. Be that as it may, Firefox 39 is here, and it brings with it a few interesting additions and changes. Perhaps the biggest upgrade is the ability to share Hello URLs with social networks—Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Firefox Hello is Mozilla's attempt to offer online voice and video chat without any proprietary restrictions via the WebRTC standard, which Firefox, Chrome, and Opera all support. That said, there are some benefits unique to Firefox users, such as one-click calling. Firefox 39 also boasts support for Unicode 8.0 skin tone emoji, smoother animation and scrolling (Mac OS X), and SafeBrowsing malware detection lookups for downloads (Mac OS X and Linux). In addition to a few new features, Firefox 39 stomps out a bunch of bugs, including four critical ones, two that are rated high, half a dozen moderate bugs, and one minor (low) security vulnerability. Mozilla's seen Firefox's share of the desktop browser market decline in recent years. According to Net Applications, Firefox is installed on just over 12 percent of all desktop PCs, down from 15.54 percent a year ago and 18.29 percent at the end of July in 2013. In the same time period, Chrome has gone from a 17.76 percent share (July 2013) to 27.23 percent (end of June 2015), which is about half of Internet Explorer's share (54 percent). What all those numbers mean is Chrome is growing in popularity at the expense of Firefox and could challenge IE for the top spot in another year or so (at the current pace). StatCounter paints a similar overall picture, except that it has Chrome in the top spot with a 52.82 percent share, followed by IE at 20.15 percent and Firefox at 17.59 percent. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

LG’s In-Cell Touchscreens Could Make Laptops Thinner, Lighter Posted: 06 Jul 2015 04:59 AM PDT Company has received orders from 'several' PC vendors In-cell displays, which are becoming increasingly popular among thinness-obsessed smartphone makers, could soon be commonplace in the laptop market too. South Korean company LG says the Advanced In-Cell Touch (AIT) display technology found in its latest Android flagship, G4, is ready to graduate to bigger screens. Its in-cell display technology — in which the touch layer is embedded in the display panel itself — will soon be available in 14- and 15.6-inch notebooks from a number of global PC vendors, LG said today, adding that this is the first instance of the technology being used in such large displays. It believes these embedded touch displays could help render laptops both thinner and lighter. "The technology eliminates the space needed for a touch function cover glass, and as a result reduces the panel's thickness by 1 millimeter (approximately 25 percent) and its weight by 200 grams (approximately 35 percent) compared to a conventional 15.6-inch touch-embedded panel with Full HD resolution," the company said in a press release. "It also offers a brighter and clearer screen picture since there is no light loss or light reflection caused by the cover glass. In addition it features an excellent touch response and precise calibration of the touch point even with water drops on the screen."

Transcend Intros 8TB External Hard Drive Posted: 06 Jul 2015 01:09 AM PDT Part of the StoreJet 35T3 range Transcend has added an 8TB option to its four-year-old StoreJet 35T3 USB 3.0 external hard drive range, which also contains 3TB and 4TB models. According to the company, the drive boasts "real-world" transfer speeds of up to 200 MB/s and comes with 256-bit AES encryption. Tom's Hardware suspects the 6.7 x 6 x 1.76 inch enclosure conceals an 8TB Seagate Active Archive internal HDD, an SMR-enabled drive introduced late last year for $260. For those who don't know, SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) is a data recording technique in which roof shingle-like overlapping of data tracks is used to achieve higher data densities than what's possible with the more traditional PMR (Perpendicular Magnetic Recording) technology. All 35T3 drives come with the Transcend Elite data management software and a dedicated button for one-touch automatic data backup and synchronization. Priced at $409, the 8TB StoreJet 35T3 is covered under a three-year warranty. The 3TB and 4TB models are available for $159 and $209, respectively.

The New Settings 'App' in Windows 10 Posted: 06 Jul 2015 12:30 AM PDT A look at Microsoft's revamped Settings panel At the risk of being too blunt, we'd say that Microsoft created a mess with Windows 8. The operating system, launched in October 2012, forced customers to use an entirely new UI while making the coveted desktop a secondary platform. Sure, all you had to do was click on the Desktop tile to reach familiar territory, but the whole Modern UI interface was enough to scare many consumers away. Hearing the pleas of Windows 8 users, Microsoft introduced Windows 8.1 in April 2014. This "update" brought the desktop and Start Screen closer together and made Modern UI apps easier to manage for mouse-and-keyboard customers. But the platform can still be confusing, enough so that the average user can get frustrated when looking for settings that were once easily accessible in Windows 7 and earlier. So, today we're going to take a quick peek at how Microsoft has changed the way we can configure settings in Windows 10. Unlike Windows 8.1, the task isn't painful, and the company has done an excellent job in simplifying where and how settings can be changed. But first we have to make a short comparison with Windows 8.1 to demonstrate how the Settings menu has evolved. Out with the old, in with the new First, when you pull up the Charms bar in Windows 8.1 desktop and select the Settings "gear" icon, it replaces the Charms bar with a dedicated Settings panel. This panel provides access to the Control Panel, Personalization, PC info, and Help. There are also six linked icons for the wireless connection, the volume control, brightness of the screen, notifications, power, and keyboard settings. There's even a link at the bottom that takes the user to the PC Settings panel. So, when you're running a Modern UI application—say Hulu Plus, Netflix, or Facebook—you must swipe in from the right edge to retrieve the Charms bar again, which plays host to a different Settings panel. Using Facebook as an example, the Settings panel provides a Help Center, Licenses, Terms and Policies, Permissions, Rate and Review, and Privacy Policy information. The only constant is the Change PC Settings link at the bottom and the six settings (Wireless connection, volume, etc.). Thankfully, this is not how settings work in Window 10. The Charms bar is nowhere in sight; instead, we have a floating Modern UI app that replaces the PC Settings panel found in Windows 8.1. Even more, the Settings app has nothing to do with other apps; each app has a built-in Settings link in the top-left corner, as well as Search and Share commands. This link opens up a Settings panel within the app, and in the case of Hulu Plus, provides links to the Hulu Plus account, Captions, Help, Terms, Privacy, Licensing, and a Logout link. In Windows 8.1, the PC settings panel includes PC and devices, Accounts, OneDrive, Search and apps, Privacy, Network, Time and language, Ease of Access, Update and recovery, and a link to the Control Panel at the very bottom. However, in Windows 10, the Settings app includes System, Devices, Network & Internet, Personalization, Accounts, Time & language, Ease of Access, Privacy, and Update & security. The Settings app for Windows 10 can be accessed on the Start Menu whereas the PC Settings panel in Windows 8.1 is located in the Settings portion of the Charms bar. System First up to bat in the new Windows 10's Settings app is the System section. This section is broken down into ten subcategories: Display, Notifications & actions, Apps and features, Multitasking, Tablet Mode, Power & sleep, Storage, Offline maps, Default apps, and About. The latter About section simply provides information regarding the PC, including processor and installed RAM. The Default Apps section allows the user to set the default app for the calendar, email, browser, and so on. The other subcategories in the System group are pretty self-explanatory. Devices Next is the Devices window, which plays host to six subcategories: Printers & scanners, Connected devices, Bluetooth, Mouse and touchpad, Typing, and AutoPlay. Some of these are self-explanatory. However, the Typing area is where users turn on/off auto-correction and the option to highlight misspelled words. AutoPlay allows the user to turn on the feature and choose the defaults for a removable drive or memory card. Network & Internet The Network & Internet window keeps track of Wi-Fi connections, among other tasks. Other subcategories include Data usage, VPN, Dial-up (yes, people still do that), Ethernet, and Proxy. The Data usage component keeps track of how much the user consumes in a 30-day period, whether it's through a Wi-Fi or an Ethernet connection. You can also establish a VPN connection or use a proxy server for Ethernet or Wi-Fi connections. This latter aspect can either be automatic or manually set. Personalization Personalization providrd settings for the Background, Colors, Lock screen, Themes, and Start. Although we assume that OEMs will sell their Windows 10 desktops and laptops without the Start Screen running, there's a possibility that the Start Screen will be front and center anyway. To turn off the Start Screen, users simply switch off the "Use full-screen Start when in the desktop." The Start Screen won't be gone for good, but it also won't be in the way. There are other switches in this subcategory such as "Show the recently added apps group" and "Store and display recently opened programs in Start." Outside the Start subcategory, the other entries like Themes and Colors shouldn't be hard to figure out. Accounts Accounts is the section in Settings where you can change your profile picture and add accounts. In addition to Your Account, the subcategories include Sign-in options, Work access, Family & other users, and Sync your settings. The Work access portion is interesting in that it seems to focus on Windows 10 laptops that access networks with specific policies in place, such as a university's secured network. Also of note is the Sign-in options section, where users can set up the typical password, a picture password, or a PIN. According to Microsoft, the Windows Hello portion does not work unless a PIN has been set. This cool feature will allow the user to sign in with just a fingerprint or face, depending on the equipment that's attached. Windows 10 solutions with Intel's RealSense 3D camera are expected to debut later this year. Time & Language Next up is Time & Language, which provides the user access to settings for Date & time, Region & language, and Speech. The Speech subcategory includes choosing a language, text-to-speech settings, and microphone settings. Ease of Access The Ease of Access section provides settings for Narrator, Magnifier, High contrast, Closed captions, Keyboard, Mouse, and Other options. The "Other options" include settings like "Play animation in Windows" and "Show Windows background," the latter of which sets the background color to black. The High contrast area provides four settings, including High Contrast Black and High Contrast White. The Narrator is a "screen reader that reads all the elements on screen, like text and buttons." Privacy There are 12 subcategories in the Privacy section: General, Location, Camera, Microphone, Speech, Inking & typing, Account info, Contacts, Calendar, Messaging, Radios, Other devices, and Feedback. That's a lot to configure! For example, under Contacts, you can choose an app that can directly access your contacts; the same setting can be applied to the Calendar, Messaging, and so on. The Radios aspect lets the user determine if apps can control a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection. Update & Security Finally, we have Update & Security. The subcategories are Windows Update, Activation, Backup, Recovery, Windows Defender, and a section for developers that will likely be gone in the retail version of Windows 10. Here you can manually check for a Windows update, change a product key, backup files to another drive, reset the PC's settings, and revert the system to an earlier build. You can also adjust Windows Defender, Microsoft's built-in malware detector and firewall. Settings in this subcategory include real-time protection, cloud-based protection, and a setting for sending a sample to Microsoft. As you can see, you'll have lots to tweak when you get your hands on the retail version of Windows 10. Judging by the pre-release version, we'd say Microsoft did a great job of cramming all of these options into one app. The app is simple, clean, and to the point; there's no digging around the desktop trying to get to a specific setting. Windows 10 is scheduled to launch in a matter of weeks, so there could be a few changes to the app before it goes retail. However, from what we've seen, users should have no problem navigating and customizing their Windows 10 experience.

Microsoft Acknowledges Activation Issues With Latest Windows 10 Preview Builds Posted: 05 Jul 2015 09:51 PM PDT Company is working on a fix The last few days have been rather hectic in terms of Insider Preview releases, with those in the Windows Insider program's so-called Fast ring getting hit by as many as three builds in a span of four days. This is probably to be expected as Microsoft races to fix bugs and fine-tune features ahead of Windows 10's launch at the end of the month, but this frenetic pace seems to have its own problems. Turns out some people are having trouble activating builds 10519 and 10162 — the latest two official releases. Writing on Microsoft's Answers site on Friday, one such Windows Insider program member complained about his inability to get past the activation process despite having tried doing so around 20 times. In its response, Microsoft assured the user that the problem was known to the developers and they were working on fixing it. Here is Microsoft's response in full: "We are doing some testing and work on the Activation process. That message is expected and we hope it will go away in the next day. When we have the service back up and running, it should attempt to activate automatically. Until then you can ignore it because I believe other than the UI showing its not activated, its not affecting any other use of the system."

Parts of Reddit Go Dark, Petition Seeking CEO Dismissal Grows Posted: 03 Jul 2015 10:50 AM PDT Turmoil at reddit You may have noticed that some of the subreddits you frequent are inaccessible at the moment. No, the site wasn't hacked, though it is turning on itself in protest of the firing of Victoria Taylor, a high-ranking administrator and Director of Talent who coordinated the sometimes complicated process of reddit's Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions. Known by the user handle /u/chooter, it appears that Taylor was fired without being given notice. This prompted moderators from several other subreddits to lock things down by making them private, thereby disabling access by the Internet community at large. Considering the large amount of traffic that reddit enjoys on a daily basis, this is a big deal. Taylor played a crucial role at reddit. While running AMA might not seem like that big of a deal, she had several responsibilities, such as booking talent, verifying that celebrities were legit, making sure that AMA guests answered questions themselves rather than handing things over to a third party (like a PR person), and helping computer-illiterate folks, both by phone and sometimes in person. It's a process, and Taylor worked behind the scenes to make sure everything went smoothly. There were rumblings that an AMA with Jesse Jackson that turned bad was the cause for her termination, but it appears that's not the case. According to TechCrunch, a deleted answer on Quora provided some insight into her dismissal. If the answer on Quora is true, then a clash with management is what sparked this whole thing. Apparently, reddit management was pushing Taylor to do a bunch of commercial things around AMAs, like adding video. Supposedly, Taylor resisted certain ideas, so management decided to abruptly fire her and eliminate her position altogether. "They really underestimated how much moderators relied on her and cared about her," the Quora answer read. After that, all hell broke loose. It eventually led to reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian telling moderators that their message was heard loud and clear with a promise to communicate better in the future, and that it's time to turn the subforums back on. Most reddit subforums have been made public again, such as /r/gaming and /r/technology, though some remain dark (at the time of this writing) like /r/movies. There's also a petition circulating on Change.org for reddit CEO Ellen K. Pao to step down from her position. It currently has over 22,000 signatures. Update 7/6/15 As of this morning, the Change.org petition calling for Pao's dismissal has ballooned to over 160,000 signatures. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

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