General Gaming Article |
- Ad Analytics Security Breach
- Meet Rufus Cuff, a "Tablet" for Your Wrist
- Rumor: Windows 10 "Threshold 2" Finalized This Week
- Newegg Daily Deals: Asus 23-Inch Monitor, Intel Core i7-4790K Processor, and More!
- MSI's Z170A SLI Plus Motherboard Completes Your Dark Themed Build
- MPAA Claims Victory Against Popcorn Time
- Technolust: Eyes and Ears of the Beholder
- MS Office 2016: Best New Features
| Posted: 04 Nov 2015 03:45 PM PST On Halloween night, one of our analytics providers (PageFair) suffered a security breach, allowing an attacker to take advantage of the hole and consequently serve an ad that claimed your Flash plugin was out of date and that you should update. This then lead to adware/malware installers that, well, then would attempt to attack you. The vulnerability lasted for roughly 1.5 hours. I am sorry. I am sorry that this happened. PageFair allows us to track Adblock usage and other analytics. You can still use Adblock if you wish, as I understand ads can become quite annoying. You are entitled to having a web experience that's pleasant, and we are working to find that happy medium. You may have heard that there's been a lot of debate recently over ads, ad blocking, and related topics. The issue is nowhere close to being resolved, as it truly is the source for our incoming and ability to keep doing what we do and produce content that you may find interesting. But as one reader pointed out, this incident may have impacted your trust on us. But make no mistake though, it is definitely not our intention to betray that trust. We merely wanted to know more. We have since removed the code from our pages entirely. We work with all analytics and advertising delivery systems very closely to make sure stuff like this doesn't happen, but sometimes it does, and we take responsibility for it. We're triple checking everything to make sure things are tightened down. If you see something that looks suspicious (which shouldn't happen again), please take a screenshot if you can, do not continue to load the page. If you feel uneasy about ad-networks getting hijacked, the best thing to do would be to simply block ads. That is my personal recommendation. If you have something to report, or comment, you can reach me directly. My email is tuan@maximumpc.com. Or you can find me on Twitter @ blankspace.
/ Tuan |
| Meet Rufus Cuff, a "Tablet" for Your Wrist Posted: 04 Nov 2015 02:16 PM PST USA Today has posted an interesting write-up about Rufus Cuff, a communicator users wear on their wrist. The device sports a 3.2-inch touchscreen, making it bulkier than a smart watch but smaller than a tablet. Rufus Cuff's overall dimensions are actually larger than that to make room for the 1175mAh rechargeable battery, speaker, front-facing camera, and internal antenna. Rufus Cuff was originally an Indiegogo campaign, which concluded on May 18, 2014 and reeled in $458,339. The project page shows that the device includes a Texas Instruments A9 processor, 1GB RAM, Wireless N and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity (it can connect to Android and iOS devices), GPS, and storage options ranging from 16GB to 64GB. The devices runs a full version of Android "Kit Kat." The Rufus Cuff also has a nine-axis accelerometer/gyroscope/compass, two microphones, and a microUSB port for recharging the battery. There's also a vibration alert, LED alerts, and flashlight functionality. The device supports multiple languages and is both spill and splash resistant. The screen is touch-enabled, allowing the user to navigate Android and answer calls with just the touch of a finger. "It's not just a glorified notification center, we eventually see everyone ditching their phones," Gabe Grifoni, Rufus Cuff's CEO and co-founder, told USA Today. "This will replace the need for smartphones, wallets, watches, fitness trackers, everything." Grifoni added that more than 2,500 individuals have already pre-ordered the device, most of them young cord-cutters and college students who don't want to pay a lot of money for monthly cellular contracts. Presumably, the device is tethered to a cell phone via Bluetooth when out and about and gets its internet connection from Wi-Fi when at home. Rufus Cuff is "proudly" made in America, and is offered in a variety of colors. Users can surf the Web, send and receive messages, play music, watch videos, and use it as a fitness tracker. Users can install apps through the Google Play store. Voice and video calls are also possible thanks to the built-in speakers, microphones, and camera. Potential customers can pre-order the Rufus Cuff communicator here for $250 before December 1, 2015. Rufus Cuff is expected to ship in Q1 of 2016. VIA: USA Today |
| Rumor: Windows 10 "Threshold 2" Finalized This Week Posted: 04 Nov 2015 01:56 PM PST Unnamed insiders told Paul Thurrott that Microsoft is expected to green-light Threshold 2 this week. Unfortunately, they weren't exactly forthcoming with a release date, but said that Microsoft is expected to finalize the "bits" this week and prepare the update for mass consumption. Microsoft is also not commenting on when the "upcoming update" will be distributed to consumers. Despite the Threshold 2 designation, this update will not be a full-fledged release as seen with Windows 10. As Thurrott points out, this update will include features we've already seen in the Insider Program such as improved context menus, colored title bars, new Skype and Cortana features, memory management enhancements, and more. Recently, a Windows engineered confirmed that the fall update would arrive on November 10, but the post has since been deleted. That's next Tuesday, and is expected to appear in Windows Update and will take a little longer to install than previous minor updates. A follow-up report claims that Microsoft has already signed off on Threshold 2, with Build 10586 serving as the selected final build for the fall update. Insiders are expected to get the build first by the end of this week. Microsoft is said to be testing the build now to stamp out any bugs that may have crept into 10586. Windows 10 is still trying to gain momentum in the operating system market, with a 7.94 percent share. The platform follows Windows 8.1, which has a market share of 10.68 percent, and Windows XP with a market share of 11.68 percent. Windows 7 still rules them all with a 55.71 percent piece of the OS pie. Windows 10 beats out Windows 8 (vanilla), which only has a 2.54 percent share. VIA: Paul Thurrott |
| Newegg Daily Deals: Asus 23-Inch Monitor, Intel Core i7-4790K Processor, and More! Posted: 04 Nov 2015 10:15 AM PST Top Deal: Building a PC is all about matching the appropriate parts. For example, you wouldn't (or shouldn't) pair a Titan X with a lowly dual-core APU, and while bother with a 1,000W power supply if you're running a lower-end system that could thrive comfortably on a solid 400W PSU? That same philosophy extends beyond the internal components -- it's nice to have a massive 4K display for high-end gaming and such, but it's not for everyone. For more pedestrian needs, check out today's top deal for an Asus VX238H Black 23-inch Monitor for $140 with free shipping (normally $159 - use coupon code: [EMCKKAP49]; additional $20 Mail-in rebate). This is a Full HD 1080p panel with a 1ms response time, HDMI (x2) and D-Sub output, and built-in speakers. Other Deals: MSI Radeon R9 4G 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express Video Card for $215 with free shipping (normally $230; additional $20 Mail-in rebate) Intel Core i7-4790K Devil's Canyon Quad-Core 4.0 GHz Desktop Processor for $325 with free shipping (normally $340 - use coupon code: [EMCKKAP23]) Samsung 850 Evo 2.5-inch 1TB SATA III 3-D (SSD) for $333 with free shipping (normally $350 - use coupon code: [EMCKKAP22]; Free Assassin's Creed Syndicate Game Code w/ purchase, limited offer) Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-03 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Gaming Case for $45 with free shipping (normally $59; additional $15 Mail-in rebate) |
| MSI's Z170A SLI Plus Motherboard Completes Your Dark Themed Build Posted: 04 Nov 2015 09:35 AM PST An all-black motherboard MSI is fleshing out its Pro motherboard series with the Z170A SLI Plus, an "all-black" board based on Intel's Z170 chipset for Skylake. The dark theme definitely dominates the motherboard, though we can spot some bits of silver, white, gray, and a dash of orange (on some capacitors). Whether you want to call it all-black, as MSI does, or mostly black, it's a nice looking board that seems like it would fit well with a dark build, or as a contrasting accent to a white case. Whatever, this isn't Home & Design, and there's more than aesthetics here. The Z170A SLI Plus "has been configured to satisfy even the most demanding user," MSI says. That's overselling the board, though it does come with four DDR4 DIMM slots supporting up to 64GB of DDR3-3600 (OC) RAM, three PCI-E x16 Gen3 ports, three PCI-E x1 slots, half a dozen SATA 6Gbps ports, an M.2 SATA SSD port, GbE LAN, six USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, a USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port, six USB 2.0 ports, and various output options (VGA, HDMI, and DVI). Not too shabby. MSI is also touting things like "DDR4 Boost" technology, which includes optimized traces and fully isolated memory circuitry for cleaner signals and greater RAM stability, built-in hardware overclocking (OC Genie 4), Military Class 4 components (high end chokes and caps), debugging LEDs, reinforced PCI-E slots for heavy graphics cards, and various other amenities. MSI didn't say when the Z170A SLI Plus will be available or for how much. |
| MPAA Claims Victory Against Popcorn Time Posted: 04 Nov 2015 09:14 AM PST Official Popcorn Time fork shuts down The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is trumpeting a victory in the war against piracy and it wants the world to know about it. Specifically, it managed to shut down the official Popcorn Time fork and YTS, a torrent site serving up copyrighted movies and TV shows, through court orders in Canada and New Zealand. "Popcorn Time and YTS are illegal platforms that exist for one clear reason: to distribute stolen copies of the latest motion pictures and television shows without compensating the people who worked so hard to make them," said Senator Chris Dodd (PDF), Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). "By shutting down these illegal commercial enterprises, which operate on a massive global scale, we are protecting not only our members' creative work and the hundreds of innovative, legal digital distribution platforms, but also the millions of people whose jobs depend on a vibrant motion picture and television industry." The lawsuit was filed by six member companies of the MPAA on October 9 in the Federal Court in Canada. It targeted three key Canadian operators of the popcorntime.io fork, which members of the original Popcorn Time endorsed as the official fork after their project shut down more than a year ago. Popcorn Time is a BitTorrent client with an integrated media player. It's often compared to Netflix, albeit for pirates, because of how easy it is to use, especially compared to some other BitTorrent clients. Users simply pick what they want to watch and Popcorn Time takes care of the technical (and illegal) details. "This coordinated legal action is part of a larger comprehensive approach being taken by the MPAA and its international affiliates to combat content theft," Senator Dodd said. "Development of high-quality entertainment requires significant investment of time and resources, and creators rely on a fair and lawful ecosystem that minimizes the significant impact of piracy." Though the MPAA was successful in shutting down the most popular Popcorn Time fork on the web, there's at least one other fork still out there, popcorntime.se. Like popcorntime.io, it has a built-in VPN and support for multiple platforms, including Windows, Mac OS X, Android, iOS, and Linux. It should also be noted that popcorntime.io remains defiant through Twitter posts. "Hey Internets, apparently MPAA thinks we're dead. Are we?," Popcorn Time tweeted. |
| Technolust: Eyes and Ears of the Beholder Posted: 04 Nov 2015 04:35 AM PST A laptop like no other, a set of speaker like you've never seen before, and a dream droneThe laptop I've been waiting for isn't even really a laptop, the speakers I want I could never afford, and the video-capable quadcopter I want is for professionals. All seems perfectly fair. Microsoft Surface Book Let me start with a little context. I love desktops. Given the choice, I'll always use a desktop PC over and above anything else. It's what I use in the office and it's what I use at home the vast majority of the time. Don't get me wrong, I have several laptops and tablets; and they have a time and a place, but if I want to do anything useful, I'll head to my desktop every single time. Part of the reason for this preference is the power that desktops offer. My main machine is built around an aging, but still powerful, Intel Core i7-3820, with 16GB of RAM, a decent-enough graphics card in the shape of a Radeon 7970 (it's not exactly up to date, but that means I don't want to have to keep unseating it for testing elsewhere) all hooked up to a Samsung SyncMaster 345T display. This is where I play games, edit videos, and mess around with photos. Neither this machine, nor my home one, is going to challenge the Maximum PC Dream Machine 2015, but they're both capable, and fulfill my needs admirably. Apart from in one obvious area—they're not portable. When I'm out at events, in meetings or traveling, these machines are useless to me. I could VPN in, but really, that's far more hassle than it's worth. Of course, there are plenty of powerful laptops I could grab (and I've bought a few in my time), but I have a problem with pretty much all of them—they're either too big, too heavy, or too noisy. The more gaming-oriented machines tend to look a little juvenile, too. I've always wanted a machine that is capable of gaming, but is so subtle, you wouldn't know it. I love sleek machines. Thin and lights are the right size and weight, but all too often come up wanting in the performance stakes. The Microsoft Surface Book is pretty much my ideal portable machine. It's svelte, stylish, and powerful. Surprisingly powerful. The fact that you can rip the keyboard off when you're in confined (or more relaxed) areas certainly appeals as well. Admittedly, the model I lust after the most is the utterly tricked-out version—Intel Core i7, Nvidia GPU, and 1TB SSD thank you very much, but if push came to shove, I could settle for a less capable model. As long as it still had discrete graphics. There are plenty of reasons to like the Surface Book, but the screen is probably the main one. The 13.5-inch PixelSense screen is gorgeous—offering up a display to make your Retina-owning companions jealous. With a native resolution of 3000x2000 pixels, this tiny laptop/tablet is going to be great for Photoshop and video work, and at just 3.3lbs, it's easy to hold in your hand, too. If there's a problem with the Surface Book, it's the price. While it starts at a fairly reasonable $1,499, the version I'm pining after more than doubles that to $3,199. That's almost Apple pricing right there. The thing is, for once it looks like it's going to be worth paying over the odds for. Impressive—especially given I haven't been impressed with any of Microsoft's Surface offerings until now. What I can do with the Microsoft Surface Book, that I couldn't do before?I haven't had a portable machine that I can rely on for real power for a few years now—time is a particularly cruel mistress when it comes to technology. So the fact that I will be able to do proper work (and play proper games) once again when out and about, will make a huge difference to what I do and where I do it. Whether that's editing video while flying my quadcopter, or even just tapping away in tablet mode when enjoying a film. I hate to use the hyperbole, but the Surface Book really could be a game changer. Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 90 If my love for the Surface Book hasn't given the game away already, I value aesthetics highly. Possibly a little too highly. Maybe it's my engineering background, but I can be turned off by a piece of tech purely because of its looks. Which I realize is a bit odd when it comes to something that is defined mainly by how it sounds. But let's face it, a decent set of speakers is often in your face, so aesthetics definitely are important. It's part of the reason the likes of Bower & Wilkins Nautilus have done so well—they not only sound great, but they look incredible, too. And the BeoLab 90 looks absolutely incredible. Honestly, I could just look at these for hours and hours. But wait, what's this? Home theater speakers? Not a pair of really good speakers for my desktop? Well, no. Not when it comes to watching films and great TV. I watch movies in front of a screen that was designed for the purpose—a screen I can easily share with my family. I have a lovely Sony screen that I bought myself a few birthdays ago, and that's my LCD of choice. I haven't managed to pony up the cash for a proper audio setup yet though, so I'm left with my televisions built in-speakers. Which are a bit lackluster, to be fair. Of course, at this point you're probably wondering why I'm not coveting a surround-sound setup. To be honest, I've never been impressed with them. I did have a surround sound set of speakers a few years back, but the amount of fiddling to set them up just before moving house, meant that they never made it out of the box again. At least until eBay turned them into something more worthwhile. The trailing wires were a bit of a problem with a young family, too. To be fair, $40,000 is pretty steep even if you do want the best darn looking speaker the world has ever seen. That's per unit by the way, so you're looking at $80,000 for the pair. And I'll be honest, this is utter fantasy territory here, there's no way I can afford to splash so much cash on a pair of speakers, but what are we without our dreams? Although, if someone wants to make a cheap-but-just-as-beautiful version of these, I'm all ears… so to speak. So, what does that amount of cash net you, apart from the stunning looks? The unique design isn't just for your eyeballs, it actually incorporates some incredible tech, too. The angular design enables the sound to be bounced around the room to produce a great sound stage no matter the shape of your room, or how many people are in it. Active Room Compensation calibration is the key here, as it can even take into account your furniture and furnishing. The units weigh a stunning 300 pounds each and boast a total of 18 drivers. There are seven 30mm tweeters, seven 86mm midrange drivers, three 212mm woofers, and finally, a 260mm front woofer. The BeoLab 90's amplifiers can apparently deliver up to 8,200 watts per loudspeaker too—which is, totally terrifying. What I can do with the BeoLab 90, that I couldn't do before?Enjoy the full cinematic experience once again, without turning the house into a wire-filled death trap. The fact that I'll be able to define a sweet spot just for me, that takes into consideration my room is certainly intriguing, as is being able to change the soundscape depending on who is enjoying the film with me. I'm happy with the visuals, so getting the sound spot on seems only fair. DJI Phantom 3 ProfessionalQuadcopters, in case you've been hiding under a moldy rock, are big news. They've been around for a little while now, but falling prices have meant that they're now within the grasp of everyone. Even moldy tech journalists. We're not talking simple dumb toys here, either. These days you can pick up the likes of the JJRC H12C for under $100, and fly seeing what the quadcopter can see by virtue of the live stream on your phone. There are a few problems with these budget offerings though, and if you really want a device the truly breaks away from being a toy, then you'll be hankering after something along the lines of the DJI Phantom 3 Professional. Seriously, technolust barely begins to cover the yearning this quadcopter stirs in me. Even the $1,259 doesn't seem too outlandish. The three-axis stabilized gimbal makes me as giddy as a teenager, while the ability to record video at 4K sends me swooning. Throw in the fact that you can set it up to rise to a preset height and stay there recording with a touch of a button, and return to its point of origin. What I can do with the DJI Phantom 3 Professional, that I couldn't do before?While my budget H12C quadcopter is good fun, and great for trying out ideas, the main reason I bought it in was to see what it'd be like flying a quadcopter from the point of view of the drone itself. The Phantom 3 Professional would allow me to do that, but also try out plenty of video ideas that have been knocking around my head for a while. And how does this all tie back into being an editor on Maximum PC? Well, I'm going to need somewhere to edit those 4K videos together, aren't I? In fact, I might need to budget in an upgrade or two while I'm at it. A decent 4K screen certainly wouldn't go amiss, for starters. |
| MS Office 2016: Best New Features Posted: 02 Nov 2015 12:00 AM PST |
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