General Gaming Article |
- Here's Creative Labs's $5000 Speaker System
- Nvidia’s Drive PX 2: The Shape of Things to Come
- Newegg Daily Deals: Intel NUC, Adata 128GB USB Flash Drive, and More!
- Samsung Chromebook 3 Lasts 11 Hours, Withstands Drops
- Patriot Unveils External Type-C SSD Enclosure and New USB Flash Drives
- Velocity Micro Joins the 34-Inch Curved All-In-One Gaming PC Party
- Oculus Rift Now Available to Pre-Order for $599, Ships March 28
- Razer's New Blade Moves the GPU Outside
- Technolust: Moving Out of the Dark Ages
- CES 2016: Hands-on with the Vive Pre
| Here's Creative Labs's $5000 Speaker System Posted: 06 Jan 2016 08:15 PM PST You've probably used a Sound Blaster card in your computer at some point. These days, a lot of folks are likely using just the onboard sound on the motherboard. Onboard audio has improved greatly in the last couple of years, but the main component to make it all sound good squarely rests on the type of speakers you're using. Creative has a solution: the X-Fi Sonic Carrier. Although it doesn't want us calling it a "sound bar," it is essentially that, but perhaps only in shape. The Sonic Carrier is a lot more than just a sound bar, and we had the chance to listen to it today at CES.  The team at Creative tells us that this is a product where it's thrown in all of its audio experience into. You've got quality drivers, tons of processing power, DSP controlled sound, multiple connectivity, an upgraded EAX system, and for the first time in Creative product, Dolby Atmos.  What is Dolby Atmos? Simply put, a system that allows elevation imaging. It means you'll be able to hear a helicopter hovering above your head, and perceive how high it might be. We asked Creative if the Sonic Carrier utilized all of the Aureal 3D technology the company purchased long ago, and A3D is used in full force here (combined with EAX). You'd be forgiven if you've never heard of A3D, but it was a technology that produced real 3D audio from two speakers. The Sonic Carrier pushes audio through 11 front and side individually controlled channels. There are also 4 upwards facing channels. The drivers are all DSP controlled individually, through 7 custom audio processors totaling 14 cores. There are some serious pressure pushers in the Carrier. Inputs? It's got lots: - 802.11AC Wi-Fi   The Carrier also ships with one subwoofer containing two opposing drivers each individually powered by a 250W RMS amp. So how does it sound? In a word, impressive. We were able to listen to the Sonic Carrier in a closed room environment, and several demos were played. Everything from classical concerts to Avatar was demoed. Truth be told, the volume was turned up to compensate for some CES ground noise so we'll have to reserve full judgement for a controlled environment. However, Dolby Atmos performed relatively well, and we were able to hear transients and other effects occur from different positions around our head. Creative is positioning the Sonic Carrier as a true home theater system that can replace multiple speakers. We reckon this might be a good setup for some but not serious home theater enthusiasts. Where things become interesting is the possibility of using it as your primary PC speaker system. You'll need space if you do that though because the Sonic Carrier stretches 55.1 inches. The final product won't ship until much later in 2016 and Creative says it's got a few things to add to the Sonic Carrier, but once it does, it'll cost $5000. If this sounds much to you, we understand. Most people don't even spend half that much on their PC. However, Creative is allowing pre-orders now at a price of $1,750, but it'll continue to increase as it passes certain order milestones. Creative says the Sonic Carrier is its most ambitions project and we can see why. We'll wait until we get our hands on one hear why. |
| Nvidia’s Drive PX 2: The Shape of Things to Come Posted: 06 Jan 2016 01:19 PM PST CES always brings out some interesting products, and while many of them aren't directly related to our normal Maximum PC coverage, there's plenty of overlap. Case in point is Nvidia's new Drive PX 2 solution, which the company is billing as a one-stop solution for in-car artificial intelligence, deep learning, and autonomous driving. Perhaps more interesting is what Nvidia doesn't directly state, but we'll get to that in a moment. First, let's dissect all those buzzwords to see what's really going on. The Drive PX 2 is the follow-up to last year's Drive PX, which used two Tegra X1 processors to provide some of the same features being touted today. Interestingly, Tegra X1 never made it into any tablets, presumably because power requirements were too high, but it did show up in the Nvidia Shield box for use with TVs/home theaters. Tegra X1 featured four high-performance ARM Cortex-A57 cores and four low-power Cortex-A53 cores, then paired those with a Maxwell GPU sporting 256 CUDA cores. Drive PX 2 significantly ups the ante, by using two next-generation Tegra processors (Nvidia hasn't provided a specific name yet) that have four ARM Cortex-57 cores along with two Denver cores. Denver, if you'll recall, was used in the second version of the previous generation Tegra K1, and while it wasn't always faster than the non-Denver TK1, it did excel in certain tasks. Along with the CPU cores, this future Tegra part will also feature Pascal GPU assets, though Nvidia doesn't specify how many CUDA cores will be present. So far so good, but where Drive PX 2 really leaves the original behind is in its integration of two additional Pascal discrete GPUs. It seems Jen-Hsun may be holding a mockup of the final Drive PX 2 hardware, as the GPUs at least appear nearly identical to the GTX 980 for Notebooks MXM modules, but we'll let that pass here; final hardware will certainly have Pascal GPUs. All told, the PX 2 will deliver around 8 TFLOPS of performance, whereas a single Titan X GPU is capable of "only" 7 TFLOPS. That's not the end of the story, however. Pascal is a new architecture, and one of the changes appears to be some optimizations specifically related to "deep learning." This is a term Nvidia and others use to talk about what we used to call neural networks, a branch of computer science that attempts to create artificial intelligence using models that try to emulate the brain and its neurons. Neural networks/deep learning have proven quite powerful in computer vision and speech recognition applications, among others, so it makes sense that they'd be useful in automated vehicles. For the deep learning aspects, Nvidia provides a separate classification of performance, called Deep Learning Operations, or DL TOPS (Tera OPS, i.e., trillions of Operations Per Second). Interestingly, where the Titan X / Maxwell architecture appears to have the same rating for TFLOPS (floating point operations) and DL TOPS, Drive PX 2 / Pascal look to have DL TOPS performance that's three times higher than the TFLOPS rating. Of course, TFLOPS and DL TOPS are somewhat meaningless terms. They represent more of a theoretical peak performance than what you'll actually see in real-world applications. Nvidia provides a separate measurement of performance using AlexNet, an image classification approach using deep convolutional neural networks. Here, Nvidia quotes performance of 450 images per second with a Titan X compared to 2,800 images per second on Drive PX 2. So in this case, Nvidia shows a single Drive PX 2 delivering more than six times the performance of a single Titan X. Nvidia also notes that the Drive PX 2 is over 10 times faster than the previous Drive PX, which was rated at 2.3 TFLOPS, and being Maxwell-based, that means 2.3 DL TOPS. There's some fuzzy math here where Nvidia shows how a Drive PX 2 is equal to 150 MacBook Pro laptops in terms of performance, but it's more marketing than anything useful. They use the 6x speedup shown in AlexNet but then revert to TFLOPS, and show the 42 TFLOPS of six Titan X GPUs as equaling the performance of 150 MBP processors with no discrete GPU, so only 0.28 TFLOPS each. But the bottom line is that GPU-assisted deep learning can be orders of magnitude faster than deep learning without GPUs.  All of the above is certainly cool stuff, and Nvidia is partnering with Volvo to have a public trial of 100 Volvo XC90 SUVs hitting the road next year in the carmaker's Drive Me autonomous car pilot program. Many of us have looked forward to the day of autopilot vehicles, and with Nvidia's help, we're inching ever closer to that reality. In fact, Jen-Hsun states that in testing, their trained Drive PX 2 system was able to outperform humans in perceiving road signs and other objects. Since a car/computer won't get bored and doze off or daydream, long-term the technology can improve the safety of our roads and vehicles. That's assuming, of course, that no hackers create havoc, and that the software/hardware never suffers from technical glitches. Getting back to the Drive PX 2 hardware, we do know both the Tegra and Pascal GPUs will be manufactured on TSMC's 16nm FinFET process. AMD revealed that they're using GlobalFoundries' (Samsung's) 14nm FinFET for some of their Polaris GPUs, but they also indicated some GPUs would be made at TSMC as well. The new process should reduce power requirements at the same performance, but Nvidia appears to be going the other route and instead improves performance quite a bit while drawing more power than the original Drive PX—250W, to be precise. To that end, the Drive PX 2 will initially launch in a liquid-cooled configuration, in a module roughly the size of a lunch box. Unfortunately, despite giving us quite a few examples of performance (e.g., 8 TFLOPS / 24 DL TOPS), we ultimately know very little about Pascal and how it will differ from Maxwell. DL TOPS run substantially faster on Pascal, but that may be a case of using double-precision FP operations or some other factor that may not apply to non-compute scenarios. Considering Tegra X1 only has 256 CUDA cores compared to 3,072 in the Titan X, yet Nvidia rates the Tegra X1 at 1.15 TFLOPS compared to 7 TFLOPS, it's impossible to say what sort of Pascal GPUs are in the Drive PX 2, or how Pascal will compare with Maxwell on the desktop. Even if the new Tegra SoC is only equal to the X1 in performance, that means the two discrete Pascal GPUs at most deliver 6 TFLOPS of performance, but it's probably closer to 4 TFLOPS of performance. That's 2 TFLOPS per GPU, somewhere between the GTX 950 and 960 in performance, or about the level of a single GTX 965M. Clearly, the two discrete GPUs on the Drive PX 2 are not high-end GPUs. In other words, if the Drive PX 2 is one of the first products to ship with Pascal hardware, much like AMD's demonstration of working Polaris GPUs, Nvidia will likely launch Pascal more as an entry-level part instead of a GTX 980 Ti killer. No doubt the second batch of Pascal GPUs will double down on the hardware elements. The race may be on for self-driving vehicles, but we're also waiting to see who can launch the first FinFET GPU. |
| Newegg Daily Deals: Intel NUC, Adata 128GB USB Flash Drive, and More! Posted: 06 Jan 2016 01:13 PM PST Top Deal:Not every system has to cost several thousand dollars and come decked out with top shelf parts. If you're just planning to mosey around the web and play in Word, you can get by with a more modest setup. For general purpose computing chores, one option with a low footprint is today's top deal -- an Intel BOXNUC5I7RYH 2 x 204Pin SO-DIMM Intel Iris Graphics 6100 Aluminum and Plastic Black NUC Kit (Rock Canyon) for $420 with free shipping (normally $450). This small system packs a punch -- it has an Intel Core i7-5557U processor, Intel Iris Graphics 6100, a pair of SO-DIMM slots, a SATA 6Gbps interface, two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports (via header), and onboard 7.1 channel audio. Other Deals: Phanteks PH-ES515P_BK Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Enthoo Pro M ATX Chassis for $70 with free shipping (normally $90; additional $10 Mail-in rebate) Adata USA UV128 128 GB High-Speed USB 3.0 Capless USB Flash Drive, Blue/Black (AUV128-128G-RBE) for $25 with $1 shipping (normally $28 - use coupon code: [EMCKNPK35]) Crucial 8GB 204-Pin DDR 3 SO-DIMM DDR3L 1600 (PC3L 12800) Laptop Memory for $32 with free shipping (normally $35 - use coupon code: [EMCKNPK23]) |
| Samsung Chromebook 3 Lasts 11 Hours, Withstands Drops Posted: 06 Jan 2016 12:50 PM PST Long live the Chromebook Bargain priced Windows laptops have stolen some of the appeal of Chromebooks, though the cloud-centric devices are still popular in the education market. To keep the good times rolling, Samsung unveiled the Chromebook 3 with improved battery life. The Chromebook 3 measures 11.36 inches by 8.04 inches by 0.7 inches and weighs 2.53 pounds. It's a thin and light system with a better grip to take the worry out of "juggling books, bags, or other items along with the Chromebook 3." Should you drop it anyway, a reinforced metal body should keep the system protected. Samsung's newest Chromebook model sports an 11.6-inch HD display with a 1366x768 resolution. It also has an Intel Celeron N3050 processor, 2GB or 4GB of RAM, 16GB of eMMC storage, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, 720p webcam, a pair of 1.5W speakers, USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports (one each), HDMI output, microSD card slot, headphone/microphone combo port, and of course Google Chrome on the software side. Students should have no trouble banging out research papers on the Chromebook 3 -- curved keycaps make typing easier, and the 33Wh battery is said to last up to 11 hours on a single charge. The Chromebook 3 will be available early this year. No word yet on price. |
| Patriot Unveils External Type-C SSD Enclosure and New USB Flash Drives Posted: 06 Jan 2016 10:53 AM PST Throwing down the Gauntlet 4 Patriot's been busy fleshing out its lineup of varied memory and storage products with an eye on cutting edge technology. Following up on its announcement of a pair of PCIe-based SSDs (M.2 SATA and add-in card form factors) the other day, Patriot today added a new SSD enclosure and three new USB flash drive lines. We'll start with the enclosure. Called the Gauntlet 4, it's a new SSD enclosure with a Type-C connector. It's made of "sturdy aluminum" and consists of a uni-body case and lightweight ABS tray. Patriot says the Gauntlet 4 can be used to convert any standard 2.5-inch SSD or HDD with a SATA interface to an external storage device. Such a thing could come in handy if upgrading your PC's storage scheme with a bigger SSD -- toss the old one in an enclosure like this and give it a new career. The Gauntlet 4 will ship with two connecting cables, a micro B to Type-C and a micro B to Type-A. Ideally, users would plug this thing into a USB 3.1 Gen 2 port for faster performance. According to Patriot's own testing, doing exactly that with a Patriot Pyro 240GB SSD yielded 16 percent faster read and 22 percent faster write times compared to the Gauntlet 3. Look for the Gauntlet 4 at the end of the quarter for $40 MSRP. Flashy ProductsMoving on, Patriot also announced three new USB flash drive families, the Viper USB and Supersonic Mega USB. The Viper USB is a USB 3.1 Gen 1 product (read: rebadged USB 3.0) available in 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB capacities. It comes in "cynical red and black" with a Viper logo plastered on the front and features a swing arm to keep the connector protected from dust and debris. Pricing breaks down like this:
The Supersonic Mega USB is also USB 3.1 Gen 1, one that aims to offer the "best value for performance." Towards that end, Patriot rates read and write times at up to 380MB/s and 70MB/s, respectively, with the following price points:
Both the Viper and Mega are backed by five year warranties. Finally, Patriot announced the Supersonic Magnum 2. The company didn't provide many details, like capacity options or price points, but did say it will offer maximum read and write speeds of up to 400MB/s and 300MB/s, respectively. |
| Velocity Micro Joins the 34-Inch Curved All-In-One Gaming PC Party Posted: 06 Jan 2016 10:01 AM PST It's all about options For the most part, the all-in-one space has been reserved for general purpose PCs. We've seen a few gaming oriented AIO systems, but they're the exception to the rule. Now all of a sudden system builders from every corner are readying big size AIOs for gamers. We already told you about Maingear's Alpha 34 and CyberPowerPC's Arcus, both wielding a curved 34-inch display as the foundation for their respective AIOs. Well, now you can add Velocity Micro the growing number of builders joining the 34-inch AIO party. Velocity Micro's mammoth AIO comes bearing the title Raptor One. Like the others, it sports a 3440x1440 resolution (21:9 aspect ratio), and if it's power you crave, Velocity Micro will answer the call with up to Intel Xeon processor options (Skylake is standard issue here). The Raptor One is also configurable with full size graphics cards, including Nivida's GeForce Titan X, and M.2 solid state drive options for fast storage. "The Raptor One represents the next phase in our evolution as a builder of the world's most powerful and artful PC hardware," said Randy Copeland, President and CEO of Velocity Micro. "Now, not only do we continue to provide the most incredible gaming, workstation, and laptop PCs to our enthusiast customers, but with the Raptor One, we offer an All-in-One PC that combines power and aesthetics in a way few ever have." Velocity Micro hasn't shared all the specifics, though we know the Raptor One will sport an integrated 80 Plus Gold certified power supply, mini ITX motherboard built by Asus, and integrated liquid cooling options. The Raptor One will be available to configure and order February 1, 2016, starting at $2,199. |
| Oculus Rift Now Available to Pre-Order for $599, Ships March 28 Posted: 06 Jan 2016 09:21 AM PST It's really happeningWe were never really concerned that Oculus Rift would fall into an unfortunate category known as vaporware. Even though it's been almost three years since it was introduced on Kickstarter, development kits and hands-on testing with said kits gave us confidence that it would eventually arrive, we just didn't know exactly when or how much. Now we do. Oculus, owned by Facebook, has opened up pre-orders for Oculus Rift just as it said it would. The cost is $599, which gets you the Rift headset with built-in headphones and mic, an external tracking camera, the new Oculus Remote, and an Xbox One controller all stuffed inside a carrying case. On the software side, pre-orders come with Lucky's Tale, which is a VR platform title developed by Playful, and EVE: Valkyrie through the Founder's Pack, which will include exclusive in-game content, founder status in Valkyrie, and other goodies not yet announced. Putting in your pre-order also secures your place in line to pre-order the Touch controller later this month. In the meantime, Oculus says the included Xbox One controller is more than sufficient for games like Lucky's Tale. Given the high profile status of Oculus Rift, some may consider this the beginning of the VR movement. There have been other projects already released, like Samsung Gear VR, but none that carried the same level of excitement, hype, and industry support as Oculus Rift. "We've been working with some of the top developers in the industry to create incredible, new, made-for-VR games and experiences. In 2016 alone, Oculus Studios will introduce more than 20 games that are coming exclusively to Oculus this year, including Rockband VR by Harmonix, Edge of Nowhere by Insomniac, and The Climb by Crytek. We'll be announcing additional titles soon!," Oculus stated in a blog post. The headset is only half the equation, you'll need a capable PC too. Minimum recommended specs include:
If in doubt, you can run the new Oculus compatibility tool. Oculus Rift pre-orders will start shipping out to customers on March 28. The headset will also find its way to select retailers starting in April. |
| Razer's New Blade Moves the GPU Outside Posted: 06 Jan 2016 12:23 AM PST Razer today announced its new ultrabook Blade Stealth, which is basically a thin and light notebook but with gaming credentials. From looking at it, you'd be forgiven if you thought it was slow. But nope, it's got a Core i7-6700U humming along at 2.5GHz (3.1GHz turbo), and PCIe SSD that's configurable up to 512GB—no slow HDD here. The real kicker is the accompanying Razer Core, which is an external graphics card enclosure that connects seamlessly to a USB Type-C connector on the Blade Stealth. Graphics duties are pumped through Thunderbolt 3 over the Type-C connector, and the Core will even route its graphics output back into the Blade Stealth so you can enjoy its 100% AdobeRGB 4K screen. The Core supports a single dual slot graphics cards, so don't think of trying to wedge in a card with a huge after market cooler, but it will handle everything up to a GTX Titan X or similar. The rear of the Core gives you four standard USB 3.0 ports and a singe GbE port for wired connections. Pricing has yet to be announced for the Core but the Razer Stealth can be had for $1000, which is quite an astonishing starting price for a Razer notebook. If you want to do some serious gaming on the Stealth, you'll want the Core. The Stealth itself only has integrated Intel HD Graphics 520, so while it'll play the casual stuff, it won't really be suitable for serious gaming. We wish Razer allowed more memory options for the Blade Stealth. You can only order the notebook in an 8GB configuration, which some may find a bit low. For the majority of games though, 8GB should suffice. |
| Technolust: Moving Out of the Dark Ages Posted: 06 Jan 2016 12:00 AM PST PCs Aren't the Only Things that Become ObsoleteIt's consumer electronics week, with all sorts of new gadgets being announced in Vegas. That means that many of the offerings from last year are finally available—at least the ones that were able to get beyond the prototype stage. One of the more interesting aspects of CES is watching how the various manufacturers update their commodity product lines, in the hopes of enticing people to upgrade. It's sort of like watching people throw things at a wall to see what sticks. I have a confession to make: my home, in many ways, is a throwback to the last millennium. Which is odd, considering the house was built in 2007 and we've only been living here for three years. The problem isn't so much the home itself; rather, it's my antiquated appliances. Some of them came with the house and are thus only nine or so years old, but even when they were new, these weren't high-end models. Instead, the house was built with some decidedly budget appliances in the kitchen, and I supplemented those with an even more outdated washer and dryer set that probably should have been kicked to the curb years ago. The dilemma is that all of my existing appliances still work, and until that changes or I win the lottery (which is hard to do when you refuse to play), I can only dream of what I might do given the chance. But with the products being showcased at CES, it got me thinking: If money were no object, what are the coolest new "smart" appliances to add to my home? We haven't had a chance to see what's on tap for 2016 yet, but we can look at previous products that are now actually available—some of which will almost certainly be outdated in the next week. A Dishwasher Fit for a KingI grew up in a home without a dishwasher, at least for ten years of my youth. I still have the occasional flashback to manually scrubbing, rinsing, and drying each dish, my own little PTSD nightmare. If there's one thing I can truly appreciate, it's a dishwasher that does its job with next to no effort on the part of the user. Even better is a dishwasher with plenty of room and a third shelf for utensils and such. Now, there are dishwashers, and then there are dishwashers. Miele isn't perhaps as well-known a brand as others, largely because they cater to professional users and the rich and famous—perfect for Technolust! The Miele G6985 SCVi K2o is a lot of dishwasher, with a customizable "3D cutlery tray" at the top that can be used for utensils and other extras. Couple that with a smart arrangement for the two main racks and you get enough room to clean up to 16 place settings. Okay, granted, you're not likely to actually cram in 16 place settings, but it's still pretty roomy. The cleaning features are top of the line, with 14 cycle options available, a built-in water softener dispenser, and three spray arms. Naturally, the dishwasher is Energy Star compliant, and it's also very quiet—42dB at the default setting or just 38dB with the Extra Quiet setting. As an added bonus, Miele provides a 5-year manufacturer warranty, which is rare in the home appliance market. What can really set the Miele apart from other offerings is the innovative Knock2Open feature. It might sound gimmicky, but in the right environment it can be a great addition. Many high-end appliances and cabinetry can now be had without handles, and the G6985 comes ready for a custom façade to match your kitchen environment. As you might guess, the P6985 doesn't come cheap. The base price is $2,499, but you should plan on an additional $295 (or more) for the appropriate custom panel. What does Miele get me that I'm missing now?As our family has grown, we've gone from running the dishwasher once or twice a week to every other day to nearly every day. And whenever it's time to load the dishwasher, it's like playing Tetris, trying to fit as much as possible into a limited space. That extra cutlery tray at the top would definitely be useful, and as a modern appliance, the Miele should reduce our water and energy use quite a bit. I'd expect it to eliminate the need for prewashing of dishes, and the wash cycle should easily beat the two hours that our current unit requires. We'll also be able to talk in the kitchen while the dishwasher is running, rather than shouting at each other. There aren't any real "smart" aspects to this dishwasher, but I'm not sure I really need anything extra on my dishwasher. Double Range = Double the Fun!Sticking with the kitchen for now, next up on the list of appliances in need of replacement is our electric range. It works well enough, so we're in no rush to replace it, but having used a gas stove in the past, we'd love to return to gas cooking rather than electric. Because, fire! Plus gas heats up faster and works better with our large wok, which we like to break out on a regular basis. There's some debate about whether gas or electric is better for certain tasks, but why limit yourself to just one fuel source? How about a gas stove combined with a state-of-the-art electric convection oven, and for good measure, throw in an Android-powered interface! Then double the fun by including two ovens, for those times when one simply isn't enough. There are many options out there for ranges, but if you're looking for something truly lust-worthy, check out the Dacor Discovery DRYP48. Dacor is known for making luxury appliances, and the Discovery is very much in that category, tipping the scales at a mere $12,000 MSRP. It sports six gas burners, with an easy-to-clean spill tray and a large cooking area, and the large griddle accessory sits on top of any pair of burners for added flexibility. The burners also provide excellent control, from ultra-high searing temperatures to ultra-low simmering. Four of the burners have an output range of 800–15,000 BTU, while the two SimmerSear™ burners extend that range to 800–18,000 BTU. The two ovens offer 8.0 cu ft of total capacity; the larger right oven is 5.2 cu ft while the left "cell" oven is 2.8 cu ft. Rather than the usual slide-out racks, the ovens are equipped with two ball-bearing "gliding" racks and one chrome rack, and the doors have soft-close hinges. Both ovens feature convection heating to improve cooking times and provide uniform temperatures, and the right oven has a 3,500W 8-pass radiant ribbon element to rapidly and evenly broil foods. The oven also has a GreenClean steam cleaning feature that helps clean up light build-up in just 30 minutes. While the ovens and burners are the real story, the Discovery also comes with an Android-based tablet and control mechanism called Discovery IQ. The panel pops out so you can easily follow recipes, watch cooking videos, or just browse the web. It could be a cool feature, but it's arguably the weakest link, since the tablet hardware and software have inevitably become outdated. When it was announced, the Discovery IQ control center was based on Android Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0); in the past two years, Android has moved on to Jelly Bean (4.1/4.2/4.3) and now Lollipop (5.0/5.1), but it's not clear if Dacor has updated their software during that time. The hardware meanwhile uses a 1GHz Exynos processor, which is now well behind the times. That's the unfortunate part of all "smart" appliances, as technology has a rapid cadence compared to the usual home appliances. What would the Dacor Discover get me?Really, it's all about the size and quality features: I'd have gas burners, and a double oven. I find gas burners are far better for cooking, but the bigger factor is that double oven. We do homemade pizzas at least a couple of times each month, and when each pizza takes about 15 minutes to bake, it's a pretty serious bottleneck. Think of it as upgrading from a single-core processor to a dual-core processor, only instead of running programs I'm cranking out food. What's not to like? Keeping It CleanI'm skipping the refrigerator for now, since that's the one appliance we already had to replace since moving in. Considering we're still using a top-load washer and dryer that are at least 20 years old, that's a far higher priority for replacement. We've passed by the fancy new front-load washers and dryers many times, gazing on in wistful appreciation of something we can't quite justify purchasing (yet). Much like the dishwasher, however, getting a "smart" washer/dryer isn't really important. We don't need to remotely start the washer/dryer, or receive alerts telling us the clothes are dry; what we need is better cleaning and more efficient water and energy use… except, we can get both so why not? LG makes some great washers and dryers, and their latest-and-greatest model is the WM9000HVA. This is a 5.2 cu ft capacity front-load washer, and as you might guess, a higher capacity washer and dryer would definitely prove useful in our family. It's amazing how quickly kids can pile up the dirty laundry, making it a daily chore. But there's more than just the main washer. When LG announced their new Twin Wash system last year, I admit to chuckling a little—it's like your washer is a kangaroo with a little baby down below!—but I'd still be able to find a use for the 1.0 cu ft mini washer. Colors and whites and towels accumulate quickly, but there are always a few items that don't fit neatly into one of those categories. Plus, teaching our kids to wash their own freaking clothes and not treat mom and dad like laundry slaves means that little mini washer might get a decent amount of use from our teenager. The WM9000HVA comes with a ton of features, most of which we'll probably never need, but the 30-minute TurboWash technology isn't one of those meaningless extras. And of course, all of the cleaning is done in an energy efficient manner, so not only can the new washer finish a load of laundry in half the time, but it will likely use less than half as much water and probably one fourth the power of our current dinosaur. But a new washer isn't enough; we also need a new dryer, which would naturally match our washer. LG's new DLGX9001V dryer is every bit as capable as the washer, with an awe-inspiring 9.0 cu ft capacity. Besides all the usual features you're used to seeing on a dryer, LG has some extras like a 10-minute TurboSteam that helps to quickly remove wrinkles from clothing—perfect for when I don't have the time or inclination to pull out an iron! And I know I said I didn't need a smart washer/dryer, but both LG units are Wi-Fi enabled and can communicate with your smartphone. So if you have a load of laundry in the dryer and you want to touch it up on your way home from the gym, you can do that. What can LG give me that I'm currently missing?Really, this is about making the laundry more convenient and energy efficient. I'm all for being ecologically minded, and getting better and faster cleaning is an added bonus. The combination doesn't come cheap, obviously, with MSRPs of $1,800 for the washer and $1,900 for the dryer, but over the next 10 years, the power and water savings alone could probably justify the expense.The reality is that I've always been something of a cheapskate when it comes to appliances—it's really hard to justify spending $7,000 for a washer and dryer when you can pick up something that works decently for less than $1,000, or hop on Craigslist and you might even find some freebies that people are offloading. But you generally get what you pay for, and it would be a nice change of pace to have some truly high-end appliances in my home. |
| CES 2016: Hands-on with the Vive Pre Posted: 05 Jan 2016 11:22 PM PST We go hands-on with the second-generation Vive development kitWe just got to go hands-on with HTC's newly updated Vive development kit at CES 2016. HTC is calling this iteration the "Vive Pre," and the company has made several improvements to its entire Vive ecosystem. The headset is a little bit lighter and more comfortable this time around, with more foam-like padding for your face. There will also be interchangeable faceplates, in case you find the default scheme not suitable to your noggin. In terms of image, HTC made the display brighter and improved the optics through something the company is calling "Mura correction." The company says Mura correction helps deliver a clearer and crisper image with no dirty window or linen-like quality. From what we could tell, the infamous "screen door effect" is largely gone, but you can still make out individual pixels if you try. We also tried the headset with glasses and are happy to report that they work just fine with them.  The biggest addition to the Vive Pre is the integration of a front-facing camera. With the double tap of a button on the controller, you can enable a passthrough mode that shows your surroundings in a blue Tron-like haze. This mode can come in handy if your cat is getting a little too close for comfort. The chaperone system is also still there and it displays blue virtual walls when you're approaching the limits of your designated safety zone. With two lighthouses, the Vive Pre can scale out to 15 by 15 feet. The lighthouses themselves have also been improved so that they run more quietly.  HTC also made some improvements to the controllers themselves. The previous controller featured sharp angles, but the controllers here are more circular and feature softer edges, which makes it a little more comfortable to hold. The controllers themselves can also now charge via Micro USB and will last four hours on a complete charge.  While no price is set for the consumer version of the headset just yet, we do know that it will be available for purchase it in April.  |
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