General Gaming Article |
- Corsair Upgrades Sabre RGB Mouse with 10,000 DPI Optical Sensor
- Bill Gates Discusses Apple vs. FBI, Quantum Computing During Reddit AMA
- Nvidia Yanks Problematic GeForce 364.47 Driver Update
- Steve Wozniak Sides with Apple
- Seagate Reveals "Fastest-Ever" SSD Flash Drive
- Job Listing Shows Amazon Is Getting into VR
- Technolust: A Drone, a Projector, and a Radar Detector
| Corsair Upgrades Sabre RGB Mouse with 10,000 DPI Optical Sensor Posted: 09 Mar 2016 09:49 AM PST Lightweight and fast It was nearly two and a half years ago when Corsair Gaming first introduced its Sabre RGB mouse. At the time, it offered two versions—one with a 6,400 DPI optical sensor and one with an 8,200 DPI laser sensor. Both are now old news, as Corsair this week announced the availability of a refreshed version of the Sabre RGB. The updated Sabre RGB now sports a 10,000 DPI optical sensor. Some gaming purists will point out that ultra high DPI ratings are overkill, but if that happens to be your preference, here it is. Corsair's retooled Sabre RGB also features a four-zone dynamic multi-color backlighting scheme, eight programmable buttons that can be fully re-mapped using the Corsair Utility Engine (CUE) software (it supports both single keystrokes and complex macros), and a lightweight and ergonomic design. "Weighing just 100g and designed to accommodate multiple grip styles, Sabre RGB's sleek ergonomic shape fits comfortably in your hand, allowing gamers to react quickly and play longer," Corsair says. While not the fanciest rodent on the market, Corsair isn't price gouging here. The MSRP for the Sabre RGB is $50, compared to $80+ that some gaming mice go for. |
| Bill Gates Discusses Apple vs. FBI, Quantum Computing During Reddit AMA Posted: 09 Mar 2016 09:27 AM PST Third time's the charm Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is no stranger to Reddit's Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions. The billionaire software developer turned philanthropist took part in his third AMA yesterday answering questions on several topics, including his take on Apple's standoff with the FBI over iPhone encryption. The way Gates sees it, there has to be a discussion that centers on when the government should be able to gather information. He also thinks the government needs to make clear what safeguards are in place to prevent it from abusing its position. "Right now a lot of people don't think the government has the right checks to make sure information is only used in criminal situations. So this case will be viewed as the start of a discussion," Gates said. "I think very few people take the extreme view that the government should be blind to financial and communication data but very few people think giving the government carte blanche without safeguards makes sense. A lot of countries like the UK and France are also going through this debate. For tech companies there needs to be some consistency including how governments work with each other. The sooner we modernize the laws the better." Asked what he do if he was in charge of Apple, Gates said one possible solution is to propose some kind of plan that would balance the government being able to obtain information in some cases with having safeguards in place to ensure the government's powers don't trickle out beyond specific cases. "There is no avoiding this debate and they could contribute to how the balance should be struck," Gates said. On the topic of quantum computing, Gates said it's something that Microsoft and others are currently working on, but doesn't know when it will work or become mainstream. "There is a chance that within 6-10 years that cloud computing will offer super-computation by using quantum. It could help us solve some very important science problems including materials and catalyst design," Gates said. Some other fun tidbits from his AMA:
Gates covered several other topics during his AMA session, which you can check out here. |
| Nvidia Yanks Problematic GeForce 364.47 Driver Update Posted: 09 Mar 2016 08:55 AM PST Nvidia takes a mulligan Nvidia this week released a Game Ready driver (version 364.47) that was intended to deliver the best possible performance for Ubisoft's latest Tom Clancy title, The Division, but has since pulled it offline after reports of various problems. Some users who installed the driver update complained of boot issues, BSoD errors, quirky audio issues, and other annoyances. Initially it seemed as though only users running multi-monitor setups in Windows 10 were affected, but several people running single monitor configurations said they experienced some of the same problems. There was also some chatter of the driver update burning up graphics cards, though Nvidia told Engadget that it hasn't seen any reports of damaged hardware, nor is there anything in the driver that could fry a video card. Most of the complaints Nvidia said it's received have to do with blacked out and corrupted screens. Nvidia pulled the buggy 364.47 driver package and has now replaced it with version 364.51. The new driver is currently available in beta form while Nvidia waits for official WHQL approval from Microsoft. "After finding a critical installation issue, the team has replaced yesterday's driver (364.47) with today's new driver (364.51). This driver has been submitted to Microsoft for WHQL-approval and we will update the driver package online as soon as we have the certified package," Nvidia said. "We had received reports of some users having issues installing driver version 364.47. Initial investigation suggests the issue was related to doing an "Express" installation. If you happen to have a pending installation of 364.47, we recommend that you do not install it and either use the new 364.51 beta version or wait for the WHQL certified version," Nvidia added. As with the version that was pulled, the new 364.51 beta driver package contains performance optimizations for The Division. It also introduces support for the Vulkan API. You can download the 364.51 beta driver here. |
| Steve Wozniak Sides with Apple Posted: 09 Mar 2016 08:04 AM PST Steve Wozniak recently visited Conan O'Brien's late night show on TBS, and had no problem admitting that he backs Apple in its feud with the FBI. Wozniak is one of the initial financial backers of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and joined the Board of Directors shortly after the organization was formed. Because of this background, his position regarding the Apple case should not be surprising. "I side with Apple on this one," he told Conan. "They picked the lamest case they ever could. The two phones owned by the two people that aren't even convicted terrorists didn't have one link to a terrorist organization. Verizon turned over all the phone records, all the instant messages. So they want to take this other phone the two didn't destroy that was a work phone – it's so lame and worthless to expect that something is on it and to get Apple to expose it." That's the big question: Is there information stored on the confiscated iPhone 5c that was used by San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook? The 5c was his work-provided phone, and is owned by the country, so there's a high probability that there's nothing of importance stored on the device. Why? Because the county could track and collect the phone at any time. Using it to place calls and messages with other terrorists seems unlikely. As we've reported over the last several weeks, the FBI wants Apple to create a version of iOS that doesn't contain specific security features, so that the agency can bypass those features use "brute force" to gain access to the phone's data. "A couple of times in my life I wrote something that could be a virus that could have spread itself on Macintosh computers forever," he admitted during the interview. "And each time I threw away every bit of code I'd written I was so scared inside. You do not want to let something like that out. Once you create it, there's a good chance hackers will get into it. And what if China says 'Apple you've got to give us a back door so we can get into any phone, even your government officials, and inspect them at any time.'" That's the big stink with the government's request: a fear that it will get into the wrong hands. "Security is an important thing now," Wozniak told Conan. "Look at how many people get hurt, millions of accounts get exposed every day." Just recently, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi took to The Washington Post to write an opinion piece stating that the FBI wants to stay one step ahead of criminals by reducing the security of devices. He said this is disappointing, and that the government wants to return to the security standards of 2013. Still, the encryption in today's iPhones is the best on the market, but it's admittedly not 100 percent secure. "Humans are fallible," Federighi wrote. "Our engineers write millions of lines of code, and even the very best can make mistakes. A mistake can become a point of weakness, something for attackers to exploit. Identifying and fixing those problems are critical parts of our mission to keep customers safe. Doing anything to hamper that mission would be a serious mistake." |
| Seagate Reveals "Fastest-Ever" SSD Flash Drive Posted: 09 Mar 2016 07:50 AM PST Looking for the fastest SSD on the planet? Hard-drive maker Seagate Technology said on Tuesday that it now has the speediest solution to date. This upcoming trail blazer, slated to arrive this summer, offers speeds of up to 10 gigabytes per second (GB/s), which the company says is four times faster than the previous SSD that claimed the "world's fastest" title. The drive also meets Open Compute Project (OCP) specifications, perfect for hyperscale data centers. According to Seagate, the drive ditches the SATA connector for the Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) protocol, which Seagate helped develop. This protocol speeds up data transfers by reducing layers of commands, and helps eliminate informational bottlenecks. Seagate also said the drive accommodates 16-lane PCIe slots. "Technology advancements continue to stretch the limits of SSD speed and performance due to growing enterprise demands that require fast data processing at scale," said Gregory Wong, founder and principal analyst, Forward Insights. "Seagate has effectively rewritten the rules for performance with this latest SSD unit. Based on our latest analysis, Seagate is already the leading provider to the emerging PCIe OCP market." If Seagate's new drive lives up to its promise, it would seem an ideal candidate for data center solutions where results are affected by speed. Scenarios include statistical trends analysis, weather modeling, and large-scale cloud providers. Seagate suggests using the new drive in an all-flash array or as an accelerated flash tier with hard drives. OCP compliance means the drive costs less and consumes less power than a similar performance-driven SSD without OCP compliance. Facebook launched the OCP alliance back in 2011 along with Intel, Rackspace, Goldman Sachs, and Andy Bechtolsheim. The idea was to generate the same amount of collaboration and creativity that's seen in open-source software. OCP is inspired by Facebook's energy-efficient data center located in Prineville, Oregon, which the company openly shared the design to the public in hopes that other companies would see the same energy and cost benefits. Meanwhile, in addition to the new 16-lane production-ready unit, Seagate is also finalizing a second unit for eight-lane PCIe slots. This drive will have a throughput of 6.7GB/s, making it the fastest SSD in the eight-lane card market. This model will be ideal for organizations that want the highest performance but are limited by cost and power usage requirements. Seagate is slated to showcase both SSDs during the Open Compute Project Summit 2016 convention in San Jose, California beginning today. The company has already allowed limited sales of both units to several of its customers, though it plans a full general release this summer. Seagate hasn't yet provided additional details such as specs, capacities, and pricing. Seagate's previous "world's fastest" SSD, the Nytro XP6500 flash accelerator card, is compatible with the eight-lane PCIe 3.0 interface and offers a read bandwidth of up to 4GB/s and a write bandwidth of up to 2.2GB/s. This solution, offered in four models since its launch in August 2015, offers up to 4TB of capacity. |
| Job Listing Shows Amazon Is Getting into VR Posted: 09 Mar 2016 07:33 AM PST Over on the Glassdoor job-hunting website, Amazon has listed a position for a senior software development manager for virtual reality. Amazon Video is actually seeking a candidate who will lead its VR team within the Amazon Video branch. Potential employees will need at least a degree in Computer Science or a related field, more than fifteen years of relevant engineering experience, and so on. "Entertainment is evolving rapidly. The future will not be limited to passive 2D experiences," the job listing currently states. "The Virtual Reality team will explore and create the platform and interface for immersive storytelling. This will include an ingestion and playback platform for Virtual Reality experiences." News of Amazon's push into VR content arrives after rival service Hulu pushed back its VR content release to the spring. The popular TV streaming service was scheduled to release a VR app back in November that would launch alongside the Samsung Gear VR headset, but that didn't happen, and Hulu didn't provide a reason for the delay. Hulu's head of experience, Ben Smith, told Variety back at CES 2016 in January that the company wants to build a "long-lasting experience," focusing on the line between a five-minute experience, a two- to three-hour experience, and what the consumer will devour day after day. Hulu's VR efforts were first revealed last fall. "We are setting our expectations appropriately," he added. "This is about early adopters. This is going to be about a lot of advanced technology, a lot of people who come from gaming. It's not for Mom and Pop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa yet. But it will get there. So we just want to learn now." Rival company Netflix has already dipped its toes into the VR pool by providing a special VR app for the Samsung Gear VR headset. Oculus VR CTO John Carmack actually helped create the app, which presents viewers with a virtual living room complete with a virtual couch. Unfortunately, 720x480 is the highest resolution viewers will see on the VR hardware of today. Based on Amazon's job description, the company is looking to create video content for VR. However, the minimum requirements demand more than seven years of technical experience as a software developer and more than five years of relevant experience as a software development manager. There's a good chance Amazon may utilize VR beyond video by providing consumers with a VR-enhanced shopping experience. Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg said during his surprise Mobile World Congress visit that more than one million hours of VR video has been consumed in Samsung's Gear VR headset since its November 2015 launch. If that's indeed the case, there's no question as to why Amazon would be jumping onto the VR content bandwagon. Keep in mind that Amazon's new Lumberyard gaming engine supports VR, too. |
| Technolust: A Drone, a Projector, and a Radar Detector Posted: 09 Mar 2016 12:00 AM PST Attack of the dronesUp until the last few years, drones meant for your everyday consumer have been nothing short of simple little play things, for the most part. That doesn't keep the child in me from sill wanting one, though. With DJI working on its Phantom 4, which brings flying drones to a whole new level, they now seriously have my attention. So, what would the DJI Phantom 4 provide me that I'm not getting now?This isn't some simple, dumb drone. Nope. And it is not a toy. The Phantom 4 has several built-in cameras and sensors that are designed for collision detection. This means that it's programmed to have some simple deep learning mechanic that allows it to avoid crashing into walls and trees. While similar drones feature GPS, they would often crash into structures; the Phantom claims to solve those issues. The Phantom 4 will also come with an easy-to-use app which will allow you to use your phone to view where it's going, and to point tin the direction you'd like the drone to fly. Of course, this means that the Phantom 4 also has a camera for you to see through in real time, but as you might expect, it's not a cheapo model. The Phantom 4's camera features a 4K solution that can film at 30fps; or, if you want to shoot in slow motion, you can also set it to record at 1080p at 120fps. From the early videos I've seen of the camera in action, the footage looks super smooth. The DJI website is taking pre-orders and will start shipping units next week. At $1,400, it does cost a pretty penny, but that's kind of the point of Technolust! Projectionist not requiredEverybody loves a nice, big TV, but really, the big dream is to have a movie theater in your home. While I can't fit an IMAX screen in my living room, a nice projector would fit nicely. Specifically, I'm looking at the Epson Home Cinema 5030UB Projector. What would the Epson Home Cinema 5030UB provide me that I'm not getting now?At $2,600, it offers super bright projection with really good black levels. Ambient lighting should be no match for it, as people have even gotten it to work outside. The lens also offers horizontal and vertical shift, and you can manually zoom and focus it on surfaces. You can also adjusts its color and gray scale. And there's a THX preset, in case you didn't want to futz around with the settings too much. The projector can be mounted on the ceiling or floor, which makes it quite versatile for the home. There are plenty of inputs, which include two HDMI cables, VGA, and there is even a variant that offers wireless HDMI. It's got all the bells and whistles that I would require from a personal movie theater projector. The need for speedI'm not going to lie, I don't always obey the speed limit. That said, I also consider myself a safe driver and don't have any major accidents on my record. So, yeah, I'm a safe driver who sometimes likes to go a little fast (responsibly, of course). A nice radar/laser detector that would allow me to see when the popo is nearby would certainly could come in handy for situations where I'm feeling a little frisky on the freeway. One of the best ones that I've come across is the Escort Passport 9500ix Radar/Laser Detector, which offers a range of 8,202 feet. It also detects a wide variety of bands that include X, K, Ka, Ku, VG-2, and POP. The 9500ix also offers GPS, has regular firmware updates, and has voice alerts. So, what would the Epson Home Cinema 5030UB provide me that I'm not getting now?At $350, it is a little pricey, but if it could keep me from getting even one big ticket, with the associated rise in insurance costs and the point on my driving record, it would be worth the price of admission. |
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