General Gaming Article |
- In Search of the Suite Spot: 3 Media Creation Packages Face Off
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 May Launch Ahead of Schedule
- Ice Cream Sandwich Shipping to Original Transformer Tablet "Soon," Asus Says
- It's Official: Wikipedia Will Black Out To Protest SOPA/PIPA
- Windows 8 To ARM Tablets: No Disabling Secure Boot For You!
- New IBM Technology Creates Bit Of Memory With Just 12 Atoms
- The Best Commenters Use Pen Names
- Oracle to Patch Dozens of Security Flaws Tomorrow
- Sonex 6010 Computer Case is $70 of "Just Pure Cool Looks," Spire Says
- Electronic Arts to Shun Steam with Mass Effect 3 Release
| In Search of the Suite Spot: 3 Media Creation Packages Face Off Posted: 16 Jan 2012 01:33 PM PST We test three "do-everything" packages for media creation and management to find the one that strikes the perfect balance of features, performance, and ease-of-useWhen friends or family members you haven't seen in years suddenly show up at your front door, the proper thing to do is invite them in, find out whom they're married to these days, and then reminisce about old times over a tall glass of Guinness. What you don't do is drag out a two-ton box full of photo albums and Super-8 tapes and bore your company to tears, like you might have done before the digital era drop-kicked that kind of coma-inducing behavior into obsolescence. That might still work for your computer-illiterate parents, but this is a different time, and you're much more likely to have your memories and adventures preserved as digital bits scattered all over your hard drive. In the back of your mind, you keep meaning to organize your digital photos, home movies, and even your epic music collection, and wouldn't it be rad to mash them together? After all, a home-brewed DVD with a custom soundtrack and visual effects would dazzle your friends and relatives in ways a simple photo album and unorganized video can't. This is where fully fledged media suites come into play. They not only help you organize and spice up your digital collection, they're also capable of converting music and videos into formats better suited for portable devices, like your handheld game player, smartphone, or tablet. Today's media suites are all about managing and manipulating your content so you can view it whenever, wherever, and however you want, and not simply burning to disc like you did in the 1990s. To help you choose the right one, we rounded up three of the biggest, most popular media suites around: CyberLink Media Suite 9 Ultra, Nero 11 Platinum, and Roxio Creator 2012 Pro. Each one brings a barrelful of tricks to the digital party, so we narrowed our focus to the tasks you're most likely to use over and over again. Specifically, we're testing for Blu-ray/DVD/3D playback, DVD/Blu-ray burning, basic video and photo editing chores, and transcoding. Is there a suite that stands head and shoulders above the others? Let's find out!
Media Suites ComparedComparing media suites isn't easy. Each of the three suites in this roundup comes with a laundry list of features and bullet points, and it really starts to get overwhelming when you consider that each of the individual programs included within each suite has its own list of selling points. This chart compares the three on a macro level, skipping over most of the features that apply to all three suites—like making DVD backups, for example—and focusing instead on differentiating features that actually matter to the end user. Are you rocking a touch screen? Roxio is the only one with a mode specifically for touch screens. Is overburning important to you? Nero does it; the others don't. This isn't by any stretch an all-inclusive list of features, but it does reveal some key differences that could play a part in your decision to drop a wad of cash on one suite over the other. Benchmarks
Nero 11 PlatinumHeavy-footed, clumsy, and slowTo say Nero's been around the block a time or two is like saying Brett Favre's played in a few football games: both are gross understatements. If you've been building computers for any length of time, or have ever purchased an optical recorder, then you've probably come across Nero in some shape or form. It's been around since 1997, back when Bill Clinton was still president, the Internet was an infant, and Windows 95 ruled the roost. Back then, there wasn't a need for media suites, and you would use Nero Burning ROM for burning copies of audio CDs, backing up data to optical discs, copying games, and, well, not much else. Computers and technology have changed significantly since then, and so has Nero, which is now a multifaceted suite of media tools with a price tag to match its robust feature-set. Nero 11 Platinum is Nero AG's (formerly Ahead Software) top-of-the-line software suite that retails for $110. It includes 10 individual programs of various utility, each of which fires up independently of the others. You would think that wielding so many individual programs would turn into an organizational nightmare, but Nero does a good job of wrangling them into a Welcome menu that lists each one in a sidebar. Navigating within each program is another story entirely.
Our biggest gripe with Nero is the steep learning curve, at least compared to the other suites in this roundup. That's too bad, because underneath the clunky controls, there's a lot you can do with Nero. We got our first taste of sour grapes when trying to edit movies with Nero Video. This brings up a Welcome screen with six tiles: Capture, Edit & Import, Create & Export, Projects, Tools, and Product Info. Logic dictates that we should start with the Edit & Import tile, but your only options are to Make Movie or Slide Show, Import from AVCHD Camera, Import AVCHD from Disc, and Import AVCHD from Hard Drive. That's fine if your video is AVCHD, but what if it isn't? If you choose one of the AVCHD import options, Nero freaks out and tells you it can't recognize your video because it's the wrong format. The video editor loads anyway, and once you dismiss the error message, you're free to drag-and-drop your non-AVCHD video into the editor and begin manipulating it. Alternately, you can choose the unintuitive option of Make Movie or Slide Show to edit your flicks. Yet another way to get to the same place is through the Create & Export tile, which brings up a window to import and then edit your videos. It's all very redundant and bound to confuse your mom and dad, who just want to add some pizazz to their vacation videos. Once you've stumbled through the front door and are finally able to edit home movies, Nero provides an assortment of tools to spruce up your clips, all of which are organized within a fairly feature-rich dashboard. New to Nero 11 is an Express Editing configuration that lets you sprinkle in video effects, clipart, text, speech bubbles, picture-in-picture effects, and add other snazzy doodads by dropping them into a storyboard format. You're given a generous amount to play with, such as 50 transition effects alone, made even more robust by being able to tweak each one's properties. Even with the Express Editing feature, it's still a bit more complicated than it needs to be, but if you take the time to learn the interface, it's possible to produce a prosumer-grade video.
Nero Recode offers a far easier UI to work with, and it's a piece of pie to convert your HD videos into mobile-friendly formats for viewing on the go. If you want to port video shot from your Flip camera over to your smartphone, for example, all you need to do is drag and plop the video into the indicated box and select the device you want to watch it on. There are preconfigured profiles for most major gadgets, including the iPad, iPod, iPhone, PlayStation 3, PSP, and Xbox 360, as well as a catch-all category simply called Mobile devices. It's curious Nero opted not to include profiles for some of the more popular Android devices, like the Xoom tablet and Galaxy smartphone, and it's even more quirky that you can't create your own profiles, though you can edit any of the existing ones and adjust the audio and video settings to suit your specific gear. More savvy video buffs will appreciate additional fine-grain control in the form of being able to choose the specific resizing method and deinterlace mode. While Nero doesn't make it obvious, it does support overburning, a sometimes buggy technology that allows for recording audio and data beyond a disc's rated capacity by filling in the lead-in area of a CD or DVD. Blu-ray playback and burning are also supported, but not 3D.
Some basic photo editing tools are included in Nero, with an emphasis on basic. Serious photographers will want to steer clear, but for things like cropping and removing freaky red eyes, it gets the job done. There are also a handful of effects to play with, for the 1 percent out there who actually use these gimmicks. Nero placed a much greater emphasis on organizing and sharing photos (and other media) than it did on manipulating them, and it appears to have been bitten by the app store bug. Nero Kwik Media is Nero's new front-end for rounding up all your photos, videos, music, playlists, slide shows, photo albums, and more. It's sort of a hyper version of Windows 7's Library feature, and you can add functionality by downloading plugins through Nero's Market. Most of the plugins are already included with the Platinum suite, but you'll want to grab Nero Kwik Faces so you can tag your pictures and later search through your photo library by friends and family. With a little more TLC to the UI, this could be the media suite to beat. As it stands, it's the one that gets beat.  CyberLink Media Suite 9 UltraThis all-in-one suite gets very little wrong and nearly everything rightCyberLink Media Suite 9 is available in three different flavors and subsequent price points: Centra ($70), Pro ($100), and Ultra ($130). Ultra is the only version that supports Blu-ray playback, which seems like a hefty premium, especially over the Centra package, but if watching Blu-ray discs is all you're after, CyberLink's PowerDVD 11 Ultra software sells for a more reasonable $100. PowerDVD 10 BD Express is included in CyberLink's flagship media suite reviewed here, in addition to tools for Blu-ray and DVD authoring, transcoding, photo and video editing, and data burning to a variety of formats and media, including BDXL discs.
Like Nero, CyberLink shoehorns nearly a dozen different programs into a single media suite, only CyberLink does a far superior job of organizing them within a front-end that creates the illusion it's all just one piece of software. CyberLink sometimes ruins the illusion by requiring individual updates for each program and making attempts to upsell many of them (lame!), but otherwise it offers a dexterous UI that bounces you from program to program without a hint of clumsiness. The main menu contains a row of labeled icons along the bottom: Movie, Video, Photo, Music, Data & Backup, Device, and Utilities. Clicking any of them instantly brings up a list of related tasks at your disposal. If you want to rip an audio CD, you'll find that option by clicking—you guessed it—Music, with additional links to Play Music, Make an Audio CD, Make an MP3 Disc, Make a WMA Disc, and Edit Audio. We found we couldn't rip directly to MP3, but had no problem converting to that format. Each option fires up the appropriate program and discards the main menu you were just in, and when you're finished fiddling around and exit a program, CyberLink shuttles you back to the main window. It's all very slick, and smooth to boot, which is surprising when you consider how big and heavy this media suite is (around 2.4GB). We were really awestruck by how insanely easy it is to convert videos to play on a plethora of portable devices and media players. CyberLink's MediaEspresso software is billed as an "ultra-fast universal media converter," and it's one of the cogs included in this wonderful machine. A MediaEspresso Windows gadget sits at the bottom‑right of the desktop in the shape of a coffee cup and changes shape depending on what portable device you plug into your PC. Attach an iPhone 4S, for example, and the coffee cup turns into an iPhone. More than just eye candy, MediaEspresso works behind the scenes, loading the appropriate profile for your gear—when you drag and drop a video you shot with your pocket camera into the widget, it immediately starts transcoding it into a format that works with your iPhone, Galaxy S II, Zune, or whatever. There are preconfigured profiles for more than 90 devices, as well as catch-all profiles in case your specific model isn't in MediaEspresso's database. It's a crapshoot when you start getting into the latest hardware: MediaEspresso has profiles for Asus's Transformer tablet and the HTC Flyer, but not Motorola's Droid X2 smartphone. Of course, you can always edit any of these profiles, or even create your own. CyberLink's video transcoding is not only super simple, it's also fast—and capable of cleaning up your media. There are a few video quality enhancements you can enable to improve the overall lighting, remove noise, and improve sharpness. In many cases, these optional enhancements result in better‑looking videos, though they can sometimes add significantly to the time it takes to transcode a video. And while CyberLink supports GPU acceleration, there are some notable omissions, like AMD's 5700 and 5800 series graphics cards.
Should you want to watch movies instead of transcode them, CyberLink's PowerDVD software is another capable tool. It supports Blu-ray, 3D, and HD video files, and comes with an assortment of gadgets for videophiles who like to spend as much time tinkering as they do consuming. You can play with the lighting, aspect ratio, and audio, and can upconvert movies or convert them to 3D on the fly. In 3D mode, you can adjust the 3D scene depth with a slider to reduce (or induce) eye fatigue, and there are options for both stereoscopic and anaglyph (red and cyan glasses) 3D modes. Very cool. We weren't quite as impressed with the process of editing and touching up photos. This is one of the few areas where CyberLink feels a little bit clunky, and before you can edit your snapshots, you first have to import them. Doing so brings up a new window and requires a few mouse clicks, and then you have to hit the Back button to see your imported photos. Right-clicking your photos gives you the option of editing them, and as is common with a jack-of-all-trades suite such as this one, CyberLink leaves a lot to be desired. You'll find only basic enhancement options like crop, red-eye removal, and some color‑fixing dials, along with a handful of special effects, if for some reason you really want to make your photo appear old and yellow (CyberLink calls it "Antique"). You can also touch up videos with similarly basic controls, as well as remove camera shake.
For editing movies, CyberLink includes the complete retail edition of PowerDirector 8 Ultra, which is both a blessing and a curse. There's a learning curve associated with full-featured editors, and this one is no exception, though it's nowhere near as complicated as something like Sony Vegas. Spend some time learning the interface, and it won't be long before you're dazzling friends and family with B-movie conversions of your home videos. What's left is mostly standard fare, things like burning disc images, creating disc labels, and backing up data. But these things, along with everything else, are generally better than the competition, and everything is extremely well organized. CyberLink is fast, flexible, and easy to use; just the way we like it.  Roxio Creator 2012 ProProof that a bundled photo editor doesn't have to suckThe way we see it, $130 is a big investment for software, even a fully loaded media suite. So once we resign ourselves to spending a jester's ransom for a chunk of computer code, the very last thing we want to see is a banner ad on the main screen proposing we drop another 40 bucks into the till, yet that's the first thing Roxio does as it tries to hawk a USB capture device for converting video from VHS, Hi8, and V8 to DVD. But hey, you'll save $10 off the list price, so there's that. With a little digging, we discovered you can remove this and other solicitations by heading to Tools > Preferences and unchecking the box that offers to "Display relevant production information and offers from Roxio."
First impression out of the way, Roxio quickly gets to work atoning for its money-grubbing introduction. The main menu isn't as sleek or slick as CyberLink's, but it's just as straightforward and easy to navigate. A total of seven frequent tasks appear on the home screen so you can jump right in and copy a disc, burn an audio CD, or edit video, among other things. On the left side of the menu are five additional tabs to choose from—Data/Copy, Video/Movies, Music/Audio, Photo, and Learning Center—and each one brings up a new set of options. Roxio is the only media suite in this roundup to give any serious consideration to photo editing. It's not nearly as robust as Photoshop, GIMP, or even lower-level consumer editors like Photoshop Elements, but where CyberLink and Nero offer only a bare-bones editor, the one built into Roxio offers quite the expansive toolset. The basics are there, like red-eye removal and color enhancements, but so is an advanced tool that's slightly similar to Photoshop's awesome spot healing brush for removing blemishes from photos. There's a wrinkle removal tool to help you stay one step ahead of father time, and another one for touching up scratches, although both of these are little more than glorified blur brushes. A second tab introduces more editing utensils, including a cloning tool we didn't expect to find. One of the most useful items is a customizable touch‑up brush with nearly a dozen different uses. You can stroke parts of your photo to turn it black and white or apply certain effects like lighten, darken, sharpen, soften, desaturate, and more. You're able to fine-tune each brush, as well, adjusting the size, edge fading, and transparency level. On top of it all, Roxio provides a plethora of special effects, clip art, frames, and other items so you can tap into your inner Rembrandt (or Picasso, as it were).
You can also convert 2D images into 3D in a variety of formats, including anaglyph (old-school blue-and-cyan glasses) and both side-by-side (Nvidia 3D Vision) and top/bottom stereoscopic configurations. What's more, Roxio affords a bit of fine-grain control over how the final image will look. Don't fret, tweaking a 3D image isn't as complicated as it sounds, at least not in Roxio. You start by opening a 2D image in Roxio's 3D Photo Creator. The photo you select is automatically converted to 3D, but before you save it, you can adjust its 3D effect using a graphical dial in the edit window. There's also a grayscale button, in case you find it easier to work your 3D mojo without color (this is just for editing—it won't save your photo in grayscale), and a crop tool. When you feel you've leveled up your 3D editing skills and are ready for a bigger challenge, Roxio provides a second method for creating 3D photos by letting you select independent images for both the left and right eye. In other words, it won't be long before you start driving your family nuts by insisting they hold a pose while you take multiple shots from different angles. Stay still, Bobby! Creating a DVD movie is just as easy, albeit harder to find because the option is not clearly labeled on the main menu. Whereas there's an option to "Create 3D Photos" on the Photo tab, there's no "Create 3D DVDs/Movies" under the Video/Movies tab. To get to it, you click "Create DVDs" and then you can select either 2D or 3D. There are two options for 3D movies, standard definition (DVD) and high definition (AVCHD Blu-ray). Both support anaglyph and a wide range of stereoscopic formats. Whether you're editing a 2D or 3D movie, the process is fairly straightforward and easy. Roxio uses a storyboard format in which you drag videos, photos, and music to wherever you want them to appear in your timeline. There's an option to stabilize video, and a whole bunch of special effects and transitions to spice things up. If you want to take the lazy route, another option is to have Roxio automatically edit your videos by choosing from a set of themes, but the results are often hokey.
Many of Roxio's abilities come with an advanced option, and that includes ripping music. Clicking Rip is the fastest way to get the job done, but selecting Rip-Advanced gives you access to higher bitrates. Roxio supports a medley of audio codecs, including AAC, AC3, FLAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, OGG, WAV, and WMA. Transcoding video is equally versatile and virtually dummy-proof. It's not quite as streamlined as CyberLink's program, but there are a plethora of device profiles to choose from, both by type (tablet, smartphone, etc.) and brand. Unfortunately, while you can edit any of these profiles, you can't save the changes or create custom ones. You can, however, pull source video from online sites like DailyMotion, YouTube, and, ahem, other types of Tube and convert them to your specific device. Roxio isn't as slick as CyberLink, and it lacks features like face tagging and overburning. But it's easy to use and is the only media suite of the bunch to include a photo editor that doesn't feel like an amped‑up version of MSPaint.  Roll Your OwnHow to create a media suite from free appsOur DIY mentality doesn't just apply to hardware and building PCs, it's applicable in the world of software, too. Each one of these full-fledged media suites will set you back a Benjamin or more, and one thing they all have in common is that each is really just a collection of individual programs served on a pricey platter—some more elegantly organized than others. If you're willing to give up certain premium features and don't mind managing multiple applications on your own, it's entirely possible to put together a low- or no-cost home‑brewed media suite of your own. Consider this your penny-pinching cheat sheet. Overcoming the Blu-ray Blues
Burn, Baby, Burn! Photo Finish For professional-level editing, GIMP (free, www.gimp.org), is a free, open-source alternative to the mega-version of Photoshop. It's arguably just as powerful and fleshed out, and you can do some amazing things in GIMP, once you've learned the interface.
Lights, Camera, Action! Rip It and Rock Out! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 May Launch Ahead of Schedule Posted: 16 Jan 2012 12:52 PM PST
Chinese website ChipHell.com is reporting that Nvidia is pulling back the GTX 680's release from March or April and will launch the card sometime in February. It's nothing more than a rumor at this point, though ChipHell forum member Napoleon has a pretty strong track record when it comes to leaked information, VR-Zone says. That said, the GTX 680 is supposed to offer similar performance to AMD's Radeon HD 7970, currently the fastest single GPU videocard on the planet. The card's clockspeed is rumored to be 780MHz, and is said to have 2GB of memory. It will be the first card based on Nvidia's 28nm "Kepler" architecture. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ice Cream Sandwich Shipping to Original Transformer Tablet "Soon," Asus Says Posted: 16 Jan 2012 12:31 PM PST
"When will ICS be available for the original Transformer? Can't wait any longer!," Sullivan asked Asus via Facebook, in which the tablet maker replied, "Soon. It's in the process of being approved by Google. Once that is done we will be able to push it out to you guys." Asus' responses drew cheers from other Transformer owners, who were happy to receive the updated info, even if it didn't mention a specific update. Word from Engadget is that it should be ready by February, though there's a chance it could ship sooner. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| It's Official: Wikipedia Will Black Out To Protest SOPA/PIPA Posted: 16 Jan 2012 11:31 AM PST The news coming out of Washington this weekend has been very, very encouraging for all the SOPA haters in the House; sponsor Lamar Smith said he was stripping the DNS blacklisting requirements from the bill, the White House issued a statement announcing it basically wouldn't support a lot of the SOPA provisions, and there are even rumors of SOPA's death floating around. Even still, that isn't stopping Wikipedia from blacking out on January 18th to protest SOPA and its Senate-based sister act, PIPA. Reddit, Destructoid, and a host of other sites will also be shutting their virtual doors that day.
Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's founder, confirmed the English version of Wikipedia will be blacked out from Midnight EST to Midnight EST on January 18. In follow-up tweets, Wales expressed doubt that SOPA was really, truly dead and said that "in any event, PIPA is going strong." He also said comScore placed the English version of Wikipedia's traffic at over 25 million hits a day. Here's a preview of what's to come; as Jimmy says, students better get their studying in early!
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| Windows 8 To ARM Tablets: No Disabling Secure Boot For You! Posted: 16 Jan 2012 11:04 AM PST
Remember that back in September, Microsoft said that it "Does not mandate or control the settings on PC firmware that control or enable secured boot from any operating system other than Windows." Apparently, Microsoft falls into the "Tablets aren't PCs" camp, because Computerworld UK's Glyn Moody found the following tidbit buried deep in the latest Windows 8 hardware requirements: MANDATORY: Enable/Disable Secure Boot. On non-ARM systems, it is required to implement the ability to disable Secure Boot via firmware setup. A physically present user must be allowed to disable Secure Boot via firmware setup without possession of Pkpriv. Programmatic disabling of Secure Boot either during Boot Services or after exiting EFI Boot Services MUST NOT be possible. Disabling Secure MUST NOT be possible on ARM systems. It's great that the ability to disable Secure Boot is being required for PCs, but if you want to dual-boot Android and Windows 8 on a tablet, it looks like you'll want to skip an ARM-powered device. Now, to be fair, a lot of tablets have locked bootloaders and won't let users play around with the OS. Is Microsoft wrong to lock down ARM tablets? Why do you think they've targeted ARM tablets specifically? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| New IBM Technology Creates Bit Of Memory With Just 12 Atoms Posted: 16 Jan 2012 10:21 AM PST Computers are getting smaller. Processors are getting smaller. Why shouldn't hard drives get smaller, too? Don't worry – IBM's working on it. Late last week, the company announced that its researchers had "successfully demonstrated the ability to store information in as few as 12 magnetic atoms." In comparison, it takes close to a million atoms for current HDDs to store a bit. Apparently, being dense is a good thing! We'd paraphrase the technology for you, but we'd probably butcher the technical details, so here's a description straight from the horse's mouth: The scientists at IBM Research used a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to atomically engineer a grouping of twelve antiferromagnetically coupled atoms that stored a bit of data for hours at low temperatures. Taking advantage of their inherent alternating magnetic spin directions, they demonstrated the ability to pack adjacent magnetic bits much closer together than was previously possible. This greatly increased the magnetic storage density without disrupting the state of neighboring bits. If your head isn't spinning yet, IBM's press release has even more details. Or you could just watch the video above, which outlines the technology pretty effectively. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Best Commenters Use Pen Names Posted: 16 Jan 2012 09:59 AM PST
Disqus crunched the numbers and found that 61 percent of comments from pseudonymed folks receive "positive quality signals," such as thumbs-ups and Likes from other readers, VentureBeat reports. Comparatively, commenters using their real names receive "positive quality signals" just 51 percent of the time, while those who hide behind the veil of anonymity only earn the respect of their peers on a relatively paltry 34 percent of posts. People with pen names don't just leave quality comments, either – Disqus claims they are much more active commenters, period. ""The average commenter using a pseudonym contributed 6.5 times more than anonymous commenters and 4.7 times more than commenters identifying with Facebook," the company said. Any well-articulated, "positive quality signal"-attracting thoughts you'd like to share? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Oracle to Patch Dozens of Security Flaws Tomorrow Posted: 16 Jan 2012 09:41 AM PST
"Due to the threat posed by a successful attack, Oracle strongly recommends that customers apply Critical Patch Update fixes as soon as possible," Oracle said. Over a dozen of the existing vulnerabilities have the potential to be exploited remotely over a network without any kind of authentication, such as a username and password. Out of all the products being patched, MySQL will receive the most fixes at 27, while vulnerabilities affecting Sun Products Suite are deemed the most severe with the highest common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) rating of 7.8. Looking ahead, Oracle will roll out additional Critical Patch Updates on April 17, July 17, and October 16 later this year. For Oracle Java SE, Critical Patch Updates are scheduled for February 14, June 12, and October 16. Image Credit: Flickr (Peter Kaminski) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sonex 6010 Computer Case is $70 of "Just Pure Cool Looks," Spire Says Posted: 16 Jan 2012 09:20 AM PST
The case is made of SECC (Steel, Electrogalvanized, ColdRolled, Coil) 0.6mm material, a lighter weight alternative to aluminum over standard steel (aluminum is the lightest and great at dissipating heat, but also the most costly). It comes with 120mm blue LED fans pre-installed on the front (intake) and rear (exhaust), with two additional 120mm fan mounts on the side panel. Dust filters cover all meshed areas. In terms of getting inside and building a system, thumb screws hold the side panels in place, and there's a CPU cutout for easy heatsink installation. As has become standard, the Sonex 6010 also features rubberized water cooling in/outlets in the rear. The front panel supports two USB 2.0 ports (no love for USB 3.0), as well as AC'97 and HD audio connectors. Image Credit: Spire | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Electronic Arts to Shun Steam with Mass Effect 3 Release Posted: 16 Jan 2012 08:57 AM PST
"During initial release Mass Effect 3 will be available on Origin and a number of other 3rd party digital retailers, but not on Steam at this time. Steam has adopted a set of restrictive terms of service which limit how developers interact with customers to deliver patches and other downloadable content," Priestly explained as part of a Mass Effect 3 Q&A session on Bioware's forum. "We are intent on providing Mass Effect to players with the best possible experience no matter where they purchase or play their game, and are happy to partner with any download service that does not restrict our ability to connect directly with our consumers." As mentioned, Origin will be required for the PC version of Mass Effect 3, both physical and digital, according to Priestly. Acknowledging this could be cause for concern by those who might view Origin as spyware, Priestly set out to clear the air. "Origin is not spyware, and does not use or install spyware on user's machines," Priestly said. "In order to allow Origin to install games and their patches for everyone to use, Origin implements a permission change that results in Windows, not Origin, reviewing the filenames in the ProgramData/Origin folder. This is an ordinary Windows function, not an information-gathering process." Keeping Mass Effect 3 away from Steam is the latest in an ongoing dispute between EA and Valve over DLC. It began when Valve yanked Crysis 2 out of Steam after it learned that Crytek has an agreement with another download service that violates new rules from Steam. EA insists the dispute has never been about Origin versus Steam, but it's all semantics when the end result inconveniences gamers either way. Image Credit: EA |
The world of technology is really a series of chess matches between various rivals, each one making moves based on a playing board created by the other, all in an attempt to gain an edge and, if possible, declare checkmate (without running afoul of antitrust laws, of course). Two of the bigger participants are AMD and Nvidia, and to counter AMD's recent Radeon HD 7000 series launch, Nvidia may opt to release its upcoming GeForce GTX 680 graphics card a month early.
Here's a bit of good news for all you original Eee Pad Transformer tablet PC owners. Android 4.0, otherwise known as Ice Cream Sandwich, is ready to deploy, all it needs is a green light from Google. Asus North America confirmed as much in a Facebook post in response to a question posed by Transformer owner Michael Sullivan, who like many others can't wait to bite into Google's most delicious Android build to date.
Way back in September, a tech geek brouhaha flared up when Linux fans pointed out that 
What do Maximum PC readers like I Jedi, big_montana and Ghok have in common with Mark Twain, Bono and Jackie Chan? They all use pseudonyms. While that might not seem like a big deal – this is the Internet, after all – a recent study by Disqus, empowerer of comments, claims that folks who rock pseudonyms have way better stuff to say than the anonymous horde and jerks like me who use their true name.
Enterprise hardware and software firm Oracle has a pretty big 'Patch Tuesday' of its own lined up for tomorrow. A so-called "Critical Patch Update" scheduled to roll out on January 17, 2012 is the first of the year for Oracle and will include 78 new security vulnerability fixes across hundreds of Oracle products, some of them affecting multiple products, the company stated in a pre-release announcement.
Spire set out to release a "versatile gamer chassis" and 
BioWare's Community Coordinator, Chris Priestly, is letting Mass Effect fans know that if they plan on helping Commander Shepard save the planet from Reapers, they'll have to go about it without using their Steam accounts. Mass Effect 3 will require interacting with EA's Origin platform and will be available for purchase through Origin and select digital download services not owned by Valve.| You are subscribed to email updates from Maximum PC - All Articles To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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