Lenovo and Ashton Kutcher teamed up to unveil the OEM's first multimode Yoga Tablet during a livestream launch event this evening. Why Ashton Kutcher? Perhaps because he's played a variety of roles from portraying Steve Jobs to replacing Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men. If, then, you consider Kutcher a flexible actor, then it would make sense he be on hand to unveil the Yoga Tablet, which is also flexible.
Otherwise, we have no idea. In any event, the Yoga Tablet features three different modes -- one for holding it like an e-book reader, a tilt orientation, and a stand mode for viewing movies. As Lenovo explains it, the Yoga Tablet adapts to the way you want to use it rather than the other way around.
"Watching and discovering that people frequently use tablets in three main ways allowed us to break the mold on the current 'sea of sameness' designs, giving them a better way to read, browse, watch and interact with content," said Liu Jun, senior vice president and president, Lenovo Business Group, Lenovo. "As consumers' continue to demand innovative multimode designs we're thrilled to have Ashton Kutcher on board with us to help further develop the immersive and complementary hardware and rich content experience."
It has a cylindrical handle you can grip when it's in hold mode, which makes it easier to wield one-handed than a traditional tablet, Lenovo says. To go into stand mode, you simply rotate the side cylinder 90 degrees. Users can change the viewing angle from 110 degrees to 135 degrees.
Laying it down in tilt mode allows you to type directly on the tablet, play games, or surf the web with what Lenovo feels is a superior viewing angle.
The Yoga Tablet will come in 10-inch and 8-inch SKUs, each with a 1280x800 resolution. Both also boast a quad-core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of eMMC storage, microSD card slot, dual front-facing speakers, microphone with noise reduction, micro USB, 3.5mm audio jack, micro SIM slot, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, 5MP rear-facing camera, 1.6MP front-facing camera, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, and either a 6,000 mAh (8-inch) or 9,000 mAh (10-inch) battery.
Lenovo says the 8-inch version will be available starting October 30 for $249 exclusively at Best Buy; the 10-inch model will go for $299 at major retailers and directly from Lenovo online.
AMD and Nvidia go to war, Intel's Broadwell chipset gets delayed, Battlefield 4, and more!
The Maximum PC Staff returns for episode #212 of the No BS Podcast! This time around we discuss the AMD Radeon R9 290X as well as the increasingly potent GPU war between AMD and Nvidia. We also chat about Intel delaying its 14 nanometer Broadwell chipset, Battlefield 4, and the results of some performance testing we did with the game in the lab. Finally, we wrap things up by answering some reader questions and delivering our editor picks before topping it off with Gordons' rant.
Today's smartphones are essentially mini PCs that fit in the palm of your hand. The processing power and GPU capabilities of these devices, combined with the internal storage (and cloud storage) are nothing short of impressive when you stop and think about how compact these devices are. What really separates a smartphone from a PC, however, is that they're not upgradeable. Not yet, anyway. Motorola has plans to change that.
Motorola this week unveiled Project Ara, a free, open hardware platform for creating highly modular smartphones. The Google-owned company says it wants to do for hardware what Android has done for software -- create a third-party developer ecosystem and lower the barriers to entry.
A device inspired by Project Era would consist of an endoskeleton (the frame, if you will) and several modules. A module could be a processor, display, keyboard, extra battery, camera, or anything else. The idea is that you'd be able to swap out these modules for newer, faster ones as they come out, similar to popping in a new CPU in your desktop system.
Motorola's already been hard at work on Project Ara for over a year. More recently, the company was introduced to Dave Hakkens, creator of Phonebloks, and going forward they'll collaborate on a phone platform that is modular, open, and customizable.
We can't wait. In the meantime, check out the concept in more detail in this Phonebloks video:
We keep waiting for the day when solid state drives (SSDs) supplant mechanical hard disk drives (HDDs), and even though prices for NAND flash memory storage has dropped significantly in the past year or so, HDDS still offer more storage space for the dollar. Combined with notebook makers offering lower cost models, the demand for HDDs just keeps growing, and that's just fine by HGST.
Western Digital's subsidiary announced it has now shipped more than 100 million Travelstar Z Series 2.5-inch hard drives measuring 7mm thick. HGST is an active player in the thin HDD space, having also launched its new 2.5-inch 1TB Travelstar Z5K1000, supposedly the industry's fastest 7mm 5400 RPM HDD with "best-in-class shock robustness," a critical characteristic for Ultrabooks and other thin laptops.
"The 7.0 mm 2.5-inch mobile market continues to be a strategic space for HGST as evidenced by our record 100M shipments," said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing, HGST. "With the addition of our new 1TB Travelstar Z5K1000, HGST continues to offer the market's broadest 5400 and 7200 RPM 7.0 mm 2.5-inch hard drive portfolio to meet the needs of a diverse mobile computing and storage segment."
HGST points to an IHS iSuppli report in which the market research firm predicts the demand for thin HDDs will reach 133 million units by 2017. Meanwhile, the demand for thick 9.5mm drives is starting to wane and is forecasted to dip to 79 million in 2017.
We know that installing beta software can be scary. You never know what kinds of bugs might pop up or if stability will be an issue. At the same time, if you're wielding dual AMD graphics cards in a CrossFire configuration and play Battlefield 4, it's probably worth taking the risk on AMD's Catalyst 13.11 beta driver for Windows. This is the 7th beta release for this driver family, so any early bugs should have already been rooted out.
The sole benefit of installing Catalyst 13.11 beta 7 versus beta 6 is that it increases CrossFire scaling up to an additional 20 percent for BF4. That's a significant bump, and it's yours for the taking if you don't mind chancing beta software.
This latest release also incorporates all the performance boosts from previous beta releases, including:
Batman: Arkham Origins - improves performance up to 35 percent with MSAA 8x enabled
Total War: Rome 2 - improves performance up to 10 percent
Battlefield 3 - improves performance up to 10 percent
GRID 2 - improves performance up to 8.5 percent
DiRT Showdown - improves performance up to 10 percent
Formula 1 2013 - improves performance up to 8 percent
DiRT 3 - improves performance up to 7 percent
Sleeping Dogs - improves performance up to 5 percent
In addition, these beta releases add support for AMD's recently announced Radeon R9 290 and 290X graphics cards, add automatic AMD Eyefinity configuration, and automatic plug-and-play configuration of supported Ultra HD/4K tiled displays.
More info can be found in the Release Notes, along with links to download the driver to both desktop and mobile systems.
New consoles are coming out next month, but if you're a PC gamer, you have it pretty good these days. There are lots of good titles available along with several that are coming soon (Assassin's Creed IV, anyone?). Best of all, you don't need to spend a fortune on gaming hardware. Case in point is today's top deal featuring an Asus Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition (HD7770-2GD5) Graphics Card for $115 with free shipping (normally $130 - use coupon code EMCWXVR42; additional $15 mail-in-rebate). Asus says the its custom cooler lets you enjoy 11 percent greater air flow and a 14 percent quieter gaming environment. Be sure to add AMD's "Radeon Bronze Reward" for one free game to your cart, as well!
Yes folks, it's that time again: the time when Massively hops into the hiring channel and says, "Looking for more!" We're looking to hire fresh meat a new staff member and a set of freelancers for the site: a new multi-purpose columnist and West Coast freelancers.
Here's the skinny on us: Massively is Joystiq's geeky MMO cousin. We're owned by AOL; we're all paid, remote contractors; and we uphold a strict set of ethical standards you won't find among our rivals. We focus on high-quality writing with fair sourcing and a mix of news and features. We employ actual copyediting and editorial oversight, so you won't see trainwreck English in every headline. In short, we are the MMO site the other sites use as an RSS feed.
These positions would be an awesome chance to break into paid gaming journalism if you happen to have just the right blend of availability, excellent writing skills, and passion for the MMO genre. If that describes you, then read on and apply!
The free-to-play naval game Uncharted Waters Online drops anchor at a new publisher this fall, partnering with OGPlanet. All player accounts will be transferred to OGPlanet and the game will re-launch with a focus on expanding the North American playerbase. Current players will find all information pertaining to the service migration (such as thank you sales and current server shut down date) on the Netmarble site.
In UWO, players can relive and rewrite the history of the 15th Century, sailing the world in authentic period ships (like The English Frigate, Baltic Galleon, Spanish Carrack, and Turkish Galley) and participating in strategic battles. Whether starting as an Adventurer, a Merchant, or a Soldier, players amass wealth and power, discover new worlds, and even claim unoccupied islands. Get a taste of the game in the cinematic trailer below.
Just because you don't want to go toe-to-toe with your enemies doesn't mean you want to cast magic, and Aura Kingdom has you covered for non-magical ranged classes. The final classes revealed for the upcoming free-to-play fantasy game use gunpowder instead of incantations to inflict damage. Whether you prefer the dual pistols of the Gunslinger or the large cannon of the Grenadier, you can fire from afar and blast your opponents.
Check out these final two classes in the gallery and get the full scoop on them in the exclusive dev blogs below. Then watch all seven classes strut their stuff in the trailer at the end.
Our hands-on experience from PAX Prime let you know that the graphics of The Repopulation were pretty great, but now you can see for yourself. Above and Beyond Technologies has released a second alpha gameplay trailer that shows everything except the kitchen sink!
The video walks players through the natural environments of the dynamic world filled with detailed flora and fauna, with detours to show off player-built housing as well. But lest you think this sandbox is all serene, the second half blasts into combat footage. Get a glimpse of just about every available feature from character customization to resource harvesting to building to sieges in the trailer below.
Bree's the red Power Ranger. Justin's the what-does-the-fox-say fox. Together, they are way too old to trick or treat, but they're doing it anyway. Afterward, they're going to eat some candy, get a really good sugar high going, and record a podcast IN ALL CAPS. Wanna listen?
Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot an email to podcast@massively.com. We may just read your email on the air!
Get the podcast: [RSS] Add Massively Speaking to your RSS aggregator. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly. [iTunes] Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. [Stitcher] Follow the podcast on Stitcher Radio. Listen here on the page:
Remember when RIFTmerged servers recently? You might not have noticed, but it also eliminated the last server in the EU region flagged as for roleplaying. The players protested and tried to save that bastion of roleplaying, but the decision was made and the axe fell. So it was that the game's new server list was created, and everyone could rest easily knowing that this group of servers was a stable configuration.
According to Trion Worlds the addition of the new server will help to reduce lag and stabilize the cluster in response to increased demand on the servers. Many fans are quite upset that the game removed the last roleplaying server and then simply opened a new one, although it's unclear whether or not the population on that server would have matched the population expected on the new non-roleplaying server.
Guild Wars 2's third content update of the month is set to release right on schedule today as the Tower of Nightmares hits Tyria.
Players will join up with NPCs Marjory Delaqua and Kasmeer Meade to investigate the newest threat to Kessex Hills: the toxic krait and their powerful new ally. In addition to this new questing content, this update will also introduce rewards such as the Antitoxin Spray, a universal healing skill that cleanses players and nearby allies of poison, toxins, and other nasty effects.
Considering all of the exciting reveals of Neverwinter's second module, Shadowmantle, I think it's prudent to start with the unknowns. No, we don't have a specific date of release (although it will be "by the end of the year"). No, we don't know whether Druids or Warlocks or any other Dungeons and Dragons classes are in development for next year. And no, we can't tell whether there's a massive honey badger conspiracy in the city of Neverwinter.
With that said, there's plenty that Lead Designer Andy Velasquez had to reveal to us for this upcoming module. For starters, it's 100% free, just in case you were wondering. Sure, Cryptic will continue to run a robust store (and doesn't seem to have any inclination to rein in the lockbox invasion), but all of the content of Shadowmantle will be available to the entire playerbase on day one.
It's shaping up to be an even meatier update than Fury of the Faewild, believe it or not. The big star of Shadowmantle is the first new post-launch class: the Hunter Ranger. But this flexible fighter won't be hogging the entire spotlight; Neverwinter will also be adding a new zone, additional paragon paths, and a spiffy artifact skill system. So read on and prepare for the stampede of players rushing to be the next online Legolas-slash-Dizzt.
Fantasy MMOs are everywhere. We're surrounded by them. The biggest subscription MMO currently out is fantasy, most of its peers are fantasy, and the safe assumption with any new game is that it's going to be a fantasy game. The total number of elves across all games would outnumber the population of Luxembourg. And with so many games drawing upon the same basic tropes, anyone in the world could be forgiven for not immediately jumping on a new game simply because it promises orcs and elves.
Some games manage to take the fantasy conventions and push them quite far afield, either by viewing them through a separate cultural lens (Final Fantasy XIV and TERA spring to mind) or by moving the basic conventions in another direction (Allods Online and Guild Wars 2, for instance). But what does it take to get you into a fantasy MMO? Do you need a game that's so interesting you don't care about the setting? A truly original take on the setting? Some combination of both? Or do you just flee fantasy altogether?
Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Star Citizen smashed through the $24 million and $25 million crowdfunding barriers this week, unlocking public transportation and expanding the game's upcoming alpha test. Designs for Diablo III's upcoming Mystic artisan were revealed, and it was confirmed that the she will be part of the Reaper of Souls expansion. Path of Exile saw a remarkably smooth launch day, with only minor lag and just a few bugs for Steam users.
Blizzard may have run into yet another naming blunder with Heroes of the Storm, as this week it emerged that a Finnish RPG published in July bears the same name. Third-person MOBA SMITE re-introduced Chinese god Sun Wukong this week, compete with shapeshifting abilities, an extendable staff, and a flying cloud. Firefall developer Red 5 Studios revealed details of what players can expect to be released in the next few months, and its parent company The9 has signed a $24 million US investment deal that values the game at $100 million. And Arena of Heroes is offering fans the chance to win an Ouya console and controller in a competition that will end in just a few days.
It's been another great week of new information about Star Trek Online's upcoming new Featured Episode and Season Eight. We've learned that the new FE, which is set to be released on Thursday, October 31st, will be called Sphere of Influence. The title isn't a much of a surprise as most of us have been expecting that the new FE will carry Star Trek Online's story from the Iconian gate on New Romulus to the new content featuring a Dyson Sphere in Season Eight.
A new sponsorship system will be added to STO's reputation system, which should benefit those of us who like to play multiple alts. I've also had a chance to peruse the new Voth Command reputation faction on the Tribble test server and learn it contains some interesting new passive skills.
Finally, a lot more content has been released onto Tribble, including the new Solonae space adventure zone. There's also some great news for those who don't subscribe to STO but still want to test the new content: Tribble has been opened up to all players, not just subscribers! If you don't want to know anything about the new content, be warned: This column will have a few spoilers!
Amidst server merges and localized shutdowns, it's easy to forget for a bit that RIFT is still chugging along and providing new content for players. During the most recent official livestream event, the development team stopped in to provide some answers about what comes next for the game. Patch 2.5, the next major update, is going to be getting an official release date later this week. Not every element added with the update will be available immediately, with new bits doled out in week-sized chunks.
Among the highlights of 2.5 is a new sequence of underwater content that serves as a testbed for version 3.0, which will be making heavy use of underwater combat. A new raid and dungeon are also incoming; the new raid is meant to occupy the first tier of progression to help newer players catch up with the high end. There's also a promise of a new crafting profession for the game with 3.0, one that is not limited by the cash shop in any way. And that's only some of what's on the way, all of which should make RIFT players very happy to keep playing the game.
Star Citizen backers have once again propelled the space sim sandbox past a million dollar crowdfunding stretch goal barrier. The latest mark to fall is $25 million, and it will allow Cloud Imperium Games to greatly expand the title's upcoming alpha test.
CIG founder Chris Roberts offers more details in his latest Letter from the Chairman, which also outlines the game's $27 million stretch goal. Much like the previously achieved $23 million goal, the $27 million target will allow the dev team to expand alien spacecraft, only this time it's the Banu instead of the Xi'an.
"Even though we've fully funded the base game, every extra dollar helps to make the experience better," Roberts writes. "The content we talk about in these stretch goals isn't 'feature creep;' it's elements we've been building and planning that will be all that more impressive with additional resources. In essence, you're putting things we've already discussed for the future into development now."
Not all who level are lost; on the contrary, a lifetime membership and free copies of the Helm's Deep expansion are being offered as rewards for leveling Lord of the Rings Online characters.
LotRO's new leveling contest could get you one of 16 rewards if you put in the effort during this next month. Players who have a character that reaches level 60 or higher by November 10th will be entered into a drawing to possibly win a lifetime membership, a premium edition of Helm's Deep, or 500 Turbine Points.
Unless your character's at level 85 (which is an automatic contest entry right there), you'll have to advance at least one level between now and November 10th in the level 60-85 range to be entered into the drawing. The cool thing is that you will get a chance to win for every character on your account that achieves this.
Square wants you to know that Final Fantasy XIV's world transfer service is now available. There's an in-depth explanation post now appearing on the Lodestone, but the long and short of it is that if you fork over $18, you're pretty much set.
One thing to note is that while "multiple characters can be transferred from one world to another with a single use of this service, multiple characters from different worlds cannot be transferred to the same world, nor can multiple characters from a single world be transferred to separate worlds."
Got all that? Good. More info is available via the links below.
Diablo III's upcoming Reaper of Souls expansion will take players to a number of new locales across the world of Sanctum, such as the kingdom of Westmarch, the subject of Blizzard's latest dev post on the game's official site. Long-time Diablo fans probably know Westmarch best as the home of the Knights of Westmarch, the order from which Diablo II's Paladin hails, but there is much more to the realm's deep lore.
Westmarch's history is one -- as is expected in the Diablo universe -- steeped in blood and conquest. The kingdom was founded by the Zakarum zealot Rakkis after a crusade that drove him across the Twin Seas and over the bodies of legions of conquered foes, but there is a second, "secret" history to this place. Near Westmarch is a "sprawl of fetid marshes," littered with the ruins of an ancient Nephalem civilization said to hold the power to ward against angels and demons alike. It was to these ruins that the now-mortal Tyrael took the Black Soulstone, and it was there that the former archangel Malthael, at that point neither angel nor demon, stole the Black Soulstone from its hiding place. And that, of course, is where the tale of Reaper of Souls begins. If you're a lore junkie looking for all the details, check out the full post on Diablo III's official site.
Pirate101 is a strange beast. It is a family-friendly, free-to-play, colorful MMO with silly characters, simple design, and quirky environments. Adventuring in Pirate101 sometimes demands that you investigate the secrets of a city that literally sits on top of a flying whale or that you and your friends (a fencing crab, perhaps, or a sharpshooting fox) leap onto a flaming, flying pirate ship in order to punch sharks in the face and steal their treasure.
Hidden underneath the silliness, however, is a relatively deep turn-based strategy game designed to engage younger gamers while ensuring their adult counterparts have a good time. KingsIsle Entertainment isn't in the business of making kids games; instead, the studio strives to create titles that kids and parents can play together. The success of Pirate101 in its first year demonstrates that KingsIsle might just be on to something.
Let's take a little peek back on the last 12 months of Pirate101 to examine its major milestones.
PlanetSide 2 players have been asking for something that gives their favorite game a bit more persistence. Conquering territories is a lot of fun, but it can sometimes become repetitive and less satisfying when those territories simply turn over to the next empire that decides to take it. This is where the World Domination Series has stepped in to give the game and its loyal fanbase even more reason to log in and fight.
The World Domination Series hands out points to factions that hold on to an area for longer periods of time and will eventually give out points to individual players. Even though it just finished a first wave of in-game testing Sunday night, it will soon be accessible through a handy scorecard in-game and lists the daily, weekly, and seasonal scores as well as each empire's server- and game-wide performance. Each territory is worth a certain number of points, but holding a territory for longer periods of time is worth even more points. At the end of each week, rewards will be handed out. During the testing, the rewards consisted of experience boosts, but it'll be expanded later.
How does this new system affect the rest of the playerbase, and what's in store for it in the future? We asked Matt Higby, Creative Director for PlanetSide 2, to answer some these questions.
A while back, I got a wonderful letter from a reader whom I'll simply call L for these purposes. L was curious why, exactly, I cared about housing in WildStar, not out of a desire to belittle but out of a genuine curiosity. From his standpoint, housing adds nothing to the game and takes development time away from features that do add to the overall experience. His question was an attempt to see if he was missing some crucial point, something that made housing more important than, say, another raid at launch.
Partway through typing a response, I realized that this was a response that deserved more than just a letter; it deserved center stage because L is both right and wrong.
In the strictest sense, housing does take away from development time that could go toward other features. For some players it's just not that interesting or relevant. But at the same time it also opens up avenues of design and play that just don't exist without housing in place, which winds up making the game as a whole better even if you don't want to play housekeeper.
Just in time for Halloween, Prime World has introduced two new heroes to the MOBA that fit right into the witching-hour theme: Witch and Moira. While both ride a broom and are accompanied by an iconic black cat familiar, the two couldn't have more different beginnings; Witch had a life of privilege in a castle, whereas Moira had it rough from day one in a small Andornian village.
How do these two enchantresses play? Watch these two gameplay videos for a look at each hero's various talents and skills in battle and to glean some hints and tips for playing these newest additions.
Three modes, 18 hours of battery life
Upgradeable smartphones might become a reality
Demand for ultra-thin hard drives is growing
This is the driver you want for Battlefield 4
Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's 
