| Newegg Daily Deals: Corsair CX500M PSU, Asus Maximus VII Hero Motherboard, and More! Posted: 19 May 2014 05:07 PM PDT |
| AT&T to Acquire DirectTV for $48.5 Billion Posted: 19 May 2014 03:53 PM PDT  Another media consolidation in the works
On Sunday AT&T agreed to purchase the satellite television operator DirectTV for $48.5 billion. In a conference call to investors, the multinational telecommunications company revealed that it would purchase DirectTV in a stock-and-cash transaction for $95 per share, the stock's closing price for the satellite company this past Friday. Commenting on the impending deal, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said, "This is a unique opportunity that will redefine the video entertainment industry and create a company able to offer new bundles and deliver content to consumers across multiple screens – mobile devices, TVs, laptops, cars, and even airplanes." "DirectTV is the best option for us because they have the premier brand in pay TV, the best content relationships, and a fast-growing Latin American business," Stephenson continued. "DirectTV is a great fit with AT&T and together we'll be able to enhance innovation and provide customers new competitive choices for what they want in mobile, video, and broadband services." The acquisition of DirectTV would bring with it the company's 20.3 million satellite TV customers to bolster AT&T's 5.7 million TV customers. Both companies have very little overlap which means that AT&T's access to consumers would significantly grow in the United States. The deal is the latest media consolidation for this year as Comcast plans to purchase Time Warner Cable. AT&T's purchase will need to be approved by the government before they can move forward. Follow Sean on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Build It: Radeon R9 290X in a Shoebox PC Posted: 19 May 2014 03:42 PM PDT We know the Radeon R9 290X can go head-to-head with a GTX Titan, but can this extra-long, hot-running GPU hang in a small form factor chassis like a Titan can? For a while now, we've considered doing another Build It with a "shoebox" case like the Silverstone Sugo SG08 we used previously. If you recall, we wedged Nvidia's GeForce GTX Titan into a mini-ITX system, and it provided a surprising amount of firepower to a system that was remarkably small. The Titan is able to hang in a tiny chassis due to Kepler's efficiency, making it highly effective in close quarters. Fast forward to the present, and AMD has its own powerful Radeon R9 290X, which performs about as well as a Titan but costs around nearly half the price. However, the R9 290X runs a bit hot under the collar, typically at 94 C, and is a half-inch longer than the Titan, as well. Though it's certainly competitive with Titan in benchmarks, we wondered whether the R9 290X can withstand the rigors of a small form factor build. To find out, we stuffed it into a new shoebox chassis from Cooler Master, and added a new Corsair closed-loop cooler designed specifically for small enclosures. We added a modular power supply from Seasonic that is also designed for SFF builds, so this should be one badass box 
Seeing Red Cooler Master sent us an Elite 120 Advanced Mini-ITX case a while back. It looked intriguing, but we had concerns about the lack of clearance underneath the power supply. The company seemingly read our minds when it produced the sequel, the Elite 130. This one has a recessed 120mm fan mount in the front, and you can slap a radiator on the back of it, with room to spare. There's so much room, in fact, that we decided to crank it to 11 and add a push-pull closed-loop CPU cooler, and Corsair's all-new H75 fit the bill. We'd used several of CM's other liquid coolers at this point, so we were familiar with their designs and we knew they worked well in these small enclosures. The H75 was also a new product as this issue went to press, so we were curious to test it for the first time. Since this is a high-end build with an Intel Core-i7 4770K CPU and a Z87 motherboard, we wanted an appropriately high-grade power supply. We chose Seasonic's "G-Series," which is a gold-rated model, and as you may know, Seasonic also makes well-regarded PSUs for Corsair, Antec, XFX, and NZXT. It also has modular cables, which is a must for a system of this size. Our motherboard is a Gigabyte Z87N-WIFI, which is fully loaded despite its size, and includes Bluetooth 4.0, dual Gigabit LAN, four USB 3.0 ports, dual-link DVI, and 802.11n Wi-Fi. All four of its SATA ports are SATA 6Gb/s, too. We also grabbed some low-profile Corsair Vengeance RAM, to stay out of the way of our cables. INGREDIENTS | | PART | Price | | Case | Cooler Master Elite 130 | $50 | | PSU | Seasonic G Series 550W | $85 (street) | | Mobo | Gigabyte Z87N-WIFI | $135 | | CPU | Intel Core i7-4770K | $325 (street) | | Cooler | Corsair Hydro H75 | $85 | | GPU | AMD Radeon R9 290X | $550 | | RAM | 2x 8GB Corsair Vengeance LP | $160 (street) | | SSD | Seagate 600 240GB | $190 (street) | | HDD | 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black | $90 | | Fans | Windows 8.1 64-bit OEM | $90 | | OS | Windows 7 Professional 64-bit | $140 | | Total | | $1,7 |
1. An Airtight Case If we'd gone with an air cooler in this build, we were pretty much stuck with low-profile units, because the design of the Elite 130 case puts the power supply right above the motherboard. Using a liquid cooler allows us to move the bulk of our CPU cooling system to the front of the case. Since the case's bundled 120mm intake fan sits in a recessed mount, there is enough space when it's removed to use both of the Corsair H75's fans. We just had to keep the tubes on the right-hand side of the case, out of the way of the video card. We needed a flashlight to properly guide the cooler's long bolts through the mounting holes, but installation was painless otherwise. 
2. If the Shoe Fits With its "shoebox" style Elite 130 chassis, Cooler Master has embraced builders who want a PC but don't want a stereotypical tower design. It's about 14.5 inches long, 7.5 inches tall, and 9 inches wide, which might sound roomy but is quite compact for all the gear we're stuffing inside of it. On the other hand, Silverstone's SG08 is about one inch smaller on every side, and after building inside that unit, we know we prefer something a little bigger, mainly to make cable routing easier. Cooler Master's case can also fit a full-size optical drive and power supply (and the 5.25-inch bay can be converted to fit a hard drive or a control panel). The Elite 130 also costs $50 instead of the SG08's $200, mostly because it doesn't have that case's custom 600W "bronze" PSU pre-installed. We figured we could get a decent power supply for less than $150, and we succeeded. The Elite 130 also offers several spots to mount SSDs and HDDs, giving us more leeway in how to arrange our cabling. 
3. All Tied Up Our power supply's SATA cables terminate at right angles, which is increasingly common these days. Normally this isn't a problem, but since we're using a 3.5-inch drive and a radiator with two fans, we couldn't attach the power supply cable to the SSD given the aforementioned cable angle, so we flipped the drive upside down. There are no screw holes on the top of an SSD, so we threaded zip ties through the holes on the side and bottom, and passed those through the holes in the case. There are no moving parts in an SSD, so there's no risk of data corruption in doing this. We chose a removable side panel for the mounting plate (pictured). 
4. Dressed to the R-Nines We've seen Cooler Master demonstrate this case with a Radeon HD 7990 video card installed, and that guy is 12 inches long. Since AMD's R9 290X is just 11 inches long, we figured there would be no surprises, and we were correct—installing it turned out to be the easiest part of the build. Granted, Seasonic deserves a lot of credit for endowing its PSU with highly flexible and flat PCI Express cables. Conventional rounded and braided PCIe cables would have been a different story. (For reference, the HD 7990 just barely fits; it touches the radiator's chamber, but there's no electricity going through the rad, so it won't cause a short.) The PCIe slot's retention clip is a little tough to reach once the card is installed, but a long screwdriver should do the trick. We threaded the front-panel audio cable underneath the card, since it was already running alongside it toward the rear of the case. 
5. Enabling Cabling Even with our low-profile cooling installed, you can see that there isn't a lot of room to party underneath the power supply. We had to connect pretty much all the cabling first, then slide in the PSU. The USB 3.0 cable was thankfully bendable enough, and the fan headers, SATA ports, and front-panel connectors are all positioned within easy reach. The system comes with a 60mm fan that installs in the back-right of the case, but we left it out because we were already using the motherboard's two fan headers for the Corsair H75. Since this video card ejects almost all of its heat outside of the case, and the power supply is drawing in air through a mesh grill in the top, we weren't worried about heat buildup. (The video card would ordinarily block this entire shot, so we took it out temporarily.) Since we had just two storage devices and one video card, we didn't expect things to get too messy. Still, we put a chrome grill on the H75's internal fan, to prevent snags. You can pick up a similar grill for a few bucks online or at your local computer store. 
6. Seasonic Boom You probably noticed the boxy area that extends from the back of the case. This compartment gives builders additional space to use standard-size power supplies. Our Seasonic unit is 160mm long and the box gave us plenty of room on the other end to manage its modular cables. The box is attached with four screws, so you take those out, slap the box on the back of the power supply, screw the box onto the power supply (using a different set of holes), then re-install the box on the back of the case. There's a large meshed grill above this area for ventilation, so the PSU went in upside-down to take advantage of that as an intake. This PSU is not fully modular, so the 24-pin and 8-pin power cables are permanently attached. We snaked those through first and tucked their spare length in the space in front of the CPU cooler. Because we had the SSD and HDD located close to each other, we were able to use just one SATA power cable to connect both storage devices. This PSU even comes with a short SATA power cable with two connectors on it, so it was like PB&J. 
Better Off Red? The system idled very quietly, partly because it has no case fans. We were able to get the Core i7-4770K up to a stable 4.4GHz just by increasing the Turbo clock ratio and increasing the core voltage in the UEFI. Mouse tracking in the UEFI was really laggy though, and keyboard navigation was a bit unclear, so we switched to "Classic" mode and used the keyboard instead. Prime95's CPU torture test got the CPU up to 80 C, but it ran much cooler during the other benchmarks, rarely going over 70 degrees. The Hydro H75 was also very quiet. When it's idling, you basically have to put your ear up against the front of the case to even hear air circulating through it. It doesn't integrate with Corsair's Link software, but there's something to be said for the simplicity of UEFI controls. It also makes the cabling simpler; just attach the fans to the bundled splitter cable, and attach the splitter to the CPU fan header. The pump plugs into any spare case fan header. The Radeon R9 290X hits 94 C at its stock "quiet mode" setting and begins to throttle the GPU's core clock, so there was no overclocking to be done. It wasn't any noisier than usual in this case since there's a large grill on the side that acts as an intake for cool exterior air. We let it loop the Heaven 4.0 benchmark overnight, and it was still running when we came back the next morning. When the GPU was cranked up to full speed, you could definitely hear it above the background noise of the office, but it wasn't bothersome. Overall, this system was surprisingly non-tedious to put together despite its compact dimensions and high-end parts. Its small size also made it easy to move around and fiddle with. All in all, we must say this is one killer little rig. If you're looking for a water-cooled, quiet-yet-extremely powerful SFF machine, you can't do much better than this build, unless you go with a bigger case and budget. Benchmarks | | ZERO POINT | | | Premiere Pro CS6 (sec) | 2,000 | 2,296 (-12.9%) | | Stitch.Efx 2.0 (sec) | 831 | 734 | | ProShow Producer 5.0 (sec) | 1,446 | 1,246 | | x264 HD 5.0 (fps) | 21.1 | 19 | | Batman: Arkham City (fps) | 76 | 76 | | 3DMark11 Extreme | 5,847 | 4,585 (-21.6%) | The zero-point machine compared here consists of a 3.2GHz Core i7-3930K and 16GB of Corsair DDR3/1600 on an Asus P9X79 Deluxe motherboard. It has a GeForce GTX 690, a Corsair Neutron GTX SSD, and 64-bit Windows 7 Professional. |
| GOG is Looking Into Ways to Offer Early Access Gaming Like Steam Posted: 19 May 2014 11:14 AM PDT  'Early Access' gaming is gaining momentum
Gamers on Steam's digital distribution platform have shown a willingness to embrace the Early Access model, which entails paying for a game before it's finished and being allowed to play beta or even alpha versions in return. The developer then uses those funds to complete the title, and may take into consideration feedback it's received from Early Access gamers. GOG is also looking into the Early Access business model, but there are some hurdles to figure out. "We're obviously looking at it," Marcin Iwinski, co-founder of CD Projekt, the company that owns GOG, told Eurogamer in an interview. "As you know our concept is different: first of all it's DRM-free and second it's curated. I'm often very lost in a lot of stores -- apps being my example today. Or even Steam. I don't know what's happening; there's hundreds of releases a month, and I really believe -- and our community's clearly showing that -- there is a place for a platform which is choosing the stuff." One of Iwinski's concerns is that of bad Early Access titles. By way of the business model, the developer pockets a significant amount of money right away, and if the game turns out lousy, well, tough luck -- you paid for it, you're stuck with it. In less extreme cases, a game might not be outright bad, but just fall short of expectations. An example of the former is Earth: Year 2066, which was booted off of Steam for misleading customers. Iwinski believes it was Valve that ultimately refunded customers, but what if GOG gets caught in a situation like that and doesn't have the funds to reimburse angry gamers? That's one of the things he wants to figure out. Nevertheless, Iwinski is still interested in seeing if Early Access could work at GOG. "We would definitely consider it, but again it would be the GOG way. It would have to be curated and, we believe -- we are always saying this openly -- we are responsible in front of the gamer for what they're buying on GOG," Iwinski added. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Ubisoft and IE Bring 'Assassin's Creed Pirates' to Web as Free-to-Play Browser Game Posted: 19 May 2014 10:28 AM PDT  First web-based Assassin's Creed game
Microsoft's Internet Explorer team partnered up with Ubisoft to bring the first ever Assassin's Creed title to the modern web with HTML5, 3D WebGL graphics, and JavaScript. In the web-based version of Assassin's Creed Pirates, you play as Alonzo Batilla, a young captain, who races his ship through the Caribbean seas while dodging mines and other hazards in search of treasure. It's more of a demo than a fully fleshed out game, which was developed using the Babylon.JS open source framework. The free-to-play title is a serviceable time killer when boredom hits, though more importantly, it gives a glimpse of what kind of 3D gaming is possible in your web browser, especially on touch-based systems. "Unfurl the sails and with a swipe of your finger on the virtual wheel, steer the ship through the deep blue Caribbean. Race your ship through an obstacle course and compete with pirates around the world to obtain the highest score," Microsoft explains in a blog post. "Each time the game is launched, a variation of the original scene is delivered – with changes in the weather, time of day and location – giving you a new experience each race. Now, pin the game to your Start screen, and have it handy for those few minutes you have to spare. With split-screen browsing, you can group Skype your friends and race your ship, simultaneously." While IE partnered with Ubisoft on this project, we found the game to run fine on Chrome and Firefox browsers, as well. If you want to give it a try, head over to Assassins Creed Pirates on the web and click "Play Demo." Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Intel's Broadwell Launch Likely to Miss Back-to-School Season, Will Ship for Holidays Posted: 19 May 2014 09:43 AM PDT  Expect Intel's Broadwell release in time for the holiday shopping season
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has gone on record saying his company's next-generation Broadwell processors will definitely ship in time to be put in PCs for the holiday shopping season, however, they're not likely to be available for the back-to-school shopping rush that will take place in late summer. Broadwell is the codename for Intel's 14nm die shrink of its Haswell microarchitecture. That makes Broadwell a "tick" in Intel's "tick-tock" schedule -- ticks are die shrinks and tocks represent a new processor microarchitecture. When Krzanich first demonstrated Broadwell at IDF last year, he said it would provide a 30 percent improvement in power use compared to Haswell parts from mid-2013. "I can guarantee for holiday, and not at the last second of holiday," Krzanich said in an interview with Reuters at the Maker Fair in San Mateo, California, over the weekend. "Back to school -- that's a tight one. Back to school you have to really have it on-shelf in July, August. That's going to be tough." While Intel would probably prefer to have Broadwell ready for the back-to-school season, the holiday shopping season is typically the much bigger one out of the two. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Tipsters Supposedly Reveal Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Specs and Prices Ahead of Launch Posted: 19 May 2014 07:13 AM PDT  If leaked information turn out to be true, the highest end Surface Pro 3 will cost $1,949
Microsoft is holding a press event tomorrow afternoon in New York City in which it's believed the company will unveil at least one new Surface product line. Speculation up to this point has been that a Surface Mini category to compete with similar sized tablets and slates in the Android and iOS space is imminent, though there's also been chatter of a Surface Pro 3 line. One site even claims to have learned specification and pricing information for Microsoft upcoming Surface Pro 3. The folks at Windows Phone Central didn't say where they're getting their information from, only that they've come across details of the new Surface Pro 3 products. According to WMP's info, there will be five versions consisting of the following baseline configurations: - Intel Core i3, 4GB RAM, 64GB storage: $799
- Intel Core i5, 4GB RAM, 128GB storage: $999
- Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB storage: $1,299
- Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 256GB storage: $1,549
- Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 512GB storage: $1,949
According to WMP, the Surface Pro 3 is expected to be a larger model than previous Surface devices, perhaps around 12 inches. This would explain why the site believes Microsoft is also launching new Type Covers, which will come in black, purple, cyan, and red (may be limited to Microsoft Stores). Stay tuned -- we'll have more information tomorrow! Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Google Reportedly Going After Twitch with $1 Billion Buyout Offer Posted: 19 May 2014 06:02 AM PDT  Twitch may have turned down a Microsoft offer to join forces with Google's YouTube service
To borrow a line from "The Social Network," a million dollars isn't cool. Do you know what's cool? A billion dollars. There are a lot of cool offers being made in the tech industry, and the latest involves Google reportedly offering to acquire Twitch for $1 billion. Twitch, which is a video game streaming service, is said to be more interested in partnering with Google than Microsoft (which is also interested in Twitch) because of the potential Google's YouTube division brings to the table. Reports of the acquisition are all over the web, though it was Variety that first broke the news after speaking with "sources familiar with the pact." According to Variety, this is an all-cash offer that, barring any last minute snags, is expected to be announced any time now. Should the deal go through, it would be the biggest in YouTube's history, which Google acquired in 2006 for $1.65 billion. In anticipation of the deal being finalized, YouTube is already preparing for U.S. regulators to challenge the acquisition based on anticompetitive concerns. YouTube serves up more than 6 billion hours of video per month to 1 billion users around the world. Twitch, which lets users upload and watch free, live streaming gameplay videos, claims to have more than 45 million monthly users, with more than 1 million members who upload videos each month. Twitch also has deals in place with several partners to distribute shows including GameSpot, Joystiq, and Destructoid. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Fake AV Vendors Go Mobile Posted: 19 May 2014 12:13 AM PDT 
Recently, one paid fake AV app notched up over 10,000 downloads There has been an alarming surge in malware targeting Android in recent years. According to one estimate, the platform accounts for 97 percent of total mobile malware. Under the circumstances, it makes sense to use an antivirus app — especially if you happen to use a lot of apps downloaded from sources other than the Play Store. While we'd love to tell you which AV apps to use, it is not something we're going to indulge in at this point. Instead, let us tell you about the type of AV apps you should definitely avoid. Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2014 is one AV app you should avoid at all costs. Why, you ask? Well, because it is not a real AV app, but useless (and possibly harmful) "fakeware" that was until recently available from the Play Store. What's more, it had a $3.99 asking price and had been downloaded over 10,000 times before being exposed? It was, in fact, not the only fake AV app trying to pass off as a legit product from Moscow-based AV vendor Kaspersky Labs' stable. As Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2014 was scaling Play Store popularity charts, a paid app called Kaspersky Mobile was trying to recreate its success in the Windows Phone Store. "The first fake app was discovered in Windows Phone Store. This in itself was unusual because scammers tend to target users of Android – via Google Play – due to the platform's popularity. The app in question went by the name of Kaspersky Mobile," Kaspersky said on its website. "The fact there is no such program in Kaspersky Lab's product line suggests the fraudsters didn't expect anyone to notice the discrepancy. Another interesting feature of this particular app was the fact users had to pay for it. This meant its creators immediately started making money without having to devise additional scams such as demanding payments to remove "malware" that had supposedly been detected on users' computers." "The second fake app imitating the Kaspersky Lab brand was for sale on Google Play and was called Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2014. Unlike the app for sale in Windows Phone Store, the creators of this fake app didn't even bother to add a simulation of a scanner – the functionality was limited to random series of statements appearing on top of an "official" logo." |
| Photos Show NSA Employees Installing 'Beacon Implants' in Routers Posted: 18 May 2014 11:43 PM PDT Router Unboxing, NSA Style The National Security Agency's (NSA) surreptitious surveillance activities are staggeringly alarming in their scope and size. The more you learn about them, the more you're filled with implacable repugnance. All the agency does, it seems, is try and figure out new ways to stalk people with its perennially askance gaze. But in case you are not done being disgusted and alarmed by the many NSA excesses exposed by Edward Snowden, journalist Glenn Greenwald, who broke the NSA surveillance story in 2013, has published a 272-page book that contains a number of "never-before-seen documents entrusted to him by Snowden himself." Among the fresh documents released with Greenwald's book, called No Place to Hide, is an article that sheds light on how the NSA's Tailored Access Operations (TAO) unit goes about planting backdoors in servers, routers and other such devices. According to Ars Technica, the said document, an article from a June 2010 internal newsletter, also includes a few ocular treats for its readers. One of the photographs included with the article shows NSA employees carefully unpacking a Cisco router from its shipping carton in order to install "beacon implants." 
"Here's how it works: shipments of computer network devices (servers, routers, etc,) being delivered to our targets throughout the world are intercepted," reads the article. "Next, they are redirected to a secret location where Tailored Access Operations/Access Operations (AO-S326) employees, with the support of the Remote Operations Center (S321), enable the installation of beacon implants directly into our targets' electronic devices. These devices are then re-packaged and placed back into transit to the original destination. All of this happens with the support of Intelligence Community partners and the technical wizards in TAO." Image Credit: Ars Technica Follow Pulkit on Google+ |
