| Steam Summer Sale for 2014 Has Begun Posted: 19 Jun 2014 01:00 PM PDT  What team are you on?
Been wondering what to spend your hard-earned money on this summer? Well Valve's Steam Summer Sale 2014 has begun and your wallet will never be the same way again thanks to the various sales, daily sales and flash sales that will entice you from June 19 to June 30. However, with this year's summer sale, there is the Summer Adventure you can participate in that focuses on Valve's Steam trading cards that were implemented last year. While trying to decide whether or not to purchase games on the Daily or Flash sales, that can range from 10 percent to 85 percent off, Steam users will also earn points for crafting Team Badges. By crafting the Summer Sale 2014 badge users will earn points for the team they have been randomly sorted into. Each day the team that has earned the most points will have 30 random team members chosen who will get three games from their wishlist for free. The rest of the winning team's members will receive two bonus Summer Sale trading cards. But even if you are not one of the lucky 30, crafting the summer badge will still provide you with some rewards. Users will get one in-game item, one emoticon, one profile background, and a chance for a Team Token. Team members will also earn points by crafting game badges but the points gained will be significantly lower. Regular game badges will earn one point and the foil badges 10 while each Summer Adventure Badge will earn 10 points and the foil badge 100 points for the crafter's team. In order to collect all 10 of the Steam Adventure trading cards needed to craft the Summer Adventure badge, users can earn one card for each game badge created, receive one card per $10 USD spent (or equivalent monetary value), and get one card for every three votes they cast for the Community's Choice of which games should go on sale next. Some of the games on sale today include The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition for $3.99, Democracy 3 for $8.49, Tomb Raider for $9.99, and Half-Life 2, one of our 10 Best source Games, for $4.99. What games are you hoping to buy during the summer sale and what team are you on? Sound off in the comments below! Follow Sean on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| EVGA's SuperNOVA 1200 P2 Power Supply Available Now, Backed by 10-Year Warranty Posted: 19 Jun 2014 09:33 AM PDT  A high end PSU for Dream Machine caliber builds
Forget any talk of the post-PC era. If PCs were dead, companies like EVGA wouldn't be churning out beastly power supplies. Instead, EVGA just announced the immediate availability of its SuperNOVA 1200 P2 PSU, which comes hot on the heels of the company's recently introduced SuperNOVA 1600 G2 PSU. The 1200W model still offers a ton of wattage, plus other tantalizing features at a more friendly price point than its bigger brethren. Whereas the SuperNOVA 1600 G2 PSU carries an MSRP of $350, the SuperNOVA 1200 P2 can be had for $270 MSRP. That's still pricey for a PSU, but at the same time, you're getting an ultra-high end unit with a generous 10-year warranty, which itself adds some value to the package. The 1200 model is 80 Plus Platinum certified. It also has a fully modular design to make cable management a bit easier, along with a single +12V rail design (up to 99.9A), double ball bearing fan, and 100 percent Japanese capacitors, if you care about such things. You can grab the new PSU direct from EVGA. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| SSD Players Reportedly Preparing for a Price War Posted: 19 Jun 2014 09:15 AM PDT  Lower priced SSDs may be just around the corner
If you're not rocking a solid state drive in your system, there's a good chance the cost of entry is what's preventing an upgrade. Even after the various price drops in the past year or so -- SSDs are easily found for less than $0.50 per gigabyte these days -- they're still relatively expensive next to mechanical hard drives. Well, guess what? Word on the web is that SSD makers are preparing an aggressive price war. News and rumor site Digitimes says it's hearing from "industry sources" that major suppliers such as Micron, Intel, Kingston, SanDisk, and Samsung are looking to outgun one another. With so many big players involved, Digitimes says "fierce price competition" will be the result. The wheels are supposedly already in motion. For example, Micron is said to have reduced sales of its NAND flash chips to other companies in order to support its own brand Crucial SSDs with a goal to double SSD shipments sequentially. Kingston, meanwhile, bumped up its SSD shipments to 600,000 units a month and is competing with SanDisk and Samsung for the top spot in terms of volume. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| AMD Aims for 25 Times Boost in APU Energy Efficiency by 2020 Posted: 19 Jun 2014 08:54 AM PDT  Future APUs will feature a "dramatic" improvement in energy efficiency
According to AMD, there are 3 billion PCs and 30 million computer servers that use more than 2.5 percent of all energy consumed. With that in mind, AMD today went public with a goal to deliver a 25x improvement in the energy efficiency of its Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) by 2020. If AMD is able to reach its goal, it would represent a significant improvement over the 10x gain in energy efficiency it achieved during the past 6 years. "Creating differentiated low-power products is a key element of our business strategy, with an attending relentless focus on energy efficiency," AMD's Chief Technology Officer Mark Papermaster stated during a keynote at the China International Software and Information Service Fair conference in Dalain, China. "Through APU architectural enhancements and intelligent power efficient techniques, our customers can expect to see us dramatically improve the energy efficiency of our processors during the next several years. Setting a goal to improve the energy efficiency of our processors 25 times by 2020 is a measure of our commitment and confidence in our approach." AMD's Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) combines CPU and GPU compute cores and special purpose accelerators such as digital signal processors and video encoders all on the same chip, or APU. Energy is saved with this approach by eliminating connections between discrete chips, and by reducing computing cycles by treating the CPU and GPU as peers. Looking ahead, AMD is banking on gains in several different areas. These include inter-frame power gating, per-part adaptive voltage, voltage islands, further integration of system components, and other techniques still being developed. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Kill Switch in iPhone is Working, Microsoft and Google to Follow Suit Posted: 19 Jun 2014 08:20 AM PDT  iPhone thefts are down as a result of kill switch technology in iOS 7
One of the debates in the mobile phone industry is whether or not so-called kill switches can actually reduce smartphone theft. Well, early indications suggest that they do. Authorities in New York and San Francisco -- two locations where smartphone theft is a growing epidemic -- say they've seen a drop in iPhone robberies since Apple implemented its Activation Lock feature in iOS 7. Looking at data in the six months before and after Apple implemented the feature, police said iPhone theft in San Francisco dropped 38 percent. Those in London -- another place where smartphone theft happens far too often -- fell 24 percent. As for New York, robberies involving Apple products dropped 19 percent, and those involving grand larcenies went down 29 percent in the first five months of 2014 compared with the same time frame in 2013, The New York Times reports. Police have long believed that this type of antitheft technology would discourage crooks from stealing smartphones, and the data up to this point shows they're right. However, kill switch technology might not deserve all the credit. There are other factors at play, such as an increased effort on the part of law enforcement and tech companies to educate consumers on additional security measures to protect their handsets -- things like setting up passcodes. Regardless of the debate, the industry is moving forward with kill switches. As it stands, both Google and Microsoft have plans to implement antitheft technology into the next version of their respective mobile operating systems. Between the three platforms -- iOS, Android, and Windows Phone -- almost every new device will have a kill switch. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Watch Dogs Hacks Into Raptr’s Most-Played Games for May 2014 Posted: 19 Jun 2014 08:01 AM PDT  Dark Souls II rises through the ranks
There were quite a few games released in May 2014 with Wolfenstein: The New Order, Tropico 5, The Wolf Among Us: Episode 4, Final Fantasy III, and Watch Dogs debuting on the PC platform. However, Ubisoft's Watch Dogs was the only new title to break into Raptr's "most-played games on PC" list for May 2014. With over 22 million users, the gaming social network ranks the game by the total amount of time spent playing each title and comparing it to the entire time spent playing games by all users. As such, according to Raptr, League of Legends was number one with 17.05 percent share. LoL saw a 12 percent increase in week-on-week playtime due to the release of a new Champion, Braum, and the League of Legends Championship Series currently taking place. World of Warcraft was second with 7.74 percent share, Dota 2 was third (7.54 percent), Diablo III in fourth (5.56 percent), and Counter-Strike rounding out the top five games with 3.32 percent. Meanwhile, some interesting shifts occurred in Raptr's ranks with The Elder Scrolls Online, ranked eighth with 1.80 percent, seeing a 39 percent drop in playtime hours and a 22 percent decrease in the number of players. Warframe, the multiplayer sci-fi shooter from Digital Extremes, saw a 15 percent decrease in playtime in a month-on-month basis and 11 percent drop in players to end up rank 14. Dark Souls 2 made it into the top 20 for the first time by climbing up 12 spots to rank 11 with 1.60 percent share. While it has been available digitally since April 24, the retail versions were made available May 2. Watch Dogs, despite having been released at the end of the month on May 27, was able to break into the top 20 most-played PC games at rank 19 with 0.80 percent. However, it remains to be seen whether the recent launch issues will affect its momentum for the month of June. Image Credit: Raptr Follow Sean on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Roccat Rolls Out Military Themed Kone Pure Mouse and Sense Mousepad Posted: 19 Jun 2014 07:22 AM PDT  Military themed mice are ready for combat
Roccat's latest attempt to appeal to an American audience is to give its Kone Pure mouse and Sense mousepad military themed makeovers. The German manufacturer is offering its Kone Pure Military in three visual styles -- Camo Charge, Naval Storm, and Desert Strike. All three sport a 5,000 dpi Pro-Optic (R4) sensor and manually configurable lift control for lag-free, ultra-precise gaming. You'll also find Roccat's Easy-Shift[+] technology implemented into its Kone Pure Military mice. This allows you to switch over to a second set of commands for each button, minus the one you designate as the Easy-Shift[+] button. There are seven mouse buttons in all, along with a solid 2D Titan Wheel. Other features include a 1,000Hz polling rate, 1ms response time, 130ips max speed, 30G acceleration, 72Mhz Turbo Core V2 32-bit ARM-based MSU, 576kb of onboard memory, and a 1.8m braided cable. Roccat's Sense Military Mousepads come in the same color schemes as the mice and feature non-slip backing and plenty of room to roam around (400mm by 280mm). The Roccat Kone Pure Military Edition and Sense Military Edition are available now for $70 and $20, respectively. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Newegg Daily Deals: Antec 850W Modular Power Supply, Intel Core i7 4770K Haswell, and More! Posted: 19 Jun 2014 06:06 AM PDT |
