| Valve Hands Out Game Soundtracks to Celebrate Public Launch of Steam Music Posted: 25 Sep 2014 12:14 PM PDT  Out of beta and into the public spotlight
The folks at Valve announced that its Steam Music Player is now out of beta and is available for all Steam members to enjoy. Through the Steam Music Player, you can listen to your own collection of tunes while playing games -- just use the Shift+Tab overlay. This eliminates the need to exit a full screen session or otherwise switch over to load up your songs or to control playback options. "Point Steam to the MP3s on your computer, then browse your collection of albums and artists. You'll also find your Steam Soundtracks DLC in your Steam Music library when the associated base game is installed," Valve explained in a blog post. "Listen to albums, queue up mixes, and create playlists you love, right in your Steam library. Best of all, it's all available right within the Steam Overlay, so you can control playback without leaving your game. The Steam Music library and player consist of all the basics you need to enjoy your music without switching tasks." To get you going, Valve is making several game soundtracks available for free, provided you own the base game. And if you don't, you can buy the corresponding game for 75 percent off. Games included in the promotion are Half-Life, Half-Life Two, Half-Life Two: Episode One, Half-Life Two: Episode 2, Portal, and Portal 2. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Acer Gives Conan O' Brian S7 Following Unflattering Skit Posted: 25 Sep 2014 11:52 AM PDT Mockery is the sincerest form of flattery? Maybe not in this case We like some of Acer's products, most notable the Aspire S7 which we awarded a 9 Kick Ass in our review. Still, the company recently made some headlines for being perceived as old, cheap, and out of touch on Conan O'Brien's late night talk show. The video below shows Conan's mock Acer keynote conference, which was done shortly after Apple's 9/9/14 event. See Conan's Acer keynote conference spoof above. In the sketch, the show makes fun of Acer's products stating that they offer "free YouTube" and a built-in pill counter among other things. While the comedic jab is definitely unfair, we thought it was hilarious just the same and asked Acer what they thought of it. While our rep stated that the skit certainly wasn't flattering and pointed out that its conferences actually look more like this, they did admit that it was funny and weren't too bothered by it considering Conan has a history of making fun of big tech companies, such as Apple and Samsung. In response, Acer sent Conan and his staff an Aspire S7 for him and his crew to try. The company doesn't expect Conan to do anything with it, but hopes that he and his team will at least view the company in a different light. What did you think of the video? Let us know in the comments below! |
| Asus ROG Introduces G551 and G771 Gaming Laptops Posted: 25 Sep 2014 11:49 AM PDT  Gaming on the go
Asus has been winning over gamers with its Republic of Gamers (ROG) line of laptops, some of which sport aggressive designs. Others, like the new Asus G551 and G771 gaming laptops, feature a more traditional aesthetic with an emphasis on quiet cooling -- Asus describes the scheme as an "almost-silent cooling system" that efficiently removes heat with minimal fan noise. Both laptops feature a matte-black brushed aluminum finish with red diamond-cut edges and an illuminated ROG logo on the lid. The G551 boasts a 15.6-inch with up to an IPS panel and 1920x1080, while the G771 is a 17.3-inch laptop, also offered with up to an IPS panel and 1920x1080 resolution. Other options include up to 16GB of DDR3L-1600 RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M GPU, storage options of 750GB/1TB/1.5TB HDDs or 256GB/512GB SSDs, 802.11n Wi-Fi, HDMI output, WiDi support, three USB 3.0 ports on the G551 and four USB 3.0 ports on the G771, memory card reader, and various other amenities. No word yet on when the laptops will be available or for how much. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Amazon App Store Now Serving Dozens of Android Apps Worth Nearly $175 for Free Posted: 25 Sep 2014 11:21 AM PDT  Snag a $59 dictionary app for free
Every so often, Amazon offers up a collection of paid apps for free, not including its daily free app. Back in July, Amazon served up 29 apps worth over $100 for free, and this time around, Amazon is giving away over two dozen Android apps worth almost $175. The highest priced app of the bunch is Merriam-Webster's Third New International Pro from Paragon Software Group. It normally sells for $59, but can be had for free for a limited time. Interestingly, Amazon advertises the promotion as being worth "over $135," though when we added them up individually, the tally came closer to $175. That qualifies as "over $135," but at the expense of Amazon underselling the deal. In any event, you'll find a wide assortment of apps among the collection of 27 titles, everything from games like Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II (normally $4.99) to productivity apps like OfficeSuite Professional 7 (normally $14.95). Swype Keyboard (normally $4.99) and SketchBook Pro (normally $4.99) are a couple of other notable inclusions. The deal is going on now and runs until Saturday, September 27. You can check them out by clicking here. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Newegg Daily Deals: Asus GeForce GTX 780 Graphics Card, Intel Core i5 4690K, and More! Posted: 25 Sep 2014 10:04 AM PDT |
| Apple Apologizes for Cellular Killing iOS 8.0.1 Update, Suggests Rolling Back to iOS 8 Posted: 25 Sep 2014 09:44 AM PDT  What else can go wrong with the iPhone 6 launch?
We know you don't come here to read Apple news, but when things are this bad in Cupertino, it's pretty tough to ignore -- it's like watching a train wreck and then trying not to tell anyone about it. The train in this case is Apple and the wreck is its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus launch. The latest in the ongoing saga has Apple apologizing for its problematic iOS 8.0.1 update, which has caused some users to lose cellular service and Touch ID functionality. The iOS 8.0.1 software is the first update to iOS 8 and was intended to fix a bunch of issues with Apple's mobile OS. However, complaints quickly started rolling in after the update was released with users saying their iPhones would no longer connect to a cellular network and that Touch ID was no longer letting them unlock their handsets with their fingerprints. Apparently the issues only affect iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus owners. Apple has since pulled the update offline and suggested a workaround, that being a rollback to iOS 8 through iTunes. In the meantime, Apple said it's preparing iOS 8.0.2 with a fix for the issue and plans to release it "in the next few days." "We aplogize for the great inconvenience experienced by users," an Apple spokesperson told NBCNews. Chalk this up as yet another misfire in what's been the most anticipated (and botched) iPhone launch ever. Apple fumbled the launch from the onset with a live stream event plagued with technical issues. The feed kept cutting out, and when it would play, there would sometimes be an audio feed of a Chinese translation overpowering the keynote. The frustration for anxious would-be iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus owners continued when they stayed up late to place pre-orders at 12:01AM Pacific. Most visitors to Apple's online store had to wait until around 12:30AM Pacific before the site went live, and by then, several iPhone options were unavailable. 
Shipping times quickly increased from 7-10 business days to 3-4 weeks, and as iPhone 6 Plus buyers wait at home for their devices to arrive, the Internet became filled with reports of the phablet-sized handset being prone to warping just by having it in a pants pocket. It's too early to tell if the issue is being overblown, though at minimum, the iPhone 6 Plus definitely has a bit of uncomfortable flex to it. Throw in the iOS 8.0.1 issue and you have to wonder what else could possibly go wrong. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Linux Bash Bug Poses Security Threat, Gets Compared to Heartbleed Posted: 25 Sep 2014 08:30 AM PDT  Here we go again
Security researchers have discovered a major security bug in the Unix shell known as Bash (Bourne-again shell), one of the most commonly used utilities in Linux and one that could potentially affect a great number of Unix and Linux web servers. By exploiting the newly discovered vulnerability, an attacker can take complete control of the system and/or execute shell commands that could make a server vulnerable to even more threats. The bug is such that an attacker would need a high level of system access to do any real damage, though according to Red Hat, remote attacks are possible through "certain services and applications." Patches are needed to fill in the security hole and eradicate the bug, but since it's been present in enterprise Linux software for so long, that's no easy task, The Verge reports. That said, Red Hat, Fedora, Ubuntu, and others have already released patches, and Apple is working on a fix for Mac OS X. Some security experts, including Errata Security's Robert David Graham, have compared the Bash bug to Heartbleed. Graham went so far as to say it's "probably a bigger deal than Heartbleed" because of all the software out there that's vulnerable -- cataloging it all would be a nightmare, if not an impossible task. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
