MMOGaming News

MMOGaming News


Tree of Savior: More than 90,000 Registerants for Today's CBT

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Tree of Savior: More than 90,000 Registerants for Today's CBT


Tree of Savior finally starts the first CBT today,and it's reported that there are more than 90,000 registrants for Tree of Savior CBT. However, only 3,000 will be selected as tester. And here are the 4th FAQ from Tree of Savior GM Lesley and more details about the CBT registrants.

The Flock - The First asymmetric Horror Online Game Preview

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The Flock - The First asymmetric Horror Online Game Preview


Hello everyone today we will check the new online game The Flock,a completly new and Unique game for all fans of Horror games.The Flock is a thrilling asymmetrical online multiplayer game.

Hungry Nerds: Test Your Tossing Skills by Feeding Nerds

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Hungry Nerds: Test Your Tossing Skills by Feeding Nerds


Feeding nerds is the ultimate way to waste time and put off doing more important things. Tough it sounds a little stupid, the gameplay is interesting.

Echo of Soul Second Interview Shares Exclusive Insights

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Echo of Soul Second Interview Shares Exclusive Insights


When talking about the traction of a new MMO, what might you think of? In a new interview video, the Echo of Soul team says that they're going to make the game "uniting MMORPGs and mobile games" while making it appealing for both Eastern and Western gamers

Swap Heroes 2 Brings More Cute Tactical RPG Battles

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Swap Heroes 2 Brings More Cute Tactical RPG Battles


Solo game creator Chris Savory has revealed that Swap Heroes 2 will be coming to iOS and Android in February. There's no big announcement anywhere, but he's been posting screenshots on his Twitter account, saying "Swap Heroes 2 coming in February to #ios and #android."

Ubisoft Launches 2015 Graduate Program

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Ubisoft Launches 2015 Graduate Program


Students have until January 31 to apply for the second Ubisoft Graduate Program, a two year scheme for those who want a career in this exciting industry we call games. "The Ubisoft Graduate Program is a two-year custom-made experience designed to accelerate access to a career in videogames.

Taiwan Studio to Reveal New MMORPG Runewaker

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Taiwan Studio to Reveal New MMORPG Runewaker


Runewaker, known in the English gaming market for online games such as Runes of Magic and Dragon's Prophet, is set to unveil its third product next week

Animated MMO ELOA Is to Kick Off Open Beta on Jan 20 with Teaser Trailer

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Animated MMO ELOA Is to Kick Off Open Beta on Jan 20 with Teaser Trailer


Korean ARPG Elite Lord of Alliance announced to kick off Open Beta on January 20th, meanwhile, the develop team released a introductory video of E.L.O.A.

Revelation CBT is Now Live, Last 3 CBT Keys for You

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Revelation CBT is Now Live, Last 3 CBT Keys for You


If you're waiting for the closed beta test of Revelation, then you must be as excited as me. After a long time waiting, NetEase's latest 3D fantasy MMORPG Revelation finally starts its closed beta test on Jan.15th at 14:00(GMT+8)

Check Out What a Party at 'Minecraft' Creator Notch's Mega-Mansion Looks Like

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Check Out What a Party at 'Minecraft' Creator Notch's Mega-Mansion Looks Like


Late last month we posted the insane news of what the multi-billionaire creator of Minecraft has been up to since selling to Microsoft. The almost unbelievable answer is apparently "Notch is busy outbidding celebrities for trophy properties in Los Angeles." At the time, photos of the house (It almost seems inappropriate to simply refer to it as a "house") were pretty sparse, but since then Notch has thrown a housewarming party offering more candid looks at the candy room, wine cellar, chrome machine guns, and more.

Bravely Archive: D’s Report – New Trailer Popped Up Eailer

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Bravely Archive: D's Report – New Trailer Popped Up Eailer


The latest game trailer for Bravely Archive: D's report, a new mobile game developed by Square Enix, has popped up now. Let's enjoy it right now.

Heroes of the Storm: New Skins and Mounts Coming Soon

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Heroes of the Storm: New Skins and Mounts Coming Soon


Blizzard has just launched their new MOBA Heroes of the Storm first CBT, did you try it yesterday, heroes? How did you feel about this closed beta? Could you share you experience to other MMOsiters? Besides, Blizzard also posted a preview of its new skins and mounts plan, including the new hero Thrall's skin! Let's check them out.

Foursaken Media's Action-RPG 'Phantom Rift' Discounted to $0.99

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Foursaken Media's Action-RPG 'Phantom Rift' Discounted to $0.99


Foursaken Media tackled the deficiency in games inspired by Mega Man Battle Network last year with their action-RPG Phantom Rift. Haven't gotten a chance to check it out yet? Well, now's as good a time as any, as the game is on sale for $0.99.

Black Desert Plans to Start Guild War Seige on Jan 17th

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Black Desert Plans to Start Guild War Seige on Jan 17th


Pearl Abyss today announced that the first occupation war of Black Desert Korean Open Beta is to kick off on January 17th on a single server as a test run.

Black Desert: Ep.3 Tips Ip Bypasses and More

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Black Desert: Ep.3 Tips Ip Bypasses and More


After watching the Tamer trailer the new class coming. I decided yep I'm starting Purefate over as that.

MMORPG Reviews

MMORPG Reviews


Summoner’s Legion Goes Alpha

Posted: 15 Jan 2015 12:49 AM PST

R2Games have only just announced their 1st browser CCG Summoner's Legion, which is already available to everyone who wants to check it out in open alpha stage. Once the testing is done, servers will be completely wiped from all account and character information in order to prepare the collectible card game for its open beta […]

The post Summoner’s Legion Goes Alpha appeared first on MMORPG Reviews.

Hands-on with Heroes of the Banner

Posted: 14 Jan 2015 08:21 AM PST

RATING: Pros: Cute graphics, feature packed content, simple and easy to use interface. Cons: Terrible quality of sound, terrible spelling and translation errors, inability to interact with your own towers during battle. Game: 6 Graphics: 6 Sound 5 Overall: 6 We got the chance to play R2Games' tower defence new game, Heroes of the Banner, […]

The post Hands-on with Heroes of the Banner appeared first on MMORPG Reviews.

Nosgoth Will Enter Open Beta Next Week

Posted: 14 Jan 2015 07:27 AM PST

Psyonix and Square Enix have just communicated the official open beta start for Nosgoth: the F2P MMO set in the Legacy of Kain universe is supposed to be available to everyone worldwide starting 01/21/2015 at 6 p.m. GMT/ 7 p.m. EST. Focusing on asymmetric combat, the game allows players to either choose the ranged human […]

The post Nosgoth Will Enter Open Beta Next Week appeared first on MMORPG Reviews.

Blizzard’s MOBA Launches Closed Beta

Posted: 14 Jan 2015 05:04 AM PST

Blizzard has officially announced open the closed beta of Heroes of the Storm in European as well as American territories. The F2P MOBA title simultaneously receives a content update which introduces a new hero, a new battleground, a ranked play mode and lots of other things. The newest hero to join the ranks is Thrall, […]

The post Blizzard’s MOBA Launches Closed Beta appeared first on MMORPG Reviews.

Marvel Super Hero Squad Online Welcomes Juggernaut

Posted: 14 Jan 2015 03:58 AM PST

Marvel Super Hero Squad Online expands its roster of characters with the addition Charles Xavier's stepbrother Cain Marko who's known as the Juggernaut and hero and villain at once. While serving as a mercenary in Korea, Cain found the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak that now grants him extreme durability, an enormous physical strength and a […]

The post Marvel Super Hero Squad Online Welcomes Juggernaut appeared first on MMORPG Reviews.

Lekool Unveils New Browser Game

Posted: 14 Jan 2015 03:42 AM PST

Lekool, a publishing company known for MMO games like Odin Quest, Warlord Saga or Call of Gods, has just unveiled their latest F2P side-scrolling browser game, Clash of Gods, which will become accessible tomorrow, 01/15/2015 at 10 a.m. PDT. Set in a fantastic realm inspired by old Greek legends and myths, Clash of Olympus features […]

The post Lekool Unveils New Browser Game appeared first on MMORPG Reviews.

Age of Wushu Packs Giveaway

Posted: 14 Jan 2015 02:29 AM PST

In order to celebrate today's arrival of Transcendence expansion to Age of Wushu, we're hosting a special giveaway with gift packs brimming with a plethora of free items that allow you to enjoy this new expansion even more. So get hold of you gift before we're running out of codes and until February 14, 2015 […]

The post Age of Wushu Packs Giveaway appeared first on MMORPG Reviews.



General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article


How to Use Adobe Photoshop

Posted: 14 Jan 2015 02:49 PM PST

Not sure where to start in Photoshop? Here's a crash course on the basics

Photoshop is a powerful application that can be used for a variety of purposes, from editing photos or other images to graphic design and 3D art to light videography work. But Photoshop's power and versatility can also make it incredibly intimidating. The program's main window is strewn with 20 different tools plus a ton of filter effects and image layers to top it all off. While Photoshop may be as understandable as Sanskrit to a novice, we're going to show you how to get started with the basics.

Getting Started


There's a lot going on when you first launch Photoshop, but it's not as incomprehensible as you think. On the left side, you'll find the program's tools. You'll use these to manipulate your work, such as resizing and flipping images, cloning pixels, and drawing shapes. The right side, meanwhile, holds a quick menu to access the image adjustments; directly below that is your layer palette.

Working in layers

One of the things that makes Photoshop such a powerful image editor is the ability to stack layers on top of each other. For example, you might want to insert a new graphic into one layer, while another darkens a small portion of the image, and yet another adds more color saturation. Additonally, you can set each layer's opacity and blend them altogether with effects. But more importantly, working in layers means you can isolate any changes you make to pixels in a that particular layer without affecting the whole image. So, every image you edit could easily have 10 or more layers. Professional editors will often create an image with 25 or more layers.

The layers palette is located on the bottom-right of your screen; hit Control + J to create a new one. Think of your layers as a stack of paper. Make sure to organize each one accordingly, to avoid hidden elements. There are also plenty of ways to blend layers together, but we'll come back to that later.

All the filters


Filters are the second, if not the most, instrumental part of Photoshop. Unlike those color-shading Instagram filters, these will let you do some truly cool things with your images such as distorting the whole frame, adding various blur effects, and turning the image into a pixelated jumble—on purpose!

There's a lot to dig into here, so take yoru time and play around for awhile in the filters menu.

On the next page, we're going over pratically every tool in Photoshop


Tools the Trade

See that long tray on the left? (Pictured here to the right) That's your tool set. It might look overwhelming, but it's actually well organized into different sections. The top section has tools to select and move around parts of the images. One step down is holds brushes to add or remove elements of the image. Below that are tools to add text, shapes, and lines. Bringing up the bottom are navigation instruments and color swatches.

We're not going over every little tool but here are most them. Each is important in its own right.

Transformative tools

  • Move Tool (V): This essentially allows you to move around objects with a simple click-and-drag. To move something, it has to be in an unlocked layer that's also not the background layer.
  • Transform (T): Though this isn't featured as part of Photoshop's main menu, it's an indispensable tool that lets you change the size of your image and rotate it.

Selection Tools

Selection tools are the key to creating a great image. But before we start delineating the various tools, there are a couple of keyboard commands you should know.

  • Shift + Left Click: Add to your current selection.
  • Alt + Left Click: Conversely, this shortcut will subtract from your current selection.
  • Control + D: one of the most important key combinations you should use to deselect Control + Shift + D: refocus on your last selection.
  • Shift + Control + I: Inverse selection. A neat trick is to isolate an object from its flat background by selecting every pixel around it and then hitting Control + I, so you have a perfect outline around your subject.
  • Control + D: Deselect everything.

Now, with further ado, all of the selection tools.

  • Marquee tool (M): This tool lets you highlight rectangular and circular parts of your canvas. Hitting the shift key while you're moving the cursor will also cause this selection tool to morph into a perfectly square or round shape.
  • Lasso (L): The Lasso tool is a free-form selection tool that lets you draw lines over the image. When using the regular lasso option, you can create curved lines as long as you're holding down the mouse button. Once you let go, it completes the shape with a straight line that connects with your starting point. Alternatively, there's also the Polygonal Tasso Tool, which sketches out only straight lines. Lastly, the Magnetic Lasso will automatically latch on to edges.
  • Magic Wand (W): One of the easiest selection tools to use because it will select the area you click on as well as any similar pixels around that spot. It can be further fine-tuned by decreasing the tolerance, or if you want to select more of the area, increasing the tolerance.
  • Crop Tool (C): As the name suggests, this will crop your images. You can either click and drag the exact framing you want or click on the image to create a box over it, which you further adjust by shrinking the sides. Holding down shift while using either method will also preserve the image's original aspect ratio.
  • Eye Dropper (I): Want to re-create the same color from part of the image? You can! Move the tip of this tool to the exact pixel you want to copy.

Fixer-uppers


The next set of tools is a more focused on editing pixels and adding spot-on images. Like the Selection tools, there are a few nuances to these tools that it really helps to know. For example, a brush can have a soft head, which means its effect will gradually fade away on the edges rather than coming to a hard stop. Also, keep in mind you can change the overall size of your brush as well as its shape.

  • Healing Brush (J): This brush lets you fix small imperfections in your images such as acne or wrinkles, spots of dust, and other small fixes.
  • Clone Stamp Tool (S): Similar to the healing brush, this tool effectively clones an area. This could be useful for removing a cloud in an otherwise clear blue sky. To use the tool, you'll first have to press the Alt key and click on the area of pixels you want to replicate. After that you can just dab the clone tool on the part of the image you want to fix.
  • History Brush (Y): Made a mistake? No sweat, this brush lets you paint back in time. For example, if you made the entire picture darker, you could use this brush to selectively peel back your last edit in certain spots.
  • Blur/Sharpen/Smudge: This is one of Photoshop's three-part editing tools. Blur rubs out details, making them fuzzier, and soften textures. Conversely, the sharpening tool accentuates the details, making them crisper. Smudge is a interesting tool because it melds pixels together, which makes it almost completey useless for real-life photos. However, the smudge tool might be more applicable for blending colors in art, or perhaps creating wisps of smoke.
  • Gradient Tool (G): Use the Gradient Tool to create (you guessed it) gradients of color. Once the tool is selected, click and drag the resulting line in the direction you want the color shift to go in. But if you want to mix in more than one color, use the drop-down menu bar toward the top of the screen. This lets you set up complex gradients that span multiple colors; you can also set the gradient pattern.
  • Burn/Dodge/Sponge Tools (O): Another trifecta of editing tools. Burn and dodge will affect the lighting in your image, adding more shadows or more light, respectively. The sponge tool, on the other hand, can be used to change the saturation in your image, making colors richer or grayer.
  • Eraser: Last but not least, the eraser lets you clean up any nasty edges or mistakes in your images. If you're working with layers, a sure-fire tip is to use this tool with a soft brush to smooth out the edges between each element of the image.

Image elements

  • Pen Tool (P): Usually more useful for artists sketching up vector graphics and other art, the pen allows the users to draw freeform and straight lines.
  • Text Tool (T): Who says Photoshop is only about images? Add some words to the picture.
  • Shapes tool (U): Add in an assortment of shapes, including rectangles with rounded or sharp sides, circles of all proportions, polygons, lines again, and other custom shapes.

Navigation tools

  • Hand Tool (H): Giving you a hand getting around the frame, just click and drag to explore the canvas if you're viewing the image at a high magnification.
  • Zoom Tool (Z): Speaking of magnification, this is an indispensable part of working in Photoshop. A regular click will zoom into the image, whereas holding Alt while hitting the mouse button will zoom out. With either option you can also hold down the mouse button for a smoother pull and push zoom.

Shades of the rainbow


Picking colors adds a whole other subset of options. Once you hit your color swatches on the lower-left of a screen, a new popup window will show an entire color gamut for you to choose from. In the image above, you see a large box that displays red in a wide array of intensities, from washed-out white in the upper-left, plain old black in the bottom-left, and the brightest version in the upper-right.

Next to this, there's also a bar showing all the different hues to chose from. Of course, you can also manually dial in exactly what color you want to work with.

History

The History palette is a magical time machine located in the upper-right of the Photoshop interface. Photoshop records every little move you make; navigating to this small menu allows you to you jump back in time and revert to any changes you made in the past.

Read on to see a few things you can do with Photoshop.


Now that we've gotten though the tools, we're going to put everything we've learned to good use and start photoshopping some images.

A basic Photoshop

One of the most basic things you can do with Photoshop is joining together two images. Let's start with creating a selection around the object we want to shop into our main image.

  1. Instead of using any old Marquee Tool, we're going to use the Pen Tool (P), which we'll use to draw a path around the object.
  2. After the shape is complete, press the A key to bring up the Direct Selection Tool. Click on the image and select Make Selection in the contextual menu.
  3. This will create the selection; now, hit the copy shortcut (Control + C).
  4. Next up, lets bring up our main image, then paste (Control + V) the object into it.
  5. Because it's been added in as a new layer, we can easily move it around.
  6. Lastly, we're going to clean up any harsh edges using a soft-brushed eraser.

Create a toy box image

One of the other cool things you can do simply in Photoshop is simulate the toy box effect typically created with a very expensive tilt-shift lens. This little trick lets you turn an image of the real world into a miniature toy set. Images shot from a tall building or some other elevation down onto a subject area work best. Once you've got your image, here's how to do it in a few simple steps.

  1. After you've opened your image, go to Filter > Blur Gallery > Tilt-Shift
  2. This brings up a new overlay of three bars, as well as a round center point on your image.
  3. This center point should be position over the subject you want to keep in focus. You can also tweak the miniature distortion and blur levels with the settings on the side. To orient the effect, you can rotate the bars or adjust the spacing between them. Once you've picked a pleasing effect, go ahead and click OK.

These next few steps are for an extra bit of gloss, but they'll make your images pop.

  1. For a bit of vignetting fakery, you could add a new fill layer (found under the Layer menu). Make sure to pick a solid color, preferably black.
  2. This will in turn cover your image with a completely opaque layer of black paint, but don't fret. Simply hover over to the layer's opacity and bring it down.
  3. Next, use the eraser tool with a large soft brush and erase any spots you want to be bright in the final image.

  4. Lastly, go to the adjustments menu and shake up some of the brightness and saturation to really make the image pop.
  5. Voilà! You have a great-looking (but fake) miniature photo

But wait there's more

We've barely scratched the surface of all the power behind Photoshop. There's much more that you can do with the program, such as generating vector art and adding selective color to your photos, for a few examples. But this was only a crash course to give you a starting point for all you great projects. Now, get photoshopping!

Newegg Daily Deals: Seagate Hybrid Drive 1TB MLC/8GB, WD Elements 4TB USB HDD, and More!

Posted: 14 Jan 2015 10:38 AM PST

Seagate SSHDnewegg logo

Top Deal:

We all know the score in storage -- hard disk drives have the advantage in price per gigabyte, and solid state drives win in performance. Want the best of both worlds? Pick up an SSD for your OS and an HDD for storage chores. Want the second best of both worlds? Then check out today's top deal for a Seagate Hybrid Drive 1TB MLC/8GB SSHD for $70 with free shipping (normally $80 - use coupon code: [ESCAKKP38]). It's a 1TB hard drive with 8GB of NAND flash memory to speed up access of frequently used programs. It also boasts 64MB of cache and a SATA 6Gbps interface.

Other Deals:

Acer G6 Series 27-inch 6ms Widescreen LED Backlight Slim Bezel Monitor 300 for $180 with free shipping (normally $200 - use coupon code: [EMCAKKP34])

WD Elements 4TB USB 3.0 3.5-inch External Hard Drive for $115 with free shipping (normally $130 - use coupon code: [EMCAKKP22])

G.Skill Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory for $128 with free shipping (normally $143 - use coupon code: [EMCAKKP27])

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 Video Card for $330 with free shipping (after $10 Mail-in rebate)

Intel Pushes for Bigger Size 2-in-1 Hybrid PCs

Posted: 14 Jan 2015 10:17 AM PST

Acer Aspire Switch 11Get ready to see 12.5-inch 2-in-1 PCs in the near future

If you own a low-cost 2-in-1 hybrid device (or convertible laptop, if you prefer to call it that), chances are you're rocking a 10-inch display, or thereabouts. Going forward, don't be surprised to see vendors start churning out bigger size models. That's because Intel has reportedly expanded its 2-in-1 reference blueprint to now include 12.5-inch display products, paving the way for larger 2-in-1 models.

According to Digitimes and its sources within the notebook industry, you'll see these 12.5-inch machines sporting both Intel's 14nm Core M processors and its newer 5th Generation Core processor series (newer Broadwell parts). Intel's Core M chips are primarily intended for low-power fanless systems, while the 5th Generation Core parts will add a performance punch to mobile devices.

The timing couldn't be better -- apparently vendors like Asus and Acer are starting to see a decline in demand for 10-inch 2-in-1 products after an initial flurry of sales. To compensate for that, vendors are working on larger models with faster processors, with pricing expected to range from $350 to $400 for Atom, Celeron, and Pentium models, and under $700 for Core M variants.

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IBM's z13 Mainframe is the Culmination of $1 Billion and 5 Years of Development

Posted: 14 Jan 2015 10:02 AM PST

IBM z13 MainframeThe mainframe is dead, long live the mainframe

For IBM, there is no debating whether or not the mainframe is dead. If IBM felt it was, the company wouldn't have gambled $1 billion, five years of development, over 500 new patents, and collaborative efforts with more than 60 clients in the z13, IBM's newest mainframe and, according to Big Blue, one of the most sophisticated computer systems ever built -- high self praise.

IBM says the z13 is the first system that's able to process 2.5 billion transactions a day, which would be the equivalent to 100 Cyber Mondays every day of the year. The z13's transactions are persistent, protected, and auditable from end-to-end, and with continued development, IBM estimates it will grow to 40 trillion mobile transactions per day by 2025.

Other notable "unprecedented new capabilities" include practical real-time encryption of all mobile transactions at any scale, and embedded analytics providing real-time insights on all transactions, which IBM pitches as a capability that can help guarantee running real-time fraud detection on 100 percent of business transactions. In addition, IBM says it delivers on-the-fly analytic insights that are 17 times faster than competitive systems, and at a fraction of the cost.

"Every time a consumer makes a purchase or hits refresh on a smart phone, it can create a cascade of events on the back end of the computing environment. The z13 is designed to handle billions of transactions for the mobile economy. Only the IBM mainframe can put the power of the world's most secure datacenters in the palm of your hand," said Tom Rosamilia, senior vice president, IBM Systems. "Consumers expect fast, easy and secure mobile transactions. The implication for business is the creation of a secure, high performance infrastructure with sophisticated analytics."

The z13 includes new support for Hadoop. It's also capable of running up to 8,000 virtual servers, or more than 50 virtual servers per core.

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Gartner: Tablet Demand Already Peaked, Consumers Now Turning Back to PCs

Posted: 14 Jan 2015 09:04 AM PST

Lenovo Z10Market research firm notes quiet and steady growth in PC sector

Ever since the first iPad came out, we had to hear analysts and market research firms predict a future in which we'd all ditch our traditional PCs for slates. Once again, however, time is the ultimate judge, and now that tablets are seemingly everywhere, consumers are turning their attention back to PCs, Gartner says. As such, Gartner notes a 1 percent increase in worldwide PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2014, which translates into 83.7 million units.

That's in the ballpark of IDC's 80.8 million PC shipment figure, though IDC pegged the industry at a 2.4 percent year-on-year decline. Gartner is also decidedly more optimistic about the state of PCs compared to IDC's outlook.

"The PC market is quietly stabilizing after the installed base reduction driven by users diversifying their device portfolios. Installed base PC displacement by tablets peaked in 2013 and the first half of 2014. Now that tablets have mostly penetrated some key markets, consumer spending is slowly shifting back to PCs," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner.

Both IDC and Gartner have Lenovo retaining its lead as the top PC vendor in terms of volume, though the gap is a little bit wider with the latter's figures. According to Gartner, Lenovo shipped 16.28 million PCs in the fourth quarter of 2014 en route to a 19.4 percent share of the market, up from 15.15 million PCs and an 18.3 percent share a year prior. Meanwhile, HP shipped 15.77 million PCs for an 18.8 percent share, up from 13.6 million PCs and a 16.4 percent share a year ago.

As for the holiday period, Gartner called it the best for PC sales in recent history. The market research firm credited mobile PCs, including regular notebooks, thin and light laptops, and 2-in-1 devices for the strong finish, further underscoring its belief that consumers are turning their attention back to PCs.

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Samsung Thumbs Nose at Android, Launches Low Cost Tizen Smartphone

Posted: 14 Jan 2015 08:31 AM PST

Samsung Z1Low cost device represents a significant mobile play

Entry level handsets launched in emerging markets don't typically elicit too much attention, though in this case, there's a reason why some people are making a big deal out of Samsung's latest smartphone. The Samsung Z1, launched today in New Delhi, runs the company's own Tizen operating system, which is indicative of Samsung wanting to groom new users and markets on something other than Android.

This is part of a larger push in favor of Tizen, which is also found on other electronic devices and, as announced recently, will be featured on every single smart TV that Samung launches this year. The strategy is an interesting one, not just because Samsung is attempting to push Tizen into different product categories, but also due to its focus on a market segment (first time smartphone buyers in India) that isn't being fiercely contested by rivals.

According to the press release, the Samsung Z1 will be priced at under $100 (5700 Indian Ruppees, or about $92 in U.S. currency). The timing of the low-cost release comes at a time when Samsung is undergoing a bit of internal restructuring due to sliding profits and the failure to sell as many flagship Galaxy S5 devices as it hoped it would.

Samsung has tried on more than one occasion to push its Tizen platform as a viable alternative to Android, though it hasn't really caught one, especially in the smartphone category despite several different Tizen-based handset launches last year.

What's different this time around is that Samsung isn't relying on wireless carriers and app developers to push its product -- it's selling the Samsung Z1 directly through its retail networks using web versions of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, the Wall Street Journal reports. Samsung also plans to heavily promote its brand name to help offset the fact that many people have never heard of Tizen.

Looking longer term, Samsung hopes it can build a bit of a following in India, which in turn would give Tizen some street cred and attract more consumers and developers.

As to the hardware, the Z1 is a fairly basic device -- 4-inch WVGA display, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 768MB RAM, 4GB internal storage + microSD card slot (up to 64GB), VGA front-facing camera, 3.1-megapixel rear-facing camera, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, USB 2.0, GPS, accelerometer, 1500 mAh battery, and of course TIzen 2.3.

"The smartphone market in India is rapidly evolving, with many consumers using their device as their screen of choice for content including videos, television programs and video games, as well as a range of apps," said Mr. Hyun Chil Hong, President and CEO, Samsung India Electronics, "We have customized the Samsung Z1 to meet these unique, entertainment-focused needs of local Indian consumers for a personal and reliable mobile experience."

Availability in India begins today with white, black, and "wine red" color options.

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