| Oculus Connect Keynote: What We Learned Posted: 25 Sep 2015 01:34 PM PDT 
Brendan Iribe Just a few blocks away from the Hollywood Bowl at the Dolby Theater (the same theater that hosted the 2014 Academy Awards) in Hollywood, California, developers and journalists poured into their seats for a keynote address hosted by Oculus CEO Bredan Iribe. Most of the first half of the keynote was dedicated to the $100 Samsung Gear VR headset set to launch in November. If you're not up to speed, the Gear VR uses a Samsung Galaxy S6, S6+, S6 Edge, or Note 5 smartphone as the display, and doesn't require a PC. At that price point, it makes VR more affordable for the everyday user. That is, if they have a recent Samsung smart phone. Nexus, iPhone, and OnePlus users are out of luck. Developer models are availble now for $200. On the bright side, the Gear VR will have Netflix and Twitch streaming. It may be easy to scoff at, but that's a lot of content that the platform is getting as of today. When it came to the Rift, there wasn't as much groundbreaking information to blow your hair back. We already know that the Rift will ship Q1, and that Oculus Touch will ship Q2. We already know the Rift's recommended specs, and we built a rig around them. The main consumer-facing news for the Rift is the "Oculus Ready PC" program. PCs that meet or exceed the Rift's recommended specs will be deemed Oculus Ready, and the company has already partnered with Intel and Nvidia to certify systems. Don't worry, Team Red fans, Oculus said it's talking to AMD, too. The first prebuilt Oculus Ready systems will be offered next year by Asus, Dell, and Alienware (Dell again), Oculus said. Each of the PC offerings will have Intel CPUs paired with Nvidia graphics and will be priced under $1,000. While there's a lot of good content being developed for the Rift—like the awesome Eve: Valkyrie—the Rift had been lacking a huge title that would draw millions. Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus, came on stage clad in t-shirt, jeans, and sandals. He announced, enthusiastically, that Minecraft would be coming to Rift. 
Oculus founder Palmer Luckey announces Minecraft for Oculus. Eight new games were announced for Oculus Touch as well: Final Approach by Phaser Lock Interactive, Moon Strike by Big Dorks, Pulsar Arena by ZeroTransformation, Job Simulator by Owlchemy Labs, I Expect You To Die by Schell Games, Nimbus Nights by Otherworld Interactive, Dead & Buried by Oculus Studios Team, and Surgeon Simulator by Bossa Studios. The keynote also nodded to creatives, by releasing two key features. Oculus made the assets used for the demo VR short film Henry available to developers, so those interested in telling stories in VR could see how it can be done. Additionally, Oculus announced Medium, touted as it's "paint program for VR." Medium allows users to sculpt three dimensional objects using Rift Touch. Those objects can then be exported to .obj files for 3D printing or to be used as game or film assets. Medium is slated to be released in Q2 along with the Oculus Touch. There was a lot more news on the developers side, since Connect is a developer's conference after all. Oculus touted the release of the 0.7 SDK, which will offer direct driver mode to Nvidia and AMD hardware for lower-latency commands. Oculus said that it is aiming to have version 1.0 of the SDK out by December. For the last half hour of the keynote, Iribe ceded the stage to Michael Abrash, Oculus's chief scientist. Abrash's talk centered around the challenges in using VR to fool most of your senses (he said he'd happily leave taste to some future developer) into thinking the virtual environment is real. Abrash didn't give any new product news, but instead his talk was aimed squarely at the developers in the room. "We are VR pioneers," he said to the developers in the theater, invoking names like Steve Wozniak. "These are the good old days." |
| Oculus, System Builders to Promote VR Ready PCs Starting at Under $1,000 Posted: 25 Sep 2015 12:52 PM PDT VR hype train picks up steam  Nearly threes year after it debuted on Kickstarter, Oculus Rift, now a Facebook project, is almost ready for prime time. It has the potential to flip PC gaming on its head (in a good way), and despite the long journey from concept to retail product, hype remains high. To ensure things stay that way, Oculus has partnered with select system builders to promote "Oculus Ready" machines. Oculus says "these systems will start at a variety of price points under $1,000," thereby making VR gaming accessible to the masses. There will also be a variety of hardware configurations represented by Nvidia, AMD, and Intel. Asus has already come out of the gate with two Oculus Ready desktops, the G11CD and the ROG G20CB, both powered by processors based on Intel's Skylake architecture and Nvidia GeForce GTX graphics. The G11CD is an "aggressively-designed" mid-tower chassis with a central LED array on its front panel and "Mayan-inspired markings." Gamers can customize the lighting effects with 8 million color options. Beyond the physical design, Asus isn't yet ready to share too many details about the hardware, other than to say it will house DDR4 memory and USB 3.1 ports. For the small form factor crowd, the ROG G20 trades a mid-tower case for a 9.5-liter chassis. It also sports an aggressive profile and Mayan-inspired markings. With either system, users just need to connect their PC to the Oculus Rift and download the required drivers. Beyond Asus, Oculus says Dell and its Alienware brand are on board with the Oculus Ready movement. It's a short list, though only for now -- Oculus plans to announce more Oculus Ready PC partners by the end of the year. That said, the recommended hardware for the "full Rift" experience is an Intel Core i5-4590 or higher processor, GeForce GTX 970 / AMD 290 or higher graphics card, and 8GB+ of RAM. Required specs include Windows 7 SP1 or newer, two USB 3.0 ports, and HDMI 1.3 output. Oculus Rift is scheduled to release in the first quarter of 2016. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Newegg Daily Deals: EVGA GeForce GTX 960, Samsung 850 Pro 256GB SSD, and More! Posted: 25 Sep 2015 10:06 AM PDT 
Top Deal: There are three keys to living a long and happy life: Eat healthy, exercise, and play video games. To be honest, we're only sure about two of those things, but why risk it by leaving one out? That would be crazy! So, here's what you do. Stock up on fruits and veggies, join a gym, and say goodbye to integrated graphics. That third one can be tricky, though one option is to take advantage of today's top deal for an EVGA GeForce GTX 960 4GB Graphics Card for $230 with free shipping (normally $250; additional $20 mail-in-rebate; Free Heroes of the Storm Kaijo Diablo Bundle w/ purchase, limited offer). It's a capable card that doesn't cost a fortune, and it comes with some sweet digital content. Other Deals: SuperCombo Storage Pack: 4X Western Digital Red NAS Hard Drive WD30EFRX 3TB for $380 with free shipping (normally $440) Samsung 850 Pro 2.5-inch 256GB SATA III (SSD) MZ-7KE256BW for $125 with free shipping (normally $140 - use coupon code: [EMCAXNS22]) Western Digital Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive for $48 with free shipping (normally $70 - use coupon code: [ESCAXNS25]) G.Skill Ripjaws 16GB (2 x 8GB) 2 Desktop Memory for $75 with free shipping (normally $88) |
| Microsoft Squashes SafeDisc DRM in Windows Vista, 7, and 8 Posted: 25 Sep 2015 09:54 AM PDT Say goodbye to SafeDisc  With the release of Windows 10, Microsoft effectively dropped the ban hammer on SafeDisc, one of the most hated forms of digital rights management (DRM). That same courtesy has now been extended to Windows Vista (SP2), Windows 7 (SP1), Windows 8, and Windows 8.1. "This security bulletin addresses a defense-in-depth update for the secdrv.sys driver, a third-party driver. The update turns off the service for the secdrv.sys driver," Microsoft explains. At the same time, getting rid of SafeDisc DRM "may affect the ability to run some older games." That's an unfortunate side effect, though Microsoft provided instructions on how to get those older titles running again. To run an older game that requires SafeDisc, you'll need to fire up an elevated Command Prompt and manually start the driver's service. Here are the steps to do that: - Click the Start button and search for Command Prompt. When it appears, right-click and select Run as administrator.
- Type "sc start secdrv" (no quotes) and hit enter.
- When you're finished playing your game, go back into the Command Prompt and type "sc stop secdrv" to disable SafeDisc.
Another way to restore SafeDisc is through the registry. The steps are as follows: - Click Start > Run and type regedit in the Open box. Click OK.
- Navigate to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\secdrv
- Right-click Start and then click Modify
- In the Value data box, do one of the following:
*Type 4 to disable the driver's service, and then click OK.
*Type 5 to set the driver's service to manual, and then click OK.
*Type 2 to set the driver's service to automatic, and then click OK. As always, be careful when mucking around in the registry. Also be advised that by enabling SafeDisc, you leave your PC vulnerable to malicious attacks. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Lian Li Shows Off PC-Q10WX Case with Acrylic Side Panel Posted: 25 Sep 2015 09:01 AM PDT Have a look inside
Most cases that give you a glimpse of its guts have a window built into the side panel, but with Lian Li's new PC-Q10, the acrylic window is the side panel. By going this route, onlookers get a clear view of the entire build (better practice those cable routing skills). The PC-Q10 is another small form factor (SFF) case -- Lian Li's been cranking out quite a few lately -- designed for mini ITX motherboards (not to be confused with the slightly larger micro ATX, or mATX standard). It's a compact chassis weighing 2.3kg and measuring 207mm x 277mm x 335mm. Despite its small stature, the PC-Q10WX has a big enough belly for a graphics card up to 270mm (~10.6 inches), which is just enough to accommodate a GeForce GTX Titan X. It can also fit CPU coolers up to 140mm tall and PSU's up to 150mm long. This isn't a case for massive storage duties -- it supports up to two 3.5-inch drives or three 2.5-inch drives. That's enough to install a solid state drive for the OS and a more capacious HDD for general purpose storage, but beyond that, your options are limited. On the cooling side, there's space for a 240mm radiator on the top panel, albeit externally, and a 120mm rad on the back panel. If going all out with air cooling, you can install up to five fans inside the PC-Q10, one of which is included (rear 120mm fan). Lian Li says the PC-Q10 will be available in the U.S. this month for $119. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Broken Windows: The Ugly Side of Microsoft’s OS Posted: 25 Sep 2015 12:00 AM PDT 
Is DirectX 12 really worth your privacy and freedom?One of the biggest problems with proprietary software isn't the "black box" nature of its inner workings, but the nature of the agreements users give their consent to. When you begin using a new piece of software or an online service, how often have you actually read the terms of use and privacy policy? If you're like me, you've all too often scrolled to the bottom in clicked "I agree," without giving it a second thought. "Give me my software experience! Here, have my firstborn child; I need to be able to do this one thing!" We've all done it, and few of us are proud of it. For all of the outrage surrounding services that have wronged users, most of it was hidden within the dark depths of an unread end user license agreement, user agreement, or privacy policy. As the saying goes, if you want to do something evil, hide it in something boring. After reading Microsoft's user and license agreements for Windows 10, that hinted evil is very boring. Most of the Microsoft Software License Terms document for Windows 10 basically sets all kinds of legal restrictions on your use of the software. The restrictions are draconian by many counts, and actually look like the polar opposite of rights granted in free software licenses. The real concerning details are in the Microsoft Privacy Statement (http://aka.ms/privacy). The standard set of data collection applies here: If you use Microsoft's services, they have to collect any data you supply in order to deliver them to the recipients, make them searchable by Cortana, and provide alerts and smart searches. The problem with this is that Microsoft says it shares that data "with Microsoft-controlled affiliates and subsidiaries; with vendors working on our behalf; when required by law or to respond to legal process; to protect our customers; to protect lives; to maintain the security of our services; and to protect the rights or property of Microsoft." So, if you let Cortana see your emails, an FBI subpoena can get them, too. Sounds great. My favorite part is that if Microsoft has to protect its property and rights, it will happily share your data. Tell me more, oh electronic scroll of impending doom. I opened up the Windows heading to look at what the OS itself had in store. Sure, Bing and Outlook.com collect your stuff, but I wanted to know what the OS itself did. What I found in the device-encryption paragraph under the Security and Safety Features subheader made the previous statement about information-sharing chilling: Device encryption helps protect the data stored on your device by encrypting it using BitLocker Drive Encryption technology. When device encryption is on, Windows automatically encrypts the drive Windows is installed on and generates a recovery key. The BitLocker recovery key for your device is automatically backed up online in your Microsoft OneDrive account. You read that right: Microsoft stores a backup copy of your encryption key on your OneDrive account that they can give to the FBI or anyone else they deem worthy if it is in Microsoft's interests. What's not to love? Needless to say, this flies in the face of the very purpose of encryption. Why lock your house if you store a spare key (along with your name, address, shopping habits, and late-night browsing preferences) in some shopkeeper's locked box for him to do with as he pleases? There is hope: Although TrueCrypt was abandoned by its original authors, the code has been audited and deemed good, without back doors. I for one won't be considering Windows 10 or BitLocker secure. |
