The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited (ESO) will be soon receiving a new DLC pack that will introduce the iconic Thieves Guild into the game. This will be the first DLC of 2016 and it will come in two parts: the DLC game pack and the base game patch. This DLC will bring a new […]
My.com has announced that the long-awaited visual camouflage system has arrived to Armored Warfare. Through this system, players can unlock different paints and camouflage patterns that can be applied to their tanks with total freedom. Each vehicle has three Camouflage/Paint configurations, each one of them for a different environment, which means that when we enter into a desert map, a […]
Wargaming has announced today that the 2016 Grand Finals of the Wargaming.net League will be held on April 8–9 at the Torwar Hall in Warsaw, Poland. In this final the best teams of World of Tanks from North America, Europe, CIS, and Asia will face each other and battle over a $300,000 prize pool. In addition to […]
GAME TYPE Free to play MMORPG PLATFORMS Web Browser DEVELOPERS 37Games GAME SYNOPSIS Guardians of Divinity is a browser based free to play RPG developed in Asia and now released for the European/American market, we see a number of traditional concepts, features and mechanics for this genre including completing quests, gathering and enhancing gear, unlocking […]
Epic Games has today released a new video upcoming third person free to play MOBA, Paragon. In the video you can see first-hand the game’s breathtaking graphics and its explosive third person action combat with direct control over the heroes. The video shows Feng Mao and Gadget, two of the heroes, pushing down the mid lane while […]
We've checked out NCSoft's Blade & Soul which released this week, a martial arts MMORPG taking on themes of Qinggong and Wuxia ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" style) as we stepped into the oversize shoes (due to amazing character creation settings) of a student of a legendary school. The game was originally released in Korea in […]
The second and final Closed Beta test of Black Desert Online in Europe and North America will begin on February 18th. Those who pre-order the Explorer's or Conqueror's package will be automatically entered in the Beta; those who don’t will have apply for access in early February. Daum Games has also revealed the launch of […]
It's a lot more fun and rewarding to roll your own rig, there's no denying that. At the same time, there are situations where it might be more convenient to go the pre-built route. If you find yourself in one those situations, today's top deal might provide some solace. It's for an Asus Desktop Computer for $440 with free shipping (normally $560). This mid-tower setup features an AMD FX-8310 processor clocked at 3.4GHz, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, 2GB HDD, AMD Radeon R7 240 graphics, Windows 8.1 64-bit (upgradeable to Windows 10), DVD burner, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and a bunch of other odds and ends. A USB keyboard and mouse are included as well.
It was reported earlier this week that Microsoft was going to issue a voluntary recall for certain Surface Pro power cords that are prone to overheating, and the official details of that recall are now available.
The recall affects all Surface Pro, Surface Pro 2, and Surface Pro 3 AC power cords sold before March 15, 2015, in the U.S. and Canada, and before July 15, 2015, in other markets. As stated to media outlets previously, the problem can manifest itself when the cord is wound too tightly, twisted, or pinched over an extended period of time. In such cases, the power cord has a tendency to overheat.
"While there are no reports of serious injury, a small number of our customers have reported this issue and we are taking action to address by making free replacement cords available to all eligible customers. The safety of our customers is our top priority," Microsoft said.
Microsoft has setup a dedicated website you can use to see if you qualify for a free exchange and to initiate the process. The replacement cord you'll receive differs from the original in that it has a extra layer of protection near the end that plugs into the Surface Pro to prevent it from cracking, fraying, or bulging when bent or twisted.
Note that the recall is for the AC cord only and not the power supply "brick" or Surface Pro system itself. It also does NOT affect AC cords that shipped with the Surface RT, Surface 2, Surface 3, Surface Pro 3 devices sold after March 15, 2015 (in the U.S.), Surface Pro 4, and Surface Book.
Most browser updates are pretty ho-hum in nature, the result of rapid release schedules that see frequent upgrades with mostly minor tweaks and feature enhancements to your browser of choice. That won't necessarily be the case with an upcoming Chrome update, one that promises to speed things up by a potentially significant margin.
The update will introduce a new compression algorithm called Brotli. Google first introduced the new algorithm in September with a claim that it can condense webpages up to 26 percent more than Zopfli, Chrome's current compression algorithm. "At Google, we think that internet users' time is valuable, and that they shouldn't have to wait long for a web page to load," Google said at the time.
Now it's getting ready to forge ahead with Brotli, as revealed by Ilya Grigorik, a Web Performance Engineer at Google, on his Google+ page. Brotli will also benefit mobile users. It's implementation in Chrome on mobile gadgets will lead to lower data use and longer battery life. In addition, the performance benefits could trickle over into web apps that are rendered by Chrome.
Chrome users won't be the only ones to benefit. Google made Brotli open source and barring any changes in plan, Mozilla will roll out support in Firefox later this month. "The best way to make data appear to move faster over the Web is to move less of it and lossless compression has always been a core tenet of good web design... If all goes well in testing, Firefox 44 (ETA January 2016) will negotiate Brotli as a content-encoding for HTTPS resources," Mozilla stated back in September.
If you're anxious to see what Brotli can do, you can enable it in Chrome Canary via chrome://flags#enable-brotli.
Former Mozilla CEO and JavaScript creator Brendan Eich has resurfaced in the news this week with the launch of a new company called Brave Software. What's the new startup focused on? An open-source web browser called Brave. The browser, version 0.7, is available now for early adopters and testers on Windows, Mac, iOS and Android.
According to Eich's blog, the browser blocks ad-click confirmation signals, impression-tracking signals, and signaling/analytics scripts. On a web page, Brave will insert a few new "clean" ads into standard-sized spaces that are found by a cloud robot. He also said that the browser will target ads that are based on "browser-side intent signals phrased in a standard vocabulary." The use of re-identifiable cookies and persistent user IDs will not be permitted.
"The browser sees everything you do, including actions to stop that annoying phenomenon of retargeting where an ad chases you around the Web, often for something you just bought or decided not to buy," Eich writes. "We keep user data out of our cloud Brave Vault by default. It's better for you and us that we don't store any of your data without your permission."
Essentially, Brave promises faster browsing because it blocks trackers and intrusive ads. It also promises safer browsing due to its ability to block third-party tracking and "malvertisement," and directing traffic to HTTPS sites automatically. Users of Brave can also either see ads that supposedly "respect your privacy," or pay the sites directly for ad-free browsing.
Eich told Business Insider that by inserting new "clean" ads onto a web page, existing publishers get a better deal because the "ad-tech middle-men" have been eliminated. Publishers will receive 55 percent of the revenues, Brave Software will get 15 percent, and the ad supplier will get 15 percent.
Surprisingly, around 10-15 percent of the revenues will go directly to the Brave browser user. This money that the end-user receives can be used to pay publishers via a Bitcoin wallet. Thus, the browser will block all ads on "paid" websites.
Eich says that Brave is based on Chromium and uses Electron, which is a tool found within GitHub's Atom text editor. He told VentureBeat that the company could have based Brave on a current browser, but that would have brought less "impressive" performance gains and limited functionality. Besides, developing a new browser is more impressive given Eich's background with JavaScript and his gig at Mozilla.
"We are a browser-based ad-tech platform, with high precision and privacy," Eich says. "Brave is the only approach to the Web that puts users first in ownership and control of their browsing data by blocking trackers by default, with no exceptions."
BenQ just added another monitor to its stable, the GW2270, a 22-inch display with a Full HD 1080p (1920x1080) resolution and 3,000:1 contrast ratio. Interestingly, BenQ claims the GW2270 offers the highest contrast ratio of any TN, VA, or IPS panel it's ever offered.
We're always skeptical of rated monitor specs because it basically boils down to an honor system, but for what it's worth, it's much more common to see a monitor maker report a 1,000:1 static/typical contrast ratio. Dynamic contrast ratios are the ones that are usually much higher, and so it is here with BenQ reporting it at 20,000,000:1. What's the difference?
A contrast ratio represents the ratio of the luminance of the brightest to darkest colors a display can produce. Where dynamic contrast ratios come into play is when measuring the ratio based on the display adjusting the light output depending on the content. It allows for a greater range, and more importantly from a marketing standpoint, an inflated measurement.
Moving on, this isn't a high-brow monitor meant to dominate the display scene. Just the opposite, BenQ is aiming for a "stylish design and visual comfort at a great value." That translates into a fairly basic VA display with a 5ms GTG response time, T-shaped base with a polished black finish, and an assortment of technologies like BenQ's Eye-Care, RevolutionEyes, and ZeroFlicker technologies, all of which are meant to reduce eye fatigue.
Storage used to be considerably simpler, with computers using mechanical hard drives for their operating systems—desktops with 3.5-inch drives, and notebooks with smaller 2.5-inch models (in a pinch, you could use a notebook drive in a desktop, but it meant a speed penalty). For the geeks, the differentiating factors included the number of drive platters and the speed of rotation, with 7,200rpm much preferred over the more pedestrian 5,400rpm. However, after years of slow evolution in storage, we're now in the midst of a storage revolution, with the shift away from traditional mechanical hard drives.
eMMC
At the bottom end of the storage rung is eMMC, which stands for "embedded multi media card." This is the descendant of MMC, a flash-based storage format in the physical package of a flash card. MMC competed with Secure Digital (SD) cards a decade ago. However, SD cards became the standard and MMC ended up being odd man out, as digital cameras and laptops offered SD card slots. MMC ended up transitioning to eMMC, and the embedded designation refers to the memory controller embedded into the package of the memory.
eMMC gets used in a variety of portable devices, including smartphones and tablets. More recently, eMMC even has seen action to replace a traditional hard drive at the bottom end of the notebook market. In these laptops, such as the HP Stream and the Acer Aspire One Cloudbook, which can be had for around $200, one of the many corners cut is the storage department.
While eMMC offers the advantages of affordability and the reliability of no moving parts, the biggest tradeoff is having speeds more akin to a mechanical drive than an SSD. In addition, these eMMC drives are permanently attached to the motherboard, and are not upgradeable or replaceable like a conventional hard drive solution.
Helium Mechanical Hard Drives
Mechanical hard drives have been less favored for the last few years, as solid-state drives (SSDs) increased in speed, capacity, and affordability. However, there is still one area in which mechanical hard drives have maintained their advantage: larger capacities. With 1TB SSD prices still north of the $300 mark, when it comes to larger storage needs, a mechanical hard drive still remains the drive of choice.
Thankfully, while SSDs steal the spotlight these days, their mechanical brethren are still innovating. These mechanical drives are now capable of 10 terabytes of storage in a single 3.5-inch drive, a palatial capacity that would have seemed outlandish just a few short years ago. While so far, the HGST Ultrastar He10 is an enterprise drive, its technology should (hopefully) trickle down to the consumer market in the not-too-distant future; Seagate is working on the technology as well.
The Ultrastar He10 achieves this by having seven platters that get stuffed into a standard-size hard drive enclosure. The so-called "secret sauce" that makes this happen is that the drive is hermetically sealed, and filled with helium gas. Yes, the stuff that goes into party balloons and is lighter than air also has the property of being less dense than air, which reduces the air resistance of the spinning platters. This translates into significant improvements in reliability and power efficiency. The speeds also get boosted with a purported read speed of 249 MB/s; while slower than almost any modern SSD, it is still approximately double the speed that mainstream mechanical hard drives had a few years ago.
Over the next few years, expect to see ever-increasing capacities for mechanical hard drives, made possible by this application of helium. These drives may also get paired with larger amounts of onboard cache, currently at 256MB for the He10, and even hybrid configurations.
SSDs with SLC vs. MLC vs. TLC
Solid state drives (SSDs) have been a boon to computers, speeding up storage processes significantly since their debut to consumers in 2007. After using a desktop with a good SSD, few of us would willingly go back to a mechanical hard drive for a boot drive.
One of the challenges of SSD technology has centered around the ability to offer a large-capacity drive at an affordable price. This would effectively allow the SSD to be the single storage solution for a rig, rather than the two-drive solution that many users currently employ, with an SSD for speed and an HDD for larger capacity.
When comparing SSDs, one of the specs to be aware of is the type of NAND chip used. This affects the memory density, which in turn determines the write speeds, power consumption, performance, endurance, and cost of the drive. The types of NAND flash chips used for the consumer market include: single-level cell (SLC), multi-level cell (MLC), and triple-level cell (TLC). Each of these flash chips holds many cells, which provide the storage space for the read and write cycles. Here are the traditional differences between the NAND flash chip types:
Above is a representation of the data storage capacity of SLC, MLC, and TLC. It visualizes why TLC has the most data capacity per cell, and why it is the most cost effective at this time. Quad level cell (QLC) is being developed, which would theoretically offer even more capacity at a higher density, but is not expected in the short term.
SLC has the fastest write speeds, highest endurance, and the lowest power consumption. However, this comes at the expense of the lowest density, which in turn gives us a higher cost than the other types. This high performance makes SLC the choice for enterprise storage, though even that area is migrating to MLC now.
MLC is the middle-of-the-road choice. While it has slower write speeds and lower endurance than SLC, its higher density gives it good performance, and lower cost compared to SLC. This balancing act of cost versus performance makes MLC the choice for consumer-grade NAND applications at affordable prices.
TLC has the highest density of NAND storage, which gives it the lowest cost. The penalties are that the read and write speeds are the slowest, with the lowest endurance compared to the other NAND types. This makes TLC most appropriate for budget SSDs.
While this was the traditional division of NAND types, more recently, performance drives have featured a mix of the types of NAND used. For example, the SanDisk X300 SSD features a write buffer of SLC NAND flash, while the main storage goes to TLC; by combining the flash types, the overall performance characteristics of the drive are enhanced, at an attractive price. This is in comparison to an entry-level drive, such as the OCZ Trion 100, which uses TLC NAND flash across the entire drive, but performance suffers. In other cases, a small portion of the MLC or TLC gets used to store only two bits as in SLC, in a "pseudo-SLC" configuration.
Drive Interfaces
Serial AT Attachment, better known as SATA, has been the way storage devices were attached to your rig for over a decade now. Making its debut in 2003, SATA offered a significant leap forward from the previous Parallel ATA (PATA) interface. The original SATA Revision 1.x offered speeds of 150MB/s and was designed for mechanical hard drives. SATA was later updated to SATA 3Gbps, which doubled the speed to 300MB/s, and subsequently to SATA 6Gbps, which again doubled the speed to 600MB/s. At the time, there were no consumer storage devices running anywhere near the fastest SATA speeds, providing headroom for storage speeds to grow. More recently though, SSDs caught up, easily exceeding SATA 6Gbps' speeds, putting the pressure on for even faster interfaces with the current data throughput saturated.
M.2
The Patriot Ignite M2 uses the so-called "gumstick" form factor.
M.2 is the replacement to the mSATA standard, and it was designed to be more suitable for storage, with targeted use in mobile devices including tablets and Ultrabooks. The specification for M.2 is composed of four PCI Express lanes, and one SATA 6Gbps port, providing a maximum bandwidth of 4GB/s. While the M.2 spec is relevant here for its use in mobile SSDs, it also gets used in mobile devices for such applications as Wi-Fi cards, Bluetooth, and GPS modules.
The M.2 interface allows for a variety of package sizes, giving flexibility in design, and all in less space than a traditional hard drive. The maximum bandwidth for SATA based M.2 is still limited to SATA 6Gbps speeds, making it more suitable for notebooks, and less so for desktops. PCIe-based M.2 however can run at up to x4 Gen3 PCIe lanes, or 3980 MB/s (see below).
PCIe SSD
Plextor's PCI Express storage solution.
In the quest for more bandwidth, SSDs have been repackaged for the PCI Express (PCIe) interface. PCIe was introduced in 2003, as a replacement for the older PCI interface. PCIe is most commonly used for GPUs, with their high bandwidth requirements. Current motherboards are based on the PCIe 3.0 standard, which provides for 8GT/s (GT/s refers to a Gigatransfer rate, which converts 8GT/s to approximately to 6.4Gb/s). The latest revision of PCIe is 4.0, and has data throughput rates of 16GT/s (about 12.8 Gb/s) with products expected in 2017. With this much bandwidth for data available, this should give some serious headroom for speeds on storage devices to grow substantially over the next few years.
NVMe
NVMe drive.
Non-volatile memory express (NVMe) is not a new interface, but rather a protocol, originally developed for enterprise, as a scalable host controller interface to optimize and standardize PCIe SSDs. Like many products that start out as "industrial strength," NVMe is making the transition to the consumer market. The first retail NVMe consumer drive is the Samsung 950 Pro, and in our testing it was ridiculously fast, with read speeds over 2,000Mb/s and write speeds over 1,000Mb/s! With these kinds of speeds, especially considering that this is the first drive for consumers in this category, this promises a quantum leap in storage performance analogous to the jump that SSDs took over mechanical hard drives.
For PCIe drives with NVMe to work as boot devices, they need to be supported by the motherboard BIOS. The newer Z170 boards will all support this, with select older Z97 and X99 motherboards supporting NVMe as well. Technically, there's nothing stopping even older M.2 PCIe implementations from support NVMe, but the time and testing required to update the motherboard BIOS makes such support unlikely.
Onward
The storage system of the computer was quite stagnant for some time with reliance on mechanical hard drives—and little else. Even now, there is room to innovate with mechanical hard drives with ever larger capacities, and modest increases in their speeds. With the transition to SSDs for main system storage, there has been considerable increase in storage throughput. Now that the SATA 6Gbps throughput limit can be saturated by SSDs, it will require a transition to PCIe with NVMe to provide the needed headroom for SSDs to get even faster. Then there is Intel and Micron's promising 3D XPoint technology, which hopes to leapfrog NAND altogether. While little is known about the technology at this point, the companies are saying that it could run up to 1,000 times faster than traditional SSDs —warp drives, anyone?
Following in the footsteps of AT&T and T-Mobile, this week Verizon Wireless introduced FreeBee Data, a scheme that allows Verizon customers to consume content without having to use their precious data. It's a "sponsored" data service, meaning content providers pay for whatever Verizon customers consume, whether it's visiting an entire website or streaming a video.
FreeBee Data is provided via two models. The first, FreeBee 360, enables content providers to pay per gigabyte, allowing Verizon post-paid customers to access a number of services and content seemingly free of charge. A second FreeBee Data model allows the content provider to pay on a per-click basis, meaning they'll pay for only streaming video, streaming audio, or app downloads the Verizon customer clicks on.
According to the product page, the per-click FreeBee Data plan allows for thirty seconds of paid video including movie trailers, product videos and ads, and brief video highlights. This plan also allows for thirty minutes of audio streaming such as podcasts, audiobooks, and music streaming. All content provided under this plan, including apps and websites, is designated with a bee logo (shown above), indicating that the media is basically "on the house" and won't be charged against the consumer's data cap.
"With FreeBee Data 360, you can sponsor some or all of the mobile content on your website or app so consumers will be able to access your content without impacting their data plans," reads the product page. Seemingly, this would be used to pay for consumers accessing an entire website on the go, such as grabbing an online coupon while shopping in a retail store. Or to download the store's app and shop online without having to use your data.
Colson Hillier, vice president, Consumer Products at Verizon, said that one in three Americans watch video on their smartphones, and another 100 million do the same on their tablets. That's a lot of data, even more so when customers are out and about, away from their home Wi-Fi networks and streaming video and audio on their data plans. At the end of the month, that data usage can add up.
Verizon Wireless is offering the FreeBee Data 360 plan to content providers now. However, the per-click FreeBee Data plan doesn't start until January 25, and that will only be offered as a beta trial until it goes commercial later this year. Content providers already signed up for the per-click plan include GAMEDAY, AOL, and Hearst Magazines, who will provide paid content to 1,000 test Verizon customers.
How will this plan play nice with net neutrality rules? Is it fair to content providers that can't afford to pay for Verizon customers' data habits? Some have suggested that Verizon's new FreeBee Data plans make its mobile network an unfair playing field for content providers fighting for consumer attention and dollars.
In the days of old, building a PC meant fighting with what was often a beige colored case with sharp edges and little in the way of conveniences. A build wasn't truly complete until you'd spilled a little blood and cursed the PC gods. Fortunately things are much improved now. Todays cases are much easier to build in than ever and they look nice to boot. Such is the case with today's top deal for a Corsair Carbide Series 500R Arctic White Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Gaming Case for $110 with free shipping (normally $126 - use coupon code: [EMCEFFN28]; additional $20 Mail-in rebate). More than just a good looking chassis, the 500R provides a few welcome cooling amenities, such as a multi-channel fan controller and large 200mm fan mounted on the side panel's mesh screen for extra GPU cooling.
AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su admitted that 2015 proved a "challenging" year from a financial standpoint, but found reasons to be optimistic for the company's future. One of those reasons is Polaris. We'll talk more about Polaris in a moment, but first a look at how AMD performed in Q4.
The Sunnyvale chip designer reported revenue of $958 million for the quarter, down 10 percent sequentially and 23-percent year-over-year. That led to an operating loss of $49 million and a net loss of $102 million, or $0.13 per share.
One of the positives for AMD is that its losses, while significant, are shrinking. In the same quarter a year ago, AMD posted a loss of $364 million, which it was able to reduce to $197 million in the third quarter of 2015. That's not exactly cause to pop open a bottle of bubbly, but at the pace AMD is going, it could be profitable by the end of the 2016.
"AMD closed 2015 with solid execution fueled by the second straight quarter of double-digit percentage revenue growth in our Computing and Graphics segment and record annual semi-custom unit shipments," said Dr. Su. "While 2015 was challenging from a financial perspective, key R&D investments and a sharpened focus on innovation position us well to deliver great products, improved financial results and share gains in 2016."
AMD's loss in the fourth quarter might have dipped below $100 million if it hadn't been for a drop in game console royalties. That alone accounted for a 15 percent drop in revenue for the quarter, as AMD provides processors to all three major game consoles—Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Wii U.
Looking ahead, AMD is again betting big on graphics. Industry veteran Roja Koduri has been heading AMD's recently formed Radeon Technologies Group, which has already made noise by ditching AMD's Catalyst Control Center in favor of a new driver architecture called Radeon Software, the first release of which is called Crimson Edition.
On the hardware side of things, AMD has been previewing its forthcoming 14nm FinFET Polaris GPU architecture. The hype is high for Polaris with AMD claiming a two-fold bump in performance-per-watt. There will be two versions in 2016—one that's aimed at thin and light systems, which seems to be the primary focus, and another that will compete in the high-end segment with Nvidia. You can read more about Polaris here.
Investors aren't as optimistic. Since releasing its fourth quarter results, AMD's stock price has fallen nearly 8 percent to $1.79 per share (at the time of this writing).
I don't envy market analysts. They're tasked with predicting the future, and no matter how much research goes into the matter, something inevitably screws things up -- an unexpected product release, fluctuations in the value of the dollar, a natural disaster, and the list goes on.
Despite the impossible mission, where I generally fault analysts is with their gloom and doom predictions, particularly in the PC sector. You know what I'm talking about—analysts tend to focus on a downturn in overall sales for a year while ignoring the fact that hundreds of millions of PCs continue to make their way into the market. Or worse yet, they ignore an entire segment of PCs.
Gartner's been guilty of this very thing, though not today. Rather than report on how fast the sky is falling, Gartner predicts that businesses will adopt Windows 10 at a faster rate than previous Windows upgrades, and in turn spur growth in the PC market. Well, eventually.
According to Gartner, worldwide shipments of desktops, notebooks, and ultramobile devices (x86 products like the Surface Pro and MacBook Air) tallied 290 million units in 2015. That number is expected to fall to 287 million in 2016, a 1 percent decline, before rallying 4 percent to 299 million in 2017. And in 2018, Gartner expects PC sales to rise another 13 million units to 312 million.
"Ultramobile premium devices are expected to drive the PC market forward with the move to Windows 10 and PCs built around Intel's Skylake architecture," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. "We expect that businesses will deploy Windows 10 faster than with previous Windows upgrades."
"Given the shorter testing and evaluation period, many businesses could start to migrate by the end of 2016," Mr. Atwal added. "By the end of 2017, many business are looking to move as much as 40 percent of their installed base onto new Windows 10 devices, mainly driven by the appeal [of] hybrid touch-screen 2-in-1 [devices]. This will be the catalyst for growth in the PC market in 2017."
The numbers probably won't line up exactly as Gartner laid out, though it will be interesting to see if the firm's Windows 10 prediction holds true. Gartner hasn't wavered in its expectation that Windows 10 will drive upgrades—back in November of last year, the outfit predicted that implementation in the enterprise "will be significantly more rapid than that seen with Windows 7 six years ago." At the the time, Gartner predicted that half of all enterprises will have upgraded to Windows 10 or at least begun deploying the OS by January 2017. All we can do now is wait and see.
If you purchased a Surface Pro, Surface Pro 2, or Surface Pro 3 model before March 2015, be aware that you might have a faulty power cord. Microsoft is expected to announce a voluntary recall this Friday with an offer to replace affected power cords for free.
News of the recall was first reported by Channelnomics Europe, which provided some early information on the matter. Those details have yet to be made official by Microsoft, though in the meantime, ZDNet says it was able to confirm with a Microsoft spokesperson that a recall is imminent and that it has to do with overheating power cords.
"As a result of damage caused by AC power cords being wound too tightly, twisted or pinched over an extended period of time, a very small proportion of Surface Pro customers have reported issues with their AC power cord. We will be releasing details of how customers can obtain a free replacement cable shortly," the spokesperson told ZDNet.
There's a bit of confusion as to which purchases might be affected. Channelnomics Europe reports that Microsoft will replace power cords for affected models sold before July 15, 2015, though that might apply to systems sold in Europe. ZDNet claims it was told the recall will apply to models sold before March 2015, in the U.S.
In any event, if you own a potentially affected model, stay tuned for an update on Friday. Until then, keep an eye on your power cord, or stop using it altogether if that's an option.
Everyone has a hobby. A healthy pursuit of a hobby can enrich one's life and help give purpose to the time off we get. For some (and most of our readers), building and tinkering with PCs and electronics is a hobby. Like some other hobbies (like skiing), building PCs can become really expensive really quickly. The same goes for music.
My Technolust this week speaks to that love of vibrating air in creative and pleasing ways, so let's get to it.
Yamaha SV-150 Electric Violin
When I was in the fourth grade, every student at my elementary school had to choose between learning to play the violin, or sing in choir. As a kid, I wasn't comfortable in front of people, and I thought that singing was just too much. I chose to learn to play violin. I kept playing the violin all the way through high school. I didn't get very good at it, but I did enjoy playing with the orchestra, especially when we had wind instruments and percussion practice with us.
It's hard to list a decidedly acoustic instrument as a technological want, but then I remembered that electric violins exist. This fine instrument, Yamaha's SV-150, would be at the top of my list if I were to purchase an electric violin.
When it comes to violins (and most other music instruments), it's easy to part with a significant chunk of change well before you get into the realm of "maximum" quality. The SV-150 isn't the most expensive model in Yamaha's "Silent Violin" line, but it has features that someone wanting to rediscover an instrument would want.
First off, the whole model line of violins is silent. If you've ever had to listen to someone learning to play, you have an idea of just how amazing this feature is. Being able to hear myself without the embarrassment of knowing other people are suffering through the noise as my fingers stumble along the fingerboard is reason enough to own this instrument.
But wait, there's more.
In addition to having a standard 1/8-inch (3.5mm) jack, the violin also has a digital metronome, built-in tuner, and an SD card reader. The SD card reader allows you to play back music tracks into your headphones, and mix that sound with the output from the pickups. That's no trivial feature, as it is often much easier to practice if you know what the rest of the orchestra is playing. This especially rings true when you're playing the for the second violin section, which only rarely plays the melody.
With an MSRP of $1,600, the SV-150 is definitely an instrument to lust after, especially if you're looking to learn or rediscover the violin.
What would the SV-150 offer me that I don't have now?
I lost my violin some time ago due to a storage unit, a military deployment, and a friend's divorce. It's a long story. The end result is that an instrument that I owned for over a decade is gone. I've longed to replace it ever since it was lost.
Despite what some people say, spinning music as a DJ is its own art form, though highly distinct from performing music on an acoustic instrument. I first began DJing back in 2010 as a hobby, and I was hooked. The hobby is extremely expensive, especially when it comes to players and mixers. And if there's one CD player a DJ aspires to have, it's the Pioneer CDJ-2000.
This model, the CDJ-2000 Nexus costs a pretty penny with an MSRP of $2,000. Each. Remember that to spin a set, you'll need at least two players, so getting a pair of these will set you back $4,000. Yeowch.
To be fair, you get a lot with the CDJ-2000 Nexus. You can play music from CDs, DVDs, USB, and SD cards. On top of that, you can use the thing as a physical interface for music performance programs like those offered by Ableton or Serato.
The CDJ-2000 Nexus has an onboard sound card as well, so if you're using the device to control DJ software, you don't need to fall back on your laptop's built-in sound card. You can output that audio to good old RCA, digital output at 24-bit 96kHz, or USB, depending on need. Basically, this player can do do just about anything you need it to. Want to go "old school" and use the player by itself? Fine. Want to use it with a laptop? Great. Want to use it as a MIDI controller to control a light show? Go for it, if you're feeling froggy.
When used as a standalone player, the CDJ-2000 is a very capable platform. It displays ID3 tags and titles for current tracks, as well as the waveform for the track being played. That's really handy if you want a visual cue for a sound effect or beat drop. The player also has a beats per minute (BPM) counter and supports setting a master tempo, which will attempt to detect tracks' BPM and match them to the tempo you set. This makes controlling pitch a cinch. The player also has an array of loop controls, including the ability to create loops of 10 minutes or longer.
When it's all said and done, you can't get much better DJ gear than the CDJ-2000. In many ways, I consider it to be the CDJ equivalent of the legendary Technics SL-1200 series.
What does the CDJ-2000 Nexus offer me that I don't have now?
My first DJ setup was a Numark Mixdeck that I bought back in 2010. The power supply (or some other part) has since failed, preventing the deck from powering on. As great of a beginner piece of equipment the Mixdeck was, I'd like to have better gear if I were to get back into DJing. (Even if it's at the risk of becoming an antagonist on Portlandia.)
Sennheiser HD8 DJ Headphones
We review a bunch of gaming headsets here at Maximum PC, and editor-in-chief Tuan Nguyen tried on a pair of $55,000 Sennheisers at CES. DJ headphones tend to sit in the space between consumer street and gaming headsets and expensive audiophile cans. And in this space, the Sennheiser HD8 DJ is one of the best pairs of DJ-oriented aural air vibrators you can get. This headset comes with the standard set of DJ-friendly features: ear cups that swivel around for any wearing position, removable (and replaceable) cables, good isolation, and high levels of comfort and durability.
If you've never actually played the role of DJ, seeing DJ headphones that swivel so that only one ear is covered can seem like some sort of funny stereotype. Don't be misled: this serves a legitimate function. By covering only one ear, the DJ can hear what's actually coming out of the speakers as opposed to what she's listening to in the mix. This allows her to beatmatch, match pitch and time fades. While you can do this in-headphone, comparing the single-ear-cup is a better reality check of how things sound.
Since this is such a key feature, a headset that allows a lot of swivel and has a sturdy swivel assembly is crucial. The metal pivot rings on the HD8 allows for up to 210 degrees of pivot. That's a lot of freedom to put the cups and headband where you want them.
Removable cables are a big plus for any expensive headset, whether you're a gamer, DJ, or audiophile. Removable cables means replaceable cables, and will save you money since you don't have to buy a whole new headset if a cable is broken or frayed. This headset comes with two cables, a straight one and coiled one. Both cables have 1/8-inch (3.5mm) jacks, though the headset also comes with a 1/4-inch (6.35mm) adapter.
Removable cables can save your headset from crashing to the floor if you (or someone else) trip over your headphone cable. (This happens a lot.) If the cable is removable, it can be yanked out, and you'll just be mad, not sad that you've broken a pair of expensive ear cans. Some of this can also be mitigated by a solid build, which the HD8 has with metal construction.
What does the HD8 offer me that I don't have now?
While I love them to death, my trusty AKG K-181 headset is starting to show its age. The Sennheiser HD8 represents a great upgrade that's a little out of my price range at about $300 street.
I'd love to get back into spinning tracks now and then, and CD players are only part of that equation. Even if I didn't have any speakers, having a good pair of headphones made with DJs in mind is one of the minimum requirements.
Is there anything you'd love to have to help you shake the air around you? Let us know.
Despite what some people say, spinning music as a DJ is its own art form, though highly distinct from performing music on an acoustic instrument. I first began DJing back in 2010 as a hobby, and I was hooked. The hobby is extremely expensive, especially when it comes to players and mixers. And if there's one CD player a DJ aspires to have, it's the Pioneer CDJ-2000.
