| No BS Podcast #188: Just Joshing Posted: 10 Aug 2012 02:30 PM PDT 
You thought last month's podcast featured a long-lost editor? (It did.) Well, this month's features none other than Returning Champion Josh Norem! Josh joins Deputy Editor Gordon Mah Ung and Texas Editor Nathan Edwards for Episode 188 of the No BS Podcast! Why's Josh here? Well, he's back, baby. Back on staff, that is. Back to talk about Windows 8, his experience with the Nexus 7, Ultrabooks, cats, Samsung vs Apple (also Apple vs Samsung), and so much more. There's some of your standard talk of The Interface Until Recently Known as Metro and Now Probably Just Called Windows 8, Which is Dumb. Also, we've landed a rover on Mars! Not us personally. But us, America. Finally: Thunderbolt, high-res IPS panels from Korea, and the correct pronunciation of Asus. See if you can locate the part of the podcast when Nathan reveals A Terrible Secret. All this and more, plus an all-new Rant of the Month, in Episode 188! Computer trouble? A secret to share? Opinions? Need advice? Just need to get something off your chest? Email us at maximumpcpodcast@gmail.com or call our 24-hour No BS Podcast hotline at 877.404.1337 x1337--operators are not standing by. |
| Ouya Game Console Available to Pre-order, Starts at $109 with Shipping Posted: 10 Aug 2012 11:31 AM PDT  Ouya's Kickstarter campaign has come to a close, though not before raising just shy of $8.6 million in non-refundable funding from backers anxious to see this project through. The $99 Android console struck a chord with gamers and promises to deliver a low-cost entertainment experience to the living room comprised of freemium titles and a wealth of media center and streaming functionality, all from a tiny console about the size of a Rubik's Cube. Oh, and it's already available for pre-order.
That's right, you can reserve an Ouya console at Ouya.tv. There's a $10 shipping fee for U.S. customers that brings the price of the console plus a single controller to $109. You can also pre-order the console with two controllers for $139 or with four controllers for $199. International customers are charged a $20 shipping fee, so the price for the console with one, two, and four controllers is $119, $149, and $209, respectively. Regardless of where you live, Ouya's expected delivery is pegged for April 2013, which is just eight months away. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Facebook Dodges Fine in Privacy Settlement with FTC Posted: 10 Aug 2012 11:11 AM PDT  In a 3-1-1 vote (three approvals, one dissent, and one not participating), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has accepted final terms of a settlement with Facebook to resolve charges that the social networking site engaged in deceptive privacy practices. Terms of the settlement do include a monetary fine, as was the case with Google, which agreed to pay a record $22.5 million penalty to the FTC to settle a different set of alleged privacy violations.
So, what's the point of the settlement? According to the FTC, Facebook is required to take a series of steps to ensure it doesn't stray from best privacy practices in the future. One of these steps includes "giving consumers clear and prominent notice and obtaining their express consent before sharing their information beyond their privacy settings." Facebook also agreed to maintain a comprehensive privacy program to protect its subscribers, and must submit to biennial privacy audits conducted by an independent third party. The whole thing started in 2009 when consumer advocacy groups accused Facebook of sharing user information that had been set to private. Privacy advocates also took exception to third-party apps on Facebook being able to access personal data. As was the case with Google, Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch was the sole dissenter primarily because he doesn't believe Facebook (or Google) should be allowed to settle without admitting liability for what it's done. There's no admission of guilt by either company, only a settlement to make the charges go away, and that, according to Rosch, is not in the best interest of the public. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Acer Backs Down from Surface Warning, Reaffirms Commitment to Windows 8 Tablets Posted: 10 Aug 2012 09:20 AM PDT  After creating a stir in the media over comments he made to Microsoft warning the company to "think twice" about its Surface strategy, Acer chairman J.T. Wang is now singing a different tune, one that's far less threatening and more accepting to the situation. That doesn't mean Wang is no longer concerned about Microsoft's march in the tablet space, but he did clarify that Acer has every intention of competing with Windows 8-based slates of its own.
Wang still thinks Microsoft's Surface mission will ultimately hurt the PC ecosystem, and since making his previous comments, he's spoken with the Redmond company to discuss his concerns, DigiTimes reports. He also sought to clarify that he's highly excited about Windows 8, and that some of his comments were meant to protect Microsoft from itself and not necessarily as a plea to step out of the way of OEMs. Microsoft isn't deaf to the pleas of OEMs like Acer and others worried about the company's Surface strategy. One thing Microsoft is considering is making sure there's a large enough price gap between the Surface and competing Windows 8 tablets to lessen the impact of competing with its hardware partners. Regardless, Wang said he's not afraid of the competition, he just wants to understand the rules of the game and wished Microsoft would have communicated its intentions better at the outset. According to Wang, Microsoft turned from a partner to a competitor seemingly overnight and without warning. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| This week's hottest reviews on TechRadar Posted: 10 Aug 2012 08:44 AM PDT 
What do you get if you combine camera reviews with new mobile phones, TVs, laptops and more? It's the TechRadar reviews section of course, and this week we've been looking at the new 1DX from Canon as well as a smorgasbord of other goodies! Hands on: Canon EOS 1DX review If the Canon EOS-1D Mk IV and Canon EOS-1Ds Mk III didn't exist, we would be marveling at the Canon EOS-1DX, it seems a truly fantastic camera. However, the fact that they do exist raises fundamental questions about the concept of the new camera for existing EOS-1 series users. In the past, Canon has given professional photographers two options depending upon the type of photography they do. A high-speed model (the EOS-1D MK IV) for reportage, sport and action work or a high-resolution model (the EOS-1D MK III) for studio use. The EOS-1DX attempts to address both markets and we look forward to giving a full production sample a thorough test to see if it is up to the job. We hope it is! 
BlackBerry Curve 9350 review The Curve 9350 is sleek, sexy, and compact. More than once people stopped us to ask what model the phone was, remarking on the exterior design. So RIM proves that you don't have to have an Android or iOS phone in your pocket to go the smart route, but you'll definitely be on the lower end of the coolness scale among your hipster friends with this smartphone. If your work requires that you be on a BlackBerry, though, or you need an inexpensive but robust little phone to get the job done, the Curve 9350 is worth investigating. While the camera and connection options don't put it on the cutting edge, it should serve you very well as a business and personal device. 
Samsung UE46ES7000 review The Samsung UE46ES7000 might be one step down from the top of Samsung's 2012 TV range, but it's got more going on than the majority of flagship sets. For starters, it looks lovely with its impeccably slender bezel and profile. It's also got all the hottest features in town, including 3D support, expansive multimedia playback from either USB flash drives or networked PCs plus, of course, full access to Samsung's beautifully presented and content-rich Smart TV online service. The Samsung UE46ES7000 is also frequently a spectacular picture performer, serving up glorious amounts of brightness, colour richness and HD detailing, and looking much more vibrant and clear with 3D than most active 3D sets. Pictures can be problematic during dark scenes with your lights dimmed - though so long as you're prepared to sacrifice a lot of the screen's brightness, you can still end up with something very enjoyable. Audio systems Audyssey Audio Dock review Graphics cards Elgato Game Capture HD review Keyboards Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover review Laptops Dell XPS 15 review Sony Vaio S Series 13P review Packard Bell EasyNote TV review Toshiba Satellite L870-11J review MSI CX640MX review Mobile phones ZTE Grand X review Huawei Ascend P1 review Tablets Asus Transformer Pad Infinity review |
| Samsung Details 'Exynos 5 Dual' Chip with Better than Retina Display Muscle Posted: 10 Aug 2012 07:32 AM PDT  Samsung today took the mobile world by storm by introducing its new Exynos 5 Dual SoC (System-on-Chip) manufactured on a 32nm High K/Metal Gate process. It features the world's first ARM Cortex A15 dual-core processor clocked at 1.7GHz and is capable of driving WQXGA (2560x1600) displays, paving the way for a new generation of tablets that trump the much hyped Retina display on Apple's third gen iPad device.
There are plenty of technical details to digest, one of the highlights of which is the quad-core Mali-T604 GPU built into the Exynos 5 Dual. It's better equipped than Qualcomm's Adreno 225 GPU, and in addition to driving better-than-Retina level displays, it also supports stereoscopic 3D and is five times more powerful than previous Mali GPUs. Samsung's Exynos 5 Dual is a veritable powerhouse across the board. It can pump out 60fps at 2560x1600, is equipped with a 128-bit multi-layered bus architecture, supports 800MHz LPDDR3/DDR3 interfaces for 12.8GB/s of memory bandwidth, has USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps controllers, and is littered with APIs like DirectX 11, OpenGL ES 3.0, and OpenCL 1.1. No products have yet been announced with the Exynos 5 Dual, but we can't wait to see which ones emerge. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Intel Reportedly Shipping Graphics Free Core i5 3350P Ivy Bridge CPU in Q3 Posted: 10 Aug 2012 06:56 AM PDT  Intel and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) these days are all about combining CPU and GPU functions onto single slices of silicon, but is there still a market for GPU-less processors? Sure there is. After all, peanut butter without jelly is still a tasty snack, as any canine will attest, and if you're rocking discrete graphics or have an IGP motherboard, all you're really interested in is the CPU portion of a processor anyway. To serve those customers, Intel is said to be readying the release of its Core i5 3350P processor, which is an Ivy Bridge chip without graphics.
News and rumor site Fudzilla says the new chip is coming sometime this quarter and will serve as a replacement for the Core i5 2380P, another non-graphics enabled CPU except that it's built around Intel's Sandy Bridge architecture. The Core i5 3350P part reportedly sports a 3.1GHz base clockspeed and ramps up to 3.3GHz via Turbo. It's a quad-core chip with four threads (no HyperThreading, unfortunately), 6MB of cache, and a 69W TDP. Fudzilla says the new CPU will sell for $187, which is the same price the Core i5 2380P debuted at. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Incremental Android Update Rolling Out to HTC One X Owners Today Posted: 10 Aug 2012 06:35 AM PDT  We have both good news and bad news to share with HTC One X owners today. Starting with the former, HTC said it's issuing an over-the-air (OTA) update that will include an upgraded version of Android and an improved Sense experience. So what's the bad news? It's not a Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) update, just an improved version of Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0.4), albeit one that brings with it some neat improvements.
In lieu of all the benefits Jelly Bean could have offered HTC One X owners, for starters the Android 4.0.4 upgrade is supposed to "enhance camera capabilities such as white balance and continuous autofocus." It will also enable the ability to map menu functionality to the 'recent app' key, offer improved tab management with a dedicated tab switching button, increase platform stability, and usher in a handful of tweaks to memory. Also incoming with the OTA update is a single sign-on feature for Facebook that works across browsers and apps, and unspecified upgrades to Beats audio. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Blizzard's Authenticators Compromised in Battle.net Hack Attack Posted: 10 Aug 2012 06:13 AM PDT  Blizzard Entertainment, the company behind the insanely popular World of Warcraft franchise and, more recently, Diablo III, confirmed that it's Battle.net game service suffered a security breach that compromised certain user data. The full extent of the hack attack is still unknown, but at this stage, Blizzard doesn't believe that any financial data was lifted, including credit card info, billing addresses, or real names.
At minimum, a list of email addresses for global Battle.net users living outside of China were compromised in the data breach, Blizzard said in a statement. For players living in North America, cryptographically scrambled versions of Battle.net passwords (but not actual passwords) were taken. "We use Secure Remote Password protocol (SRP) to protect these passwords, which is designed to make it extremely difficult to extract the actual password, and also means that each password would have to be deciphered individually," Blizzard explains. "As a precaution, however, we recommend that players on North American servers change their password." While actual passwords may still be safe, Blizzard said the hackers were able to extract players' personal security questions, and were also able to access information relating to Mobile and Dial-In Authenticators. Blizzard stressed that this information alone is not sufficient to access Battle.net accounts. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Rumor: 'Metro' Branding to be Replaced with 'Windows 8' Posted: 10 Aug 2012 05:11 AM PDT  Microsoft recently dumped the name Metro, insisting that it was merely a code name. While the company says that it's now ready to move to a more "commercial" name for Windows 8's typography-based design language, it has yet to announce one. But just because nothing has been announced does not necessarily mean that no decision has been made yet.
According to a ZDNet report citing unnamed sources, Microsoft has decided to replace the word "Metro" with "Windows 8." If this rumored change in nomenclature is indeed real, Metro style apps will be known as Windows 8 apps. Similarly, the Metro user interface will become the Windows 8 user interface. But what about Windows Phone? After all, it too uses the same tile-based interface as Windows 8. Well, the site's sources expect the above naming convention to apply to Windows phone as well. Judging by the ThinkPad Tablet 2 promo page on Lenovo's site, which uses the phrase "Windows 8 apps" to refer to something distinct from traditional desktop apps, this report does seem to be fairly accurate. Image Credit: Microsoft |
