| Valve Kicks Off Non-Game Software Sale on Steam Posted: 02 Oct 2012 06:08 PM PDT  Big things have been happening on Steam lately, not the least of which is the recently unveiled 'Big Picture' mode for HDTVs (see our How To guide on enabling this feature). Valve also recently overhauled the Steam community, then announced plans to offer Steam on Linux in a limited beta run with just 1,000 users. If all that weren't enough, starting today, you can purchase non-gaming titles on Steam for the first time.
For the first week, all non-game software on Steam will be offered at a 10 percent discount, a deal that expires on October 9th at 10AM Pacific Time. Launch titles include: - ArtRage Studio Pro
- CameraBag 2
- GameMaker: Studio
- 3D-Coat
- 3DMark Vantage
- 3DMark 11
- Source Filmmaker
As time goes on, Valve will add more non-game software to Steam, though it remains to be seen if it will venture beyond mostly game-related content. For the time being, the above is what there is to choose from, many of which will take advantage of popular Steamworks features, like easy installation and automatic updating. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Daily Deals 10/2/12: 64GB Waterproof Flash Drive, 480GB SSD, 2TB NAS, and More Posted: 02 Oct 2012 11:24 AM PDT 
Top Deal:
It seemed like only yesterday when 8GB was considered large for a USB stick. Now, more specifically today, you can get a massive 64GB Centon DataStick for the very affordable price of $33 with $2 shipping (normally $40).
What separates Centon's stick from most is that it's waterproof up to 1.8 meters (great for when you need to swim across an ocean and deliver data to someone on an island). Furthermore, the flash drive features a shock-resistant silicon casing and a carabineer clip for you to easily lug around. Hardware & Peripherals:
Buffalo LinkStation Live 2TB NAS network hard drive (LS-X2.0TL) for $130 with free shipping (normally $170). SanDisk Extreme 480GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s SSD (SDSSDX-480G-G25) for $370 with free shipping (normally $400). Kingston HyperX 3K 2.5" 240GB SATA 6Gb/s SSD (SH103S3/240G) for $165 with free shipping (normally $250). Apple EarPods with remote & microphone (newest model) for $29 with free shipping. |
| Asus Reportedly in Talks to Acquire Motherboard Maker ASRock Posted: 02 Oct 2012 11:02 AM PDT  Asus, the top motherboard maker ahead of Gigabyte, may be looking to further strengthen its position by acquiring ASRock, the third largest player in the mobo business. It's an interesting development, not just because it would combine the world's first and third largest motherboard entities, but because it would be the second time Asus has owned ASRock. A quick history lesson is in order here.
In 2002, Asus created the ASRock brand to sell entry-level motherboards and to target the commodity OEM market, going up against the likes of ECS and Foxconn. It gave Asus a foothold into the budget motherboard market without damaging its enthusiast brand recognition. ASRock is now owned by Pegatron, which itself was a subsidiary of Asus incorporated in 2007. Pegatron has since been spun off and is no longer connected to Asus, so now the ASRock brand Asus created is a direct competitor. Over the years, ASRock has grown from an entry-level player to a spunky builder that makes high-end boards that have been used to break overclocking records. According to Charlie Demerjian at SemiAccurate, Asus just made a bid for ASRock's motherboard division. Nothing is yet final, but reportedly, Pegatron is agreeable to the terms, so unless Demerjian's info is totally bogus, this is a deal that will likely go through. 
If it does, that would leave Asus/ASRock and Gigabyte as the two dominate top-tier motherboard makers, followed by MSI and ECS, which don't ship anywhere near the same volume as the other two. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Internet Explorer Might Always Be the Most Popular Browser (Or Not) Posted: 02 Oct 2012 09:55 AM PDT  I used to think Mozilla's Firefox browser posed the most serious threat to Internet Explorer's dominance in the browser wars, and for a long while, it did. IE's numbers were falling and Firefox's were climbing, but then Chrome joined the battle. A funny thing happened at that point. Firefox, once the most beloved browser by users 'in the know,' took a backseat to Chrome's rapid rise, and now it's anyone's guess what the next year or so will bring. Let's have a look where things stand.
As September came to a close, NetMarketShare has IE out in front with a 53.63 percent of the global browser market, followed by Firefox at 20.08 percent and Chrome at 18.86 percent. In that past two years, that represents a 7.36 percent decline for IE, 3.47 percent decline for Firefox, and a 10.1 percent rise for Chrome. Based on those figures alone, it would appear Chrome is on pace to win the browser wars, first by jumping ahead of Firefox relatively soon, and then by eventually unseating IE. A closer look at the numbers reveals a different situation entirely. For past 12 months, Chrome's share of the browser market has averaged 18.80 percent, or almost exactly where it's at today, according to NetMarketShare's data. Meanwhile, Firefox has averaged 20.75 percent, which isn't much higher than where it's at today, and IE has averaged 53.34 percent, also pretty close to where it's at today. It would appear, then, that the browser market share among the big 3 has plateaued. If that's the case, then like it or not, IE might always be the most popular browser on the planet, even if not the best option. Or maybe not. 
If we direct our attention to StatCounter's data, Chrome is in first place with a 34.21 percent share of the market, followed by IE at 32.7 percent and Firefox off in a distant third place with a 22.4 percent share. Looking at StatCounter's line graph, Chrome is still on the rise and IE appears to have leveled out, while Firefox is slowly trending downwards. Talk about confusing. The discrepancy in data has to do with how each firm analyzes browser usage. StatCounter compiles its data based on page views from 3 million websites, while NetMarketShare adds up the number of daily unique visitors from a collection of 40,000 websites. Is one method better than the other? That's up for debate. The only thing we can say with certainty is that trying to analyze and ultimately decipher the browser wars is a fool's errand. Which browser(s) are you using? Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E Review Posted: 02 Oct 2012 09:55 AM PDT Close, but no silver bullet The Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E doesn't lack for heat pipes: Eight of them rise from the heat exchanger up into the two sets of cooling fins. The entire thing, from aluminum fins to copper pipes and heat exchanger, is plated in a shiny nickel coat. The two sets of cooling fins are shiny and jagged, and much more stylized than the Noctua DH-14 or the Phanteks PH-TC14PE, its most obvious competitors of the coolers we've tested. The whole assemblage weighs two pounds, 7.6 ounces with both fans. Those fans—a 15cm TY-150 and 14cm TY-141—are both low-RPM 12V fans with 4-pin PWM connectors. 
There's something incongruous about mustard-and-olive fans with those edgy nickel-plated cooling fins. The Silver Arrow includes mounting hardware for Intel LGA775, 1366, 1156, 1155, and 2011, as well as AMD FM1, AM2, AM2+, AM3, and AM3+. Unfortunately, all the mounting brackets are finicky and complicated. The anchor plate attaches to mounting posts—either mounted through to the backplate or (on LGA2011) mounted directly to the integrated backplate—with the use of tiny Philips-head screws. Then the mounting plate goes over the back of the heat exchanger and attaches to the anchor plate with two more tiny screws. The mounting plate doesn't secure to the heatsink, so it slides around while you try to line up the screws. The fin stacks are close enough together that all but the longest, skinniest screwdrivers are too wide to fit between them. The fans attach to the cooler with wire clips, which are flimsy and difficult to secure compared to the much better clips found in the Phanteks and Noctua coolers. Like most dual-stack coolers we've tested, the Silver Arrow interferes with tall RAM heat spreaders, so you'll need to use low-profile RAM. Once installed onto our overclocked i7-3930K test bed, the Silver Arrow SB-E performed slightly behind the Noctua and a good 3 C behind the Phanteks. It was even slightly outperformed by the direct-contact Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo. For the price of the Silver Arrow you can get the Noctua, which has an easier install and slightly better temperatures, or for $5 more you can get the Phanteks, which performs even better, has a better install than the Thermalright, and comes in a variety of colors, but lacks PWM fans. |
| Kingston 64GB Wi-Drive review Posted: 02 Oct 2012 09:34 AM PDT Offload your bulk videos and music The concept for Kingston's 64GB Wi-Drive is a little difficult to communicate to most people, but we've decided the best analogy is real estate. Pretend you live in Tokyo or Manhattan and your $850,000 condo is just 700 square feet. What do you do with all your crap? Get a storage unit. That's precisely how Kingston's clever little Wi-Drive works. Coming in sizes of 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB, the Wi-Drive lets you offload video, images, and music onto a diminutive battery-powered device. To access the files, you simply connect your smartphone, tablet, or laptop to the Wi-Drive via Wi-Fi. Even better, the Wi-Drive allows up to three simultaneous users so it essentially operates as a personal media server. For storage-limited devices such as the Kindle Fire or small-capacity iPads, the Wi-Drive lets you live large with media. 
The Wi-Drive works as a small, battery-powered media server. We found the device's range to be pretty fair. It's ample enough to let you watch videos stored on it while your friend or family member also watches from their seat 10 rows behind you on the plane. Adding files is as simple as plugging the device into your PC, where it's recognized as a USB mass storage device. On your Android or iOS device, you need to install a small client available from each platform's application store. On Android units, the app lets you pick your media player of choice, so we had no problems consuming the different video formats; iOS was pickier. In places where you have Wi-Fi, you can configure the Wi-Drive to work as an access point, too. It supports WEP, WPA, and WPA2 on 802.11g/n. For the security-conscious folks, you'll want to enable encryption. By default, the device runs wide open, which could be quite embarrassing, as anyone on your flight could connect to and view your files. So unless you're Kim Kardashian, you should probably lock down the device. The Wi-Drive is almost too easy to use, but we did have a couple of issues, such as the use of a Mini USB charger. What is this, freaking 2008? Getting it to run on external power is also tricky. You can't turn on the unit when it's plugged into a charger. What you have to do is unplug it, turn it on, and then plug it back into the charger. Unplugging the charger also kicks off power, oddly. As is, the unit will give you about three to four hours of streaming before the onboard battery goes. We think that's short, but honestly, most of the devices you'll be using to watch the videos will probably be dead, too. As we mentioned, we're also confused by the use of a Mini USB port instead of Micro USB. These are fairly tiny annoyances, though, in what is otherwise a pretty solid product. What could make it better? Perhaps a microSD slot to add additional storage and a heftier battery pack for longer flights. It would also be cool to be able to drop videos on the unit once it's been mounted on your network, but that's probably making it far too complicated. As is, the Wi-Drive works pretty damn well. |
| Lenovo ThinkCentre M78 Desktop is All Business Posted: 02 Oct 2012 06:39 AM PDT  The next time someone has the gall to tell you the desktop is dead or starts talking about the so-called post-PC era, feel free to slap them in the face with a trout (WARNING: Maximum PC will not provide bail money). Who knows, Lenovo might be right there with you. The OEM builder did, after all, just unveil the latest addition to its flagship M Series desktop line, the ThinkCentre M78.
Aimed at medium to large businesses, the ThinkCentre M78 comes packing AMD A-Series Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) rather than Intel Ivy Bridge chips. The decision to build around AMD's APU platform should save businesses a bit money in upfront costs, though Lenovo touts other reasons. "Professionals in medium to large businesses need dependable, productive and secure desktops to meet the day-to-day rigors of workplace demands," said Su Lijun, executive director, global desktop marketing, Lenovo. "We built the ThinkCentre M78 to last, equipping it with great performance, security and energy-saving features in one device." 
Pricing starts at $479, which translates into an AMD A4-5300 APU (dual-core, 1MB cache, up to 3.6GHz, HD 7480D graphics), 4GB DDR3-1600 memory, 250GB hard drive (7200 RPM, SATA 6Gbps), DVD burner, and Windows 7 Professional. The ThinkCentre M78 is upgradeable up to an AMD A10-5700 APU, up to 1TB of storage space, up to 32GB of memory, and discrete GPU options. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Acer's Aspire S7 Series Ultrabooks Want to Feel Your Touch Posted: 02 Oct 2012 05:59 AM PDT  With the launch of Windows 8 just weeks away, hardware makers are starting to announce touch-friendly systems in preparation of Microsoft's next generation operating system (OS). That includes Acer, which just unveiled what it claims are the world's thinnest touch-capable Ultrabooks: Aspire S7 Series. Like Windows 8, the Aspire S7 Series will be available to purchase starting October 26, 2012.
Acer claims the S7 models are as thin as a tablet at just 0.47 inches when measured at the leanest point, and weigh as little as 2.29 pounds, at least for the 11.6-inch model. We imagine the 13.3-inch version is probably a little heavier, though still probably under 3 pounds (if speculating). Remarkably, both models boast Full HD 1080p (1920x1080) screen resolutions, an absolute rarity in the Ultrabook space, and unheard of in Ultrabooks models this size. They also feature an all-aluminum unibody design, rigid lids made of white Gorilla Glass 2 or aluminum, patent-pending TwinAir cooling technology, and a light-sensing keyboard. The S7 Series is essentially a MacBook Air for the Windows 8 crowd, and it comes from Acer. "Acer took a fresh approach to the design and development of the Aspire S7, using premium construction methods and materials," said Sumit Agnihotry, vice president of product marketing for Acer. "We also used cutting-edge manufacturing processes that are not typically used in the PC industry, but were necessary to achieve the high level of engineering and design quality we set for the S7." 
Under the hood you'll find 3rd Generation Intel Core i5 3317UB or i7-3517U processors and solid state drives in a RAID 0 configuration. The non-removable battery is said to provide up to 6 hours of run time, with the option of adding a second battery (and more weight) to double computing time to 12 hours. Pricing for the 11.6-inch model will start at $1,199; for the 13.3-inch model, cost of entry starts at $1,399. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
