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Review: Futuremark looks beyond the PC with new 3DMark

Futuremark is busy these days shaking up their benchmarking business, and the new 3DMark is proof that nothing is off the table. PC, WinRT, Android and iOS support are all planned, although the Windows and Android versions are currently the only ones available. Visuals are a real improvement over 3DMark 11. 3DMark’s version numbers have been ditched from the product name in an attempt to emphasize the new cross-platform nature of the release. This ill-advised gesture is ignored by the faithful and the press alike, including me. Naming gaffes aside, Futuremark has undertaken the long-overdue rework of their flagship product and emerged with a slick package that sheds the weight of past releases and restores the luxurious visuals and sense of style that have been absent from the last few versions. Installation isn’t complicated and remains free of add-on traps and other bloatware, although the gigabyte-sized download isn’t petite. Make [...]

Posted by admin - May 7, 2013 at 6:38 am

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Resurrecting a WWII optic with scraps and a 3D printer

May 6, 2013 at 23:25:39 GMT Falling into the interesting photo experiments category, Patrick Letourneau adapted a Kodak Aero Ektar 178mm F2.5 lens, a surplus lens originally used during World War II in bomber-mounted cameras, to use with his Panasonic GH2. A Thorium-oxide coating was used on the Aero Ektar’s rear element to improve its refraction index, a fact that adds a sense of intrigue to the unique project. Weighing about 3.2 pounds (1.45kg), the Kodak Aero Ektar was made in the early 1940s The Up! 3D printer allows quick prototyping of custom parts without machining Letourneau used an Up! Personal Portable 3D Printer to construct a lens mount and bracket, which he said was accurate to within 200 microns, then used an old bellows and some scraps to build a light-tight enclosure, employing an LCD diffuser to serve as a ground glass focusing screen. Though use of a 3D [...]

Posted by admin - May 7, 2013 at 6:31 am

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Electronic Arts obtains exclusive rights to Star Wars games

In a piece of news that informs on the future of Star Wars video games after Disney shut down LucasArts last month, Disney and Electronic Arts have signed a multi-year agreement that will see the game publisher obtain exclusive rights to the Star Wars video game franchise, allowing them to make Star Wars video games from here on out. Electronic Arts says that DICE and Visceral Games will produce new Star Wars titles in the future, as they join BioWare, who is continuing to develop games for the franchise. As for what to expect in upcoming games from EA, the company’s Labels President, Frank Gibeau, says that the new games will be “entirely original with all new stories and gameplay,” with some elements being borrowed from past films. However, the agreement between EA and Disney doesn’t give the game publisher all the rights to the Star Wars game franchise, as [...]

Posted by admin - May 7, 2013 at 6:31 am

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Samsung ATIV Book 5 Overview. Why?

I tested the Samsung Series 5 Ultra Touch with SSD recently. It was a fantastic bit of kit but lacked a few features. The 1366×768 screen was a bit 2012 and there was no keyboard backlighting. When I saw that the Samsung ATIV Book 5 was launching I was hopeful that we’d be seeing the necessary upgrades. Alas, it appears that the Book 5 is nothing more than a re-positioning exercise. The ATIV brand is going to be used by Samsung in the USA but it introduces some confusion during the change-over period. The old Series 5, 7 and 9 still exist. The question is, what is Samsung’s low-cost Ultrabook range in the USA or are they clearing out in preparation for Haswell, touch-only Ultrabooks from June. Are they going to do anything with the Y-series processors? The new Samsung ATIV Book doesn’t currently offer much in addition to something [...]

Posted by admin - May 7, 2013 at 6:20 am

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Samsung focuses on features in latest GALAXY S 4 ads

In case you aren’t a fan of the NBA and haven’t seen Samsung’s latest round of GALAXY S 4 commercials this weekend, they’ve been pretty direct at poking fun at the iPhone. This week however, Samsung decided to leave out the iPhone and play nice with two brand new ad spots showcasing features of their GALAXY S 4 flagship smartphone. We enjoy watching the funny commercials, but these are good too. Instead of making fun of those iDevices and having people question their old iPhone purchases. Or just going crazy like Microsoft’s latest attempts to lure buyers, they opted to keep these two newest TV commercials short and sweet. The first was 90 seconds long and called “Grad Pool Party” but below you can enjoy their two latest, and shorter commercials. Below you’ll find the new 30 second ad spot called Grad Photo, where Samsung decided to stick to showcasing [...]

Posted by admin - May 7, 2013 at 5:37 am

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HP Updates ProBook Business Lineup Design and Processors with Intel Haswell

HP is giving their ProBook budget friendly business lineup of notebooks a makeover this summer by making them slimmer and lighter just in time for the beach season (36% thinner and 18% lighter than the previous year to be precise). But that’s not all, they’ll also be more muscular with newer and faster Intel and AMD processors under the hood, allowing them to kick sand in the face of competition. Beach analogies aside, the new ProBook does look pretty attractive and the lineup includes the following systems: ProBook 430 – 13.3” screen, Intel Processor ProBook 440 – 13.3” screen, Intel Processor ProBook 445 – 13.3” screen, AMD Processor ProBook 450 – 15.6” screen, Intel Processor ProBook 455 – 15.6” screen, AMD Processor ProBook 470 – 17” screen, Intel Processor In case you didn’t deduce yourself, you can see that any model ending in “0” is an Intel based system, while [...]

Posted by admin - May 7, 2013 at 5:32 am

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HP Updates ProBook Business Lineup Design and Processors with Intel Haswell

Posted by admin - May 7, 2013 at 5:32 am

Categories: Notebook Review Tags:

Microsoft: The Xbox 720 won’t require an always-on connection to play games

The internet has been abuzz for months with rumors about Microsoft’s next Xbox requiring an always-on connection. Everyone started hand-wringing about the negative implications, and it even led to a Microsoft employee losing his job after mouthing off on Twitter. Well, it seems as if all the worrying was for naught because a recently leaked internal memo makes it clear that a connection won’t be required for all activities. Today, Ars Technica is reporting that the next Xbox will play games, run Blu-rays, and show live television without an active connection to the internet. Supposedly, this information comes directly from an email sent to all full-time members of the Xbox team. While this is far from official confirmation, this does line up quite well with information that’s been going around since the Adam Orth story exploded. The prevailing theory is that Microsoft had planned to make the console require an always-on connection, [...]

Posted by admin - May 7, 2013 at 2:16 am

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Adobe heralds subscription-only future for Photoshop and Creative Suite

May 6, 2013 at 18:28:56 GMT Adobe has said it will no longer be developing its Creative Suite range of software, leaving its subscription and cloud-based Creative Cloud as the only way of accessing the latest version of Photoshop. Adobe has been trying to encourage users away from the traditional one-off payment licenses and on to a monthly payment model, with features such as online storage and syncing between devices. This latest move ups the ante by making it the only option for future versions of the software. Adobe is clearly concerned about alienating existing users and has set the pricing of its Creative Cloud products at a similar level to its existing software. The cost of licensing just Photoshop CC over 18 months (the typical life-span of a version of Photoshop), is similar to the existing version-to-version upgrade prices, if you commit to a 24-month contract. Paying to use [...]

Posted by admin - May 7, 2013 at 1:42 am

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Windows Phone 8 rebooting problem resolved. How?

There are various issues and problem observed and reported by users using the Microsoft Windows Phone 8 platform. The most commonly reported problem for Windows Phone 8 platform is the abrupt rebooting. The smartphone reboots by itself without giving any prior warning. This irritates when you are in the middle of the conversation, or transferring am image file using Wi-Fi. Also the time it takes to reboot will further increase the pain. Microsoft Windows Phone 8 platform is already trailing behind the popular Android and iOS phones and the random rebooting problem could take away some more users bringing the popularity further down. No doubt, Windows Phone 8 is the third option after Android and iOS smartphones, but it has this peculiar abrupt rebooting problem. The problem is predominantly observed on HTC 8X and Nokia Lumia 920 devices. You may not observe the rebooting problem on other devices using Windows [...]

Posted by admin - May 7, 2013 at 12:16 am

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