I've spent what seems like months obsessing over every little bit of Galaxy Nexus minutiae that's crossed the wire, and what better to celebrate its (hopefully) impending launch than to watch one get torn apart? That's right folks -- iFixit is at it yet again, and this time it's the GSM Galaxy Nexus that's going under the knife.]]>
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Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Review: The Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 Is Just Right
Short VersionThe Galaxy Tab 8.9 is a nearly perfect size and weight and, thanks to a few user experience updates, is an excellent vehicle for Android Honeycomb 3.1. In many cases the dreaded Android lag is gone and 8.9 screen size is, like the baby bear's porridge, just right.]]>
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Carrier IQ Video Shows Alarming Capabilities Of Mobile Tracking Software
You may be aware of the growing controversy surrounding Carrier IQ, a piece of software found pre-installed on Sprint phones that, according to developers who have investigated, is capable of detecting, recording, and transmitting various user actions and inputs. Among the data CIQ potentially has access to are location, SMS, apps, and key presses.News of the software has been percolating for months on development forums, but when Trevor Eckhart recently summarized his findings, he found himself facing a cease and desist while Sprint vigorously denied the charges, saying "We do not and cannot look at the contents of messages, photos, videos, etc., using this tool."The C&D was quickly retracted, but Eckhart has now released a video that seems to give the lie to both Sprint and Carrier IQ's assurances.]]>
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The Kindle Fire Bests The iPad At BestBuy.com, Becomes The Retailer’s Best Selling Tablet Online
Be careful, the Kindle Fire is hot. Burning up you might say. Get it? Because it's the Fire? Never mind...Amazon's first foray into the tablet world seems to be a runaway success. The Fire has occupied the top spot on Amazon's best sellers list for weeks even prior to the device shipping. Now, at Best Buy, the $199 Fire sits higher the 16GB iPad as the top selling tablet on the retailer's website. Yep, it's safe to say that Amazon is well on its way to officially winning the Android tablet wars. Amazon's first color tablet had a banner Black Friday weekend. The retail previously stated that it moved four times more Kindles this year than last (although hard numbers were not given). Consumers are seemingly eating up the Fire. ]]>
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Market For Mobile Health Apps Projected To Quadruple To $400 Million By 2016
The latest healthtech research shows that the forecast is looking good for mobile health solutions, especially for those companies buying into mobile apps. ABI Research recently released a report which predicts that the sports and health mobile app market is on pace to hit $400 million in revenues by 2016. That's up from $120 million in 2010, meaning the market could quadruple over the next four years.ABI's report projects that the majority of that $400 million will come from sports, fitness, and wellness apps, which have begun to see heavy adoption over the least year. The increase of available health data and the growing adoption of health-related apps is owed largely to the development of increasingly wearable, portable, and non-invasive devices and their sensors that can effectively measure and transmit biometric data. ]]>
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Judge Applies SOPA-Esque Solution To Hundreds Of Counterfeit Goods Sites
The much-maligned SOPA bill is facing a lot of heat as much of the tech industry sets its weight against it. But while the legislation is being discussed, its extreme solutions to criminal online sites are already being adopted. A judge in Nevada has ordered that 228 websites be seized, their domain names transferred, and their listings removed from search engines.There are several serious problems with this ruling, and law blogger Venkat Balasubramani sums them up well. Essentially it is unclear how and why this Nevada judge purports to exert powers over hundreds of separate defendants and order relief from parties only tangentially related to the case, such as search engines. The jurisdiction, evidence, and punitive actions all seem to be have had their scope exaggerated.]]>
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Aviary’s Tools Are Powering One Million Edited Photos Per Week On Mobile Alone
If apps like Instagram have proven one thing, it's that photos and mobile phones are an extremely popular (and powerful) combination. And photos on the web are obviously immensely popular as well.A year ago NYC-based startup Aviary decided to capitalize on these trends by launching developer-facing APIs, which allow third-party apps to bake in image editing with a minimal amount of work required. Today, the company is announcing some stats that indicate that its strategy is working: it's now powering image editing in some 300+ websites and mobile applications, and over one million photos are being edited per week on mobile alone.For most of its history Aviary has offered a suite of web-based image editing tools — if you want to edit an image but don't have Photoshop handy, for example, it's a great free alternative. Then last year, it opened the doors to third-party developers with a new HTML5-based web API, and it followed that up with its iOS and Android SDKs this past September. Aviary says that on average, it takes a mobile developer only fifteen minutes to bake this functionality into their apps.]]>
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Snap Interactive Says Facebook’s New Mobile Channels Are Boosting Its Traffic And Revenue
Facebook launched a new set of social channels for apps to reach mobile users last month, including notifications, search, news feed stories and bookmarks in its mobile web and iPhone apps. We haven't heard too much about the results from developersBut here's a little bit of interesting new data from Snap Interactive, a publicly-traded company that has a popular cross-platform app called Are You Interested. After Facebook rolled out the new features in mid-October, the company said its mobile traffic to that app got a significant boost (although it's not providing specific numbers).The number of average daily logins on its AreYouInterested iPhone app (here) increased by 70 percent between the 30 days before the October 10th Facebook integration and the 30 days after.]]>
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Restored Polaroid SX70s, With Designer Accents – For A Price
An original Polaroid SX70 camera would be a dream for many an analog photography lover. But not only are they difficult to find in good condidion, they're also maddeningly expensive when they show up. Today is no exception, but they're rare enough that to find 50 restored cameras ready for sale is an event worth shouting from the rooftops.These SX70s have been restored by The Impossible Project, which if you have been following along for the last few years, has taken it upon themselves to manufacture Polaroid film cartridges and fix up some of the old cameras. They show up in small batches on Impossible's site and others, but quickly sell out. And starting on December 5th there will be 50 available for purchase at boutique design site colette (caution: autoplaying music).]]>
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A New Google Bar: Black Is Out, Google Search Across Products Is In
Over the last six months, Google has been doing a full house clean -- or maybe it's been shedding an old skin. On the one hand, that's meant sunsetting products that just aren't cutting it anymore, like in September when it announced plans to shutter Aardvark, Desktop, Notebook, and Fast Flip, etc. and then last week it continued with saying au revoir (officially) to Wave, Knol, Friend Connect, and more. Then, on the other hand, Google has been updating its look, well, its design. Today, Google announced on its blog that it's "ready for the next stage" of its redesign, which apparently includes a new Google bar that will enable users to quickly switch between each of its products, and share easily with Robert Scoble (er, Google+ users). That means arrivederci to the black bar. ]]>
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BeachMint’s Celeb-Filled Cyber Monday Draws Over 50,000 Viewers (With Help From RtoZ)
There were a lot of sales going on this past Cyber Monday, as many sites across the web slashed prices in a celebration of consumerism.But few sites had the star power that BeachMint did. Yesterday, the company launched a unique Facebook application including a live video stream featuring the likes of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Kate Bosworth, and Rachel Bilson. The celebrities are, of course, all affiliated with BeachMint's sites — the Olsens are attached with StyleMint, Bosworth with JewelMint, and Bilson with ShoeMint.During the two-hour stream, each of the celebrities (as well as several other guests), introduced a series of products that were available in limited quantities — users could purchase these products, watching the inventory counting down in real-time. In effect, it was an online, social version of Home Shopping Network.]]>
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Keen On… How Your Cell Phone Might Be Killing You (TCTV)
Yes, we've heard it before: cell phones, they say, give us cancer. But this time, the message is from a noted medical researcher and this time it's a message that is supported by a number of governments including Finland, Israel, France and even Canada. Dr. Devra Davis is the author of Disconnect: the Truth about Cell Phone Radiation, What the Industry Has Done to Hide It, and How to Protect Your Family a new book which suggests that there is indeed all-too-intimate connection between our cell phones and our bodies.]]>
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Zuckerberg Loves That The FTC Wants You To “Like” Them On Facebook
Facebook and the FTC made peace this morning, after the government agency complained that the social network violated user privacy. The two reached a settlement which will fundamentally change the way Facebook deals with privacy moving forward -- including measures like bulking up its privacy division and submitting to new privacy audits every two years.Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized that he did not take the issue of consumer privacy lightly in a public statement, ”Not one day goes by when I don’t think about what it means for us to be the stewards of this community and their trust.”]]>
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Atari Looks To Reinvent Itself As A Mobile Games Company; Hires Former iWON/Marvel Exec As EVP
Founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, Atari played a central role in the early history of video games, going on to create what are still some of the most recognizable arcade games on the planet, like Centipede, Breakout and Pong, to name a few. Not to mention the fact that its joystick-controlled Atari 2600 console was pretty much synonymous with "video games" in the 1980s.Although Atari remains a recognizable brand around the globe, the company struggled through the video games crash of 1983, financial issues, and various assets have fallen under a number of different ownership and leadership regimes, including Warner Communications and Hasbro -- among many others.]]>
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Ultrabook Prices May Fall 5-10% In The First Part Of 2012, Says Report
The first ultrabooks are just now hitting the market but despite Intel's stated wishes, prices are generally north of $1000. But that might change early next year, per Digitimes who cites several supply chain makers. Reportedly, Acer, Asustek and Toshiba are looking to lower prices in 1Q12 to below $1000. Plus, a $100 marketing subsidy from Intel cause a overal dip of 5-10% next year. But even without the potential price drop, it's best to wait for the next round of ultrabooks anyway.]]>
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How Neustar Plans To Make UltraViolet DRM Work, With or Without Apple (TCTV)
There's a lot of skepticism about the the success potential of UltraViolet, a new cloud based digital distribution format designed to make digital rights management work across devices. That's because people hate DRM, but also because the standard currently lacks support Amazon and iTunes, the two biggest digital video sellers and renters. I wanted the real story on where UltraViolet is going, so I sat down with the Tim Dodd, VP and GM or Neustar Media, developers of the technology that powers UltraViolet. Watch here on TCTV as he defends UltraViolet, explains how it works on iOS devices without support from iTunes, and claims that there's still a future in physical media.]]>
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‘Olive’ Aims To Be The First Feature-Length Smartphone-Shot Film In Theaters
What's former Facebook CTO Chris Kelly doing post-Democratic Attorney General run? Why backing a feature length film shot on a smartphone of course! The film, called Olive, went up on Kickstarter today and was shot entirely using a Nokia N8 phone and a specially crafted 35mm lense.Director Hooman Khalili tells me that what differentiates Olive from other films that have tried the whole "movie shot on a smartphone" gimmick -- like The Wrong Ferrari -- is that he actually intends to show the film in theatres. Khalili even wants to submit it for Oscar consideration -- which would be a first for a smartphone-shot film .]]>
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Path’s Second Iteration Is Less Photosharing And More Everything Sharing
In the mobile startup tradition of quick product iteration, Path Two has hit the app store this evening -- expanding beyond photosharing to people, place, music, chat and sleep mode sharing. Path founder Dave Morin says that the second phase of Path is about giving people a place to "capture all the experiences" on their path through life.The existing Path UI on iOS and Android has been completely revamped (beautifully) and is basically a multimedia timeline. You can right swipe for settings, left swipe to add friends, and swipe down to view your own or your friends' Paths. To initiate a Path post, click on the + button in the left corner and out pop six option icons.]]>
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Seagate's 2nd Gen Momentus XT: More NAND, Larger Capacity
It's been over a year since I reviewed Seagate's first hybrid hard drive: the 500GB Momentus XT. At the time I felt that it wasn't nearly as good as an SSD, but likely the best 2.5" hard drive money could buy. Armed with only 4GB of SLC NAND acting as a read cache, the original Momentus XT delivered VelociRaptor performance in a much more power efficient package.
Since then Seagate hasn't updated or expanded its line of hybrid HDDs at all. I kept hearing rumors of new drives coming but nothing ever surfaced. More recently Seagate announced that the next version of the Barracuda XT will be a hybrid drive as well.
Today Seagate is announcing availability of its second generation Momentus XT. Now at 750GB with 8GB of SLC NAND (once again, as a read cache), the new Momentus XT is a definite evolution over its predecessor. With a larger NAND cache Seagate can be more aggressive with its caching, not to mention the improvements to the mechanical side of the drive as well. The entire package is still not nearly as fast a value SSD, but it's doing much better than mechanical (3.5" included) hard drives in our tests.
Write caching is still not enabled on the NAND, however Seagate is planning on enabling it via a firmware update sometime in 2012. I've seen results from an early version of the write caching firmware and the improvement is tangible.
The 750GB Momentus XT will be available at a MSRP of $245.
We're still hard at work on our review of the drive, expect to see it later this week!
]]>NVIDIA Posts 290.36 GeForce Beta Drivers
NVIDIA today released beta version 290.36 of its GeForce driver package for desktops running Windows XP, Vista, and 7 and laptops running Windows Vista and 7. Like previous releases, the desktop drivers support all GeForce 6-series cards and newer, while the laptop drivers support Geforce 8-series and newer cards as well as most DirectX 10/11-capable Quadro NVS and FX-series cards.
The new drivers' primary feature is the addition of the Ambient Occlusion lighting feature for Skyrim and Modern Warfare 3 in the NVIDIA Control Panel. The drivers also add NVIDIA Surround multi-monitor support for SLI-certified motherboards using Intel's X79 chipset, and is additionally "recommended for gamers diving into Batman: Arkham City," though the release notes don't say exactly why.
Other additions and fixes include: support for 3D Vision over a DisplayPort 1.1 connection (available for BenQ XL2420T and XL2420TX monitors), updated 3D Vision profiles for a number of games including Modern Warfare 3 and Diablo 3, PhysX System Software and HD Audio driver version updates, and a smattering of bug fixes.
You can read the full release notes below, and download the beta drivers from NVIDIA's web site. Based on past releases, expect to see a final, WHQL-certified version of these drivers at some point in December or January.
Source: NVIDIA
]]>Skyrim 1.2 Patch Due on Nov. 30
It should come as no surprise that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim launched with a whole host of bugs. Bethesda RPGs are renowned for their massive worlds, but with that size comes a greater propensity for stuff to just plain go wrong. Having been through this before, Bethesda started working on a major patch soon after release, and it looks like they're finally ready to deliver.
Wednesday’s patch, which has already gone live for PlayStation 3 users, is dubbed “Skyrim 1.2” and aims to fix a whole host of actual bugs. Here’s the full list of changes, straight from Bethesda:
Improved occasional performance issues resulting from long term play (PlayStation 3)Fixed issue where textures would not properly upgrade when installed to drive (Xbox 360)Fixed crash on startup when audio is set to sample rate other than 44100Hz (PC)Fixed issue where projectiles did not properly fade awayFixed occasional issue where a guest would arrive to the player’s wedding deadDragon corpses now clean up properlyFixed rare issue where dragons would not attackFixed rare NPC sleeping animation bugFixed rare issue with dead corpses being cleared up prematurelySkeleton Key will now work properly if player has no lockpicks in their inventoryFixed rare issue with renaming enchanted weapons and armorFixed rare issue with dragons not properly giving souls after deathESC button can now be used to exit menus (PC)Fixed occasional mouse sensitivity issues (PC)General functionality fixes related to remapping buttons and controls (PC)Note that this patch is separate from a minor one released last week that properly tied the game’s PC executable to Steam. This had the side effect of removing a bunch of mods upon update and subsequently limiting one’s ability to tamper with the game, such as installing a third-party large address aware patch that enabled Skyrim to draw on more than just 2 GB of system RAM. (There is now a workaround for those who’d like to take full advantage of their PC’s hardware.)
This likely won't be the last Skyrim patch, and future DLC packs will likely come with their own bugs and hiccups. But this should improve the game for scores of players (that texture bug on the 360 is a big one) just in time for the holidays.
Source: Bethesda via Giant Bomb
]]>Introducing AMD’s Memory Brand
We discussed the availability of AMD branded memory modules earlier this month, but today AMD is officially unveiling information on their memory platform. There are a few major questions many will have: why is AMD entering the memory market at all, and what do they hope to offer that we can’t already get from other vendors? Let’s take those in turns.
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The reason for AMD’s entry into the memory market comes from two areas. First, AMD’s APUs are now shipping in large volumes and can definitely benefit from higher bandwidth memory modules. We’ve already shown the sort of performance scaling you can get from an A8-3850 with higher clocked DRAM, but many people buy A-series APUs as part of a prebuilt system, and right now lots of OEMs are still cutting corners on the RAM and using DDR3-1333. That’s the second aspect of the move: AMD wants to enable a [buzzword alert!] “holistic customer platform experience”, and they may be able to help drive down costs for AMD platforms. A final element AMD mentions is a desire to drive and enable future memory product developments.
The other item to discuss is what AMD offers that we may not already have. Here the distinction between AMD branded memory and other options isn’t quite so clear, but AMD will be doing testing and validation in their labs using AMD platforms. AMD also notes that they will not be using any ETT (Effectively TesTed) or gray market RAM. The latter is used as a term to collectively group hardware that may be less desirable; as an example, Intel unboxed CPUs are “gray market” because they are intended for OEM use but can still end up being sold at retail. Basically, gray market parts would cut out some of the supply channel (in the example just cited, gray box processors typically cut out AMD/Intel and only have a short warranty from the seller). ETT parts on the other hand are a way of cutting costs by skipping branding; the RAM is still tested and is supposed to be high quality, but without branding it’s one small way to reduce costs. Generally speaking, ETT memory is destined for value RAM modules, so basically AMD is saying is that their AMD RAM will start out a step above value RAM. AMD also states that they will take end-to-end ownership of the AMD Memory ecosystem, working with module manufacturers, memory partners, IC partners, distributors, and VARs (value added resellers).
With that out of the way, let’s discuss the specifics of what AMD Memory will be available and the target markets. Here’s a slide from AMD’s presentation summarizing things:
As you would expect from any memory, the AMD RAM will work with both AMD and Intel platforms; the main difference between the tiers will be the speed and packaging. Entertainment Edition memory will target the mainstream/value segment, come in single 2GB and 4GB DIMM packages, and is rated for CL9 operation at DDR3-1333 and/or DDR3-1600; Entertainment Edition memory is already available, starting in October. The Performance Edition memory should start shipping this month, and it will come in 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB capacities (these are presumably two-DIMM kits with 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB total capacities; Bulldozer could potentially use four-DIMM kits). The main difference with Performance Edition memory is that it is rated for CL8 operation at DDR3-1333/1600 speeds. Last is the Radeon Edition memory, which will come in 4GB and 8GB kits and offer DDR3-1866 and up to DDR3-2133 support with CL9 operation (and presumably CL7/8 operation at lower speeds). The Radeon Edition parts will also have support for overclocking via AMD OverDrive software; availability is expected in Jan/Feb 2012.
So what does all of this really mean? That’s the difficult part. If all AMD memory supported speeds of at least DDR3-1600, that would be a clear break from the current offerings, but the press release indicates that there will be both DDR3-1333 and DDR3-1600 parts. The upgrade to DDR3-1600 provides a significant performance increase; we linked our Llano A8-3850 article above showing some of our own results, but here are some charts of our testing along with AMD’s results:
Gallery: AMD Memory
AMD shows up to a 20% performance increase in their testing by upgrading from DDR3-1333 to DDR3-1600, while our own results show an average increase in performance of around 14% across seven tested games (with a range of improvement of around 8% to 41%). Should you choose to spring for faster DDR3-1866 memory (or just overclock some decent DDR3-1600 RAM), the average performance increase is around 20% and up to 40% in some cases (or as low as 8% in Civ5). This isn’t too surprising as the AMD Fusion GPUs are significantly faster than competing solutions and the combination of shared memory bandwidth with the rest of the platform along with generally slower memory speeds (compared to dedicated GPUs) is a double-whammy. So why would AMD continue to sell anything less than DDR3-1600? Your guess is as good as mine.
Several of us have chatted about the AMD Memory announcement, and really we’re not quite sure if this is necessary or useful. If it means systems with better quality and higher performance RAM at the same price, that would be a good thing, but the persistence of DDR3-1333 for desktop parts doesn’t jive with that goal. What’s more, RAM prices are already incredibly low, so AMD entering a commodity market doesn’t appear to be a good way to improve the bottom line.
AMD’s first partners for their branded memory initiative are Patriot Memory and VisionTek, with Patriot being a familiar name to memory shoppers and VisionTek known for their graphics products. There’s nothing inherently wrong with AMD branded memory, but unless the price is lower than existing options (e.g. AMD mentions bundles as something we’re likely to see), there’s also not much that it adds to the market. For now, we’ll stick with recommending you buy RAM that will supports at least DDR3-1600 speeds if you’re buying a Llano (or future APU) system; whether that memory is AMD branded or otherwise will likely be far less important than how much the memory costs for the desired level of performance.
]]>Apple Seeds iOS 5.1 Beta to Developers
Apple seems to have had a Cyber Monday surprise of its own lined up, releasing iOS 5.1 Beta (build 9B5117b) to developers this evening. We've updated an iPhone 4S of our own to 5.1, and thus far the update looks superficially identical to iOS 5.0.1. Baseband firmware on the iPhone 4S gets a rather notable update to 1.2.01-1 from 1.0.13.
The release notes are rather spartan, and the only major new feature in iOS 5.1 are new voice dictation features in text input views:
On supported devices, iOS automatically inserts recognized phrases into the current text view when the user has chosen dictation input. The new UIDictationPhrase class (declared in UITextInput.h) provides you with a string representing a phrase that a user has dictated. In the case of ambiguous dictation results, the new class provides an array containing alternative strings. New methods in the UITextInput protocol allow your app to respond to the completion of dictation.
There's no word on whether iOS 5.1 mitigates power-related issues that iPhone 4S users are still complaining of. We'll update if we see anything major changed in 5.1.
]]>Amazon Kindle Touch 3G Review
Amazon announced three new Kindles back in September: the fourth generation Kindle, the Kindle Touch (and Kindle Touch 3G, both of which are identical aside from the 3G antenna), and the Kindle Fire. The Kindle 4 was available on the same day, and we've already taken a good look at it. Our Kindle Fire review is forthcoming. That leaves the Kindle Touch, which we're going to talk about today.The Kindle Touch is Amazon's first touchscreen e-reader - past Kindles have used nothing but buttons for navigation, even as competing products like Barnes & Noble's Nook Simple Touch began to incorporate touchscreens. At $99 and $149 for the wi-fi and 3G versions ($139 and $189 for the ad-free Kindles), the Kindle Touch is priced competitively, but how does the touchscreen actually impact your reading experience? Read on for our thoughts.]]>
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Amazon Kindle Fire Review
I'll be honest here (I always am?): I don't understand the iPad comparison. The Kindle Fire and iPad 2 couldn't be more different. They are vastly different sizes, shapes and prices. They even serve slightly different functions. The search for an iPad killer reminds me of the search for a Voodoo killer back during the heyday of 3dfx in the late 1990s.
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The Kindle Fire serves entirely different purposes than to take marketshare away from Apple.
Why would Amazon enter the IPS LCD equipped multitouch tablet business to begin with? For users who are content reading ebooks on an e-ink screen, the vanilla Kindles are as good as they get. The problem is for users looking to consolidate devices, they may find themselves carrying a Kindle and a tablet of some sort (likely an iPad) and will ultimately ditch the Kindle in favor of the iPad. Should these users replace their Kindles with iPads, there's the argument that Apple could tempt them away from Amazon's Kindle store altogether. If they want a more affordable tablet however they are likely going to be forced into a solution that's probably not very good. Neither possibility is something Amazon likes, so the obvious answer is to offer a Kindle that delivers enough of the tablet experience that will satisfy those users looking for more than an e-ink Kindle could provide.
The Fire is that Kindle. Read on for our full review!
]]>NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 560 Ti w/448 Cores: GTX 570 On A Budget
A little more than a year ago NVIDIA introduced the GF110 GPU, the power-optimized version of their Fermi patriarch, GF100. The first product was their flagship GTX 580, followed by the eventual GTX 570. Traditionally NVIDIA would follow this up with a 3rd product. The GTX 200 series had 285/275/260, and the GTX 400 series had GTX 480/470/465. However in the past year we have never seen the 3rd tier GF110 card… until now.
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Today NVIDIA will be launching the GeForce GTX 560 Ti With 448 Cores (and yes, that’s the complete name), a limited edition product that will serve as the 3rd tier product, at least for a time. And while NVIDIA won't win any fans with the name, the performance is another matter entirely. If you've ever wanted a GTX 570 but didn't want to pay the $300+ price tag, as we'll see NVIDIA has made a very convincing argument that this is the card for you.
]]>Gigabyte X79-UD5 Giveaway
Earlier this month we reviewed Intel's new ultra high end CPU: Sandy Bridge E. The 2.7 billion transistor chip is a serious workhorse, overkill for most enthusiasts but a dream come true if you do a lot of video encoding, offline 3D rendering or any other heavily threaded task. The platform is expensive but Gigabyte gave us a pair of its X79-UD5 motherboards to give away to any of our readers that might be interested in going down the LGA-2011 path.
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Entries will be accepted until 11AM EST on December 2nd. You can enter by leaving a comment below (please leave only one comment!) and as always, the contest is only available to legal residents of the US (excluding Puerto Rico). Read on for full entry details - good luck!
Gallery: Gigabyte X79-UD5 Giveaway
Game Review: Jurassic Park: The Game
Movie tie-ins are nothing new to gaming. They crop up repeatedly throughout the industry’s history, as both successes and failures. For every good Star Wars-licensed game, there’s a bad one. For every copy of E.T. for the Atari buried in a landfill, there’s a copy of GoldenEye still being used by nostalgic Nintendo 64 fans. So it was with a potent mixture of excitement and trepidation that I approached the newest high-profile movie tie-in: Jurassic Park: The Game. What I found was something more movie than game, which falls short of truly being either.
Jurassic Park is a bit of an outlier as tie-ins go. The source material, Steven Spielberg’s film of the same name (not Michael Crichton’s twenty-one-year-old book, mind you), is sixteen years old, and Jurassic Park 4 has been "in development" since 2002. So instead of retelling of a story we already know, Telltale Games wrote their own parallel story, giving them license to nod and wink at the film without being utterly beholden to it.
As a canonical companion to the original film, Jurassic Park largely succeeds. You’ll see a few familiar locations, hear a few memorable quotes, and spend plenty of time with old friends like the velociraptor. You won’t, however, encounter any characters from the films (except some dinosaurs and the corpse of a greedy, near-sighted computer programmer).
Jurassic Park’s cast is a motley crew of park employees, mercenaries, and a teenager with a penchant for petty theft. Alliances shift constantly as everyone (save the innocent father/daughter pair) fights for possession of a notorious can of shaving cream. Their story – divided into four episodes – isn’t amazing, but it moves swiftly and nimbly. You also view it from a variety of angles, taking turns controlling each character. Shifting perspectives so often kept me guessing as to some of the character’s true motives, as well as which members of my party might not make it off the island.
Now when I say “control” each character, I’m using a rather loose definition. For a product titled Jurassic Park: The Game, gameplay occupies an oddly low position on the design totem pole. Your limited interactions with the game consist of selecting perfunctory dialogue options, clicking around icon-littered environments until you touch upon the one required to advance, and going toe-to-toe with increasingly fiendish quick-time events. Most of the time, Jurassic Park is more concerned with the delivery of its plot, and if you happen to break its flow by missing a button prompt, you’ve failed.
Failure in Jurassic Park (often accompanied by a swift, grisly death at the hands of ravenous dinos) plays a significant – and frustrating – role. I found it nigh impossible not to die at least a few times in each episode, mostly because I am not psychic. During action sequences, button prompts often appear with only a vague relation to the action taking place on screen. And if you’re caught up watching the cinematic action sequence, you’ll likely miss a few prompts.
The intention seems to be to create tension: “Where will the next prompt come from?” “Will the next one you miss be one that kills you?” This tension sucked me in during an excellent rollercoaster sequence in Episode Two but wore out its welcome in the latter half of the game.
Technically, Jurassic Park is a bit scattershot. Some of the dinosaurs, particularly the T-Rex (seen above), look wonderful. Others, like the mysterious troodon, feel out of place, too cartoony. All of the infamous dinosaur sounds are there, of course, and they’re still as unnerving as ever. The humans don’t fare as well. You’ll spend a lot of time in conversations, which you’d think would be a good thing because the voice work’s actually rather good. But the lip-synching seems to just fall apart on occasion, and bizarre sound hiccups (e.g. characters’ voices echoing in the middle of a jungle) call way too much attention to themselves.
Jurassic Park is an ambitious amalgam of adventure game mechanics and cinematic aspirations, but it never quite excels in either respect. The bulk of Jurassic Park’s code is that of a blockbuster movie – action sequences, dialogue justifying the action sequences, more action sequences – but it ultimately feels incomplete and small given the setting and material it’s working with. The shallow gameplay plugs the holes but, just like frog DNA rounding out the genetic code of a dinosaur, also creates unfortunate consequences that cause the whole operation to go awry.
Franchise diehards will likely enjoy Jurassic Park: The Game (sometimes it’s enough just to hear that soaring John Williams score), but they should know they’re getting a frog in dinosaur’s clothing.
This review is based on PC retail code. Jurassic Park: The Game is available for $29.99 on PC, Mac, Xbox 360, PS3 and iPad 2. You can find the modest hardware requirements below:
PCMacOSWindows XP/Vista/7Mac OS X 10.6Processor1.8 GHz Pentium 4 or equivalent2.0 GHz Pentium or equivalentMemory2 GB2 GBVideo CardATI/NVidia card w/ 256 MB RAMATI/NVidia w/ 256 MB RAMDirectX®:DirectX 9.0c -]]>
Pre-Built Desktop Buyer's Guide: Holiday 2011 Edition
While we at AnandTech recognize that a good portion of our readership prefers to roll their own as far as desktops go, not everyone is that way. Sometimes there are also situations where we'd be better off just recommending a pre-built desktop to family than damning ourselves to being tech support at all hours for the next few years. With that in mind, we bring you our...
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If you want to kick back for a change, send something to family or a friend, or whatever your reason for going with a pre-built system, we have a recommendation for you this holiday season.
]]>Saturday, November 26, 2011
Motorola DROID RAZR price in India,Slimmest Android Gingerbead Smart phone Review, Features and Specifications
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- Network Band: 2G (GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 + CDMA 800 / 1900), 3G (HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 + CDMA2000 1xEV-DO /LTE)
- Operating System: Google Android OS, v2.3.5 (Gingerbread)
- CPU: Cortex-A9 CPU
- TI OMAP 4460 chipset
- PowerVR SGX540 GPU
- Processor Type: Dual-core
- Processor Power: 1.2 GHz
- Display Type: Capacitive touch screen
- Display Colors: 16M colors
- Display Screen Size: 4.3 inches (~256 ppi pixel density)
- Display resolution: 540 x 960 pixels
- Gorilla Glass display
- Multitouch input method
- Accelerometer sensor for UI autorotate
- Proximity sensor for auto turnoff
- Camera Size: 8.0 Mega Pixels
- Camera Resolution: 3264 x 2448 pixels
- Camera Support: Autofocus, LED flash
- Camera Features: Touch-focus, face detection, geo-tagging and image stabilization
- Video Recording: 1080p@30fps
- Secondary Camera Size: 2.0 Mega Pixels @ 720p videos
- Ring Tone type: Vibration, MP3, WAV ringtones
- Loudspeaker Phone
- 3.5mm audio Connector jack
- Internal memory: 16 GB storage
- Inbuilt RAM: 1GB RAM
- Expandable Memory: Supports up to 32GB
- microSD Card slot, 16GB card included
- Internet Connectivity: GPRS/EDGE, 3G (Rev. A, up to 3.1 Mbps, LTE, HSDPA, HSUPA), Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA and Wi-Fi hotspot
- Data Transfer connectivity: Bluetooth v4.0 with LE+EDR, microUSB v2.0
- Messaging SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
- HTML Browser
- Stereo FM radio with RDS
- Games
- GPS with A-GPS support
- Java via Java MIDP emulator
- Splash resistant
- HDMI port
- SNS integration
- Digital compass
- Google Search, Maps, Gmail
- Google Talk, Picasa and YouTube integration
- Audio Format Support: MP3/AAC+/WAV/WMA player
- Video Format Support: MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV player
- Organizer
- Document viewer/editor
- Voice memo/dial/commands
- Predictive text input
- Battery Model: Li-Ion 1780 mAh
- Stand-by: Up to 204 hours
- Talk time: Up to 12 hours 30 min
- Dimensions: 130.7 x 68.9 x 7.1 mm
- Weight: 127 grams
- Colors Choice: Black
Motorola DROID RAZR price in India is expected near to Rs. Rs. 14,550/-
Google Enables Voice Action Commands for Android Devices
Google Voice actions commands which are being used from our android devices to send text messages and calls and even check the location on the map. Now the Google had stepped ahead to enhance this feature into next level to entertain more android fans. Now Google Action commands are being recognized by our Android Smartphone in British English language UK, Spanish, Italian, France and Spain.
Download Free Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Home Launcher
A day ago Google has officially launched their new android operating system called Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Flavor. But the OS will take some time to reach for your all android devices, but there is another alternative way you can enjoy this new ice cream sandwich flavor through Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Home Launcher APK App and its available for download from android market store at free of charge. This launcher will totally transform your old home screen into new android 4.0 ice cream sandwich (ICS) GUI Interface. By installing this launcher on your smartphone you will get a lot GUI features like app drawer will give vertical smooth scrolling which you can easily jump into other tasks or apps running at background, new kind of widgets that really make you crazy to add at your home screen easily.
How to Download Youtube Videos on Android Phone
In this post, we are going to show you a quick tutorial on "How to Download Youtube Videos on your Android Phone". Now a days usage of the smartphones are being increased rapidly. People are spending a lot of time to stream the videos on their mobile devices. Usually every one want to view the videos on YouTube as it is a place where we can find thousands of videos over there.
If you are watching favorite videos on YouTube it usually takes a lot of battery to get video to be streamed so if it is your favorite video you can download and save it on your SD card, view the on your device when ever you want. Even i also do same thing on my android device to save battery life. To keep your battery backup for a long time I suggest you to download the video to your device and then watch it.
Friday, November 25, 2011
Make Free Video Calls on Samsung Galaxy S and S2 using Skype
In this post, we will show you simple way to make free video calls on your Samsung Galaxy S and S2 Android Devices using Skype video calling feature which was recently added to some limited android phones only and we hope that they will enable this feature for all android compatible smartphones for next update of this application.
Skype is one the best chat client which support many features such as video calling, text messaging, making group calls, group chat for affordable prices. Skype releases its official app to all the Android users in which you can make video calling from your android device. In the previous update of android there are only few phones supports this video calling feature but in this new update it supports almost all the android devices.
Google Launching a Music Download Store
Nowadays, it’s a hot topic that Google is starting a free music download store. This facility will work intently with the social network of the Google plus. It is authentic news that Google will launch the music store soon. Some of the predictions and reviews shows that it will be within two weeks but according to experts and professionals who are familiar with the Google policies and music download store the release can take more than two weeks. Fans of Google Music download store can use this offer for many advance song sharing options.
It will be possible to share lots of new free mp3 songs and mp4 videos with the help of Google Music Download Store. The song sharing facility can be used both for social and commercial purposes. The people who will use this service can sale the songs uploaded there to the customers. So there will be another business point online but mainly for the music related industries.
Download PES 2012 Demo Game for PC
Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) 2012 was latest game title released by Konami Digital Entertainment Inc at Gamescom 2011. The Demo version of game is out now and available for free download from official site and this football game is playable on both PC and console platforms like PS2 PS3 Wii and X360. The Full version of game is available on all leading gaming market stores at 14th October 2011. They have improved the interactive gameplay and added many more additional features, it makes you feel that you are really playing soccer game in real world environment . They made few changes than the previous series in order to entertain soccer fans and users can able to chose their favorite teams and their playing styles . Here you can see improvements on this things physics, speed, graphics and animation etc. The goal keeper reactions and controlling the ball it's awesome. It’s worth of time to play this soccer game.
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