Deal of the week: SSDs, mice, games, and more
Post-holiday sales are still popping up around the web, and as it happens, Newegg has one running today and through the weekend. Among the items featured are a few solid bargains:
Meanwhile, over at Amazon, those 2K Games digital bundles are still on sale—and one ...
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SATA Express standard enters ratification phase We've clocked the latest 2.5" SSDs at nearly 550MB/s in sequential transfer rate tests. That speed isn't far off the peak theoretical transfer rate of the 6Gbps Serial ATA interface used by modern drives. Next-gen SSDs will need a new interface to really stretch their legs, and one is on the way from the SATA-IO group responsible for the Serial ATA specification. Dubbed SATA Express, this new standard has reached the ratification stage (PDF) and is currently being reviewed by SATA-IO members. As the name implies, SATA Express combines Serial ATA and PCI Express. The interface is wholly PCIe-based, but the physical connector borrows elements from the SATA ... Read more...
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PC Perspective offers a peek at capture-based frame latency measurement Back before I published my first "Inside the second" article, as I was still mulling over the issues in my head, I attended a press event with a bunch of other tech writers. While there, I talked with Ryan Shrout—head guy at our favorite Rodney King fan site, PCPer.com—about what I was working on. His initial reaction was to be a bit annoyed, I think, which puzzled me. Then Ryan revealed that he'd been working on a related issue, although after we talked a little more, he said with some relief that he was approaching things from a different angle and mostly concentrating on some problems with multi-GPU solutions, if I recall correctly. A lot of time has passed since then, but happily, Ryan has finally decided to pull back the curtain on his efforts in this area with a brief post and a video demonstrating the tools he's using. The technology involves capturing every single frame of animation output by a game with a DVI capture card and using ... Read more...
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Leaked roadmap teases Intel 530 Series SSDs Intel's 335 Series is pretty sweet. The SandForce-powered solid-state drive uses the latest 20-nm NAND and is only a step behind the very fastest consumer-grade SSDs, yet it costs just $175 for 240GB. The only thing missing is a five-year warranty, a perk Intel reserves for its pricier 520 Series models. Those drives currently pair the same controller with 25-nm NAND, but it looks like they're set to recieve a 20-nm refresh. VR-Zone's Chinese site has published a purported Intel roadmap that shows a new 530 Series SSD scheduled for the first quarter of this year. The drive will supposedly appear first ... Read more...
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Talk to the Dragon, NaturallySpeaking While I wouldn't consider myself to be particularly injury prone, I've managed to damage various bits of my body over the years. Muscles have been pulled, joints have been sprained, skin has been gashed, and bones have been broken. These injuries usually result from me catapulting off a bicycle, and I've earned most of 'em. My latest crash was less than spectacular, though. Instead of careening down a muddy trail dodging roots and rocks in an attempt to hit a drop-off just right, I was riding along a quiet city street at relatively low speed. I misjudged the gap between two cars, squeezed the brakes too late for the rain-slick pavement, and then hit the deck. As far as spills go, this was a minor one. My bike escaped without a scratch, and for the most part, so did I. However, my right ring finger was in the wrong place at the wrong time, I suspect crushed between the road and my handlebar. It sustained ... Read more...
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Surface for Windows 8 Pro may arrive on the 29th In late November, Microsoft revealed some fresh details about the Intel-powered version of its Surface tablet: more detailed specs, pricing, and so forth. The official launch time frame is still a vague "January 2013," though. So, when can we expect the device? January 29, according to SoftPedia, which says it was tipped off by a "source close to the Redmond campus" about the release date. That source ... Read more...
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Lower-power Ivy chips coming to 'select' systems Remember those rumors about lower-wattage Ivy Bridge processors possibly showing up before the Haswell launch? Well, they're not rumors anymore. We now have confirmation—or rather, CNet News does—that Ivy Bridge chips with TDPs below the current minimum of 17W are indeed on the way. That's about it as far as specifics go, unfortunately. CNet News just adds that these power-sipping Ivy Bridge models should be available only to "select laptop and ... Read more...
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Friday Shortbread The Pick 6
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Sony patent describes RFID-infused DRM DRM schemes were introduced to curb piracy, and they're increasingly being deployed as weapons against used-game sales. While most have been cracked or otherwise bypassed, a new approach developed by Sony could be more difficult to thwart. The PlayStation maker is working on a DRM system that combines optical media with a programmable ROM chip and RFID tag. The extra components would be used to tie the contents of the disc to a specific playback device or user account. They could also be employed to restrict access to certain on-disc content, such as pre-loaded DLC. As Ars Technica points out , the scheme should work without an Internet connection, eliminating one point of contention for DRM detractors. Gating access to the contents of an optical disc using ROM chips and RFID tags would certainly make life more difficult for the Yarrr crowd, since piracy would entail more ... Read more...
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Ubuntu for smartphones looks promising Is there room for another smartphone OS? Canonical seems to think so. The company behind Ubuntu is bringing its Linux distribution to handsets. The OS has a few interesting hooks, including a gesture-centric interface that looks pretty slick. Most of the UI's functions are controlled by swiping in from various edges of the screen. Application controls and notification areas are hidden beyond the upper and lower edges, leaving more real estate available for content and other information. The edge gestures remind me a little bit of Windows 8—in a good way—and they look like a nice fit for handheld devices. Touch won't be the only form of input supported by the OS. Voice recognition seems to factor heavily into Canonical's plans, and users should be able to ask apps to perform various functions. Speaking of apps, Canonical is hyping the fact that Ubuntu for smartphones uses the same web application framework ... Read more...
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Leap motion control tech coming to high-end Asus PCs Ooh, interesting. Mere days ahead of CES, Asus has announced that it's going to add motion control technology to some of its upcoming PCs. The company has partnered with Leap Motion, the same San Francisco start-up that unveiled a $70, ultra-precise motion controller in May of last year. Leap Motion's controller will be bundled with Asus' "premium" all-in-one PCs and high-end notebooks based on Intel's next-gen Haswell processors. The controller can purportedly "track movements to 1/100th millimeter . . . with no visible lag ... Read more...
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Samsung unveils 24'' touch monitor for Win8 We've seen plenty of tablets, laptops, and all-in-one desktops with touch screens ripe for Windows 8, but surprisingly few standalone desktop monitors. However, Samsung seems intent on rectifying that. The company has unveiled a 24-inch multi-touch desktop monitor optimized for Microsoft's new operating system.
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Thursday Shortbread Reservations for Six
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Available Tags:SATA , Intel , Windows 8 , Windows , Sony , Ubuntu , motion , Asus , Samsung ,
SATA Express standard enters ratification phase We've clocked the latest 2.5" SSDs at nearly 550MB/s in sequential transfer rate tests. That speed isn't far off the peak theoretical transfer rate of the 6Gbps Serial ATA interface used by modern drives. Next-gen SSDs will need a new interface to really stretch their legs, and one is on the way from the SATA-IO group responsible for the Serial ATA specification. Dubbed SATA Express, this new standard has reached the ratification stage (PDF) and is currently being reviewed by SATA-IO members. As the name implies, SATA Express combines Serial ATA and PCI Express. The interface is wholly PCIe-based, but the physical connector borrows elements from the SATA ... Read more...
PC Perspective offers a peek at capture-based frame latency measurement Back before I published my first "Inside the second" article, as I was still mulling over the issues in my head, I attended a press event with a bunch of other tech writers. While there, I talked with Ryan Shrout—head guy at our favorite Rodney King fan site, PCPer.com—about what I was working on. His initial reaction was to be a bit annoyed, I think, which puzzled me. Then Ryan revealed that he'd been working on a related issue, although after we talked a little more, he said with some relief that he was approaching things from a different angle and mostly concentrating on some problems with multi-GPU solutions, if I recall correctly. A lot of time has passed since then, but happily, Ryan has finally decided to pull back the curtain on his efforts in this area with a brief post and a video demonstrating the tools he's using. The technology involves capturing every single frame of animation output by a game with a DVI capture card and using ... Read more...
Leaked roadmap teases Intel 530 Series SSDs Intel's 335 Series is pretty sweet. The SandForce-powered solid-state drive uses the latest 20-nm NAND and is only a step behind the very fastest consumer-grade SSDs, yet it costs just $175 for 240GB. The only thing missing is a five-year warranty, a perk Intel reserves for its pricier 520 Series models. Those drives currently pair the same controller with 25-nm NAND, but it looks like they're set to recieve a 20-nm refresh. VR-Zone's Chinese site has published a purported Intel roadmap that shows a new 530 Series SSD scheduled for the first quarter of this year. The drive will supposedly appear first ... Read more...
Talk to the Dragon, NaturallySpeaking While I wouldn't consider myself to be particularly injury prone, I've managed to damage various bits of my body over the years. Muscles have been pulled, joints have been sprained, skin has been gashed, and bones have been broken. These injuries usually result from me catapulting off a bicycle, and I've earned most of 'em. My latest crash was less than spectacular, though. Instead of careening down a muddy trail dodging roots and rocks in an attempt to hit a drop-off just right, I was riding along a quiet city street at relatively low speed. I misjudged the gap between two cars, squeezed the brakes too late for the rain-slick pavement, and then hit the deck. As far as spills go, this was a minor one. My bike escaped without a scratch, and for the most part, so did I. However, my right ring finger was in the wrong place at the wrong time, I suspect crushed between the road and my handlebar. It sustained ... Read more...
Surface for Windows 8 Pro may arrive on the 29th In late November, Microsoft revealed some fresh details about the Intel-powered version of its Surface tablet: more detailed specs, pricing, and so forth. The official launch time frame is still a vague "January 2013," though. So, when can we expect the device? January 29, according to SoftPedia, which says it was tipped off by a "source close to the Redmond campus" about the release date. That source ... Read more...
Lower-power Ivy chips coming to 'select' systems Remember those rumors about lower-wattage Ivy Bridge processors possibly showing up before the Haswell launch? Well, they're not rumors anymore. We now have confirmation—or rather, CNet News does—that Ivy Bridge chips with TDPs below the current minimum of 17W are indeed on the way. That's about it as far as specifics go, unfortunately. CNet News just adds that these power-sipping Ivy Bridge models should be available only to "select laptop and ... Read more...
Friday Shortbread The Pick 6
- Google Official Blog: The FTC closes its antitrust review of Google
- Mashable: Twitter now valued at $11 billion, analyst says
- Reuters: Barnes & Noble sells fewer Nooks, retail revenue falls
- Fudzilla: Nexus 4 shipments estimated at just 400,000
- Softpedia: Download Linux kernel 3.8 RC2
- WSJ: The year video games became art
Sony patent describes RFID-infused DRM DRM schemes were introduced to curb piracy, and they're increasingly being deployed as weapons against used-game sales. While most have been cracked or otherwise bypassed, a new approach developed by Sony could be more difficult to thwart. The PlayStation maker is working on a DRM system that combines optical media with a programmable ROM chip and RFID tag. The extra components would be used to tie the contents of the disc to a specific playback device or user account. They could also be employed to restrict access to certain on-disc content, such as pre-loaded DLC. As Ars Technica points out , the scheme should work without an Internet connection, eliminating one point of contention for DRM detractors. Gating access to the contents of an optical disc using ROM chips and RFID tags would certainly make life more difficult for the Yarrr crowd, since piracy would entail more ... Read more...
Ubuntu for smartphones looks promising Is there room for another smartphone OS? Canonical seems to think so. The company behind Ubuntu is bringing its Linux distribution to handsets. The OS has a few interesting hooks, including a gesture-centric interface that looks pretty slick. Most of the UI's functions are controlled by swiping in from various edges of the screen. Application controls and notification areas are hidden beyond the upper and lower edges, leaving more real estate available for content and other information. The edge gestures remind me a little bit of Windows 8—in a good way—and they look like a nice fit for handheld devices. Touch won't be the only form of input supported by the OS. Voice recognition seems to factor heavily into Canonical's plans, and users should be able to ask apps to perform various functions. Speaking of apps, Canonical is hyping the fact that Ubuntu for smartphones uses the same web application framework ... Read more...
Leap motion control tech coming to high-end Asus PCs Ooh, interesting. Mere days ahead of CES, Asus has announced that it's going to add motion control technology to some of its upcoming PCs. The company has partnered with Leap Motion, the same San Francisco start-up that unveiled a $70, ultra-precise motion controller in May of last year. Leap Motion's controller will be bundled with Asus' "premium" all-in-one PCs and high-end notebooks based on Intel's next-gen Haswell processors. The controller can purportedly "track movements to 1/100th millimeter . . . with no visible lag ... Read more...
Samsung unveils 24'' touch monitor for Win8 We've seen plenty of tablets, laptops, and all-in-one desktops with touch screens ripe for Windows 8, but surprisingly few standalone desktop monitors. However, Samsung seems intent on rectifying that. The company has unveiled a 24-inch multi-touch desktop monitor optimized for Microsoft's new operating system.
...
Read more...
Thursday Shortbread Reservations for Six
- AMD names Devinder Kumar Chief Financial Officer
- X-bit labs: AMD to officially roll out Kabini and Temash low-power APUs this quarter
- CPU World: New model numbers of Core i3, i5 & Pentium Haswell CPUs spotted and Intel Core i7-3537U ULV CPU is in the works
- Fudzilla: Intel prepares two new Thunderbolts in 2013
- BGR: 'iPhone 5S' to reportedly launch by June with multiple color options and two different display sizes
- SlashGear: Apple in 28nm A6X trial run with TSMC as Samsung faces chip contract loss
Available Tags:SATA , Intel , Windows 8 , Windows , Sony , Ubuntu , motion , Asus , Samsung ,
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