Reeven Hans RC-1205 Review
reeven_hans_rc1205
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ZOTAC Announces the ZBOX E-Series Gaming and ZBOX Nano AQ02 Series Mini-PCs
CeBIT 2014 is running this week over in Hanover, Germany, and things are starting off a little on the small side for one of the companies. ZOTAC has announced the ZBOX E-Series Gaming and ZBOX nano AQ02 Series of mini-PCs, with the AQ02 being listed as palm-sized. The E-Series come with the Intel Iris Pro 5200 graphics chip to deliver some solid gaming chops in a mini-PC, while the AQ02 use an AMD A8 chip for a nice combination of performance and energy efficiency. ZOTAC's EI750 features an Intel Core i7 4770R quad-core running at 3.2GHz, with a TurboBoost up to 3.9GHz. The EI730 packs an Intel Core i5 4570R running at 2.7GHz and a 3.2GHz TurboBoost. You can pick up a barebones model to fit it how you want, or grab the PLUS model that already includes 8GB of DDR3 RAM and a 1TB hard drive. Each E-Series PC comes in a third generation ZBOX chassis in gloss black, with a light-up orange ring on the top cover for that distinctive ZOTAC color scheme.
As for the ZBOX nano AQ02, it has an AMD A8-5545M quad-core APU at 1.7GHz that can hit 2.7GHz on Turbo. Graphics are handled by the integrated Radeon HD 8510G, so it should be able to handle most things you throw at it with ease. The AQ02 likewise comes in a barebones or PLUS model, with the PLUS featuring 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a 500GB hard drive. Both the nano and E-Series include 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0, a Gigabit Ethernet port, four USB 3.0 ports (plus the nano adds in two USB 2.0 ports), a multi-card reader, and HD audio. The E-Series has one DVI port and two DisplayPorts, while the nano has DisplayPort and HDMI. Both mini-PCs also have a VESA75/100 mount so you can attach them to the back of a monitor for an almost non-existent footprint.
No release date or pricing information was released for the ZOTAC ZBOX E-Series and ZBOX nano AQ02 Series, but expect news on it before long.
Source: Press Release
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The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Mobile Game Announced
Last week, Activision announced that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 video game will be arriving April 29 for PC and consoles, but apparently that's not the only video game treatment The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is getting. Today, Gameloft has announced that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will be hitting iOS, Android, and Windows Phone devices this April as well, though no specific date was stated. As the Announcement Trailer below shows, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is an open-world adventure like its predecessor. Set in Manhattan, it features an original story inspired by the upcoming film of the same name.
Source: Press Release
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Instagram Releases Updated Android Application
Instagram has released a new update to its Android application, which not only improves performance of the image application but also improves overall device compatibility. The new update, known as version 5.1, uses a new design that makes the application look more refined. The new design also offers performance benefits, with profiles loading around twice as fast as before and the overall application size reduced by half. Users of larger phones will notice that buttons are rearranged for ease of use, while users of smaller devices will benefit from an efficient use of screen space. The latest Instagram for Android update supports devices of all types, with its quicker and sleeker user interface.
Users of Instagram can download the latest Android client from Google Play.
Source: Instagram Blog
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G.SKILL Announces New DDR3L SO-DIMM Memory
G.SKILL is adding to its stable of Ripjaws memory offerings with a new DDR3L SO-DIMM kit, known officially as the F3-2133C11D-16GRSL. The new set weighs in at a total of 16GB spread across two sticks that run at 2133MHz. The kit runs at a voltage of 1.35V and offers memory timings of 11-11-11-31. The memory is recommended to be used in systems that are powered by Intel i5 and i7 Haswell processors.
Source: Press Release
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Crytek Teases Game Developers Conference Offerings
The 2014 Game Developers Conference is being held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA from March 17-21 and Crytek has announced what it plans to show at the conference. One of the more intriguing aspects of the presentation is the full native Linux support for the new CRYENGINE game engine. Along with the improved support from Valve with SteamOS and more developers creating games with Linux support, the future of gaming on Linux is looking bright. CRYENGINE has also been updated with features such as the "Physically Based Shading render pipeline, which uses real-world physics simulation to create amazingly realistic lighting and materials in CRYENGINE games." The company will also be showing off a number of games that it had a hand in creating including the free to play FPS Warface and mobile game The Collectables.
Source: Crytek
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Vibrating Atoms with Light
We all know what happens when you throw a stone in a lake or step in a puddle, but what happens when you shine a laser on a material? As it turns out, the results can be quite similar. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have recently discovered this behavior, which may lead to some interesting applications.
The researchers were working with a piece of hexagonal boron nitride, which are sheet-like in shape and can be bound together by van der Waals forces, a weak bond. As an atomic force microscope was scanning over the material, a laser was aimed at its tip, and as the tip moved near the edges, it detected an interference pattern. This pattern was being caused by atoms vibrating from the laser light, and those vibrations rippling out, bouncing off the material's edges, and returning to interfere with itself. Specifically called phonon polaritons, the waves of the atoms vibrating have a much shorter wavelength than that of light, and the researchers found the frequency can be tuned by altering the thickness of the material, and by adding impurities for the waves to reflect off of.
With the incredibly small wavelengths of these phonon polaritons, it may be possible to exploit them for moving information in very tight places, creating images of extremely high resolution, or controlling the heat flow in nanodevices. Ironically part of the reason this occurs in hexagonal boron nitride is because it is an insulator, preventing the electrons from dissipating the energy over short distances.
Source: University of California, San Diego
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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Pushed Back to February 2015
In an open letter posted on the official The Witcher website, "The Board of CD PROJEKT SA" announced that the release date for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has been pushed back to February 2015. While the studio felt it could have released the game toward the end of this year as initially planned, CD Projekt made the tough decision that extra time was needed to provide the exceptional quality gamers deserve and desire.
The letter apologizes to fans, but says the studio believes The Witcher 3 will be worth the wait and that it "will be an exceptional RPG, one of the best, providing many hours of wonderful entertainment." The letter also addresses shareholders, stating that CD Projekt "firmly believe[s] that quality – more than any other factor – determines a game's success, and that the decision we have made is thus equally valid in business terms."
With the equally highly anticipated fantasy RPG Dragon Age: Inquisition set to launch Fall 2014, the delay for The Witcher 3 may be beneficial in more ways than one. Now gamers will get to enjoy both games at launch without having to decide which to get first – assuming, of course, no other major RPG competition also releases February 2015. The fate of CD Projekt's other title, Cyberpunk 2077, was not addressed.
Source: Official Site
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Don't Starve: Reign of Giants DLC Out Tomorrow; Gameplay Trailer Finally Released
After four season-themed teaser trailers (Autumn, Winter, Spring, and Summer), Klei Entertainment has finally published the first gameplay video for Don't Starve: Reign of Giants, entitled "A Feet of Strength". The $4.99 expansion to Don't Starve launches tomorrow, but you can currently purchase it at a discounted $3.99 through the Humble Widget found here. You will obviously need the base game to play this, but the good news is that whenever you start a new game, you can choose to enable the Reign of Giants content or not, meaning you can always play vanilla Don't Starve if you so desire.
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Microsoft Surface Power Cover to be Released Soon
The newest offering by Microsoft for their Surface tablet lineup, the Surface Power Cover, will be available starting March 19, 2014. Specifications on how large the battery is within the Surface Power Cover have not been revealed by Microsoft, but the soon to be released keyboard will greatly extend battery life on the Surface Pro, Surface 2, and Surface Pro 2. A 60 percent increase in battery life will be noticeable on the Surface Pro and Surface Pro 2, while the Surface 2 will see an increase of 70 percent. Unfortunately, the battery pack keyboard loses backlit keys, which are featured across all other Microsoft Surface keyboards.
Consumers can currently pre-order the accessory from the Microsoft Store for $199.99, which includes free shipping.
Source: PCWorld
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First Generation Kindle Paperwhite Receives Goodreads
Although current generation Kindle Paperwhite users have had access to Goodreads, which is an online outlet for book readers, owners of the first generation eBook reading device have been left out. That has all changed today, as Goodreads has announced that first generation Kindle Paperwhite devices are officially supported due to popular customer demand. Owners of both models of Kindle Paperwhite, who live in the United States, Canada, and Australia, are able to use Goodreads on Kindle. A free over-the-air update that is set to roll out to Kindle Paperwhite devices will be available in the coming weeks. Users can ensure that they have Goodreads on Kindle by looking for a lowercase "g" in the right portion of the navigation bar.
Source: Goodreads Blog
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Audio Card Available for Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi is receiving an upgrade in terms of its audio capabilities. The company that produces the Raspberry Pi, Element 14, has announced in a joint venture with Wolfson Audio that a new audio card is now officially available for the device. The new audio card improves the audio elements of the Raspberry Pi, allowing it to support up to a 192kHz sample rate while providing eight channel inputs. Input options include standard line in and out jacks, microphones for direct audio capture, S/PDIF in/out, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Element 14 and Wolfson Audio plan to see the new audio card used for VoIP applications, amongst others.
The new audio card can be purchased for $33, and is only compatible with revision 2 Raspberry Pi boards and up.
Source: Engadget
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Firelight's FMOD Studio Now Free for Indie Developers
While Firelight Technologies' audio tool suite FMOD Studio has always been free for non-commercial projects, starting today it will now also be free for commercial, low-budget indie projects. In a statement released by Firelight CEO Brett Paterson, he explained: "We started out as an indie company so we've always felt an affinity with the indie community. They're risk takers, innovators and explorers. We wanted to give back to that community and we can't wait to see what they do with FMOD Studio."
For titles with a budget of $100,000 USD or less, FMOD Studio used to require a $500 USD licensing fee, but is now completely free. Compared to $3,000 USD for budgets between $100,000-$500,000 USD, and $15,000 USD for budgets at or above $500,000 USD, this is quite the deal. There is also no restriction on platforms, nor do you have to sign any license agreement. The only requirement is that "FMOD must be credited in game or in documentation for your title."
The recently released FMOD Studio 1.3 also added some nice new functionality that should help indie developers, including a Unity integration plug-in and a "Plugin SDK for creating sound generators and effects with examples on GitHub." If you question FMOD Studio's abilities, know that it's been used in several big AAA titles, "including Forza Motorsport 5, which recently won an IGN award for best audio on Xbox One." FMOD also states that the program has been popular with iOS and Android developers.
Source: Press Release and Sales Page
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To Support Min-Spec, Titanfall has 35GB of Uncompressed Audio on PC
If you were wondering why the PC version of Titanfall takes up 48GB of space when the Xbox One version is a mere 17GB, the answer is audio. Speaking to Eurogamer, Respawn lead engineer Richard Baker said it all boils down to supporting the rather tame minimum specs: "We have audio we either download or install from the disc, then we uncompress it. We probably could have had audio decompress off disc but were a little worried about min spec and the fact that a two-core machine would dedicate a huge chunk of one core to just decompressing audio."
So while high end PCs and even moderate PCs could have easy handled decompressing the audio, supporting dual-core CPUs meant sacrificing hard drive space. This wasn't an issue with the Xbox One because it has built-in audio decode in the hardware itself. As a result, an insane 35GB of the 48GB install is uncompressed audio.
It would be interesting to see post-release data showing just how many people are currently playing Titanfall with a mere dual-core CPU. It would have been nice if the uncompressed audio was an optional download just for people with performance issues or something that downloads only if you deselect "audio decode" in a settings menu. I feel bad for gamers with download caps from their ISP.
Source: Eurogamer
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Printing Plasmonic Devices
As with many pairs of technologies, there are advantages and disadvantages to electronics and fiber optics, as optics can achieve great bandwidths but electronics can be produce at very small scales. Plasmonics could potentially grant the best of both worlds, but are challenging to produce, as they require special equipment. Researchers at the University of Utah however have managed to print multiple plasmonic structures using an inkjet printer.
Plasmons are a quasiparticle formed when a metal's electrons are coupled with a photon. This coupling allows the electron to carry the information of the photon over a wire, instead of an optical cable. Not all metals allow plasmons to form though, but silver and gold are two of the best at it, so the researchers put two, special ink cartridges into the printer. One contained a carbon ink and the other a silver ink, and by varying the amount of silver and carbon, the researchers could control the conductivity of the printed devices.
As the only limit on the printed devices is what the $60 printer can actually print, we could see various devices come from this research. Already the researchers could see it being applied to improve wireless data, by enabling greater speeds, or by printing magnetic materials that are more compact. The latter application though is likely more than five years away though.
Source: University of Utah
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