IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (TechSpot) 3/31/2015

Weekend tech reading: Exploring DX12, G-Sync vs. FreeSync, what makes the perfect gaming mouse?

The trusty mouse. The chances are you're currently wading your way through your PC or laptop with help of the decades old technology, but boy have we come far from the original trackball invented by Ralph Benjamin in 1946. In fact, today's...

Neowin's 7 Days: of Windows updates, Instagram indifference, Apple fashion tips and Office porn

7 Days is a weekly round-up of the Editors' picks of what's been happening in the world of technology - written with a dash of humor, a hint of exasperation, and an endless supply of (Irish) coffee.

Battlefield Hardline Benchmarked: Graphics & CPU Performance

Battlefield Hardline showed superb graphics and smooth gameplay when we benchmarked it during last month's week-long public beta, and while the good news was that the game could be played on fairly modest hardware, it didn't quite display Battlefield 4's wow-factor. Developed by Visceral Games, the retail version Hardline is now available and we are back to rerun all the beta tests along with others to see how the frame rates have changed from beta to retail.

HTC One M9 Review

HTC's signature metal body makes a repeated appearance on the new One M9 and it looks absolutely fantastic. The two-tone, two-finish design adds an extra bit of flare to the well-crafted, premium build, making this phone one of the most attractive on the market today. But where does One M9 fall short and where is it better than the competition?

AMD FreeSync Review

While they may be entering the market second with their version of the technology, AMD has laid the groundwork with FreeSync for the ideal adaptive sync standard going forward. The company has delivered on their promises to create a cheaper, more flexible, open standard for variable refresh. We go through some of the main differences with Nvidia's G-Sync, our impressions gaming on a FreeSync monitor, and OEMs crucial role for FreeSync to reach its full potential.

Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan X Review

The GeForce Titan X is a processing powerhorse, with its GM200 chip carrying 6 graphics processing clusters, 24 streaming multiprocessors with 3072 CUDA cores. Combined with six 64-bit memory controllers for a total 12GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 7GHz, that's 50% more cores and memory bandwidth than today's single-GPU king, the GeForce GTX 980. Needless to say, we're eager to see what the new Titan X is capable of.

Cities: Skylines Review

If you play city-building games to, well, build cities, this is the best you can get. Never before have I felt like I could just walk up to an enormous tract of land, open up some tools and just... build whatever I wanted, however I wanted. Cities: Skylines is a gorgeous video game.

BitFenix Aegis Core MicroATX Case Review

The BitFenix Aegis delivers on design, with internals that are unique yet functional and externals that are eye-catching but not excessive. Despite being a 43L mATX case, the Aegis holds huge hardware, especially when it comes to cooling.

Five Things I Didn't Get About Making Video Games (Until I Did It)

Before I joined Gearbox Software, I worked at Destructoid as a features editor, highlighting indie games and spewing vitriol at big-budget games I didn't like. I played their games, I found them wanting, and I felt like I had a pretty good idea of where and why things had gone wrong. I may not have ever made a game myself but I basically knew what game development was about, right? Wrong. It turns out there were a shitload of things I didn't know about.

Alienware 15 Review

Designed for high-end gaming, the Alienware 15 packs powerful hardware rivalling decent gaming desktops, including flagship mobile GPUs from both AMD and Nvidia. And like other Alienware machines, the 15 is highly customizable, with pricing ranging from $1,200 up to $2,700 depending on the hardware inside.

3-Way Budget Mid-Tower PC Case Shootout

Mid-towers are by far the most popular case form factor, supporting most full-sized hardware including the ever abundant ATX motherboards and power supplies, while typically costing only $50 to $75. In most situations, anything in that range will be adequate for a standard build, but Silverstone, Corsair and In Win have launched new contenders that are said to deliver the build quality, design, features and performance of pricier models without breaking the bank.

Homeworld Remastered Collection: Graphics & CPU Performance

Following its original release in 1999 and a successful sequel in 2003, it's been too long since we've heard about the Homeworld series. Although fans haven't been lucky enough to receive a brand new game, they are now able to relive the magic at high resolutions with a full graphical makeover. The remastered versions have high-res textures and models, new visual effects, recreated cinematic scenes, and support for HD, Ultra HD and 4K resolutions.

Homeworld: The Return of a Game That's Almost Perfect

Games are forever changing. If you played a shooter from 1999 and then a shooter from 2015, you'd notice the differences immediately, not just in how they looked but how they played, how smartly they were designed. Homeworld was released in 1999. Play its remastered edition in 2015, though, and you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a brand new video game. Almost everything about it - and I'm not talking about its new visuals - feels fresh.

Dell Venue 8 7000 Review

The new Dell Venue 8 arrives to the market with a unique form factor and a chassis that's thinner than any other tablet in the world. Running Android OS and powered by Intel's Atom Z3580 quad-core processor, 2GB of DDR3 RAM and 16GB of flash memory, this is arguably one of the best looking tablets currently on the market.

Why Peter Molyneux's Godus is Such a Disaster

Game designer Peter Molyneux has long had a reputation for making promises he never quite delivered on. He has again been accused of misleading statements, in relation to Godus, his Kickstarter god game revival. In an attempt to get to the bottom of it all, we spoke both to Molyneux and to three people who have worked with him over the past few years. This is the story of how Godus ended up where it is today.

Sub-$100 Gaming Headset Roundup

I have long relied on desktop speakers when playing games. Now that I am a father, however, those speakers are too loud for me to enjoy the combined 500 Watts RMS of 5.1 audio. Having only ever bought relatively cheap headsets with proportionally cheap audio quality, it seems about time for me to upgrade. In the process of settling on a new headset, I've acquired six sub-$100 gaming-oriented models from separate hardware manufacturers to compare in a roundup.

Dell XPS 13 (2015) Review

The ideal Windows laptop is very hard to find but the new XPS 13 ticks most boxes. It has a 13-inch display with a very slim bezel, the aluminium shell with a carbon fibre-style interior looks pretty darn good, there's a new Intel Broadwell Core i5 under the hood, and battery life is rated at up to 15 hours. The XPS 13 is a return to form for Dell in a big way.

Silverstone Sugo SG13 Mini-ITX Case Review

Just when we were starting to think that the Sugo series lost its Mini-ITX mojo, after the last couple of models moved to MicroATX, Silverstone has stepped forward with the itty bitty 11.5L SG13. The thirteenth Sugo isn't quite the smallest to date, but it may be the most capable. Its 11.5L body is said to be capable of housing a standard ATX power supply up to 150mm long, a 120/140mm radiator and a 10.5" dual-slot graphics card.

Android 5.0 Lollipop Tested: Performance and Battery Life

We test Android 5.0 Lollipop using the Moto X, Moto G, LG G3 and Galaxy S5 smartphones. We explore how updates to the core architecture in Android 5.0 have improved performance and battery life on existing handsets.

Evolve Benchmarked: Graphics & CPU Performance

We've been eagerly anticipating more games based on the latest CryEngine build and now that wait is over: after being delayed from its original October 2014 release date, Evolve has launched this week on PC, Xbox One and PS4. Developed by Turtle Rock Studios (creator of Left 4 Dead), Evolve is the company's latest squad-based co-op shooter and unsurprisingly, it calls for some fairly beefy hardware.

Samsung Galaxy A5 Review

Rather than completely dropping last year's Alpha design, Samsung reworked it for a new and much more compelling product for the mid-range market. The Galaxy A5 is a $400 smartphone inside a $700 body.

Available Tags:gaming , Windows , Apple , CPU , HTC , AMD , Nvidia , GeForce , GTX , Dell , Android , Samsung , Galaxy ,

Monday, March 30, 2015

IT News Head Lines (TechSpot) 3/31/2015

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