New Microsoft Phones Coming To Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless is planning to introduce two new phones from Microsoft in May or June according to sources familiar with the matter. The new phones will target teenagers and will offer easy access to social networking sites and keyboards for text messaging. Reports claim the phones will be made by Sharp and will have the Microsoft and Verizon Wireless brands. A Microsoft-branded phone is a new move for the company; until now, Microsoft has focused on providing the Windows Mobile software to phone manufacturers
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Sony's Great Idea: Demos That Become Less Fun When Played
When a game developer releases a demo, it's typically intended to entice players into first trying and then purchasing the full version. In keeping with that goal, demo versions of a game are (usually) designed to be fun. This is the stuff of Game Design 101 for most of us, but a crack team of cutting-edge gaming researchers at Sony have applied for a patent based on a novel concept—game demos that become progressively less fun the more you play. Sony refers to this as "feature erosion"; the patent application
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NVIDIA Leaks GeForce GTX 480 Unigine Benchmarks, 3D Surround Vision Demo
Tom Peterson over at NVIDIA gets all the chicks. I mean with his technical know-how, witty banter and boyish good looks, it's easy to see why. Okay, maybe that's not why. Maybe it's because he gets daily hands-on time with the soon to be released but not yet, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480, otherwise known as GF100. Not only that, he also has the ability to defy and breach NVIDIA's very own NDA embargo launch times for the product, well ahead of us here in the lowly Tech Press community.
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Sony's Great Idea: Demos That Become Less Fun When Played
When a game developer releases a demo, it's typically intended to entice players into first trying and then purchasing the full version. In keeping with that goal, demo versions of a game are (usually) designed to be fun. This is the stuff of Game Design 101 for most of us, but a crack team of cutting-edge gaming researchers at Sony have applied for a patent based on a novel concept—game demos that become progressively less fun the more you play. Sony refers to this as "feature erosion"; the patent application can be viewed in full here."Redefined" Is Not A Synonym For "Better "
The patent abstract states:
A demonstration video game permits garners [gamers, we assume] a more complete game experience while promoting a desire to acquire permission to continue playing. In some embodiments, a video game is implemented with trigger metrics. While a user may initially experience most or all of the full version of the game in a demonstration mode, the mode implements trigger metrics to erode game play characteristics, such as character, object, event and/or environmental features, during video game play in the demonstration mode. Thus, fewer play characteristics may be available as play continues in this mode. Multiple trigger metrics may gradually and successively limit play characteristics as play with the game continues. As the gamer loses functionality, the user may be prompted with the trigger metrics to purchase permission to continue the game in a non-demonstration mode that disables the trigger metrics and returns the game to the more complete version.The idea behind this dubious concept is that gamers will become hooked on a game while it's still in demo, then squawk unhappily as features and abilities they've unlocked begin to disappear. In order to prevent this, our player ponies up for the full version, which then unlocks/restores the previously learned abilities or options. Sony offers several diagrams of how this feature might be implemented:
Did An Actual Person Come Up With This?
If this doesn't sound like fun to you—and we bet it doesn't—it's because the entire concept runs against our ingrained concept of fairness. A demo or program that provides limited functionality or play time is one thing; a game that's purposefully designed to take your progress away after a certain point in an admitted attempt to get you to buy once you've been hooked is something altogether different.
Even if such a system didn't seem to be such an intrinsically cheap trick, implementing it turns the concept of gaming on its head. If we all start a game at Level 1 or Track A, at what point does the system arbitrarily decide to start taking away progress? Perhaps most importantly, what incentive can you possibly offer players to play a game when they know you'll start artificially reversing their progress at some point?
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Valve bringing Steam and Source engine to Mac?
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/62617
http://www.macnn.com/articles/10/03/03/teaser.hints.at.portal.team.fortress.2/
In addition to the new Steam Beta having mac icons Valve has been sending these pictures to websites.
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NVIDIA Leaks GeForce GTX 480 Unigine Benchmarks, 3D Surround Vision Demo
Tom Peterson over at NVIDIA gets all the chicks. I mean with his technical know-how, witty banter and boyish good looks, it's easy to see why. Okay, maybe that's not why. Maybe it's because he gets daily hands-on time with the soon to be released but not yet, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480, otherwise known as GF100. Not only that, he also has the ability to defy and breach NVIDIA's very own NDA embargo launch times for the product, well ahead of us here in the lowly Tech Press community. I mean really Tom; do you have to steal all our thunder? Well, there is still plenty more to see in the weeks ahead, as we take our turn at the test bench with the new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480, but in the mean time, take a look at what Tom has cooking in the NVIDIA lab. You can almost here the groupies up front chanting "Free Bird" and holding up lighters. Wait, that's just his florescent green test rig...
Unigine Benchmark Results -- Source: NVIDIA Corp.
There's also a little bit of 3D Surround gaming going on in there at the end. Tom did as a favor and left out the numbers for any actual game titles thankfully, so you'll have to come back here in the next few weeks as we light up a GeForce GTX 480 of our own. Wonder if the hotties will come running for us to? Or maybe it's really just Tom's animal magnetism or that slight air of Aqua Velva man about him. We'll find out and let you know for sure either way.
NVIDIA's Jen-Hsun Huang hold's GF100's closest sibling, Fermi-based Tesla card
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Receiver / Blu-ray combo
Hey I recently purchased a new house and am putting in a home theatre based around a front projection system. I've been looking around at parts and am currently having trouble deciding on an appropriate receiver. The two options I see are buying a small multimedia pc such as the Dell Zino HD and attaching it via HDMI to a pure receiver and buying a separate blu ray player or simply buying a higher quality receiver / blu ray combo.
What I'm looking for is at least a 5.1 if not a 7.1 capable receiver, perhaps with a built in blu ray player with DVD up conversion. It needs at bare minimum one component input / optical audio input for XB360 and a HDMI input for a blu ray player if it's not built in. In order to replace the Zino HD it would need to sport Pandora / Youtube playback if not more services.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
- Peter
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EXTREME Watercooling!! *Need advice for Watercooling my Lian Li V2100B* Similar to Vadim Gaming PC's!!
| Total Items: 27 Weight: 31.15lbs Amount: $787.04 |
| |
| Sub-Total: $787.04 |
Just need to figure out how the shut off valves work… What’s the difference between male and female and also where should I place it? Should they both be placed on my radiator, or the reservoir?
If anyone wants to know how the water will flow… basically…
Reservoir > Pump > 120.4 Radiator > 120.3 Radiator > CPU block > Northbridge block > 120.1 Radiator > VGA waterblocks > returns to the reservoir. (*Same as the order of my cart*)
Note that the VGA waterblocks will not be installed until Fermi comes out (and also until waterblocks for it comes out). For now I will stick with my two air-cooled Black Edition GTX 260’s. Anyways, one more question… If I were to replace my Corsair TX750W with an Enermax Galaxy EVO 1250W PSU, would there be enough room at the bottom compartment for it to sit side by side with the XSPC 360 RAD?
Lastly am I missing something??? This is my first time ever watercooling, I know I shouldn’t be thinking high end for my first W/C setup but I am willing!
I am really just trying to replicate the Vadim Cepheus Q80 but with my own personal twist… No LED’s but rather a black and white contrast. If anyone has any suggestions for what fans I ought to use, that’d be great! And for reference…
The reservoir they use is similar to the one that I am going to use but there are three different sizes.. 150, 250, and 500. Which one should I pick?
Lastly is the waterblock that I picked for the X58 Classified E760 mobo actually compatible with the motherboard?
NOTE: For pictures please look at the actual site for a better understanding
Vadim Cepheus Q80
Author: Richard Swinburne
Published: 9th February 2007
Watercooling:
A large portion of the system’s cost is eaten up by the watercooling solution that Vadim has installed. The “Liquocool Antarctic TX Extreme” like shown here will set you back a whopping £750. But it that's not even the best combination you can get: for £850 you get a dual 120mm radiator at the back of the case and for an eye watering £1250 you get the same dual 120mm radiator and a specialist southbridge block as well.
The southbridge is cooled by an up-rated air cooler on the £750 cooling kit works perfectly fine though: we tested IOMeter on a separate SATA disk and it was barely even hot, even with minimal airflow. £1250 is an extreme price (apologies for the pun) to pay for a watercooling kit that offers an extra block and a bigger radiator, the £750 kit seems to be the best cost-to-performance option.
Whilst the cost of components comes nowhere near this and you can buy a very high end watercooling kit for less than £400, sourcing the same components will be difficult since Vadim computers imports the radiators specifically from a company in China that makes them to Vadim’s specifications. This is so that they’re the right size to fit at the bottom and on the side of the case.
Any enthusiast in our extreme cooling forum will tell you that setting up a well-routed watercooling loop takes considerable effort and planning. While the components may not fulfil the cost asked for, the professional installation and warranty for it makes up for a lot of it.
The cooling solution has been carefully thought out and installed professionally, and while extreme cooling purists will inevitably pedantically pick a loop apart, for a box you can buy off the shelf this kit is about as good as you can get.
The watercooling contains the following:
- One single, One double and One triple extreme 45mm thick LiquoCool Radiator;
- Swiftech MCP655 pump
- Cape Coolplex Reservoir
- Swiftech CPU and Northbridge blocks
- SilenX VGA waterblocks
- 1/2” ID Tubing
The kit is predominantly Swiftech 1/2” based which is no bad thing. The water travels in this order:
Reservoir > Pump > 120.3 Radiator > 120.2 Radiator > CPU block > northbridge block > 120.1 Radiator > VGA waterblocks > returns to the reservoir.
This setup allows the maximum cooling on the water possible before it reaches the CPU and northbridge blocks. The extra radiator after this removes the accumulated heat from CPU and northbridge before the water hits the graphics cards. Whilst the model we have here, the Q80, only has a single radiator before the graphics cards, the new RQ80 has a double radiator at the back before the graphics cards to provide even better cooling.
The coolant is not only green but also UV fluorescent, which reacts to the blue LED fans slightly, but more so from the UV cathodes installed. Despite having almost a dozen fans, the system is exceptionally quiet, with Vadim not only sourcing the right colour LED fans but also ones that work at exceptionally low voltages and speeds as well, to provide the maximum amount of cooling for an overclocked system, with very little noise.
The loudest fan in the system is from the Galaxy 1000W PSU – the rest are entirely temperature controlled with six different temperature sensors dotted around the system. The main fans and radiators are positioned so that they suck air in from one side and push it out the other. Having the unit sitting on the desk to your right (as is often the place), it pushes a slow warm flow of air over the desktop.
The system is set at a high threshold temperature to keep the fans as quiet as possible, which can be a bit worrying to the life of the components, but since they’re overclocked anyway you’re already affecting it negatively, and by the time they actually fail you’ll probably reach the next upgrade cycle anyway.
Another 120mm fan is positioned over the memory, and the southbridge has a whole new air-cooled heatsink and 80mm blue LED fan.
It is the attention to detail that makes this work so well: the jubilee clips are high quality nickel plated that are different widths and lengths so that they fit the size of the barbs exactly without too much run off on the metal end. The tubing is completely covered in anti-kink spiral wrapping, which not only keeps the tubing free flowing, but also keeps the look consistent with the green spiral wrapped cabling from the PSU.
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Ok people I cannot install BFBC 2
I just tried to install Battle Field Bad Company 2 on my PC and it will not install. I checked there are no scratches on the CD, I also double checked that I was booting from the CD-ROM 1st still nothing. I get to the point where it says to select language and the game stalls out. Can somebody help me out here, I am missing something or did I receive a bad CD. I know my CD-ROM is working cause I put a music CD in and it booted right up and played well.
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Study: 50% Of America Now Owns An HDTV - Are You One Of Them?
The HDTV business is booming, and even though they aren't nearly as buzz-worthy as they once were, that's clearly not stopping consumers from picking them up. High-def sets have withstood the test of time thus far, with more and more consumers jumping at the chance to upgrade to a flat-panel as each year passes by. Huge events like the Super Bowl, World Cup and Olympics have a tendency to get people thinking about all that resolution they're missing out on, and evidently so does the massive amount of HD programming now available via pay-TV providers.A new study by the Leichtman Research Group has found that "nearly 50% of U.S. households will own a HDTV by the end of the year." Just as a reminder, the end of the year is hours away, so this is basically saying that as of right now around half of Americans own at least one HDTV set. That's a pretty incredible figure when you step back and think about it. During the year in which we experienced the worst recession since the Great Depression, HDTV purchases have somehow crept up in order to bring the overall rate of ownership in the US to around 50%.
We've also noticed a continual uptick in the amount of available HD channels, though paying for them hasn't gotten any easier. Most major sporting events are now in HD, and it's tough to watch a broadcast drama without seeing each and every commercial in HD. In a way, HD has become "the norm," and for many it's tough to even watch television in standard definition. One place where HD has yet to grab ahold is the Web. Sure, there's YouTube HD clips and "HD" versions of certain shows, but there's just not enough bandwidth in the average US home to really grab true HD clips. We're guessing that it's just a matter of time before that happens, and we don't suspect it'll take until the end of the next decade for HDTVs to reach a similar penetration rate as the DVD player. As for Blu-ray? Well, let's just say that has aways to go before it catches the HDTV...
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