News

ASRock's Specially Coated 8 Series Motherboards are Waterproof

Paul Lilly — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:58:07 +0000

Don't try this at home.

Before self-contained liquid cooling solutions (LCS) became mainstream, water cooling enthusiasts would march over to places like Danger Den (R.I.P.) and order custom parts, fit them together, and then pray to Poseidon that he'd have mercy against leaks. Back then, water cooling aficionados sure could have used a board like any of ASRock's new specially coated 8 Series mobos. Using a layer of "Comformal Coating," ASRock says its treated mobos aren't afraid to get wet, a trait the company hopes the professional overclocking crowd will embrace.

"The special layer of Conformal Coating makes ASRock's motherboards invulnerable to conductive liquids, so overclockers won't have to worry about accidentally spilling liquid nitrogen, liquid helium, or even clam chowder over their motherboards while they are overclocking," ASRock explains. "Along with conductive liquids, Conformal Coating also protects the motherboard against dust, corrosion and extreme temperatures. It is the ultimate armor for the upcoming 8 Series motherboards."

ASRock demonstrates the feature in a short YouTube video, which we've embedded below. Bear in mind that the water you see being poured over the motherboard was routed to avoid the pins, which ASRock says still carries the risk of short circuiting. That means you probably can't get away with sticking one of these boards on the bottom of your fish tank, but should an accidental spill occur, there's a good chance your system will survive, or at least the mobo.

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Futuremark Injects Battery Test Into Upcoming PCMark 8 Benchmark

Paul Lilly — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:01:49 +0000

Popular benchmarking tool receives a significant update.

Looking for something new to test your hardware with? Hang tight for about another month and you'll be able to stress your components using Futuremark's upcoming PCMark 8 software. Futuremark received help from members of its Benchmark Development Program, which include Acer, AMD, Condusiv Technologies, Dell, HGST, HP, Intel, Microsoft, Nvidia, Samsung, SanDisk, Seagate, and Western Digital.

"We believe that this open process of close cooperation with industry experts is the only way to create accurate and impartial benchmarks that measure performance fairly. Having high-level access to the industry's leaders also ensures that our benchmarks are not only relevant for today's hardware, but remain relevant year after year," Futuremark said.

Like previous versions of the popular benchmark, PCMark 8 focus on tests that mimic real-world usage scenarios, such as browsing the web, photo editing, video chat, writing, and gaming. New to this edition, however, are additional benchmarks based on productivity and creativity applications from Adobe and Microsoft.

Also new is a "Battery Life" mode that loops a test until the battery is almost empty. Testing battery life is the one trickiest things to do since everyone uses their PCs differently, so we're pretty interested to see how PCMark 8's test does with it.

PCMark 8 is in the final stages of development and expected to launch by the end of next month.

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Store More Than Just Photos in Flickr's 1TB Bucket

Paul Lilly — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:38:00 +0000

An end-around solution to storing common files in Flickr.

In the process of overhauling Flickr, Yahoo announced that photographers would be allowed to upload up to 1TB of photos and videos for free, the only restrictions being the size of each individual file (200MB for photos and 1GB for 1080p videos) and length of clips (up to 3 minutes long). Other than those caveats, it's a generous storage container that's big enough to hold half a million photos shot at 6.5 megapixels. But what if you could also upload common files? There's a way you can do that.

Thomas Claburn at InformationWeek discovered a piece of interesting Ruby code posted to Github called flickr-store. Developer Ryan LeFevre came up with the code, which lets users encode any file as a PNG so that arbitrary data can then be uploaded to Flickr.

"This is mostly proof of concept right now. Don't do anything beyond tinkering with it yet," LeFevre warns.

If it works as intended, then it's a pretty slick workaround that could come in handy for backing up certain files, though we wouldn't recommend using it to store critical data. The biggest reason is that it's not immediately clear whether such a method runs afoul of Flickr's terms of service.

"I'm sure they frown upon it, but they claim you cannot upload anything that interferes with the services and I don't believe this does," LeFevre told InformationWeek.

In other words, caveat emptor.

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Former HTC Employee Encourages Other Staff to "Just Quit" the Company

Paul Lilly — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:09:19 +0000

Rough waters ahead for HTC.

My how the mighty have fallen. It seems hard to believe now, but HTC was once a top dog in mobile. Having led the Android revolution with the introduction of the HTC Dream (you may know it as the T-Mobile G1), HTC for a long while was reporting record revenues and profits. More recently, however, HTC's been struggling to remain relevant in a category (mobile) that's largely dominated by Apple and Samsung, and it's slumping sales bear that out. Equally troubling for HTC as it tries to right its ship is that its crew is turning against it and jumping overboard.

Eric Lin, former product strategy manager at HTC, took to Twitter to encourage other employees to quit, suggesting he's much happier after having done so himself.

"To all my friends still at HTC -- just quit. Leave now. It's tough to do, but you'll be so much happier, I swear," Lin tweeted earlier this week.

There are some funny comments that follow, including one that reads, "I like your subtlety; I almost didn't get that you were telling everyone at HTC to quit," but this is no laughing matter for HTC.

Lin isn't the only one to jump ship. So did former chief product officer Kouji Kodera, who HTC said left to "pursue other interests," along with several others from marketing and communications positions, AllThingsD reports. The timing of the departures stinks for HTC, which is trying to reverse course and focus its efforts on building and marketing a small number of killer devices rather than bombard consumers with dozens of different models.

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Fractal Design Node 304 Mini-ITX Case Now Available in White

Pulkit Chandna — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:39:48 +0000

It's bigger on the inside

You would be hard pressed to list mini-ITX cases capable of accommodating up to six 3.5"/2.5" hard drives. We also can’t think of too many, but we do know that Swedish company Fractal Design's Node 304 is definitely one such deceptively spacious case — the Tardis of PC cases, if you will.

The Node 304 has been on the market for quite a while now and, as some of you might recall, recently we even told you about a CyberPowerPC machine that uses it. But until now there was one big problem: it was only available in black. Thankfully, Fractal Design has finally expanded the color options and the minimalist case is now also available in white.

The Node 304, which has an MSRP of $89.99, can hold a lot of other things besides all those hard drives. Here are some technical specs:

Mini ITX, DTX motherboard compatibility
Two expansion slots
Six 3.5" or 2.5" HDD / SSD
ATX PSUs, up to 160mm in length (To fit in combination with a long graphics card, PSUs with modular connectors on the back typically need to be shorter than 160 mm)
Graphics cards, up to 310mm in length, when 2 HDD brackets are removed (Graphics cards longer than 170 mm will conflict with PSUs longer than 160mm)
Tower CPU coolers, up to 165 mm tall
Includes three Silent Series R2 hydraulic bearing fans and a three-speed fan controller
Fan filter for graphics card
Two USB 3.0 ports on the front ( includes internal USB 3.0 to 2.0 adapter)
Case dimensions (W x H x D): 250 x 210 x 374 mm
Case volume: 19,5 Liters
Net weight: 10.8lb

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Opera Browser for Android Out of Beta, Officially Launches

Paul Lilly — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:54:36 +0000

A meeting of the mobile minds.

Opera isn't uber popular on the desktop, though it's been able to spread its wings on mobile. The same can be said for Google's Android platform (which makes sense, considering Android is a mobile platform). If you want to mash these two together, feel free to do so starting today. Opera for Android is now officially launched for free from Google Play, Opera Software announced on Tuesday.

"Most people just see a fraction of what the web has to offer," says Rikard Gillemyr, EVP of Consumer Products at Opera Software. "We check out the same sites every day, and you can get through with the latest news after just a short bus ride. We wanted to give people a relaxed way of discovering interesting articles and checking them out without any extra effort."

One of the things Opera for Android introduces to mobile users is an "Off-Road" feature. Using data compression, the Off-Road algorithm reduces the amount of data traffic while browsing your Android phone so that you can surf a little more comfortably on crummy connections.

Opera for Android also sports a redesigned interface with a lighter color scheme that the Norwegian browser maker claims is "super intuitive to use."

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Microsoft Announces Xbox One Console

Paul Lilly — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:26:44 +0000

An all-in-one home entertainment device.

Gamers have been eagerly anticipating the launch of Microsoft's next generation Xbox console, and today they finally got what they've been waiting for. Microsoft's next console, previously referred to as Durango and Xbox 720, was introduced to the world as Xbox One, a name that underscores Microsoft's intent to rule the living room with an all-in-one entertainment system that's equally adept at playing games as it is for watching live TV, chatting on Skype, browsing photos and videos, and more. The device itself looks rather large and almost VCR-like.

Microsoft's Don Mattrick took to the stage and talked about how the living room has become "too complex, too fragmented, and too slow." The Xbox One is Microsoft's answer to these problems, and much of the magic of the new console has to do with intelligent voice recognition and gesture control.

Navigation

Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, demoed several of Xbox One's navigation features. One of big differences between the Xbox One and 360 is that the console recognizes who you are right off the bat. Say "Xbox On" and it will turn on your device and launch straight into your custom profile with your personalized home screen. It will also remember what you were last doing, in case you wanted to jump back into a game or movie that you had to duck out of prematurely.

One of the most impressive demos was Mehdi showing how quickly and smoothly the Xbox One can switch between tasks, going from Internet Explorer ("Xbox Internet Explorer!") to watching movies ("Xbox movie!") and live TV. It will be interesting to see what kind of relationship Microsoft and the Xbox One has with cable providers. It can also, of course, play games. The Xbox One recognizes gestures, too. Reach out your arms, grab, and close to bring up the Home screen, or expand to go back to where you just came from.

A new Snap Mode allows you to multi-task, to an extent. While you're watching a movie, for example, you can have Skype running in a sidebar on the right or look up content on the web via IE.

Live TV figures to be a prominent feature of the Xbox One. Say "Show the guide" to bring up a listing of TV shows and then navigate through voice control, by browsing favorites, or by seeing what's "Trending," which is a new tab added to the Dashboard. If you're bored with your program, you can say "What's on HBO?" and Xbox One will respond with a listing of shows and movies on HBO.

What About the Hardware?

As for the hardware, well, the Xbox One will rock an 8-core CPU with 5 billion transistors, 8GB of system memory, 500GB hard drive, Blu-ray drive (yes, the Xbox is finally getting Blu-ray!), 802.11n Wi-Fi, HDMI in/output, and USB 3.0 support. Beyond that, it's not clear if that RAM will be unified like it is on the PlayStation 4 or which exact processor and GPU Microsoft is tapping into, or whether it will be x86 based like Sony's console. We suspect those details will come to light in the coming months, and potentially at E3, where Microsoft will make several Xbox 360 announcements.

On the platform side, Microsoft described a three-in-one OS architecture:

Xbox software that gives developers deep access to the sysem and hardware
A Windows kernel
Special software to connect the two above OSes

Following the press conference, Nvidia revealed to us that the company will offer the console PhysX support. Whether that is on the GPU side or CPU side is still up in the air. Maximum PC has tried reaching out to Nvidia for more clarification on the matter to only recieve a "no comment" reply. Regardless, with PhysX support coming to the Xbox One, this will be especially interesting as earlier rumors pegged the Xbox One as using AMD components for both the CPU and GPU. This could theoretically mean the green and red team may be collaborating on the console in some capacity.

UPDATE: AMD has confirmed it is indeed designing an APU for the Xbox One. “AMD is very excited to be working with Microsoft on their next-generation Xbox One. The Microsoft Xbox One leverages a single-chip, semi-custom AMD APU, with custom components co-developed with Microsoft designed to enable unique attributes of the system Microsoft is bringing to market,” said Saeid Moshkelani, corporate vice president and general manager of AMD's Semi-Custom Business Unit.

UPDATE #2: A Microsoft representative confirmed to us that AMD would be the Xbox One's primary parts maker, stating, "AMD is our primary partner for the custom silicon that makes up our GPU/CPU SOC that is the heart of Xbox One. We don’t have any further details about Nvidia PhysX at this time, but do stay tuned."

Updated Kinect Sensor and Controller

A new Kinect sensor will be paired with every Xbox One console. It expands to 1080p, can read more joints than before, understands subtle movements like a flick of the wrist, and can even detect your heartbeat when exercising. Microsoft also updated the familiar controller so that it's more ergonomic, though retains the same semi-butterfly shape as previous versions.

Xbox Live

Sorry folks, Microsoft isn't giving up its subscription-based Xbox Live service in favor of free online play for everyone. The same memberships as today will exist, though the backend infrastructure is significantly overhauled. While today's Xbox Live service taps into 15,000 servers, there will be 300,000 servers powering Xbox One's Live service.

Microsoft will put that horsepower to use in part for better matchmaking. It will search for opponents in one game while you're playing another, and overall, Microsoft envisions a deeper, richer Live experience.

Call of Duty: Ghosts

Finally, Call of Duty: Ghosts made an appearance towards the end of the event. Microsoft announced that will continue its exclusive downloadable content (DLC) deal with Activision, ensuring Xbox One gamers get DLC before gamers on other devices.

There's a new game engine being introduced in Ghosts. It will run at a steady 60 frames per second while you control new characters in a new game world. The script is being hammered out by Stephen Gaghan, writer of Traffic and Syriana.

Dogs will be part of your squad and are able protect your team and sniff for explosives. Other animals, like fish, will move out of your way as you get close, which is part of a new artificial intelligence (A.I.) system. There will be dynamic events like earthquakes, and player-driven events too. You'll be able to customize your characters in multiplayer, choosing heads, bodies, helmets, and other gear.

"It will be the best Call of Duty game we've ever ever made," Activision's Erik Hirschberg declared.

That wraps up the highlights. Microsoft didn't announce a price or release date, instead confirming what we already know, which is that Xbox One will be available "later this year."

What did you think of the announcement? Are you as bummed as we are that more hardware details weren't revealed? Let us know in the comments!

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Yahoo Overhauls Flickr, Ups Free Storage Ante to 1TB

Paul Lilly — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:53:46 +0000

Let the free storage wars begin.

Yahoo wasn't just content to spend $1.1 billion acquiring Tumblr, it also went out and revamped its Flickr photo sharing service in a significant way. The first thing you'll notice is a tiled interface with larger size images. Users are able to upload full resolution photos, and to make sure you have plenty of online space to store your photography, Yahoo is offering 1TB of online storage for free in an attempt to make the service "awesome again."

That trumps Google's 15GB of free storage, which the sultan of search allows you to distribute however you wish across Gmail, Google Drive, and Google+. Yahoo limits photo uploads to 200MB each on its free tier and 1080p video uploads to 1GB each, up to 3 minutes long. You can upload and download in full original quality.

"Flickr’s stunning new desktop design puts photos at the heart of the experience. Built around a new photostream that gives you a vivid and endlessly scrolling gallery, it’s easy to see what your friends are posting and what they’re saying about your photos," Yahoo stated in a blog post. "And because Flickr has always been about exploring photographs from users around the world, we’ve also created a new slideshow that displays the most spectacular Flickr photos in gorgeous full-screen."

For $50 per year, you can sign up for an "Ad Free" account with all the same benefits of the free tier, but without ads (makes sense). Alternately, you can cough up $500 per year to double the storage allotment to 2TB (makes poor fiscal sense).

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HGST Expands Notebook Drive Capacity to 1.5TB

Paul Lilly — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:52:58 +0000

Big storage, little drive.

HGST, a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Digital, announced on Tuesday what it claims is the highest storage density of any hard drive and highest capacity HDD for the mainstream mobile market, the Travelstar 5K1500. The new Travelstar 5K1500 is purportedly the industry's first 9.5mm to offer 1.5TB of storage capacity, though that's not all it brings to the table. High shock protection and low power performance are also traits of HGST's newest HDD.

That's all fine and dandy, but isn't the market shifting towards solid state drives?

"Contrary to popular belief, the mobile hard drive market is not being replaced by SSDs. We continue to invest in and serve both the traditional 9.5mm and 7mm thin and light HDD mobile markets as they offer the best cost-per-GB, performance and proven product reliability for high-capacity, mainstream, Ultrabook and A/V content creation notebook markets," said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing at HGST. "HGST continues to have a strong share in the 2.5-inch market and the new Travelstar 5K1500 hard drive is the latest addition to our broad line of 5,400 and 7,200 RPM 2.5-inch drives, giving OEMs, ODMs and integrators an opportunity to grow and differentiate their product lines."

The Travelstar 5K1500 serves up its storage capacity on three platters. It has 32MB of cache, a 5400 RPM spindle speed, and a SATA 6Gbps interface. According to HGST, it benches better in PCMark Vantage and PCMark 7 than its currently shipping two-platter 5400 RPM models.

HGST sees a broad market for its new drive, including notebooks, external HDD applications, gaming consoles, and all-in-one (AIO) desktop PCs. Initial drives will be available in June, followed by an optional self-encrypting version in the third quarter of this year. Pricing has not yet been announced.

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15 Technology Failures

Mark Pilkington — Mon, 20 May 2013 22:40:03 +0000

Duke Nukem Forever, Windows ME, Google Wave, and more!

Predicting the next big thing is never easy, especially when it comes to technology. It's easy to lose count of the number of times Microsoft or Google have promised to create products that will revolutionize our lives. Granted, occasionally the corporate gurus are right – smartphones and wireless networks being two great examples. But for all the successful launches, there are as many products that don’t quite get it right. It could be a fantastic idea on paper, but when it comes to fulfilling the dream, they become nothing more than technology failures.

Following on from our earlier article way back in 2010 covering the 13 Biggest Tech Blunders of the Decade we bring you 15 more embarrassing tech failures that some companies would rather you forget.

Did you own or ever use any of these tech blunders? If so, let us know in the comments below!

Sony Teases PlayStation 4 Console Reveal Ahead of Microsoft's Xbox Announcement

Paul Lilly — Mon, 20 May 2013 19:26:39 +0000

It's 'Game-on' between Sony and Microsoft.

Sony today provided a first glimpse of what its next generation PlayStation 4 (PS4) console will look like, though a quick peek is all you get. The reveal comes in the form of a 39-second YouTube clip that flashes between various different close-ups and a blurry shot of the square-shape console as the camera moves increasingly closer, though never coming into focus. Sony is planning to fully unveil the PS4 at E3 on June 10.

The timing of Sony's teaser video represents a bit of gamesmanship, as Microsoft is set to announce its next Xbox console (codenamed Durango) tomorrow morning. Thus will begin the next-generation console wars, though it will be a war of words and speculation since both companies are planning to make their respective platforms available to purchase this holiday shopping season.

One of the big things gamers will be paying attention to during tomorrow's announcement is whether or not the new Xbox will require an always-on Internet connection. Ex-Microsoft Studios employee Adam Orth ended up resigning after defending always-on devices on his Twitter account by talking down to other users.

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Retina Smetina, Samsung Showcases 13.3-inch Notebook with 3200x1800 Resolution

Paul Lilly — Mon, 20 May 2013 19:03:46 +0000

More pixels than you can shake a MacBook Pro at.

Samsung is taking high resolution displays seriously these days. How serious? Enough to launch a 13.3-inch WQXGA+ laptop at the Society for Information Display's (SID) Display Week 2013 convention in Vancouver. That works out to a 3200x1800 display resolution, packing more pixels per inch (276 PPI) than Google's Chromebook Pixel (239 PPI) or Apple's MacBook Pro 13 (227 PPI).

According to Samsung, the high-resolution notebook can deliver 30 percent greater power savings than that of existing LCD tablet displays, a feat it accomplishes by decreasing the number of driver circuits, thereby increasing the efficiency of the LED BLU.

Beyond that tidbit, Samsung refrained from revealing any other details about its upcoming laptop model. The company did say, however, that it also plans to show off a 10.1-inch WQXGA (2560x1600) LCD for tablets, a Full HD 1080p (1920x1080) mobile AMOLED display with the world's broadest color gamut, and an 85-inch Ultra HD (2840x2160) LCD TV panel with "extremely vivid color and low power consumption."

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Changing PC Landscape Puts the Pinch on BIOS Designers

Paul Lilly — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:10:35 +0000

Singing the BIOS blues.

It's the little guy that often gets overlooked in various circumstances, and when it comes to computers in general, BIOS makers fit that description, even though their chips and code play a big role in the operation of your PC. Like every other PC player, BIOS designers are feeling the hurt from weakening PC sales, leaving them to find alternative means to flip a profit amid a changing market place.

Insyde Software, Phoenix Technologies, and American Megatrends (AMI) have all started taking measures to deal with the impact of a slowed market, sources within the upstream supply chain tell Digitimes.

Each is going about it in a different way. Insyde Software, for example, is focusing on Android and server-related products to try and offset losses from the PC segment. Phoenix, meanwhile, reportedly "streamlined" its workforce to cut costs, while AMI is still looking for a solution.

BIOS makers are in a bit of a pickle. Some believe tablets are a passing fad that will no longer be around in five years, while Gartner predicts that tablet sales will top traditional PCs by 2017.

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Strange Saga Continues: John McAfee's Island Home Burns to the Ground

Paul Lilly — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:52:46 +0000

Antivirus founder's wild ride isn't over.

John McAfee, the British-American programmer who used to work for NASA before founding McAfee Associates (now owned by Intel), a computer antivirus company, no longer has a home in Belize. Apparently his island abode burned down last Thursday amid circumstances he deemed "suspicious," according to a FoxNews.com report.

"I believe that there are a select few with great power in Belize that will go to great lengths to harm me," McAfee told FoxNews.com. "This fire was not just a strange coincidence."

The keyword there is "strange," which appropriately describes McAfee's descent from a wealthy antivirus entrepreneur to a man who faked a heart attack after fleeing Belize, where he was wanted for questioning in a murder case involving his neighbor, and making his way to Guatemala. It was there that he played the "crazy card" to avoid being deported to Belize and was ultimately put on a plane headed for the U.S.

Two main structures belonging to McAfee burned to the ground, each one valued at around $250,000. It's being classified as a bush fire, though McAfee suspects foul play on the part of Belizean authorities, who he maintains are out to do him harm.

According to McAfee's official blog, an investment group was about to close a deal in the next few days to purchase his property.

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YouTube Turns 8 Years Old Today

Paul Lilly — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:14:51 +0000

Google-owned site is still growing.

Thanks to YouTube, we have funny memories like Leeroy Jenkins leading his team to slaughter and declaring after the bloodbath, "at least I have chicken"; the art of Rickrolling; Old Gregg introducing a new audience to how a transsexual merman rolls; and so many more. Heck, if it weren't for YouTube, shows like Tosh.0 probably wouldn't exist. Pretty remarkable for a site that turns 8 years old today.

What started off as a modest video sharing site has grown into so much more in the past 8 years. According to YouTube, would-be directors upload more than 100 hours of video to YouTube every mintue. On a monthly basis, it's seeing 1 billion visitors come to the site. And earlier this month, YouTube announced it was seeing 6 billion hours of video uploads each month.

"And so, this Monday, on our eighth birthday, we’d like to thank you for making YouTube the special place that it is," YouTube stated in a blog post on Sunday. "For showing us how video can create connections, transcend borders and make a difference. For clicking these links even if you aren’t sure what they’ll be, but you trust us. In short, thanks for making us better in big ways and small ones, too. We can’t wait to see what you come up with next."

The most viewed video on YouTube is Gangnam Style with more than 1.6 billion hits, followed by Justin Bieber's Baby video featuring Ludacris (859.2 million hits).

What's your favorite YouTube video?

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