Tech News

New Music Player By Neil Young Lands on Kickstarter March 15

Posted on March 11, 2014 7:30 AM by Tom Roeder

“Crowdfunding” appears to be the strategy being used by Neil Young to realize his dreams of a high fidelity music streaming device.  Young’s company PonoMusic will be launching a Kickstarter campaign on March 15 that will let you reserve the PonoPlayer, an audiophile-worthy portable jukebox.  The 128GB device will cost $399 when…..

Need More Confirmation of Xbox One’s Lacking Performance? Look to Titanfall

Posted on March 10, 2014 3:00 PM by Rob Williams

Both Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4 are under-powered, a fact that all but the most ardent console fans would scoff at. I call it a “fact” based on one major reason: Neither can handle games at 1080p well, or at all. Of the two, the PS4’s beefier graphics chip helps…..

The Bitcoin Fun Continues: Mt. Gox’s Balance Sheet & Satoshi Nakamoto’s Unknowns

Posted on March 10, 2014 1:30 PM by Rob Williams

At the end of February, one of Bitcoin’s largest exchanges, Mt. Gox, filed for bankruptcy. Since then, the Bitcoin world has seen a lot of action, with one of the most recent events being that Mt. Gox has now filed for Chapter 15 in the United States, enabling cooperation between US and…..

Solving the Problem of Managing NVIDIA ShadowPlay Export Video in Adobe Premiere Pro

Posted on March 10, 2014 12:00 PM by Rob Williams

I hate to sound like a broken record, but I love NVIDIA’s ShadowPlay, and chances are good that if you’re reading this, you do, too. For those reading for no other reason than boredom (thanks for spending that time here!), ShadowPlay is a technology that utilizes your GeForce GPU to both record…..

G.SKILL Touts 16GB 2133MHz SODIMM Memory Kit, Validated in GIGABYTE’s BRIX Pro

Posted on March 10, 2014 10:30 AM by Rob Williams

It appears that I’ve been a little bit out of the loop, as I had no idea that SODIMM memory above DDR3-1600 speeds had existed. Instead, there’s already quite a number of DDR3-1866 kits available, and as this post suggests, DDR3-2133 exists, too. We’re not talking fast kits that lack in density,…..

Roku Rolls Out A Chromecast Competitor – The Streaming Stick

Posted on March 10, 2014 9:30 AM by Tom Roeder

Last Tuesday, Roku released its newest device, and it’s quite the competition for Google’s Chromecast: The Streaming Stick.  The Stick has a very impressive selection of apps for streaming content, such as the major players like Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, and Amazon Instant.   It will also run my all-time favorite app, PLEX. This device…..

Kingston Switches NAND in V300, Negatively Impacts Performance

Posted on March 10, 2014 8:30 AM by Robert Tanner

It’s understandable for an SSD manufacturer to change NAND suppliers during the lifespan of select models. In fact, it is a fairly common practice in the budget segment of the market where even a small difference in supply costs can make a large difference on the bottom line.  It can also occur…..

OCZ Updates Z-Drive: Introducing the Z-Drive 4500 PCIe

Posted on March 7, 2014 3:43 PM by Robert Tanner

OCZ is well-known for its long history with unique and often exotic PCIe-based solid-state drive solutions, and as its new announcement of a brand-new Z-Drive model is its first since being acquired by Toshiba, it should make it interesting to watch. The Z-Drive 4500 is the successor to the venerable Z-Drive R4,…..

Razer Introduces its Own Mechanical Key Switches

Posted on March 7, 2014 10:30 AM by J.D. Kane

In a move that’s sure to impact the world of PC gaming, Razer has announced that it is introducing its own line of mechanical key switches. The company says that its switches “have an optimized set of actuation points that improve your gaming performance by giving you speed and responsiveness like never…..

Walmart Cuts Smartphone Prices, Nice Deals to Be Had

Posted on March 7, 2014 8:30 AM by Tom Roeder

Walmart has announced a healthy price cut for some of the most coveted smartphones offered today: A Samsung Galaxy S4 with a two-year contract now costs only $49; a 16GB iPhone 5s is down to $119; while the 5c is a mere $29.  The Samsung deal, however, is only really attractive for the…..

DirectX 12 to be Announced at GDC on March 20, Teaser Page Hints at ARM Support

Posted on March 5, 2014 8:37 PM by Rob Williams

Each spring, San Francisco’s iteration of the Game Developers Conference tends to feature a lot of information that helps get us excited for the future of gaming, but at this forthcoming one, there’s a larger-than-normal reason to pay close attention: DirectX 12 is set to be announced. At the moment, there’s virtually no…..

Lamborghini’s Newest Supercar is Equipped with NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 Tech

Posted on March 5, 2014 2:43 PM by J.D. Kane

Because it is a Lamborghini, the Huracan, which just made its world debut at the ongoing Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland, is destined to grab more than its fair share of attention. Like most Lamborghinis, it is styled to attract the eye as well as stir the passions of the company’s most…..

First Major Update for Windows 8.1 Coming Next Month

Posted on March 5, 2014 10:30 AM by Tom Roeder

Microsoft has just wrapped up development for the first major update for Windows 8.1, but it’s not clear if it will be called a service pack.  According to The Verge, the Redmond company signed off on the final version of the update, upgrading its status to RTM (release to manufacturing).  Most of the…..

Old-school MMORPG Asheron’s Call Gets its Final Content Update

Posted on March 5, 2014 8:30 AM by Rob Williams

It’s a fact of gaming life that MMOs come and go, but most that sailed into the sunset weren’t around for over a decade. Asheron’s Call has been. In fact, it’s been around for closer to a decade-and-a-half. Since the game’s launch in 1999, it’s seen two expansions and a game update nearly…..

AMD Fills Final Obvious Gap in Current-gen Radeon Lineup, Introduces $279 R9 280

Posted on March 4, 2014 4:42 PM by Rob Williams

With the release of AMD’s Radeon R7 250X a couple of weeks ago, a missing model became obvious: The R9 280. You see, across the board, the entire range of 250 ~ 290 cards featured both a normal and “X” variant, all but the 280, that is. As this post suggests, though,…..

WD Bridges the My Cloud NAS Disk Gap: Introduces 2-bay EX2

Posted on March 4, 2014 10:00 AM by Greg King

It’s been a few months since we’ve looked at any network-attached storage.  When last we did, it was the WD EX4, and before it, the WD My Cloud.  Both devices, four and one bay respectively, impressed us for what they were, but it was clear that they weren’t going to stand toe-to-toe…..

Keurig Plans to Add DRM to Future Coffee Makers to Lock-out Third-party Refills

Posted on March 3, 2014 2:28 PM by Rob Williams

Because there’s always more room for asinine ideas, Keurig has decided that the time is right to implement DRM in its coffee makers to prevent third-party cups from being used. This is akin to a printer locking-out third-party ink cartridges, and the reason for Keurig’s move is obvious: The real money is…..

Apple Diving Head First Into The Automotive Industry

Posted on March 3, 2014 2:03 PM by Tom Roeder

Apple continues its quest for world domination with its next big endeavor – iOS in the car.  Apple first mentioned this at its annual WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) in 2013, but now has named its first three manufacturing partners –  Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo. “Car Play” as it is currently dubbed will…..

EVGA Breaks the Mold, Equips a GeForce GTX 750 with 2GB GDDR5

Posted on March 3, 2014 1:41 PM by Rob Williams

In an article I published earlier which takes a look at AMD’s Radeon R9 290X and NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 780 Ti, I mentioned that a high-end graphics card (in this case, one that retails for $700) doesn’t look that impressive nowadays with a mere 3GB framebuffer. At the low-end, the same could…..

Investment Firm Behind Interceptor Entertainment Acquires 3D Realms

Posted on March 3, 2014 12:56 PM by Rob Williams

Nearly five-years-ago, 3D Realms announced that it had to lay-off the vast majority of its staff, and at that point, its future was very unclear. At first, it seemed like the company would simply shutter; instead, it’s been trucking along with a minimal staff, supporting its existing games and promoting some re-releases.…..

AMD Radeon R9 290X & NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti Review

Posted on March 3, 2014 1:00 AM by Rob Williams

Both AMD and NVIDIA are in the midst of launching new budget GPUs, but neither of them affect the position of the Radeon R7 260X – a great thing as I have Sapphire’s take on the model to tackle. With a boost of 50MHz to the core clock, and an improved cooler,…..

Leading Bitcoin Exchange Mt. Gox Files for Bankruptcy; Nearly $500 Million in Bitcoins Lost

Posted on February 28, 2014 4:30 PM by Rob Williams

It’s been quite a month for Bitcoin, and while a lot of news has been good, there’s one story that’s trumped them all: The closing of Mt. Gox. Anyone who’s been following the ongoing saga this past month will no doubt be unsurprised at the exchange’s move to file for bankruptcy, but…..

Intel Introduces the SSD 730 Series, a Datacenter SSD for Enthusiasts

Posted on February 28, 2014 3:58 PM by Robert Tanner

A little over a year ago, Intel turned a lot of heads when it launched its DC S3700 solid-state drives. The S3700 (and follow-up S3500) featured a completely new controller developed in-house by Intel with one primary goal: Very low access latency while maintaining strict performance consistency. It was a complete changeup…..

Is a Prime Music Streaming Service Coming to Amazon?

Posted on February 28, 2014 11:00 AM by Tom Roeder

According to an article from Recode.Net, Amazon is in talks with music labels about launching a streaming music service.  Amazon already offers free movies and TV shows to current Prime members, now it looks as though it is planning to sprinkle a music service in there as well. Is Amazon getting into…..

Ford Rumored to Replace Microsoft with BlackBerry for its Ford Sync Technology

Posted on February 27, 2014 5:02 PM by Tom Roeder

Since 2007, Ford has been exclusively using the Microsoft Sync technology to bridge the gap between customers’ cell phones and their cars.  With this technology, you can pair your phone to your vehicle, make phone calls, have your car read your text messages when supported, stream Bluetooth audio and more.  The program…..

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