Tech News
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Gamers May Save the PC Market
Published: Wednesday, August 14, 2013 | By: DennisThe TechReport crew talked about this article on their latest podcast and it really got me thinking. If you think about the US PC Market the trend is moving towards mobile and tablet devices which is causing the of PCs and Laptops to dwindle. Hardware Enthusiasts and Gamers often strive to have the latest and greatest hardware which is something that Laptops and Tablets cannot deliver.
Knowing that and factoring in that hardware makers often make no profit ($0 dollars over R&D costs) on flagship and high-end hardware. You have to wonder if the sale of high-end gaming gear and custom PCs is really a long term solution or just a stop gap before the Microsoft and Intel driven mobile world takes over.
IDC Insights Research dropped some doom and gloom earlier this year, reporting that Q1 2013 PC shipments were down a drastic 13.9% globally, compared to the same period in 2012. This represented the worst decline in the US since 2006, despite Windows 8 and some inspired hardware to accompany it from the likes of Lenovo, ASUS, and Dell DELL Apparently no one told PC gamers about this decline, as a new report from Jon Peddie Research illustrates.
I had a "over drinks" discussion during CES about the future of hardware review sites and flat out said there is no future for hardware review as we know it. Simply put we all need to adapt or die. The reason being that mid and low end hardware is what makes money and the high-end flagship products are only built for marketing. So, without mid level sales there are no high-end products, and if high-end products remain the prices will go thru the roof.
I really hope the market doesn't come this that and its up to the consumers to demand change. Sadly everyone with this power has their heads buried in their ipads.
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Zotac GTX 780 AMP! Review at HardwareHeaven
Published: Wednesday, August 14, 2013 | By: DennisZotac is an interesting company, on one hand they have these super cool, super small MiniITX motherboards that simulate a system on a chip (board in this case) that sell extremely well in the States. On the other hand they have these super cool, semi awesome video cards that simulate all that is good in a video card and you would be hard pressed to get one from a US based e-tailer.
Today ZOTAC launch their take on a custom cooled 780 with a significant overclock applied at the factory; over 1000MHz base. We will compare it to an existing "super overclock" edition as well as taking a 7970 GHz Edition, water-cooling it and overclocking well past retail overclocked models to see how it compares in game such as Crysis 3 and Metro: Last Light.
The AMP! edition GPU isn't much more than a reference GTX 780 with a fancy cooler with a few extra Mhz extracted from the GPU. The real gem would be the Extreme Edition cards that appear to be a "China Only" distribution.
One of those cards in GTX 780 clothing would rival the Classified and Lightning cards for sure.
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ZOTAC GeForce GTX 680 Extreme Edition Pictured
Published: Wednesday, April 4, 2012 | By: DennisZotac has been one of the minor players in the GPU market, at least in the US, but its nice to see they are expanding their product line to include some custom PCB designs. I followed this story from HWBot to TPU only to notice that the images were taken from EXPreview.
ZOTAC is flexing its engineering muscle. First, it was talk of a 2 GHz GeForce GTX 680 by one of its senior executives, and now this, ZOTAC GeForce GTX 680 Extreme Edition. Pictured below, the card's design is reminiscent of the crazy engineering endeavors ZOTAC China undertakes, to come up with some extremely powerful designs, which seldom get out of the APAC region (to EMEAI and NA regions).
I do have some friends at Zotac and while they haven't supported this site in the past I think that may change in the future.
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New Microsoft Windows 8 Keyboard and Mouse?
Published: Tuesday, August 13, 2013 | By: DennisMouse if you can call it that, the thing looks more like a dough ball that someone put their thumb into. The keyboard on the other hand has a nice shape and square chicklet style keys and a ton of negative space.
The worse part? The key arraignment, first we have dual spacebars followed by some "extra" keys filling what would have normally been voided space on other natural designs.
I've been typing on one of these keyboards loaned to me by Microsoft for the past few days and can say it's quite comfortable. The keyboard is domed, so it's raised in the middle and slopes downward toward the edges. The "6" key is in an unfamiliar place, which is kind of annoying, as is the backspace key. But users can opt to turn one of the space-bar keys into a backspace button, so that helps a bit.
I'm not sure what the author is talking about when it comes to the 6 key, it's in the same place, now the key under the 6 is interesting and seems new.
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Thermaltake eSports Galeru Mouse Bungee Review @ Hardware Asylum
Published: Monday, August 12, 2013 | By: DennisIt is time you game like an eSports professional using the latest eSports gaming gear from Thermaltake, the Galeru.
The benefit the Galeru provides is twofold. One, it keeps the majority of the mouse cord stationary so there will never be any catching, snagging, or rubbing to cause unneeded wear against desk edges. Two, the bungee arm controls the moving section of the cord so you are always working within the confines of your playing mat, leaving you with nothing but smooth mouse gliding.
I'm with the author on this one, no way will you find me using a mouse bungee but you know, spending two bills on a mouse can go a long way to changing my mind.
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All Android-created Bitcoin wallets Are Belong to Us
Published: Monday, August 12, 2013 | By: DennisThis seems like a bad thing and given that I have distaste for Java I can safely say that this is a problem created by Java developers lazy in their coding standards or done on purpose to rule the world and take advantage of non-elitists who know not better. Which would be just as bad.
Bitcoin.org released a security advisory over the weekend warning the Bitcoin community that any Bitcoin wallet generated on any Android device is insecure and open to theft. The insecurity appears to stem from a flaw in the Android Java SecureRandom class, which under certain circumstances can produce numbers that aren't truly nondeterministic. This can allow an attacker to work out a victim's cryptographic private key. Private keys are used to sign Bitcoin transactions; if an attacker has a victim's private key, the attacker can execute Bitcoin transactions as if he were that person.
So far, it appears that the vulnerability has been used to steal at least 55 BTC (approximately $5,720 as of this morning).The first paragraph in the Ars article tells all and is one reason why Open Source software is good but can also be bad. I'm sure by now the company has issued a security update but, if memory serves, once the Bitcoint wallet has been created the only way to change it would be to create a new one and move the money.
Seems the thieves have beat them to the punch. Or, maybe this is a Superman 3 sort of scam, either way. Go Java!
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All Android-created Bitcoin wallets Are Belong to Us
Published: Monday, August 12, 2013 | By: DennisThis seems like a bad thing and given that I have distaste for Java I can safely say that this is a problem created by Java developers lazy in their coding standards or done on purpose to rule the world and take advantage of non-elitists who know not better. Which would be just as bad.
Bitcoin.org released a security advisory over the weekend warning the Bitcoin community that any Bitcoin wallet generated on any Android device is insecure and open to theft. The insecurity appears to stem from a flaw in the Android Java SecureRandom class, which under certain circumstances can produce numbers that aren't truly nondeterministic. This can allow an attacker to work out a victim's cryptographic private key. Private keys are used to sign Bitcoin transactions; if an attacker has a victim's private key, the attacker can execute Bitcoin transactions as if he were that person.
So far, it appears that the vulnerability has been used to steal at least 55 BTC (approximately $5,720 as of this morning).The first paragraph in the Ars article tells all and is one reason why Open Source software is good but can also be bad. I'm sure by now the company has issued a security update but, if memory serves, once the Bitcoint wallet has been created the only way to change it would be to create a new one and move the money.
Seems the thieves have beat them to the punch. Or, maybe this is a Superman 3 sort of scam, either way. Go Java!
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GIGABYTE Z87X-UD5H Motherboard Review @ Hardware Canucks
Published: Friday, August 9, 2013 | By: DennisGreat motherboard with nice gold trim and upgrades everywhere. Not sure if it is that much better than the UD4H but, if you are looking for drive connections it might be what you need.
Gigabyte's new Z87X-UD5H may be targeted towards the upper end of the mid-range market but it incorporates features normally found on flagship models. But with such cutthroad competition among Haswell motherboards, will this be enough?
On a side note the reviewer went a little heavy on the marketing cut and paste but included some box shots and unboxing stuff so Kudos?
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MSI Product Launch - GTX 760 Hawk
Published: Friday, August 9, 2013 | By: DennisThis news launched a few days ago but there seems to be a new video card on the loose, the MSI GTX 760 Hawk. Strangely enough I thought all the Hawk edition cards went away with the new MSI.
Seems I was wrong, and all on the day rumored to be the GTX 780 Lightning launch which will forever be known for the EVGA GTX 780 Classified.
Web Review
- MSI GeForce GTX 760 HAWK review
- MSI GTX 760 HAWK @ PureOverclock
- MSI GTX 760 Hawk @ LanOC ReviewsSadly in the old days I might have gotten one of these cards for launch, Seems I traded video cards for motherboards with the MSI camp.
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MSI Product Launch - GTX 760 Hawk
Published: Friday, August 9, 2013 | By: DennisThis news launched a few days ago but there seems to be a new video card on the loose, the MSI GTX 760 Hawk. Strangely enough I thought all the Hawk edition cards went away with the new MSI.
Seems I was wrong, and all on the day rumored to be the GTX 780 Lightning launch which will forever be known for the EVGA GTX 780 Classified.
Web Review
- MSI GeForce GTX 760 HAWK review
- MSI GTX 760 HAWK @ PureOverclock
- MSI GTX 760 Hawk @ LanOC ReviewsSadly in the old days I might have gotten one of these cards for launch, Seems I traded video cards for motherboards with the MSI camp.
