As Mac Pro stagnates, PC workstations muscle ahead

As Mac Pro stagnates, PC workstations muscle ahead:

Out of gas, for now.

Aurich Lawson / Thinkstock

Like many Mac-based creative professionals, I followed this year's WWDC keynote anxiously, awaiting the "one more thing" that never came: an E5 Xeon refresh of the Mac Pro line. Its absence was brutally disappointing; thankfully, Tim Cook broke his vow of secrecy to reassure us that a new Mac Pro will arrive in 2013. But for filmmakers compressing hours of 4K footage or school labs in need of new Maya machines, that’s a long time to wait—perhaps too long. Since I was also in the market for a machine to help out with my V-Ray renders, I decided that the time had come to evaluate my alternatives. The current Westmere-based Mac Pro line is definitely out of sync with what’s available elsewhere, and it is no longer competitive from a price-to-power standpoint.
I have heard it said that Dell, HP, and Apple split the workstation market pretty much three ways; whether or not this is true, it did seem worth taking a look at how the other big boys’ hot-rods rolled. The HP Z820 and Dell Precision T5600 are both monstrous dual-socket Intel E5-2665 Xeons clocked at 2.4GHz and, if I had to guess, I’d say that they are much like what would have replaced the dual Westmere Xeon 2.66GHz Mac Pro that I reviewed in 2010.
Of course, you can still build your own workstation, but I’m writing this for an audience who needs top-tier support and doesn’t want to chase six different companies when something goes wrong. I have my own overclocked 3930K gaming rig dual-booting Linux and Windows, but as I’ve pointed out countless times in the comments section of my Mac Pro reviews, a workstation needs to do one thing: keep working. Vendor support remains key to making this happen.
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Microsoft Surface Tablet Worries Acer, HP, Dell

Microsoft Surface Tablet Worries Acer, HP, Dell:
While tech enthusiasts are waiting for the release of Microsoft Surface Tablet which is set on October 26th, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are wary Microsoft might be taking their place on the shelf. Tensions between the software giant and OEMs are starting to build up just as Surface is nearing release.

Taiwan-based computer manufacturer Acer said recently that Microsoft should think twice about its plans on Surface tablet but it seems too late for that now.
“It will create a huge negative impact for the ecosystem and other brands may take a negative reaction. It is not something you are good at so please think twice,” J.T. Wang, Acer CEO, told Financial Times.
For decades, Microsoft OEMs like Acer, HP, and Dell never had any sort of competition against the software giant; they build hardware that would run Windows OS and other applications from Microsoft.
Campbell Kan, President of Personal Computer Global Operations at Acer, said that they might be looking for better alternatives as they could no longer rely on Microsoft. The fact that it becomes their competition on the hardware business is evident things will never remain the way they were.
A few weeks after Surface was unveiled, Hewlett-Packard (HP) said they will no longer continue building tablets based on ARM processor, instead they will set their focus on building x86-based slates to stay away from the competition they knew they can’t win. Likewise, Dell also shared their intentions to stop producing ARM-based tablets following the footsteps of HP. This is evident that Surface tablet has a negative impact on the ecosystem as far as these companies are concerned.
The pricing is the determining factor whether Microsoft is trying to take away the piece of the pie of these OEMs. If Surface will be marketed around $1000 to $2000, it may just be targeting the high-end market and manufacturers offering their device lower than $1000 could probably survive. But if Microsoft goes below the 1000-dollar range, everybody knows what it’s after.

Half the people watching television ad confused the Samsung GALAXY Tab for the Apple iPad

Half the people watching television ad confused the Samsung GALAXY Tab for the Apple iPad: Internal Samsung documents revealed in court on Wednesday, showed that those watching television commercials for the Samsung GALAXY Tab thought that the ad was for the Apple iPad; only 16% of those viewing the spot correctly knew that the device was a Samsung product...

Extending iPhone Battery Life with JailBreak?

Extending iPhone Battery Life with JailBreak?:
As with any smartphone user, iPhone users know well the frustration of the battery life and though several iPhone apps and hacks have made promise to improve the battery life of our beloved devices most users report limited success with these apparent solutions.

So, I’m guessing it comes as no surprise that the market is still open for the holy grail of all solutions with jailbreakers still very much in the market for that all embracing effective tweak to enhance the life of our batteries, not just something that works, but works well!
Well, the answer may just have arrived with BattSaver, which promises to be the solution. So, what can we expect? Well, BattSaver works very much like Carat, in essence the jailbreak tweak working much like the iPhone app. In a basic sense, it will find aspects of your smartphone that drain your battery life and suppress them.
Though this might sound alarming, Battsaver hones in on iPhone radios, i.e. Wi-Fi connections. The jailbreak tweak ultimately aims to better manage when these are enabled or disabled, as a result, in theory at least providing the use with a much increased batter life.
Battsaver allows users to choose one of five saving strategies, three of which are preset by the jailbreak tweak itself according to iDownloadblog.
The saver in normal mode, i.e. when your iPhone is “sleeping,” will disable all radio signals, resulting in a longer battery life. Do not be too concerned about e-mails, in this mode the handset will check for new mail every 15 minutes.
As well as normal mode, users can opt for Aggressive Mode. iDownloadblog says, “the aggressive mode does the same thing as normal mode, except it will also disable the data connection complete lt if Wi-Fi is connected. The thought behind this is that you already have a valid Wi-Fi connection, so why waste extra battery with a cellular data connection waiting as a backup. For those of you worried about phone calls and SMS messages. The GSM cellular radio that those services rely on is left alone. Unlike normal mode, when your device is asleep, you will not receive notification but instead of normal’s 15-minute refresh period, aggressive mode will enable your data radios every 45 minutes to retrieve emails and notifications.
We come at the last to the final option, the Ultimate Mode, by far the most extreme of the three. This completely disables all radio signals very similar to those of us who are already familiar with the Airplane Mode option on most smart phones.
Though all three provide varying degrees of variation, custom mode, as the name suggests, allows the user to customize every aspect of how BattSaver affects their device. Users can come up with any bunch of settings to meet their needs using the countless configurations available.
So all this said, despite previous mixed experience of these battery saving solutions, Batt Saver certainly seems to be worth a look. At the moment, this tweak is available for download in the Cydia Store of $2.99, or if you are a non jailbreaker and/or looking for a free solution, take a look at downloading Carat for iPhone.
Source: http://mashable.com/2012/08/07/double-iphone-battery-life/

Fighting Fantasy games to be removed from iTunes next week

Fighting Fantasy games to be removed from iTunes next week:






The iOS games based on Ian Livingston's Fighting Fantasy choose-your-own-adventure books will be removed from iTunes next week when developer Big Blue Bubble's license to the series expires.
The titles that will be removed from the store on August 14th include: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Citadel of Chaos, Creature of Havoc, City of Thieves, and Deathtrap Dungeon.
Big Blue Bubble said: "The agreement that we made was fo a specific amount of time and that time is now lapsed. I am not aware of the apps being picked up or ported by anyone else."
While those particular apps that are being removed from iTunes next week may not have found a new publisher, the Fighting Fantasy series will be kept alive on iTunes by Tin Man Games, who are...
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Lenovo's 'ultra-portable' ThinkPad T430u will be available later this month for $779

Lenovo's 'ultra-portable' ThinkPad T430u will be available later this month for $779:






Amid the more exciting news of Lenovo's new ThinkPad Tablet 2, the company also tok the wraps off of the ThinkPad T430u "ultraportable," a business-focused laptop that we first saw way back at CES earlier this year. This Windows 7 laptop has a new price — it starts at $779, down from the $849 we heard back in January. For that, you'll get an Ivy Bridge processor, a 14-inch screen with a somewhat disappointing 1366 x 768 resolution, up to 8GB of RAM, and the option for either a standard HDD or a 128GB SSD. It also packs a 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 620M graphics unit, and still claims a potentially impressive seven hours of battery life. At 0.83 inches thick and 4.08 pounds, it's not exactly the lightest laptop on the market, but at least...
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NAMCO BANDAI jump on board with OUYA

NAMCO BANDAI jump on board with OUYA:

A little over a month has passed since the OUYA revealed itself to the world and we’re now into the final countdown in the Kickstarter campaign. During the past month it seems that barely a day went by without another announcement of support for the Android Game Console and today is just another example. World famous Gaming Guru NAMCO BANDAI has partnered up with OUYA in order to bring classic titles such as PAC-MAN, GALAGA, TEKKEN and Ridge Racer. The addition of the NAMCO BANDAI catalogue will be sure to be bolster the growing list of titles available at launch.

The good news just keeps coming too with the announcement that, after listening to feedback from investors, the OUYA will officially support four controllers. Those of you who pledged $90 will still receive a Console with one controller, however if you throw in an extra $90 you’ll get the additional three.

With the steady flow of good news flowing in from OUYA, it’s looking increasingly likely that the plucky upstart might just be a success. Are you planning on picking one up? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Source: Kickstarter

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