Overpricing the digital future Once designed to protect retail from an inevitable future, overcharging for digital games now threatens the industry. Two versions of a game go on sale. Both of them have precisely the same content, precisely the same experience for the player. One of them comes on a Blu-Ray disc, in a nicely designed case; it'll work on any game console, so you can lend it to friends, sell it second-hand and, as long as you don't damage the disc, you have absolute confidence that you'll be able to play it for as long as you like, whenever you like. The other is a download version... Games Industry
Windows 10 Technical Preview first impressions: the return of the desktop I've said this before, and I will reiterate it now. Windows 8, in general, is not perceived in a positive light. Not necessarily because of the lack of features, or even due to the touch first interface, but because from the start people did not buy into the paradigm. We can argue over why that was, and the specifics are likely different for every individual. But a big part of that was that Windows, which has had a familiar interface since Windows 95, had changed dramatically in look, feel, and general use. AnandTech
Understanding frame rate – uncovering the truth behind 30 vs 60 fps As someone who loves video games, I spend a lot of time discussing them on the internet via various Reddit communities, forums, and when I can stomach it; the YouTube comment section. One topic that seems to keep coming up in the ever-growing battle between PC and Console is the difference between 30 and 60 FPS. or rather the lack thereof, in the case of some arguments. In this report, we'll be taking a look at some of these arguments and attempt to clarify some of the misinformation that is often used in them. Technology X
Windows 8: Why Microsoft's giant gamble didn't pay off Even when it was launched, Windows 8 was seen as a gamble – but one that Microsoft had to make. The stunning, out-of-nowhere success of tablets was making the PC look stodgy and out-of-date, so Microsoft had to show that Windows could still be relevant beyond its traditional desktop home. The company's response was Windows 8, with its colourful tiled interface and the emphasis on Windows as a touchscreen operating system for a new age of computing – a bet-the-company move, according to then-CEO Steve Ballmer. ZDNet
Graphics card coil whine; an investigation Coil whine. It's long been the bane of graphics cards and judging from the reaction on many forums the current darlings of NVIDIA's lineup, the GTX 970 and GTX 980, may suffer from the same nagging issue as previous Radeon and GeForce products. Multiple posts and retailer feedback sections show a number of coil noise complaints but how widespread is it? There are plenty of frustrated, vocal folks out there who spent plenty of money for a brand new GPU and have been beset by high electrical noise footprints. Hardware Canucks
Porn stars Alex Chance, Nadia Styles explain net neutrality in 'Funny Or Die' video Net neutrality has earned an endorsement from President Barack Obama, been featured heavily on late-night talk shows and has people nervous that their Netflix speed will slow down. Yet advocates have complained that not only is it difficult for people to hear about the issue, it's damn near impossible to help them understand it ... at least until porn stars get involved. YouTube
Global disease monitoring and forecasting with Wikipedia Infectious disease is a leading threat to public health, economic stability, and other key social structures. Efforts to mitigate these impacts depend on accurate and timely monitoring to measure the risk and progress of disease. Traditional, biologically-focused monitoring techniques are accurate but costly and slow; in response, new techniques based on social internet data, such as social media and search queries, are emerging. PLOS
Window washing skills beyond a robot's reach As a pair of window washers clung to a scaffold dangling outside the 68th floor of 1 World Trade Center on Wednesday, the captivating drama left some below wondering: Why were they up there at all? In an age when a few clicks on a cellphone can solve myriad problems, it seems fair to ask why people are still descending from the roofs of skyscrapers to rub soapy water on glass and wipe it off with a squeegee. The NY Times
WASD's Code keyboard with Cherry MX clear switches reviewed For the past little while, Cherry's MX clear key switch has been my white whale---not because it can use echolocation to find breathing holes under sea ice, but because I keep meaning to try it out, and it's weirdly hard to come by. Like, unreasonably so. Even when keyboards based on it show up in online listings, they have a strange propensity for being out of stock. The Tech Report
Facebook gives its server racks a Tesla touch Matt Corddry, Facebook's director of hardware engineering, should be grateful to Tesla. Not because he drives one (he doesn't), but because the popularity of its electric cars could help Facebook take a little more cost out of running its data centers. Corddry runs Facebook's hardware engineering lab, which designs the cutting-edge servers, storage gear and other equipment that power its services. ITworld
New metal lets today's 3D printers make tomorrow's electronics When entrepreneur Michael Toutonghi and his son wanted to make a rocket in their family basement, they went about it in a thoroughly modern way: though the duo wasn't gearing up to produce their rockets by the hundreds, the production and assembly processes were still too tedious to be done entirely by hand. Well-versed in using 3D printers to assist rapid prototyping, the two Toutonghis set about automating as much of the process as possible, but their efforts hit a wall when it came time to do the electronics. ExtremeTech
Exploring performance consistency in USB 3.0 flash drives SSD technology has advanced to a stage where it is possible to have flash drives with bona-fide SSD controllers. The addition of a SATA to USB 3.0 bridge provides an ubiquitous high-speed direct attached storage interface. We have already looked at the Phison S9-based Corsair Flash Voyager GTX and the SandForce SF2281-based Mushkin Ventura Ultra. Our review of the Mushkin Ventura Ultra 120GB drive had a comment about the device's thermal throttling issues. AnandTech
Philae comet lander sends more data before losing power The Philae lander on the distant comet 67P has sent another stream of data back to Earth before losing power. The little probe delivered everything expected from it, just as its failing battery dropped it into standby mode. Philae is pressed up against a cliff. Deep shadows mean it cannot now get enough light on to its solar panels to recharge its systems. The European Space Agency (Esa) fears this contact may have been the robot's last - certainly for a while. BBC
Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo component cables (Kickstarter) HD Retrovision was founded with one goal in mind: to rescue consoles stuck in their owner's closet, or worse, on their way to the trash can. Since most modern HDTVs no longer support S-video connectivity many users are forced to play their Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis using composite video (single yellow cable). With composite video, you get an ugly and blurry video with messed up colors and other distortions. Kickstarter
The man who made a game to change the world There is no one agreed family tree of video games, arranged and pruned by consensus. There is no single progenitor that sits at the top of that tree, the seed from which all other video games originate. The video-game family tree is knotted, tangled and grimly contested. We can all agree that Donkey Kong begat Super Mario Bros. But did the modern role playing games flow from Adventure, Wizardry or Black Onyx? Eurogamer
3D prints smaller than an ant's forehead are printed and then inevitably lost We've seen some absolutely amazing art over the past 6,000 years of human history, and, more recently, we've seen some incredible creations that were made using 3D printing and imaging techniques. But now it's clear – some of the most impressive art is something we will never see. At least not with the naked eye. Or even a jeweler's scope, or a microscope that can magnify 400x. 3DPrint
K|NGP|N breaks 3DMark records with four GeForce GTX 980 at 2GHz Vince "K|NGP|N" Lucido, one of the world's most renowned overclockers who collaborates with EVGA these days, has set a number of world's records when it comes to GPU frequency. He was the first to overclock a graphics processor to 2GHz and was among the first to hit 2.20GHz with Nvidia's latest GeForce GTX 980 GPU. KitGuru