| Mean-Looking Alienware Area-51 Comes with Intel Octa-Core CPU, DDR4 Posted: 30 Aug 2014 05:30 AM PDT Alienware’s gaming notebooks and desktop PCs may not be the best performing ones on the planet, but in terms of design, they really don’t have any competitors. The latest iteration of the Area 51 gaming desktop PC also packs some hardware innovations besides the otherworldly shape. Area-51 must be every hardcore gamer’s dream. It’s devilishly good-looking, packs next-gen hardware components, and ensures a perfect environment for pwning n00bs. Intel unveiled yesterday the Haswell-E line of processors, and Alienware was among the gaming PC builders to showcase a model build around them. With that comes support for DDR4-2133Mhz memory, which while not the fastest, provides plenty of bandwidth for gaming and other power-hungry software applications. Alienware’s latest gaming PC comes in several different configurations. One of the distinguishing aspects is the number of GPUs the system is equipped with. That ranges from one to four, but regardless of how many graphics cards are used, Area-51 will be able to display images at 4K UltraHD resolution. As far as the included CPU is concerned, it can have either six or eight cores, depending on the budget of the buyer. All that processing power is used along up to 32GB of 2133 DDR4, which compared to DDR3 has 20% more bandwidth, and is 20% more power-efficient. Frank Azor, the general manager of Alienware, explained how it took the company a long time to get here, and that the new Area-51 is the result of many years of hard work: “We're excited to reveal the reimagined Alienware Area-51, a system that is the result of 18 years of innovation fueled by our love of gaming. We questioned everything and then began working on a system based on how we actually use our full-tower desktops rather than based on what was quick, easy or comfortable for us to design. The Area-51 features the all-new Triad chassis, designed from the ground up to deliver on exactly what gamers want, state-of-the-art performance, scalability and ease of use. ” The new Alienware Area-51 is expected to be shipped in October in the U.S. and just in time for the holiday season around the globe. Depending on the preferred configuration, the price may differ significantly, but one thing is certain: such a beautiful chassis, packed with the latest hardware, definitely won’t come cheap. Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the one-inch thick Alienware 13″ gaming notebook, and Acer’s Tegra K1 Chromebook 13.  |
| Google’s Project Wing Drone-Based Delivery System Gets Tested in Australia Posted: 29 Aug 2014 06:30 AM PDT It seems that Amazon is not the only company interested in delivering goods with the help of drones, as the recently tested Google X Project Wing suggests. Self-driving cars will soon be joined by autonomous drones that take over the skies to deliver either shopped goods or packages vital for disaster relief. Earlier this month, a 5-foot wide, 2.5-foot high drone that’s part of Google X Project Wing delivered candy bars, dog treats, cattle vaccines, water and radios to two farmers in Queensland, Australia. Google X’s Astro Teller pointed out in a interview with the BBC that the delivery of goods is not the only scenario these drones could prove useful for: “Even just a few of these, being able to shuttle nearly continuously could service a very large number of people in an emergency situation.” Teller also expressed the final goal of the drone-delivery program: “What excited us from the beginning was that if the right thing could find anybody just in the moment that they need it, the world might be radically better place.” Watching the self-flying vehicles take off is all but something ordinary. The drone is positioned vertically, with its tip facing upwards, and with the help of its four electrically-driven propellers it takes to the skies. Once it reaches an altitude of 130 feet to 200 feet, the drone changes its orientation to the horizontal position necessary for flight. An interesting fact is that the combined weight of the drone and of the package to be delivered cannot exceed 22 pounds. Should the drones be used for commercial purposes (a thing that’s currently banned in the U.S.), they won’t be able to deliver video game consoles or hefty computer parts. As a joke, a commenter on The Verge said that the drone would, in theory, be capable of delivering two babies. It was about time those gorram storks were replaced by some modern tech! Assuming that these drones are not excessively noisy, I wouldn’t mind if the deliveries of small objects was done using them exclusively. The next logical step of Google would be to use such drones for providing Internet. After all, I don’t think that Mountain View bought drone maker Titan Aerospace for nothing. One thing is certain, though, Google won’t stop here with its self-flying vehicles. Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about Google’s Project Tango 3D mapping smartphone, and Google’s acquisition of artificial intelligence company DeepMind.  |
| Microsoft Offering Stand-alone Kinect October 7 For $149.99 Posted: 29 Aug 2014 06:00 AM PDT The motion-sensing Xbox One peripheral is going solo in the fall.
When Microsoft unhitched Kinect from the Xbox One as a desperate $399 price-cutting solution to catch up with the PlayStation 4 sales-wise (spoilers: it didn't help), the company briefly mentioned in passing that the motion sensing camera would be available separately later in the year. As we've come to learn today, that will happen on October 7, when Microsoft will make the Kinect sensor available at United States retailers for the price of $149.99 USD. That might look absurdly pricy for a peripheral that hasn't really shown its usefulness outside UI navigation or voice commands, but honestly if Kinect is what you want, I’d recommend getting the Xbox One (with Kinect) bundle that can still be found for $499, $50 dollars less than the buying both individually. Of course, the faultiness in my recommendation is if you already have an Xbox One to begin with. Then yeah, for existing Xbox One console owners, it is a bummer of a price. Although, stand-alone Kinect buyers do receiver a free download code for Dance Central Spotlight, the next dance game from former Rock Band developers Harmonix, which is exclusive to the Xbox One and includes a 10-track soundtrack of popular music artists to bust a groove with. Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories at https://www.facebook.com/Walyou and https://twitter.com/walyou.  |
| Acer’s Tegra K1 Chromebook 13 Blows the Competition Out of the Water Posted: 29 Aug 2014 05:30 AM PDT The new Chromebook launched by Acer ticks all the important boxes for a powerful and reliable notebook: great graphical performance and processing power, HD display, sleek design, and a battery capable of powering the device for an entire day. Notebooks running Chrome OS aren’t getting as much love as their Windows or OS X counterparts, but things are about to change, and Acer’s Chromebook 13 is one of the steps needed for getting there. The Tegra K1 Chromebook adds some diversity to the line, as all the other Chrome OS notebooks are powered either by Samsung or Intel processors. It should be noted that the Chromebook 13 (which was previously leaked as CB5 by a Swedish retailer) will be available in two versions, the main distinction being made by the display resolution. More precisely, the first one, which will sell for $279, sports a 1366 x 768 display, 16GB of internal storage and 2GB of RAM, while the latter includes a full HD 1920 x 1080 display, and otherwise the same specs, for $299. The ones who aren’t satisfied with 16GB of storage and 2GB of RAM can opt to double both of them, but that will cost $380. There are a lot of people who claim that $380 is an exaggerated price for a notebook that only has 32GB of internal memory, but they’re missing the point entirely. Unlike Windows laptops, Chromebooks are a lot more responsive and have a much longer battery life, Acer’s Tegra K1 laptop being firm proof of that. Besides, Chromebooks were mainly built for browsing the web and storing whatever important data users have in the cloud. The cheaper Chromebook 13′s battery keeps the notebook going for 13 hours, while the full HD version can run for 11 hours on a single charge. Since that’s more than a work day’s worth, the longer battery life is a clear advantage Chromebooks have over the competition. If it’s numbers you’re interested in, Acer Chromebook 13 is 0.71 inches thick and weighs 3.31 pounds. The notebook sports 2 USB 3.0 ports and an HDMI port that should come in handy when connecting the Chromebook to a projector or an external display. Chromebook 13 is currently available for preorders on Acer’s website, and should start shipping sometime in September. Now it’s time for Acer’s competitors to make their move. Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the Tegra K1 Shield Tablet that expands Nvidia’s gaming console, and Acer CB5, the world’s first Tegra K1-powered Chromebook.  |
