Posts Tagged ‘graphics’

Apple’s new iPhone 5 has some fresh muscle inside: The Apple A6. The new system-on-chip is 22 percent smaller than the A5, and has twice the graphics potency, Apple says. Developing. Check out our iPhone 5 event live blog for the latest updates! Continue reading…

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The Apple A6: a smaller, faster processor for the iPhone 5

The Liberated Pixel Cup draws to a close. The deadline for code entries was July 31st, and those entries were posted online Thursday (with descriptions). You’ll have to wait longer than expected for the results though: “Note that due to the larget volume of entries (48 code entries alone, plus a large number of art entries), judging may take longer than we had originally thought. Our current time frame for judging is the end of August.

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48 Games Entered Into the Liberated Pixel Cup

Last month it emerged that ZTE was subject to a Department of Commerce inquiry over selling embargoed American equipment to Iran , and it looks like the situation has further escalated. According to a document obtained by The Smoking Gun , the FBI is now investigating and has found evidence that the Chinese company made plans to obstruct the Department of Commerce inquiry. The information comes from Ashley Kyle Yablon, a ZTE attorney-turned-whistleblower who informed the FBI of the planned coverup.

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ZTE under FBI investigation for allegedly selling surveillance equipment to Iran

Facebook version 1.97 for Android is here , and it comes with the usual array of minor interface tweaks and bug fixes. One feature of note, however, is that you’re now able to take and upload photos using your device’s front-facing camera. It’s difficult to believe this feature wasn’t here in the first place — how else would Android users pose for their profile pics? — but it likely stems from Facebook’s non-standard use of the Android camera.

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Facebook for Android update lets you use the front-facing camera

It’s fitting that the first Mad Men game adaptation is as retro and original as the show that spawned it. Mad Men: The Game by Fine Brothers Productions is played entirely via the medium of YouTube, where you make choices by clicking from video to video like a Choose Your Own Adventure book. You control Don Draper and must complete three different tasks in order to save the company.

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‘Mad Men: The Game’ is a retro adventure played out on YouTube

Nvidia’s long-awaited move to 28nm technology is finally upon us today with the launch of the GeForce GTX 680. Billed as the most efficient GPU ever put together, the GTX 680 has a very reasonable power envelope of just 195W, breaking with the tradition of every new high-end graphics card requiring more power than the previous generation. That power figure is important for another reason: Nvidia no longer has a static clock speed for its graphics card. The GeForce GTX 680 has a 1,006MHz base clock and a 1,058MHz boost clock and will dynamically alternate between those values depending on load and power consumption.

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Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 official: 28nm Kepler GPU doesn’t disappoint

No matter how you slice it, Infinity Blade II is a pretty gorgeous game, but it’ll look amazing on your third-generation iPad’s Retina Display. Chair Entertainment just updated the hack-and-slash adventure with 2048 x 1536 high-resolution graphics, ahead of the new iPad launch tomorrow morning. While you might rather have the brand-new over-the-shoulder perspective Infinity Blade: Dungeons to play instead, we’d definitely be happy to revisit the picturesque environs of the second game in the series while we’re waiting for Chair’s dungeon crawler.

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‘Infinity Blade 2′ update adds 2048 x 1536 iPad Retina Display graphics

“Controlled chaos” is what Minh Le says he’s aiming for with his new shooter, the seven-years-in-development Tactical Intervention . The levels are close, almost claustrophobic, and littered with destructible, mobile objects that can explode or be used to impede or damage your enemy. Something as simple as kicking over a shopping cart can block an entry point, cause a distraction, shatter a glass window, send other objects flying through the air, or even injure a player in its path. A round of TI looks as much like an action movie as a multiplayer shooter, with random explosions, shattered glass and bullets flying everywhere. Le says his goal was to create a game that was unpredictable, where no two rounds ever played out the same way

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Tactical Intervention: First look at Gooseman’s new shooter

Reviews are flowing in for AMD’s latest midrange 28nm GPUs, the Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition and HD 7750, both based on the company’s Southern Islands Cape Verde architecture. The new cards are focused on lower power performance, with the HD 7770 GHz using 25W less than the HD 6850 it can be seen to replace. AMD is also touting the HD 7770 GHz as being the first card to break the 1GHz barrier, though it said the same about the Radeon HD 4890 back in May 2009. Anandtech , Tom’s Hardware , Tech Report , PC Magazine , TechPowerUp , PC Perspective , and Guru 3D have all reviewed the cards, and have reached very similar conclusions

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AMD Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition and HD 7750 review roundup

Sony’s been trying to wave off concerns over the poor sales of the PlayStation Vita, and the drumbeat continued on the company’s recent earnings call. CFO Masaru Kato stated the the company sold 500,000 units in the first three weeks after launch — it’s being outsold by the nearly year-old Nintendo 3DS — but that the company was bullish on its prospects. “I think we had a very — a good start,” he said, and when pressed further about the months ahead stated “we don’t think we have any problems.” To be fair, the Vita has only launched in Japan and a few neighboring countries at this point, but questions remain if the device can compete at its $249.99 base price point when faced with the rise of cheaper smartphone and tablet-based… Continue reading…

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Sony CFO on poor PlayStation Vita sales: ‘We don’t think we have any problems’

Polarbit has just released Reckless Racing 2 , the follow-up to the popular drift-heavy arcade racer from last year. If haven’t played the original, it’s a top-down experience that will have you slipping and sliding just about everywhere. The new game has 18 vehicle choices and 24 tracks, and it’s available now for $4.99 for both iPhone and Android smartphones.

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Reckless Racing 2 offers a career mode, vehicle upgrades, and improved graphics (hands-on)

Do you identify yourself as a PC gamer? Or do you prefer consoles, perhaps? Truth be told, there’s not a lot separating the two these days. With notable exceptions, today’s top games are built for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, and unless you can’t live without the likes of Mario, Solid Snake or Master Chief, you’ll likely pick based on the controller you prefer, graphical fidelity, and the distance you sit from your screen. Inevitably, tradeoffs have to be made

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Alienware X51 review

At today’s 2012 Financial Analyst Day, AMD revealed its roadmap for mobile and desktop computing from now until 2013. There’s a lot to discuss here, but in short, the company is honing its consumer-facing line down to a single family of CPUs, and will do its best to persuade us that x86 APUs are the future of the industry. Later this year the company’s poorly-received Bulldozer line will be replaced by Vishera, and there look to be no further refreshes to its high-end desktop CPUs on the horizon. it makes sense, really, given the rumors we’ve seen over the past couple of months, as AMD looks to distance itself as a direct competitor to Intel , leverage its graphics know-how, and work on improving its low power x86 implementations for..

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AMD’s 2012 and 2013 roadmaps reveal next-gen APUs

Should non-millionaires be able to invest small amounts, like up to $100 or $1000, in small, local businesses or other ventures that they believe in, without the ventures having to spend tens of thousands (or more) on state or federal securities compliance?  I believe so, provided that the offerings can be seen and discussed openly,

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Crowdfunding exemption – WeFunder and other Senate nudging

If you’re looking to bring some rakish new gaming peripherals into your life, now could be the time: Mad Catz is now taking orders for the Cyborg MMO 7 gaming mouse and Freq 5 headset (pictured) at its online store. Unfortunately, they’re rather pricy, at $129.99 for the mouse and $149.99 for the headset, but the company claims you’ll get what you pay for. Both the headset and mouse certainly felt like comfortable, quality products when we tried them at CES this year , and the MMO 7 in particular caught our eye.

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Mad Catz Cyborg MMO 7 mouse now on sale for $129.99, pre-orders begin for Freq 5 headset

Lenovo is now taking orders for the IdeaPad Y470p, a higher-end sibling to its Y470 laptop that adds some enhanced graphics firepower for a reasonable price. The computer features a 14-inch 1366 x 768 display, 2.2GHZ Core i7 processor, a 750GB hard drive, and 8GB of RAM, but it replaces the 470′s Nvidia GeForce GT 520M graphics card with an AMD Radeon HD 7690M with 1GB of VRAM. It’s the same GPU featured in the HP Envy 15 , which we found to be a more-than-acceptable option for mid-range gaming when we reviewed it earlier this year . Unfortunately, without Nvidia’s Optimus technology on board, the laptop won’t offer the same transparent, on-the-fly switching between integrated and discrete GPUs as Lenovo’s T Series does — no doubt…

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Lenovo IdeaPad Y470p ups the graphics card ante, available for pre-order for $799

Most computer users are all too aware of the threat of viruses and worms infecting their machines, but according to security research firm BitDefender different types of malware may now be infecting each other to create a new breed of security risk. Dubbed “Frankenmalware,” the hybrids are created when a virus infects a machine that has already been compromised by a worm. The virus attaches itself to executable files on the host system — including the worm — and when the latter spreads it carries the virus along with it.

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Computer viruses infecting worms to create hybrid ‘Frankenmalware,’ says BitDefender

Id Software’s Rage for iOS set a new benchmark for smartphone games in 2010, with graphics performance that belied its low asking price. The game’s HD variant has now been upgraded to version 2.0, adding HDMI output via Apple’s breakout cable and an assortment of new features and bug fixes. Higher-resolution models for players and weapons should up the graphics ante even further, while an in-app purchase store will give players additional episodes to chew on (the first two additions are available in a 99-cent bundle). The game now fully supports iOS 5, and refinements to video output via VGA and component video should make living room gaming with the app an even better experience. The minimum requirements are quite reasonable for Apple’s…

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Rage HD 2.0 for iOS includes HDMI output and in-app purchases

Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing clip brought computer graphics to the world of music videos back in 1984, but we’ve come a long way since then. Scottish indie band Errors’ clip for Pleasure Palaces is filled to the brim with literal computer graphics — that is, pixelated cursors, Wi-Fi bars and @-symbols floating around the place. Director Rachel Maclean says the video was inspired by 80s corporate imagery, and the way one of the protagonists uses the Safari icon as an actual compass got us thinking about icon design, if nothing else. The band’s full-length LP Have Some Faith In Magic is out on January 30th in the UK, and hits the States one day later. Continue reading…

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Errors’ ‘Pleasure Palaces’ video fueled by surreal computer imagery

Looking for a SanDisk XQD card for your pre-ordered Nikon D4 ? You’ll need to look elsewhere, for now at least, according to a recent report from CNET . The new format, developed by SanDisk, Sony, and Nikon as a replacement for the aging CompactFlash card, is due to make its debut alongside Nikon’s flagship DSLR this February. SanDisk, however, has joined Lexar in holding off on production of the next-generation memory cards, leaving Sony and Nikon as the only manufacturers currently supporting the format. Lexar last week introduced a new line of 1000x CompactFlash cards , and with the announcement gave a statement indicating that the company will continue to evaluate XQD, adding that “adoption from camera manufacturers is key to its…

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SanDisk, Lexar playing the waiting game on XQD

The 1980s were a simpler time in game development, so it only stands to reason that one of the most iconic developments in gaming from the era would be justified by a simple cause. In a 2003 interview translated this week by GlitterBerri , Kazuhisa Hashimoto explains that he added the original Konami Code to the NES port of Gradius because he “hadn’t played that much and obviously couldn’t beat it [himself].” Since that innocent addition way back in 1986, the Konami Code has figured in countless games (and even Palm’s webOS software ), aiding players by granting them power-ups or supercharged abilities. As such, it stands as the best known cheat code in the history of gaming, proliferating across platforms, eras, and playing styles…. Continue reading…

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The Konami Code was put in because the devs couldn’t beat their own game

Fresh instances that reference “J2″ hardware in Apple’s latest iOS 5.1 source code have been discovered. iMore published details of its findings alongside additional mentions of a J1 device, both are thought to be codenames for two prototype tablets that Apple is currently testing. A DigiTimes report in November suggested that the J1 and J2 include 2048×1536 displays, and references to the codenames were discovered in the original iOS 5 firmware. iOS 5.1 beta 3 also includes mentions of Facebook. It’s not clear whether this is simply legacy code or a hint that Apple could be closer to integrating Facebook into the core operating system.

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Fresh references to ‘J2′ next-generation iPad and Facebook discovered in iOS 5.1

It looks like it was never meant to be: that creepily-lifelike action figure of Steve Jobs is being canceled. In a statement on the figure’s website, In Icons’ Tandy Cheung says that “we have received immense pressure from the lawyers of Apple and Steve Jobs family.” While he firmly believes that his figure doesn’t infringe on any copyrights or trademarks, he says that he’ll be canceling the product until he has support from the Jobs family, and adds that his original intention was to honor Steve. Those of you who preordered the figure made in the former CEO’s likeness should expect refunds soon, though that probably won’t help you cope with the disappointment of knowing you won’t have your own Steve to slip that black turtleneck onto. Continue reading…

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Steve Jobs action figure canceled, preorders to be refunded

We don’t typically like to pile rumor upon rumor, but Digitimes has one that nicely lines up: reportedly, Intel’s speedy Thunderbolt port will come to “several first-tier PC players,” possibly including Asus, Gigabyte and Sony, starting in April 2012. (We’d already heard Asus and Acer are on board .) Currently, Apple’s the only company with Thunderbolt ports on its MacBook Air, iMac, and MacBook Pro (though Sony already technically uses an optical derivative of the tech ), but the rumor would suggest that the finalized Thunderbolt spec would bear fruit during the very same month that Intel’s 22nm Ivy Bridge processors and related chipsets are rumored to hit the market. Even if both rumors pan out, that doesn’t mean that Thunderbolt will be… Continue reading…

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Intel Thunderbolt I/O expands beyond Mac in April 2012?

We’d already seen the specifications for the forthcoming 22nm Ivy Bridge desktop processors from  Intel’s roadmaps  that leaked early this month, along with some more details on the  mobile range  since. Now, a report from  CPU World  has given us a better idea of the wholesale pricing for the chips, which falls directly in line with the current generation of Sandy Bridge processors. The lower-end Core i5 models start at $184, rising to $332 for the Core i7-3770K which has an unlocked multiplier for easier overclocking. The only model to see a price rise over the comparable Sandy Bridge processor is the Core i5-3570K, up to $225 from $216. The range has also retained the S and T models, denoting lower energy consumption, with no price..

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Intel Ivy Bridge desktop processor pricing leaked, most models rumored for April