Tech: AMD Confident In 2012, Bulldozer Still Dragging Its Feet

So, lets get this straight – AMD’s Bulldozer isn’t the all-singing, all-dancing savior the brand needed to get it back to the glory Athlon days. In fact, enthusiasts are better advised to stick to their Phenom II guns and wait for the inevitable revision in a year’s time where its suddenly revealed that AMD could “squeeze” more performance from a “redesigned” chip on the same die with the same nanotechnology process. Everyone’s really eyeing Piledriver and the performance bonuses that promises to bring – which kind of makes Bulldozer the ugly duckling right now.

Posted by Wesley Feb 06, 2012

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Tech News: Windows 8 Stable On ARM, Devs Await Release

Microsoft has been making a big fuss about its Metro-styled Windows 8, and now that it’s got the backing of ARM to boost sales potential, its preparing to go for the big guns – Android ICS (Ice-Cream Sandwich) and iOS 5. There are a lot of analysts predicting the popularity of tablets in the coming months, but it may be almost too late for Redmond to enter the game.

Windows 8 on ARM isn’t such as big a thing for tablets as I think it will be for netbooks and Ultrabooks. Intel’s Atom has been ruling the roost here for over three years and despite the best efforts of AMD and Qualcomm, the Atom still rakes in more sales for Intel. It’s never been the most efficient of processors, and the graphics side of things has always been a thorn in Intel’s side (one they could comfortably remove, but profits wouldn’t be as high). AMD has now gotten things right with their APU, even making some headway into the thin-and-light market. But ARM could change the game completely.

Posted by Wesley Feb 06, 2012

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Tech News: Windows Phone 8 Apollo Gets Detailed

I’ll be honest, I’ve never used a Windows Phone extensively. And its not from lack of trying either – I don’t have a Cell C store in my area, and the only phones I’ve handled have been under owner supervision and only for two minutes. I really have no clue if I’ll even like it. But what I’ve seen so far does excite my inner geek, and with the news of the updates planned for Windows Phone Apollo I’m inching closer to choosing one as my main handset.

Windows Phone 7 launched in 2010 and gained traction with critics, the public and developers lauding the new interface, the ease of use and ergonomics involved in the interface design, and the simplicity that came with programming for the platform. Today, with Nokia and HTC as their major licensees, one major update done and over two million handsets worldwide, Microsoft has seen fit to now detail the next major OS update, codanamed Apollo.

Posted by Wesley Feb 06, 2012

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Preview: Microsoft Office 15 Beta Around The Corner

Microsoft Office is one of those programs people just can’t seem to do without these days. The suite is ubiquitous in almost every office and home computer, and plays a vital part in the way people and corporations carry out their daily activities. From the excellent editing options in Word, the simple yet efficient calendaring in Outlook and the hours lost playing around with an image’s rotation in PowerPoint, it’s clear that the designers know what they’re doing and know how best to set it out to maximise your productivity.

It all changed when Office 2007 was released, bringing a new tabbed layout and style to the way we do things. I personally loved the tabs the minute I started playing with them, and the way options were highlighted or offered to you on a contextual basis meant I really could just concentrate on what I was doing and not on having to delve deep into drop-down menus to find what I wanted.

Posted by Wesley Feb 06, 2012

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Kinect might be built into laptops as well

A PC version of Kinect is hitting, well, the PC this week on 01 February. Along with that new PC version comes an upgraded camera that allows Kinect to focus on people sitting closer to it; probably a good idea considering people sit way closer to their PCs than they do their TVs.

According to website The Daily, Microsoft is working with hardware manufacturers to integrate Kinect sensors into laptops. The Daily claims to have actually seen these laptops, which were manufactured by Asus. According the report, the Asus laptops were running Windows 8 and they had “an array of small sensors stretching over the top of the screen where the webcam would normally be”. Then, on the bottom of the laptop screen is “what appear to be LEDs”.

There’s no official word from Microsoft about any of this, so for now take it with a pinch of salt. Would it make sense for Microsoft to get hardware manufacturers to integrate Kinect into all of their laptops? Yes, it absolutely would. You might look like a total jackass sitting in an airport flailing your arms about in front of your laptop, but there’s more to Kinect than motion sensing; such as voice and facial recognition.

Source: The Daily
Via: Eurogamer

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Jan 30, 2012

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Rumour: Xbox 720 has Blu-Ray, anti-used game system

I really wish these “industry insiders” and “sources close to Microsoft” could have got their acts together and leaked all this supposed information at once; it would have obviated my having to post a second Xbox 720 rumour piece in twenty-four hours.

So this is day two of the rumour-fuelled speculation on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 successor. Yesterday was all about graphics chips, processing power, supposed release dates and whisky distilleries. Today’s Xbox 720 rumour talks disc medium, motion sensors and potential DRM systems for the next console.

First off, Kotaku is referencing a “games industry source” for the information that Microsoft will switch to Blu-Ray as a disc medium for the Xbox 720 (again, the console probably won’t be called Xbox 720). Some might find this unlikely because of the misconception that Blu-Ray is Sony’s disc format; it is not. Sony was one of nine corporations, along with MIT, to form the Blu-Ray Disc Association back in 2002 in order to develop and market the new disc medium. Incidentally, Sony also helped to develop DVDs, and Microsoft has had no issues using that format.

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Jan 26, 2012

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Rumour: NextBox 720 out next year, six times more powerful

It’s been at least a week since we’ve had a next Xbox console rumour, so here’s this week’s Nextbox 720 report: according to IGN’s sources, Microsoft’s successor to the Xbox 360 will hit retail outlets in “fall 2013”, or sometime between September to November for us here in South Africa.

The Xbox 720 (God, please don’t let them call it that) will be based off AMD’s Radeon 6000 series of GPUs – more specifically the Radeon HD 6670. This will give the new Xbox console raw graphics processing power that is six times the current console generation’s capabilities. It should also feature, if the current PC equivalent of this card is anything to go by, DirectX 11. IGN also notes that this would make the new Xbox console roughly 20 percent more powerful than Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U console.

Production of the 32nm processor should start in full by December of this year; the chipset is supposedly codenamed Oban, which incidentally is also the name of a Scottish distillery that makes a mean single malt whisky. This can only mean that the next Xbox will also allow you to distil your own gaming whisky, a feature many people believe is lacking from console models.

Source: IGN

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Jan 25, 2012

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Are MS Points on their way out?

According to a report over on Inside Mobile Apps, Microsoft is planning to phase out their MS Points currency system by the end of 2012. The rumoured discontinuation of the virtual currency would affect Xbox Live, Windows Phone and the Zune Marketplace.

Apparently, Microsoft intends to switch payment options onto real-world currency, with all purchases being linked to currencies depending on the region setting of the profile making the purchases. In other words: by 2013 we might be looking at Xbox Live Arcade Games being priced in South African Rands instead of MS Point denominations.

Many would welcome this change, as MS Points do not represent the same value the world over. Hell, different territories can only buy them in certain denominations so there’s no standard at all. On top of this, we’re getting shafted in South Africa: 2100 MS Points cost us about R350 and up, but in the UK they cost £16.99 which is about R210 based off current exchange rates. So yes, MS Points suck for some.

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Jan 24, 2012

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Microsoft increases security to counteract Xbox Live hacks

In case you’ve been living under a rock for a few months, Xbox Live accounts are being hacked and saved credit card details are being used by sneaky thieves to purchase MS Points. Our own Geoff Burrows experienced exactly this with his Xbox Live account, but was fortunate enough to have his bank fix everything back up regarding his credit card.

A theory has recently cropped up online that might explain how people are losing control of their accounts, and it all has to do with Xbox.com and not actual Xbox Live. Most people on Xbox Live are aware that an Xbox Live account and Windows Live ID are one in the same thing. Microsoft’s Xbox.com website apparently makes it rather easy for hackers to use a script to execute a brute-force hack that bypasses the minimum password attempts before CAPTCHA security kicks in. CAPTCHA is the system that prompts you to enter a randomly generated letter and number phrase, but they’re extra tricky to read and sometimes you have to hit refresh about a billion times before you get one that is actually legible… or is that just me?

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Jan 16, 2012

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Kinect for Windows dated and more MS CES announcements

Fun fact: right this very moment, the Consumer Electronics Show is happening in Las Vegas. The CES attracts all of the major hardware companies including Microsoft and Sony, so expect quite a bit of game related news coming out of the desert over the next few days.

Microsoft recently gave their keynote presentation at CES 2012 during which they provided a solid date for the launch of Kinect on Microsoft Windows PCs. That date is 01 February 2012 – it’s unclear whether this is an international or USA-only release date.

No price has been confirmed as yet, however online retailer Amazon has the unit up for pre-order for $249.99 which is $100 more than Kinect for Xbox 360. This is likely due to the beefed up camera in the Windows version, which makes it possible to focus on users sitting closer to a PC.

Posted by Miklós Szecsei Jan 10, 2012

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