Hasta La Gadget!

As it has been for many moons with the Tegra-enhanced Android universe, so too does Windows RT get the NVIDIA TegraZone treatment: a listing of games made great for your Tegra processor-toting tablet! This listing of games opens in an extremely simplified display with touch-friendly pushing and pulling in mind. What you’re getting here is a guide to games that will work fabulously on your device that’s working with both Windows RT (that Windows 8 operating system made for your tablet specifically) and an NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor under the hood – like the Microsoft Surface with Windows RT, for example – hot stuff!

The NVIDIA TegraZone being available for Windows RT means that NVIDIA will be pushing developers to their limits with a cross-promotional bit of excellence on all Tegra 3-toting devices. If you’ve got a Windows RT tablet with Tegra 3 (regardless of manufacturer), you’ll have a precise collection of games ready and waiting for you to peruse that you’ll know were made with your device in mind. In many cases, this means that the game has features above and beyond what it’d have working with any other processor-toting device.

Here at the launch of the NVIDIA TegraZone for Windows RT, you’ve got a selection of the following awesome collection of games: Judge Dredd vs Zombies, Pinball FX 2, Reckless Racing Ultimate, Riptide GP, Soulcraft, Space Ark, Sprinkle and Vendetta Online. Each of these games is offered for sale in the Windows Store but through the TegraZone is detailed with Tegra-only enhanced features. These features include enhanced physics in water, smoke, and cloth, dynamic lighting and particle effects – and more!

As it was with the original NVIDIA TegraZone, this version of the interface is made for the current most fabulous Tegra processor, but will keep up-to-date with the best of the best in the future. That means here that while the Tegra 3 quad-core processor is king (and has been throughout 2012), we’ll likely see a new beast from the NVIDIA crew for mobile devices in 2013 – currently code-named Wayne, as it were. Keep an eye out! Once that processor is out, developers working with NVIDIA will still be busting out the best of the best, so the TegraZone is up on the greatest no matter when you see it!

The most important part of this whole equation is the relationship that the folks at NVIDIA have with the developers behind these hard-hitting games, and the amazing apps they create as a result of said relationships for you, the user. You can download the TegraZone app from the Windows Store right this minute – have at it!

Also have a peek at the TegraZone path that’s been forged on SlashGear in a small sampling from Slashgear in the timeline below for Android – and hit our own NVIDIA [Tegra Portal] to take in the full NVIDIA Tegra environment, top to bottom!

[via NVIDIA]

NVIDIA TegraZone hits Windows RT: beastly tablet gaming at your fingertips! is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It is a known fact that Windows 8 finally went on sale a couple of months back, but even so, you cannot rule out a certain segment of computer users who might be running one of the three previously released free preview versions of Windows 8. If you happen to fall under that segment, then take note – the amount of time you will spend with Microsoft’s most recent operating system will soon come to an end, just like all good things in life. All three preview builds of Windows 8 (Developer, Consumer and Release) are set to expire on January 15th next year. Originally, the Developer Preview was meant to expire even earlier – specifically on April 8th this year, but Microsoft’s patch that rolled out prior helped extend its date to January 15th in 2013.

Once the calendar hits January 16th, the preview versions will inform users by sending a message that says it will restart Windows each hour until a new product activation key is entered. Definitely one way to “force” an upgrade by being annoying, don’t you think so? Well, as long as it gets the job done, I suppose.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Facebook Stories App To Meet New Years Eve Head On, MSI S20 Ultrabook Up For $1100,

All-in-one PCs have always seemed a little weird, at least to me. They don’t take up as much space as a traditional computer with a tower and a monitor, but they’re not exactly portable. They also tend to be pretty expensive, though the hardware hidden away behind the screen isn’t always the best. With the new Acer Aspire 7600U, things get even more strange, with this particular all-in-one sporting a 27-inch touchscreen to go along with Windows 8, which comes installed from the get-go. It’s certainly impressive from a design perspective, but can the hardware inside keep the warm and fuzzy feelings going, or is this PC a little too underwhelming to justify it’s expensive price tag? Read on to find out.

Design

If we were judging this simply based on looks, the Apsire 7600U would receive a glowing review. This is one sexy computer, with its 27-inch screen and a glass panel that covers the entire thing. Make no mistake, this is a big and heavy computer, but its been very well designed. Beneath the screen is a piece of glass that spans the entire width of the computer – this looks nice, but it does attract dirt and fingerprints easily. Thankfully, that doesn’t seem to be an issue with the screen itself, and even if your screen gets dirty after a while, Acer was kind enough to include a microfiber cloth to wipe it down. Ah, the little things.

On the right side of the device is where the Blu-Ray drive and eject button are located, with nothing else to accompany them. On the left side there’s a bit more going on, with two USB 3.0 ports, a multi-card slot, and jacks for a microphone and headset. Around the back of the device there are even more ports, including two HDMI ins, one HDMI out, a set of four of USB ports (with one of them housing the Bluetooth module), Ethernet, and SPDIF. Among other things, the HDMI in ports mean you can connect an Xbox 360 or PS3 (or Wii U, if you’re lucky enough to have one already), and with a screen as nice as this, it might not be a bad idea.

When I initially pulled the computer out of the box, I spent a good five minutes trying to find the power jack so I could, you know, actually turn this thing on. After looking all over the back and sides, I finally found it – it was on the end of the silver kickstand that’s attached to this all-in-one. That annoyed me at first, but after a while, I came to love the idea. By having the power jack there, it keeps the power cord out of the way, which means that there will be one less cord to get tangled up in the mess you’re bound to have back there before long.

The kickstand itself is nice and sturdy, and though I’m not usually a fan of them, I like this one. The silver meshes well with the overall design, and this kickstand in particular manages to look sleek while still being strong enough to hold this beast of a computer up.

All in all, this is one really nice looking computer. From a design standpoint, it doesn’t get much better than this, and the fact that it’s so slim helps with that a lot. As you get closer to the top, the thickness increases to make room for the Blu-Ray drive and the speakers, but even at it’s thickest, this computer is still pretty thin. As I said above, if we were judging this solely on looks, the Aspire 7600U would receive an excellent review. However, design is only one aspect of the equation, and it takes a back seat to things like hardware and overall ease-of-use.

Hardware

The hardware found in the Aspire 7600U is somewhat underwhelming, which is a shame considering how good this computer looks. Before we jump inside, let’s talk about the screen a little more. As you already know, the 7600U offers a 27-inch screen, this one displaying at 1920×1080 resolution. I think the screen looks great – brightness is spot on for my tastes, and the colors are great. With the Blu-Ray drive this computer comes standard with, it makes a great machine for watching movies, and I have a feeling you’ll be pleased with the results if you decide to connect a game console. The screen features 10-point multitouch, which allows you to take full advantage of Windows 8.

The 7600U comes equipped with an Intel Core i5 3210M clocked at 2.5GHz, which is similar to the processors we see in some ultrabooks. That should give you an idea of where this is headed – you won’t have a lot of power to work with, at least as far as the processor is concerned.

Thankfully, the Core i5 isn’t terrible, and the 7600U seems to make up for it in other areas. For instance, there are 8GB of RAM in this bad boy, which should be enough to keep things speedy most of the time. The processor may struggle occasionally, but it’s nice to have 8GB of RAM on board.

Surprisingly, the 7600U also uses discrete NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M graphics, which makes it a capable gaming rig. You’re not going to be able to crank everything up to max settings on more recent games, but the 7600U should be able run a number of games without any issues. The problem, of course, is the processor – while the GPU isn’t half bad, that doesn’t really matter if the processor isn’t all that it could be. It would have been nice to see a Core i7 in the configuration I received to review, but that would have driven costs up so high that I think Acer would have had a difficult time moving units.

The speakers on the 7600U are decent, but they aren’t great. Sounds aren’t always as full as they should, and the bass in particular could definitely use a boost. They can certainly get loud though, but you may not want to go too high if you’re watching an action movie or playing a game with a lot of explosions (which seems to be most games these days). Truth be told, you’re better off using a good pair of headphones – those will give you the good sound quality you need to go along with the excellent screen.

The 7600U also ships with a matching wireless mouse and keyboard. Both look sleek, and while I was quite pleased with the keyboard, the mouse leaves something to be desired. The mouse feels fine in the hand, though clicking the mouse buttons isn’t all that satisfying. It’s also worth pointing out that the mouse only includes left and right buttons and a scroll wheel, so you’re essentially getting the bare minimum as far as mice go.

Let’s jump back to the keyboard, which I think is a pretty nice piece of equipment. The keyboard for the 7600U is very, very slim, which makes it feel a little on the delicate side, but typing on it is a pleasant experience. On this you’ll find chiclet-style keys we see on notebooks and ultrabooks, and these keys give off a satisfying sound when you hit them. The keyboard manages to pack in a full number pad while remaining quite small, which is nice. There was one small problem I ran into, though: the wireless on this keyboard seems to be a bit touchy at times. There were a few times I was trying to type something with nothing showing up on screen, but a quick adjustment was all that was needed to fix this issue.

Software

One of the main draws of the 7600U is Windows 8. Microsoft’s new operating system is aimed directly toward touchscreens, and with 27-inches of real estate to play with, it works well on the 7600U. If you’re new to Windows 8 you’ll probably still feel completely lost for a little while starting out, but the touchscreen definitely lets you get the hang of things quickly.

You’ll have a number of pre-installed apps right from the start, but thankfully, some of them are actually useful. Acer has taken the liberty of installing apps like Evernote, Netflix, Spotify, Hulu Plus, eBay, and Kindle, so if you’re a user of some or all of those services, it’s nice to have the app ready to go right when you pull it out of the box. A trial of Cut the Rope is installed too, which makes for a perfect way of testing out the screen.

Of course, Microsoft’s programs are there in force too, with Skype, a trial of Microsoft Office 2010, and Internet Explorer present and accounted for. There are also the standard Windows 8 apps including People, Weather, Finance, News, and SkyDrive, so you’ve got a healthy serving of apps already installed before you even plug it in. You’ll have 909GB of the 7600U’s 1TB hard drive available to use, and the installed apps bring that total down to 871GB of free space – that amount should tide you over for a while, but some may want to do some cleaning once they get the computer out of the box.

Above the screen, the 7600U has a camera for video chat and gesture controls. Gesture controls don’t seem to work as well as they should, which is a shame because I could see them coming in handy. The problem is that the camera doesn’t always recognize what it is you’re trying to do – I even had issues working my way through Acer’s tutorial. Instead of popping your hand up for a quick command, often times you end up waving your arms around as if you were playing a Kinect game. It may be a better idea to skip gesture controls entirely and just use the touchscreen or the mouse and keyboard instead.

Benchmarks

Running the 7600U through Geekbench, it’s obvious that we don’t have the most powerful computer on our hands. With a score of 8549, the 7600U actually falls in line with the ratings we see for a number of ultrabooks out there. That being said, it isn’t as if the score is a terrible one, and the 7600U does have some decent hardware running under the hood. The problem with that is the computer’s hardware doesn’t really justify the high cost.

Wrap-Up

So with the Aspire 7600U, we have a computer that’s shooting for high-end but doesn’t quite make it. The screen is definitely the star of this show at 27-inches with 1080p HD and ten-point multitouch to boot. The whole unit looks great too; no cheap looking stand, a slim design despite the fact that Acer had to cram so much hardware behind that screen, and an overall look that does scream “high-end.”

The problem, though, is with the hardware. With that $1899 price tag, it’s clear that you’re paying a lot of money for the screen, as the hardware on its own isn’t all that expensive. The Geforce GT 640M is definitely appreciated, but I feel that the Core i5 might hold it back in some instances. We’d really be rocking if the i5 had been swapped out for an i7, but that would have easily pushed the cost up above $2000, a price point Acer is clearly trying to stay under.

Don’t get me wrong, I liked the time I spent with the 7600U. I just think there will be quite a few folks who will pass at the $1899 price point. Acer did a lot of cool things with this computer, but in the end, the Aspire 7600U falls short of greatness almost every time.

Acer Aspire 7600U Review is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

I’ve been using Windows 8 off and on for the past few weeks and, while I agree with many of the sentiments expressed by folks like Chris Pirillo and our own MG Siegler, especially regarding the Surface RT, I still think Microsoft did a good (not excellent) job on Win8.

In the immortal words of losing Little League coaches everywhere, at least they tried and there’s always next season. Windows 8 won’t be universally hated, say, when it pops up on a few hundred thousand new laptops come the holidays and kids and parents start mousing around the new interface. In fact, given its unique nature, I think even Apple could learn a thing or two from Microsoft in this case. That said, we scrounged around for five things Apple could do to learn from Microsoft.

Try a little touch – I was writing on my Mac the other day and suddenly an autocorrect box popped up and stayed up a little to long. The suggested words appeared and the little X to close the window. My finger instinctively rose to tap it closed and, much to my chagrin, nothing happened.

Apple has ingrained the idea of touch as a viable interface yet refuses to add it to its own line of laptops and desktops. Arguably OS X is definitely not ready for a touch interface with its tiny buttons and menus, but fullscreen mode and Launchpad ostensibly point to a potential iOS-like interface. I think the desktop/window user experience is going to be difficult to tear away from the laptop or PC experience, but as Apple proved with iOS, users are more than happy to try a new paradigm. Microsoft tried constantly to make tablets work by throwing a stock Windows experience onto a slate. Now they have a chance.

Hide the file system – While arguably Windows 8 doesn’t exactly hide the file system from prying eyes, in the Metro interface you are reminded that it exists far less than usual. While dumping into the desktop interface offers a jarring reminder that all your files are still there, the default Win 8 concept is of a machine that holds files with little input or mussing about by the user. This, in a way, is a good thing.

While we nerds love deep, branching file systems, the average user is mystified by them. Where do files go? Why did they end up in Documents and not Downloads? Instead of making a home directory, why not make a home space. Everything can pop up in there and a quick search reveals the files. Granted, Apple has done some of this in iCloud, but it’s not quite there yet.

Better system-wide social – Granted neither company has quite implemented social quite that well just yet, but Microsoft’s live tiles with flipping and flopping feed images and the interaction between social networks and contact lists is doing an interesting job of it. Simply Tweeting from the Services menu isn’t exactly what many of us had in mind when we thought of true social interaction.

Smarter icons – If there’s anything I like about Win 8 and Windows Phone, it’s the concept of live tiles or, more precisely, live icons. OS X and iOS badges work and something can be said for the zen-like stasis of most previous-gen icons, but more information at a glance is becoming increasingly more important. Although we could argue about the potential distractions associated with messy live tiles all over the screen, I still think it’s a sight better than that incessant bouncing or the tiny numbered badge that offers little in the way of informative content.

Shake things up – Here’s the thing: at least Microsoft knows that the desktop model is stagnant. Touchscreens are a proven method for device interaction and they have tried, and failed, to bring Windows to slates. They know what works and what doesn’t. Love them or hate them, Microsoft has a dog in the fight for the future OS design. Now everyone else will have to play catch-up.

Valve founder Gabe Newell does not have too many nice things to say about Windows 8, but that has yet to be a wall to prevent many millions of users on the Windows 8 platform from getting on board Valve’s Steam gaming download site for their home gaming purposes. In fact, the recently updated Steam hardware stats web page that has the figures from some of its Steam users in November, showed that the combined market share of Windows 8 32-bit and 64-bit users stood at 4.69%, which is far more than the numbers that StatCounter and Net Applications have, where Windows 8 is said to be used by 1.44% and 1.09% of PC owners, respectively.

Not only that, Windows 8 users are said to outnumber the number of Mac OS gamers, where the total number of Mac Steam gamers is at 3.26%. This shows that most Mac OS users do not game, considering how Valve rolled out the Mac Steam client more than 2.5 years ago. Windows 7 still remains the undisputed king among the operating systems for Steam gamers, with a crushing 72.56% market share.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: PC system requirements for Crysis 3 revealed, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for iOS and Android trailer debuts,