Microsoft launched its own hardware last June amidst shock and surprise as the media or even anyone could predict the launch of the Surface duo. One was the Surface RT, which we already unboxed, and then, after a long time, we have got the full blown Windows 8 Surface – Surface with Windows 8 Pro. The Surface RT was a device with a lot of compromises, especially with its inability to run legacy Windows 8 apps, and that was supposed to be mitigated and overcompensated with the Surface Pro, for people who don’t care much about portability and battery life. We have unboxed the Surface Pro in a video here and what follows is our first impressions of the device -

The Build

First thing we noticed when we took it out of the box is the much talked about Vapor Mg construction. While the matte design looks gorgeous, it quickly became a finger print magnet and the sweat imprints were really hard to wipe off. And the next immediate thing when you take it out is the weight. Weighing almost 2 pounds, it feels very heavy for a tablet. The Surface RT in comparison feels insanely light, and on the other hand, this feels like a tank. Unlike the Surface RT, the kick stand felt a little flimsy mainly due to the over weight of the device.

The Display

Featuring a 10.6″ 1080p screen, the display is downright awesome. Neatly balanced in terms of pixel density and viewing angles, this is one of the better displays on a tablet we have seen. The text was crisp and the browsing was a pleasure, and in our short time with the device we didn’t find any problems with it, may be we will see some issues crop up in long term.

Windows 8

Windows 8 is always meant to be used on a touchscreen, and it does not disappoint on the Surface Pro. The touchscreen experience was flawless, and the inking capabilities of the screen were enhanced by the use of the in-box stylus and worry not, this being a 10 inch screen had the palm rejection right in the OneNote app. When we signed in with our already used Microsoft, it flawlessly transferred all our personalization settings like the colour, the background metro wallpaper, the desktop wallpaper and everything associated with our account. It even naturally brought in our store purchases but we obviously had to reinstall.

The desktop experience on the touchscreen was actually a lot better than on the Surface RT with the targets being easier, and the fonts slightly scaled up. The overall performance of the Core i5 processor was nothing short of fluid and fast, which is, unfortunately the opposite of what it was like on the Surface RT and its mediocre performance. With an Intel HD4000 onboard GPU powering the graphics, one could actually game with this device.

Prepping up for the review

This is basically a tablet, but with ultrabook specs and some compromises for portability. We do have a touch and a type cover for portable typing needs and they both actually work really well, but it’s the weight we are concerned about. That said, we are really warming up to the usability of this device and we are hoping to find out more in preparation for our full review. Check back soon, and we do have more photos here for you, a quick hardware tour included -

At an event in Bangalore, AMD unveiled its newest range of APUs – the AMD A10 Elite Quad Core series. AMD has been pioneering the fusion APUs with on-die graphics for quite a number of years as the industry has warmed up to the concept on pushing graphics on a single chip, and now we have reached a place where there is an abundance of on-chip GPUs available and AMD is pushing it even further with the launch of the new Richland APUs powered by the 8 series Radeon GPUs. The models launched are quad core chips – the A10-6700 and A10-6800K APUs, both coupled with Radeon 8670D.

The base clock of the A10-6700 is 3.7 GHz and the base clock of the A10-6800K is 4.1 GHz. Boasting impressive speeds, the processors are unlocked out of the box for overclocking, which clearly means that the market squarely aimed at, are gamers. While the on-chip graphics are already powerful, one can also power the respective system with external GPUs too, which is pretty normal, but the overall advantage is that you already get a powerful GPU with the processor itself.

The pricing and availability were not announced but they said that the chips are landing in retail stores, in the coming weeks.

Amazon has also launched the Kindle Paperwhite and the new Kindle (5th generation) e-ink readers in India along with the Kindle Fire HD 7-inch and the Fire HD 8.9-inch tablets. The Kindle Paperwhite is a 6-inch (1024 x 768 pixels) display at 212 PPI pixel density and a built-in light for comfortable reading even in dark. The new 5th genration Kindle, successor of the last year’s Kindle doesn’t have any difference apart from the Black color. It is now cheaper and is available from retail partners Croma, Reliance Digital Retail L and Pantaloon Retail India Limited apart from Amazon.in.

The Kindle Paperwhite has WiFi 802.11 b/g/n support, 2 GB of internal memory (1.25 GB user memory) to store about 1,100 Books, WiFi and battery life up to up to eight weeks, based on half an hour of reading per day with wireless off and the light setting at 10. The Kindle Paperwhite  3G version has all these features built-in 3G and EDGE/GPRS support to download eBooks using Amazon Whispernet via Vodafone’s 3G high-speed data network in the India and partner networks outside of the India.

The Kindle Wi-Fi has 6-inch ( 600 x 800 pixels) advanced E Ink display, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n support, 2 GB of internal memory (1.25 GB user memory) to store about 1,400 Books, WiFi and battery life up to 1 month with wireless off / up to 3 weeks with wireless on.

Amazon has also introduced Kindle eBook Fortnight offer that would let existing and new Kindle users in India download a free popular eBook selected by Amazon for free every day for 14 days till June 26th. You can go to amazon.com/kindlestoreindia  to download the free book of the day.

The Kindle Paperwhite is priced at Rs. 10,999 for the WiFi variant and the 3G + WiFi variant costs Rs. 13,999. It would be available from Amazon.in from 27th June. The Amazon Kindle is now available from Amazon.in for Rs. 5,999.

The traditional games console is still alive and kicking thanks to Sony alleviating all our fears of a new DRM policy from their side. Sony have officially said that they are sticking with the same good old DRM policies that existed with the Playstation 3. And like before, they will let publishers use game-specific DRM policies if they need to. This is completely opposite to what Microsoft announced a few days before E3. In fact, Sony made sure they used this opportunity to massacre Microsoft’s policy by pointing them out in their press conference, and what followed was huge applause, for announcing that there are no changes in their policy.

They even made a video on how to share games with friends(just by giving them the disc, duh), mocking the devious policies Microsoft had put in place in order to make sure there are arrangements for sharing a game disc in its convoluted DRM mechanism. Simply said, Sony murdered Microsoft’s console by doing nothing, and lets face it, it was Microsoft who brought this upon themselves. To make this even worse, Don Mattrick, the head of Xbox at Microsoft said this in an interview -

“Fortunately for people without connectivity, we have a product called the Xbox 360.” Rightly said, Don, not.

In the same interview, he also said -

It’s a service-based world, if you think about things and how they get better with an internet connection, that’s a design choice we’ve made. I think people will appreciate it… We did a lot of testing, a lot of consumer research and I think we made a good choice.

It is pretty evident now that Microsoft is not going to change their policy. So, assuming that some people still get the Xbox One for the various other features and games it offers, we will have two platforms with vastly different DRM policies. Lets take a closer look at the future of gaming then.

The Xbox One does not facilitate game “ownership” but using the disc validates your unlimited license for the game that you can play without the need for a disc, and even download it later in case you lost a disc. The disc, which is only the means for faster installation, remains that way for its entire time after installation. You can share your games library with friends and family(a max of 10) with special schemes like the rumoured new Xbox Live Family pack and that includes all the games, including your digital downloads. Discs can be shared with people on the friends list, but only once. The Xbox One employs all these DRM policies due to one of the several features it comes with, like mandatory installation of games. While we are not sure why Microsoft had to forego disc based checks, the snippet above gives us some clues.

Microsoft says it’s a design choice, as the Xbox One seems to built for digital downloads and games that might require an always online connection. This enables several new gameplay functionality and business models too, like Killer Instinct, which is a fully digital free-to-play title at launch, and has in-game purchases for characters to unlock. This is like the app store model where all your purchases are on the cloud and Microsoft are going for something very similar, and apparently are basing it on “consumer research”. DLCs and updates are going to be easy when the games are registered on the cloud. While it seems like the future and its advantages but at the expense of consumer choices. More on that later.

Sony on the other hand have completely stuck with their good old disc based DRM, which obviously requires for you to have a disc even after installation(which we don’t know if mandatory) for checking. But you own the game, you can resell it, rent it and do whatever you want. However, your account does not register with the game as the disc alone dictates ownership. And we have no indications of the ability to share digital downloads with friends either. These are assumptions we have made, since Sony has not really explained them, and since they have said its similar to the PS3, we just think it might be the same.

But considering the fact that there is no online check-in requirement, no limit on shared games and the biggest of all, the used games retailer ecosystem will be intact, the PS4 definitely is more consumer friendly. Sony also said that they will allow any business model for publishers like the one example we quoted above for K.I. All said and done, we now have two completely different DRM policies on our hands, and that is not good, for a consumer.

First of all, the Xbox One is consumer unfriendly, as it mandates the creepy online check every 24 hours that makes our ownership of games look silly, moreover makes us look like a pirate if we cross that time threshold. Microsoft seems to not care about paying customers who might be infuriated for being treated like a pirate. While Sony’s policies are just as consumer friendly as before, it provides a challenge for the game industry’s most important people, the publishers and the developers.

Publishers/Developers make their money, and put food on the table for their families by selling games. For publishers, DRM is of paramount importance, and that’s what they have established with PC gaming as piracy is rampant in that space, unlike consoles, which have their own share of piracy, but not as much as the PC. Microsoft are helping publishers move to a new business model(and for their own profits – no retailer middlemen), while at the same time abolishing the used games market. On the Sony side of things, if your PS4 discs break, you gotta buy another one and DLCs and game specific DRMs are going to be a pain, just like now. Lets not forget the games, the exclusives are enticing and ensure the sales of both the platforms. Not the mention the various other things like Kinect, Eye, applications, media services etc.

With Sony sticking to its old ways and Microsoft moving to an always connected app store like model with discs as a delivery medium, the consumer is left confused. Make no mistake, both the consoles are going to sell, and the publishers might push for more DRM measures on PS4 or if we, as citizens of the internet, make our concerns heard, Microsoft might consider moving back to the good old ways of the Xbox 360 and everything will be back to normal again. Should we stick with the tradition or should we suck up and move to an inevitable publisher-friendly DRM infested world? What would you choose?

Just when we thought, a couple of years ago that the Gigahertz war, and even the cores war ended, AMD is back at it, stating that they now have the world’s first commercially available 5GHz processor. The model codenamed the AMD FX-9590 is a 8-core CPU which is squarely aimed at the multimedia and the gaming market. The 5 GHz processor is a part of the new FX9000 series of processors announced at the E3 event in Los Angeles yesterday. The other model, codenamed FX-9370 is a similar 8-core CPU with a 4.7 GHz clock speed.

Based on the “PileDriver” architecture, which is an incremental upgrade over the present “Bulldozer”, the advantages result in lesser powere consumption and greater performance. The maximum clock speeds stated here are part of the Turbo mode that AMD implemented in processors starting with the Phenom II. Technically, the Turbo mode is by all means the processor overclocking its cores when the operating system utilizes at least one core at full capacity. So, yes, the 5GHz is not the base clock speed and AMD is not willing to share those details yet.

However, since the Turbo mode is something the processor does, and not technically software based overclocking, it is legit enough to warrant the title of a world’s first. Talking of overclocking, these processor are naturally left open for tweakers to fool around with, and gamers who are looking at staying on top of the specs would be glad to hear that.

The availability of the stated two processors are pegged for the Summer, which means the Northern hemisphere of course. No prices have been announced but we guess these should be landing in India soon.

At the annual Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3), Sony held a keynote session detailing its upcoming PlayStation 4 console. While the basic specifications were already known, the company focussed on the games and the design of the console itself. With a very minimalistic design that harks back to the PlayStation 2 era the console will be a perfect fit in any entertainment center.

The company has also clarified its stance on the used games market and online DRM and the outcome is very favorable to gamers. The PlayStation 4 will not include perpetual online DRM and will allow gamers to be completely offline. In addition, it will be possible for games to be lent out or resold without any complications or additional fees. Just like the PS3, the console will be completely region free and users will be able to upgrade the built in 500GB hard drive on their own. The console has been priced at $400 and will ship with one wireless controller, mono headset, AC power cord, HDMI cable and a USB cable. The PlayStation Eye camera is an additional accessory and a spare DualShock 4 controller will cost $59. The PlayStation 4 goes on sale this holiday season.

]]> http://www.fonearena.com/tech/gaming/sony-details-the-playstation-4-at-e3/4528/feed/ 0 http://www.fonearena.com/tech/apple-2/apple-refreshes-the-macbook-air-with-improved-all-day-bettery-life-available-in-india-starting-at-rs-67900/4531/ http://www.fonearena.com/tech/apple-2/apple-refreshes-the-macbook-air-with-improved-all-day-bettery-life-available-in-india-starting-at-rs-67900/4531/#comments Tue, 11 Jun 2013 10:15:44 +0000 Bharadwaj http://www.fonearena.com/tech/?p=4531

Apple, in a tradition of refreshing its various range of devices at its annual developer conference, the WWDc, has announced an upgrade to the Macbook Air range of super thin notebooks. While this is not a huge upgrade in design nor does it come with a retina display, the new Macbook Airs come with the new Intel 4th generation core processors, called “Haswell” which massively improve battery life and at the same time, being a lot faster than before. The Core i5 and Core i7 processors used in the new Macbook Airs are accompanied by the new onboard graphics chip Intel HD 5000, which provide a 40 percent improvement over the last generation. Apple also promises faster flash storage.

With the new Haswell processors, Apple claims an all-day battery life rated at 12 hours of battery life and up to 10 hours of iTunes movie playback on the 13 inch version and 9 hours of battery life and up to 8 hours of iTunes movie playback on the 11 inch version. If Apple’s numbers are to be believed, that is a huge gain in battery life. Apart from the processor upgrade, all the other internals and the storage options remain the same.

They are immediately available in India at all authorized Apple resellers with the base model 11-inch MacBook Air sporting a 1.3 GHz processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 2.6 GHz, 4GB of memory, a 128GB SSD, and is priced at Rs. 67,900. The 256 GB model of the same is Rs. 81,900. On the other hand, the 13-inch MacBook Air, with similar specs as the 11 inch version has the 128 GB version starting at Rs. 74,900 and the 256 GB version starting at Rs. 88,900. All the mentioned models come with the Core i5 processor and 4GB of RAM but there are configure-to-order options for Core i7 and 8 GB variants.

Looks like Apple leapfrogged every other manufacturer by bringing out the first Intel Haswell based notebooks out in the market and how. The Macbook Air now misses only a higher resolution display, they could have added a 1080p display at least, oh well. To the next generation then!

“Two sides to a story, there always is.” said Yoda, while teaching Luke the ways of the Force, in Dagobah.

No no no, I just made that up, because no one believes me when I say it. Anyways, today has been an eventful day on Twitter and various forums because the world famous PR screw up called Microsoft revealed its intentions on various confusing issues that didn’t permeate well to the public after the Xbox One reveal event. Specifically issues concerning DRM licensing, an “always online” internet connection and the “always listening” Kinect. They have been detailed in three full pages of text, and I am going to try and make sense of what they have said, especially the licensing part. As mentioned earlier, there are always two sides to a story and I will try my best to see both the sides of it, objectively.

What Microsoft has said -

Buy the way you want—disc or digital—on the same day: You’ll be able to buy disc-based games at traditional retailers or online through Xbox Live, on day of release. Discs will continue to be a great way to install your games quickly.

Sounds great, huh? You don’t need to hunt down a copy of a popular game on launch day. You don’t need to live near a retail store either, you can just happily download the huge game(broadband forgiving) at launch and enjoy it as soon as possible.

But then what does this mean? – “Discs will continue to be a great way to install your games quickly.” I am sorry, I never knew! Oh wait, does this mean discs are just means to install the game now? Yes! It doesn’t matter anymore whether you buy it online or from the retail store, once you install the game on the Xbox One, the disc is useless and remains just a “Great way” to install/re-install the game without downloading it. Hold on to that thought while we move on to the next -

Access your entire games library from any Xbox One—no discs required: After signing in and installing, you can play any of your games from any Xbox One because a digital copy of your game is stored on your console and in the cloud.  So, for example, while you are logged in at your friend’s house, you can play your games.

You can now play your games from ANY Xbox One. Like go to your friend’s place, login with your account and just start playing from where you left off. Really easy, right?

Except that it is not so easy as it seems. Yes, you can login to your account from another One, you can even play the games from your friend’s considering he’s already had it downloaded. Else, you would need to download it again, and more juicy information from “always online” section reveals that your live ID will need to be checked every hour at your friend’s place for you to continue playing. Not really easy now, is it? And more importantly “a digital copy of your game is stored on your console and in the cloud” which reaffirms the uselessness of the disc. Moving on..

Share access to your games with everyone inside your home: Your friends and family, your guests and acquaintances get unlimited access to all of your games.  Anyone can play your games on your console–regardless of whether you are logged in or their relationship to you.

Nothing new, moving on..

Give your family access to your entire games library anytime, anywhere: Xbox One will enable new forms of access for families. Up to ten members of your family can log in and play from your shared games library on any Xbox One. Just like today, a family member can play your copy of Forza Motorsport at a friend’s house. Only now, they will see not just Forza, but all of your shared games.  You can always play your games, and any one of your family members can be playing from your shared library at a given time.

Another interesting proposition. “new forms of access for families” means there might be a new Xbox Live family pack membership, with which one can share the game libraries with ten live IDs and they can access all the shared games(which one allows to share?) from any Xbox One with their live ID. “You can always play your games, and any one of your family members can be playing from your shared library at a given time” sounds great for sharing with the family! Lets hope the Xbox Live family pack is priced sensibly.

“You can always play your games, and any one of your family members can be playing from your shared library at a given time” also might mean that your live ID can be accessed on only (any)one console at a time. The Xbox Live family pack which is a “new form of access” hasn’t been detailed yet and we think it might be pricey.

Trade-in and resell your disc-based games: Today, some gamers choose to sell their old disc-based games back for cash and credit. We designed Xbox One so game publishers can enable you to trade in your games at participating retailers.  Microsoft does not charge a platform fee to retailers, publishers, or consumers for enabling transfer of these games.

So, yay, there are options to re-sell games, and the rumours of a platform fee for transfer of games were false. Good!

“so game publishers can enable you” In other words, if they choose not to, you can’t do it. And even if they choose to let you buy/sell used games, “participating retailers” need to be found. And wait, there’s more -

Give your games to friends: Xbox One is designed so game publishers can enable you to give your disc-based games to your friends. There are no fees charged as part of these transfers. There are two requirements: you can only give them to people who have been on your friends list for at least 30 days and each game can only be given once.

Given the fact in most cases, if you would want to share a game, it would be mostly with friends, and they will be on your Xbox list for sure, so that’s a win-win and two people can chip in and buy a game and take turns, which is a good proposition in the way you look at it. No fees for transfers is also good!

But “so game publishers can enable you to” means they might choose not to and “each game can only be given once” means you can’t be simply passing on the game from a friends list to another. This actually makes sense for avoiding a hole in the system. But the biggest issue above all -

Loaning or renting games won’t be available at launch, but we are exploring the possibilities with our partners.

There is no good way to look at it. There are no options to rent or loan games at launch, which means that several game rental shops will go bust, but there are slight chances that it may happen later, but it is not in the least bit assuring. They say all of this, and -

As we move into this new generation of games and entertainment, from time to time, Microsoft may change its policies, terms, products and services to reflect modifications and improvements to our services, feedback from customers and our business partners or changes in our business priorities and business models or for other reasons.  We may also cease to offer certain services or products for similar reasons.

In the months ahead, we will continue to listen to your feedback as we meet with our partners in the ecosystem to bring additional detail about our policies.

Alibi, so that a sudden U-turn doesn’t look ugly. Classic PR move at the end, and it says only one thing – Microsoft is scared and they have every right to be.

Lets try to make sense of it now, from Microsoft’s viewpoint. The next generation is here and probably will have a shelf life of at least 5 years. When the Xbox 360 launched, discs were mostly the only way to acquire games, and slowly digital downloads picked up. Currently though, digital downloads are the way to go, because that ensures you have a cloud copy that you can download any time you want and most importantly play it without the need of a disc. Lets not kid with ourselves here, digital downloads on various ecosystems like iTunes, Amazon etc, and even on current generation consoles, are a convenient form of acquiring media and games, and it’s the only place you get quick deals and discounts at random.

But can you currently share or lend the digital copy? Nope, not possible at all. Once you download it on your Xbox, it stays on your box and any user can pick up and play with their own save files. This is going to be very similar on the Xbox One, except that you can actually share it with others over a shared games library if you choose to. But the requirement to keep playing it? it needs to be online at least once every 24 hours for Microsoft to check if your installation is legit. Why? Because of.. wait for it.. discs.

Discs are always known to have their own simple rights management mechanism. Basically when you buy a disc, you own it, and it’s upto you what you want to do with it. But on the Xbox One, a disc is just a means to installation, you don’t “own” the game per se, but your account is linked to it. Of course, your family of 10 people can play it if you choose to share it, assuming you have the “new forms of access”, or your friend can share your disc and enjoy the games you play, almost at the same time. Biggest advantage is that you will never lose your game even if you lose the disc, it will always work, provided you let Microsoft check what you are playing, once in every 24 hours. This DRM check is in place presumably to combat piracy, because once the disc is used for an installation it becomes useless and might be shared with any number of people, and this can happen if the console stays totally offline, and Microsoft obviously don’t want that, in the interest of publishers.

Now for the consumer point of view, first question that springs into our minds is “why hasn’t Microsoft stuck with the current disc policy?” Usually the excuses include “Takes too long to load” and “physical discs have chances of failure”. While it is absolutely understandable, reading a disc for rights management after installation is better than checking online for a “license” occasionally. This becomes so consumer un-friendly when you take the lack of rentals and games reselling into account. Moreover, there are these rare chances when games get pulled from the cloud and publisher opts to remote-wipe the content on your Xbox. Yes it is rare but it is also so easy now because you HAVE to be online at least once in every 24 hours. This applies to all the digital downloads and might even affect disc installations!

Overall, this is very much like the extreme DRM measures on PC, except even more invasive. But will the aforementioned advantages touted by Microsoft change the way we think about this issue? Depends mostly on one’s needs, but as a consumer, it does feel like we now won’t own anything, as even the discs can be *shared* only if the “publisher” chooses to let us. And just like that, the traditional games console, that always used a physical copy of a game, and provided a sense of ownership seems dead.

We have to either suck up to Microsoft’s crazy DRM policies, which will soon be followed by Sony or any other console manufacturer wanting to go digital and “on-the-cloud” for all gaming needs, or go other ways where DRM policies doesn’t suck as much. May be this is the scary future we have to embrace, or fight against.

But all of this can be fixed with a proper and a more detailed message to the public, and of course, the only way to make consumers not care about the powerlessness is – amazingly cheap games. Will it happen? E3 might answer, or at least we hope it does. Three more days

 Hat tip to Rishi Alwani (@slackerninja) for taking valuable time to explain to me some of the above issues.

One of the biggest highlights of this 4th generation processor family is the promise of upto a 50 percent improvement in battery life. This is the single biggest battery life gain ever seen in Intel’s history. The integrated graphics capabilities have also been given a bump. Intel Iris graphics deliver up to double the performance over previous generation processor in the 28W+ category. The chipset scales in power consumption and can go as low as 6 watts. In standby mode, Ultrabooks based on the new platform should be able to last anywhere from 10 to 13 days and boot up within 3 seconds in some configurations. Basic performance too has improved about 15 percent over the previous generation.

Intel has worked on the security capabilities of Ultrabooks by integrating its Identity Protection Technology (Intel IPT) and Anti Theft Technology (Intel AT) which should bring peace of mind to IT administrators world over. Intel 4th generation Core processor (Haswell) based products have already started rolling out and we can’t wait to see some very interesting form factors over the course of the year.

Seagate has announced at the Computex 21013 in Taipei that they would start shipping their ultra-thin 5mm hard disk drive to its OEM partners. It weighs just 93.5 grams and is aimed at lightweight mobile computing devices and tablets. It delivers up to 500GB of capacity in 25% less space than the 7mm hard drives. It incorporates a 6Gb/s SATA interface for fast data transfer speeds and and supports SED encryption on the 500GB capacity version.

Features of the Seagate Ultra-Thin HDD

• One of the Thinnest and lightest laptop drive—5mm, 3.3 oz and thinner than a pencil
• Affordable, high-capacity storage gives system builder options when  integrating low profile storage into slim laptop and ultrabook solutions
• Compatible with every portable PC with a standard SATA 6Gb/s interface, enabling easy upgrade or design integration
• Up to 500GB in 25% less space—get industry-leading cost-per-GB  and cost-per-millimeter
• Frees up valuable space within a device to accommodate additional features
• Supports options for Seagate Secure™ Self-Encrypting Drive features  with on-the-fly data encryption meeting TCG Opal protocol

The Seagate Ultrathin HDD comes at a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $89 and would ship to its OEM partners Asus, Dell and more.

Source: Seagate