Sounds bars are great, but many of them have issues that are seldom mentioned. Sound bars are an excellent compromise between shelling out for an expensive surround sound system and settling for the tinny sound from your TV's built-in speakers, but that doesn't mean they're perfect. In fact, sound bars have quite a few real-world problems and limitations that are often glossed over, only to rear their heads after you've got it set up at home. Here's what you should know before you make the jump to buy a sound bar. 1. The sound bar might block your TV's remote sensor Glitzy product photos often show sound bars wall-mounted right below a TV, but most people place their sound bar on their TV stand. That ... Continue reading →
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(Credit: Blizzard Entertainment) One week after its release, Diablo III remains the only PC game anyone is talking about. Some of that talk is about how the game, a decade in the making, is a huge hit, with millions of copies presold before the May 15 launch. But much of the talk is also about the big bet developer and publisher Blizzard is making by forcing even solitary players to log in online to play. Dan: I've spent years attempting to divine the line between mainstream and enthusiast gaming, trying to figure out which games could cross over into popular culture, and which ones were going to stay locked into a small, but dedicated, core audience. After following Diablo III's development, and playing the beta ... Continue reading →
For many years I've always carried a high-capacity USB key with me. The actual unit has changed size, shape, and capacity, but its purpose has always been the same: to easily transport files too large for convenient e-mailing. This idea is usually called "sneakernet," as in, you physically walk the files from your current location to wherever they need to go, either across the office, or the other side of town. My current sneakernet device is an 8GB LaCie IamaKey -- conveniently shaped like a key and easy to attach to a key chain. It was usually packed with not only photos and video, but also PC game save files (Dragon Age, Oblivion, etc.), and my folder full of install files for must-have free software ... Continue reading →
One of the coolest-looking of the original generation of ultrabook laptops was the Asus Zenbook UX31E. It was a shiny MacBook Air clone that was hard to dislike, even though it had a handful of near-fatal flaws, including a high starting price, weak touch pad, and oddly hard-to-open lid. The updated version has slipped into public view overseas, and a U.S. release is expected soon. We've been testing a higher-end configuration called the Zenbook Prime UX32VD, and there will also be less expensive versions, some keeping the older UX31 name -- but all will have Intel's latest generation of processors. Our preview system has one of Intel's third-generation Core i7 processors, but not one of the first wave of quad-core Core i7 Ivy Bridge CPUs ... Continue reading →
Amazon Studios is crowdsourcing movie-making, creating test movies, that fans can review, with storyboard art in the place of video, like this image from a possible upcoming release called "Touching Blue." (Credit: Amazon) If you want a glimpse into the way Amazon sees your digital future, look no farther than Jeff Ragsdale's new book, "Jeff, One Lonely Guy." Last October, after being dumped by a girlfriend and mired in depression, Ragsdale posted a flier around New York City on a whim that read, "If anyone wants to talk about anything, call me." It listed his mobile phone number. Calls streamed in, by the dozens, then the hundreds, and now well into the tens of thousands. Some callers left messages. Others texted. And many spoke with ... Continue reading →
(Credit: Blizzard Entertainment) One week after its release, Diablo III remains the only PC game anyone is talking about. Some of that talk is about how the game, a decade in the making, is a huge hit, with millions of copies presold before the May 15 launch. But much of the talk is also about the big bet developer and publisher Blizzard is making by forcing even solitary players to log in online to play. Dan: I've spent years attempting to divine the line between mainstream and enthusiast gaming, trying to figure out which games could cross over into popular culture, and which ones were going to stay locked into a small, but dedicated, core audience. After following Diablo III's development, and playing the beta ... Continue reading →
