When the GTX 560 Ti 1st arrived Nvidia was fast to point out it wasn’t a like-for-like replacement of the GTX 460, as the GTX 550 and GTX 570 had been for their respective brethren.

The GTX 460 then still had life left in it. Realistically though that life was snuffed out with the non-Ti version of the GTX 560. With the same core configuration as the out-going 1GB GTX 460: 336 CUDA Cores, 56 texture units and 32 ROPs – and the GTX five-series’ transistor-level enhancements over the GTX 4-series GPUs, this was often going to be putting the old classic out to pasture.

Indeed exactly where once the 1GB version of the GTX 460 cold be picked up for about £120, now you are lucky to be able to discover it for the £150-odd you can choose up this overclocked version of the GTX 560 for.

And with a decent overclock this card can perform graphical wonders. Sadly Gigabyte has only noticed fit to supply 20MHz on top of the 810MHz core clock of the standard GTX 560, but with the impressive Windforce cooling array sitting atop it we managed to hit well more than 900MHz without the card breaking a sweat.

Nonetheless, at this rather conservative factory-overclock it’s fairly comfortably the fastest GPU at the spending budget end of the market. It may possibly be at the top of the £150 budget category but it’s still a quite impressive small card.

This card can hit 20fps in Metro 2033, bats about the identical as the HD 6850 at 1080p in Shogun 2 and virtually hits 100fps in Far Cry 2. Any game you throw at it at 1,680 x 1,050 you will be able to play at the highest settings very comfortably. And you can be fairly certain that will continue to be the case for a fair whilst yet with contemporary game requirements not truly altering considerably these days.

TechRadar Labs

Thermal performance
100% Load: Degrees Centigrade: Lower is much better
XFX HD 6850: 55
GIGABYTE GTX 560 OC: 58

DirectX 11 tessellation performance (two,560 x 1,600)
Heaven two.5 Frames Per Second: Higher is greater
XFX HD 6850: 12.3
GIGABYTE GTX 560 OC: 13.5

DirectX 11 gaming performance (1,920 x 1,080)
Shogun 2 Frames Per Second: Higher is greater
XFX HD 6850: 32
GIGABYTE GTX 560 OC: 31

Power performance
100% Load Watts: Lower is much better
XFX HD 6850: 210
GIGABYTE GTX 560 OC: 270

DirectX 11 gaming performance (1,680 x 1,050)
DiRT 3 Frames Per Second: Higher is better
XFX HD 6850: 47
GIGABYTE GTX 560 OC: 58

DirectX 11 gaming performance (1,680 x 1,050)
Metro 2033 Frames Per Second: Greater is greater
XFX HD 6850: 18
GIGABYTE GTX 560 OC: 20

DirectX 10 gaming performance (1,680 x 1,050)
Just Cause 2 Frames Per Second: Higher is much better
XFX HD 6850: 39
GIGABYTE GTX 560 OC: 52

DirectX 10 gaming performance (1,680 x 1,050)
Far Cry two Frames Per Second: Greater is greater
XFX HD 6850: 75
GIGABYTE GTX 560 OC: 96

Quick sufficient?

Whilst it is the fastest card on test it’s nonetheless tough to suggest more than the HD 6850 for those on a budget. The added silicon and performance of the GTX 560 indicates that it’s also the most power hungry card here.

We measured it topping out at 270W under 100 per cent GPU load, that is 60W much more juice than the AMD enemy. The AMD card also only wants a single 6-pin PCI-e energy connector to link it up to the PSU, whereas the GTX 560 needs to have two of them to get the GPU up and running.

For most men and women that’s not a huge thing, but if your PSU only has a single PCIe connector then it could be an concern. It will still only genuinely want a 500W power supply but unless you’re rocking a modern unit it may well become an issue.

In the end though it all comes down to pricing. At the leading-end it is a fight among the GTX 560 and HD 6850 and with the AMD card coming in £30 less expensive for just as relevant performance. The HD 6850 just about pips the Nvidia card to the post, even in this overclocked Gigabyte guise.

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While Intel has the performance end of the CPU market sewn up, AMD has been looking out for the little guy, focussing squarely on the mainstream market and cheap chips with competitive processing chops.

The Sandy Bridge family might be your go-to guys at the moment for CPU upgrades thanks to Quick Sync and Turbo Boost technologies, but if every penny counts, AMD’s Phenom II chips squeeze every drop of performance out of a middling budget.

The compromise though is some architecture that’s getting rather long in the tooth. The X4 980 Black Edition is no exception.

Pound for pound, it delivers excellent performance. HyperThreading though is off the menu on the AMD side so you’re relying on four threads and four cores to slice through processing tasks. How much of a problem that is depends on your CPU’s workload – video encoding and design apps make good use of multi-threaded processors, and although games have been slow off the mark, we’ve seen some big titles recently that do work with multiple cores and threads to speed up rendering tasks.

That X4 architecture’s a bit old now – it was after all AMD’s first quad-core architecture. Intel’s 32nm chips are superior in a straight fight, but with the X4 980 BE you still get 6MB of L3 cache and an out-of-the-box clockspeed of 3.7GHz – AMD’s fastest ever quad-core.

But of course, it isn’t a straight fight. At £140, the ‘enthusiast’ X4 980 is priced against Intel’s entry-level Sandy Bridge chip, the i5 2400. That means it has a 500MHz faster clockspeed, but doesn’t have the Turbo Boost and Quick Sync chops of the i5. A stalemate, roughly.

That double-edged sword of older technology gives the AMD chip another selling point though. It’s an easy upgrade. Any Socket AM3 motherboard will support it, so you can reinvigorate two-year-old machines with this chip. It’s certainly an easier, and cheaper, upgrade than the jump to Sandy Bridge.

Benchmarks

Rendering performance
Cinebench R10: Seconds: Quicker is better
Phenom II X4 980 BE (Stock): 59
Phenom II X4 980 BE (OC’d): 51
Phenom II X4 975 (Stock): 60
Phenom II X4 975 (OC’d): 51
Phenom II X6 1090T (Stock): 47
Phenom II X6 1090T (OC’d): 39

Encoding performance
X264 HD v2: Frames per second: Higher is better
Phenom II X4 980 BE (Stock): 20
Phenom II X4 980 BE (OC’d): 23
Phenom II X4 975 (Stock): 19
Phenom II X4 975 (OC’d): 21
Phenom II X6 1090T (Stock): 26
Phenom II X6 1090T (OC’d): 32

DX11 gaming performance
Just Cause 2: Frames per second: Higher is better
Phenom II X4 980 BE (Stock): 47.93
Phenom II X4 980 BE (OC’d): 52.41
Phenom II X4 975 (Stock): 48.98
Phenom II X4 975 (OC’d): 51.34
Phenom II X6 1090T (Stock): 45.58
Phenom II X6 1090T (OC’d): 44.89

Enemies within

Here’s where things get weird though – it’s not Intel that’s muscling the X4 980 BE out of the market… it’s AMD itself.

Its focus on the sub-£200 CPU market has led to a product range that caters for literally every budget. Can’t go a penny over £140? X4 980 it is. Won’t budge an inch on £135? X4 975 then. In fact, the range is so overpopulated that some CPUs start pushing out others.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet then the Phenom II X6 1090T. It’s a six-core, 3.2GHz brute that’s also happy in any AM3 board. It shreds the X4 980 Black Edition to bits in processing tasks… and incredibly it’s £15 cheaper.

While the X4 can’t live with the X6 in video encoding, it does still have the edge in gaming thanks to that faster clockspeed. What’s more, they both overclock well – topping 4GHz on air. So which to buy?

We’re back to multi-core support again. If you’re happy getting the most out of a single core in your applications, the X4 980 Black Edition is looking good. As games step up their multicore support though, the X6 has the potential to blitz the 980 for less cash.

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The pick of AMD’s latest generation of graphics cards is undoubtedly the AMD Radeon HD 6950, and Sapphire has paired up with the launch of Codies’ new racer game, Dirt 3, to unleash the 2GB Radeon HD 6950 Dirt 3 Edition.

Despite the fact that the GPU is running at the standard stock speeds, it’s not just another reference board with a fancy sticker and bundled game – we’re talking about a brand new cooler design and access to further clock tweaks through Sapphire’s Trixx overclocking software.

Recently redesigned Radeon HD 6950s, however, have come with a few definite deficiencies – the main one being a lack of the impressive dual-Bios switch. That made the reference HD 6950 one of the most easily tweaked graphics cards around.

Add in the fact that you could unlock the dormant shaders nestling in the Cayman Pro GPU to turn it into an HD 6970 with a simple Bios flash and there was a lot to like.

Later cards, such as the MSI HD 6950 Twin Frozr III, came without the switch, making a Bios flash far more hazardous. It’s back with the Sapphire HD 6950 Dirt 3 Edition, though.

So does the combo of Bios-flash and flash cooler make it the best Radeon HD 6950 around?

It’s a mighty close thing, it has to be said, although if you were looking to this version to right the dubious wrongs of AMD limiting the previous shader-unlocking shenanigans then sadly you’re barking up the wrong GPU.

It looks as though the shader count has been well and truly locked down. We tried multiple methods, bricking the odd Bios as we went along (thank the maker for the recovery Bios switch), of getting at those hidden shaders but nothing worked.

Unfortunately this here Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 Dirt 3 Edition is going to stay an HD 6950.

The other unfortunate thing about not being able to flash it to HD 6970 levels is the artificial locking of the clock speed to a maximum of 840MHz still in place. That means no extra overclocking speed compared with the reference design in either AMD’s OverDrive or our usual favourite, MSI’s Afterburner.

But wait! Like the cavalry’s flag coming flapping over the horizon is Sapphire’s Trixx overclocking utility. Not only does this software enable us access to tweak the card’s voltage nipples, we can also push the core clock speed up to a theoretical 1,200MHz.

In practice we struggled to get a completely stable run through of our benchmarks at 1GHz, but even at a shade under the 1,000MHz mark that’s an impressive overclock.

Benchmarks

DirectX 11 Tessellation performance
Heaven 2.5: fps. Higher is better
HD 6950 Dirt 3 Ed: 15.4
HD 6950 Reference: 15.4

DirectX 11 gaming performance
Shogun 2: fps. Higher is better
HD 6950 Dirt 3 Ed – 17.3
HD 6950 Reference – 17.3

DirectX 10 gaming performance
Just Cause 2: fps. Higher is better
HD 6950 Dirt 3 Ed – 29
HD 6950 Reference – 29

The Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 Dirt 3 Edition’s a reference GPU and no mistake. There’s absolutely no difference in clock speeds, and hence no change in performance. What’s not shown in the raw fps numbers, however, is the change in temperature.

The three small and two fat heatpipes do a fantastic job of pulling the GPU sweat away from the chip. It idles around 10C cooler and manages a 12C drop in temperatures under load. That, however, does come at a higher cost in terms of power draw – it’s 30W more thirsty than the reference card.

Sadly, however, no matter how much of an overclock you can squeeze out of this little GPU, it’s no substitute for the reference chip’s shader-unlock prowess. And no matter what, it’s always going to be compared to that.

We liked

The fact you can get around AMD’s artificial locking of the Cayman Pro’s core clock speeds is an absolute bonus for this Sapphire card. It makes for some serious overclocking chops.

The new cooler is also impressive, giving a hefty drop in temperature to help push along that overclocking prowess.

We disliked

Sadly one of our favourite things about the reference HD 6950, the shader-unlock, has been cut out of the latest round of Cayman Pro GPUs, making the dual-Bios almost irrelevant now.

That new cooler has also had a rather negative effect on the power draw too, making for a fairly significant extra pull under load.

Verdict

If you look at this Radeon HD 6950 Dirt 3 Edition with an open mind, and no thought to the shader-unlocking loving, then you wont be disappointed. It’s one of the best stock HD 6950s out there, and one of the coolest too.

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On the last Angry Birds Seasons updates I brought you daily videos to complete the Christmas edition. Not to long ago Rovio launched the Valentines day edition of their extremely popular and addictive game. Since I know many of you are probably pulling your hair out trying to find the Golden Eggs on Hogs and Kisses, I thought I should lend a hand.

This video comes courtesy of 23hathman from youtube. This is just one of the Golden Eggs you can locate in the latest update. I hope you all find it useful.

View full post on AndroidSPIN

Last year I wrote that the SugarSync cloud storage and sharing service arrived for S60 5th Edition. I was recently sent a note from the SugarSync folks that a version was just released for S60 3rd Edition devices. There are something like 390 million Symbian handsets around the world so there is still a rather large market for apps.

SugarSync gives you 5GB for free with options to upgrade to more storage as well. With SugarSync you can access, manage, and share documents, photos, music, and more stored in the cloud. SugarSync works with Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and BlackBerry devices too so you get a truly cross platform experience.

You can find SugarSync at the Ovi Store for free. I will need to try it out on the Nokia E73 Mode.

View full post on Nokia Experts

The Angry Birds Seasons: Valentine’s Edition Android App by Rovio Mobile Ltd. is the Valentine’s version of the game for the Android platform. In this version the theme is Hogs and Kisses and features the ability to send an Angry Birds themed virtual Valentine’s Day card via FaceBook.

The game features 15 levels, 3 additional levels and a level to unlock by finding all of the Golden Eggs. The graphics have a Valentine’s Day theme to them with hearts and some of the hogs are even dressed up in red bows. The levels are quite challenging and the ice, blocks and wood form some cool shapes.

Overall, this is yet another excellent edition to the Angry Birds game series. At the time of this review the Angry Birds Seasons: Valentine’s Edition Android App is free. Thumbs Up.

Download Angry Birds Seasons: Valentine’s Edition

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Droid-Life.com has reported that today on Super Bowl Sunday there will be a secret Angry Birds level to unlock during the Super Bowl XLV. Also, this month the Valentine’s edition of the Angry Birds Seasons game will be released. Sometime in March there will be a new version of the Angry Birds game called Angry Birds Rio. This new version will feature 45 new levels and should be released sometime in March. The Secret Super Bowl level seems to be promoting or hyping up the new Rio game by having the obstacles to break through spell out Rio. Check out Droid-Life.com’s full article and screenshots here:

http://www.droid-life.com/2011/02/04/angry-birds-secret-super-bowl-level-revealed-valentines-edition-too/

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This weekend brings the Super Bowl and an early teaser level for the upcoming movie tie-in Angry Birds Rio, but you won’t have to wait much longer to get even more new levels to waste away your days on. For Valentine’s Day, Rovio will be offering an update to their Angry Birds Seasons that will bring a whole batch of new, love-themed levels to distract you as you wolf down ice cream and cry about not having a date.

Rovio knows not to mess with a winning formula, so don’t expect any earth-shattering changes in gameplay. If you want to see a bit more skin before you take the plunge, however, here are some sneak peek screens courtesy of AllThingsD.

[via AllThingsD]

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rel="attachment wp-att-25116" href="http://www.appcraver.com/peter-rabbit-buddy-edition/peter-rabbit-buddy-edition/"> style=' float: left; padding: 4px; margin: 0 7px 2px 0;' class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-25116" title="peter rabbit buddy edition" src="http://www.appcraver.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/peter-rabbit-buddy-edition-200x300.png" alt="" width="200" height="300" />Peter Rabbit: Buddy Edition is the classic Beatrix Potter tale brought to life and made all the more interesting with the implementation of href="http://www.sideways.com/apps/peter_rabbit/" target="_blank">Sideways’ Buddy Reading System. The Buddy Reading System uses Game Center to connect two devices for audio communication. What this means for parents and their children is that you can read the storybook with your child even when you aren’t there.

Using Game Center for a storybook app,  title="peter rabbit : buddy edition ipad book" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/peter-rabbit-buddy-edition/id398566659?mt=8&partnerId=30&siteID=saW0nB/fQ6o" target="_blank">Peter Rabbit: Buddy Edition certainly opens up appealing possibilities for traveling parents. It requires initial setup, directions for which are plainly provided in the app. They may appear a bit complex initially, but tech-savvy parents can figure it out. After that, in order to read with your child, you set up the book by selecting the Buddy Reading option from the menu and following prompts. (Young children will require assistance from someone on their end.) Once the Game Center invite is sent and accepted, you can then read the story and control the page turning from your end while your child looks and listens on theirs.

Read the rest of href="http://www.appcraver.com/peter-rabbit-buddy-edition/">Peter Rabbit: Buddy Edition Uses Game Center for Tech-Savvy Storytelling

AppCraver.com, 2011. | href="http://www.appcraver.com/">Best iPhone Applications | href="http://www.appcraver.com/picks/">Top iPhone Apps

T-mobile has finally gotten around to getting the Fender LE edition and the 1.2 versions of the MyTouch 3G’s updated to Froyo 2.2. The horrible part about the update being the fact that many phones are being bricked. Which for the average consumer means your phone won’t boot or work. This is a serious problem that seems to keep recurring with carrier/manufacturer updates.

The good news though, If you happen to find yourself in that situation on your Fender LE edition, T-Mobile is currently exchanging the device out for customers. Guess what the exchange is? A Samsung Vibrant! not bad if I do say so my self. I you happen to be bricked on the black MyTouch 3G 1.2, your exchange is being reported as an LG Optimus. which still isn’t horrible.

So if you are stuck and your phone is frozen, be sure to give T-Mobile a call and get yourself a new device.

Thank you tipster!!

View full post on AndroidSPIN

Now this is a little more what we’d like to see from a passively-cooled card. The GT 430 is a far lower-spec beast than the relatively pacey Gigabyte HD 5770 Silent Cell, but what I’m talking about here is not being penalised in the wallet department for wanting something a bit quieter.

This is the same price as the Asus GeForce GT 430 and with the same basic specs. What’s different, however, is the fact that it doesn’t come with any moving parts (and hence no dustproof fan…) and sits on a more normal-sized PCB.

This last part is strangely at odds with its raison d’etre. The GT 430 is a GPU to slot into a media centre machine, just like AMD’s HD 5570 before it. The first versions we saw came on half-height PCBs for this reason.

Now we’ve got a card that won’t fit into a media centre chassis, but comes with the sort of passive cooling you’d want in one.

It needs a fair bit of airflow across those passive cooling fans too: in our test-rig it was quite capable of hitting over 90°C when it was stressed at all. So them wee cases are right out.

As for performance, you’re talking near-identical scores to the Asus GT 430. But this isn’t about performance, it’s about delivering Nvidia’s DX11 goodness and its GPU extras, like CUDA, into the low-end market.

Personally though I think for this sort of card, the half-height PCB makes more sense: after all, the dustproof fan on the Asus card isn’t exactly going to sound like a turbine, is it?

Putting it onto a larger board means Zotac can offer this passive-cooling array, but is going to seriously limit where the card is able to be installed. I’d want the GT 430 for a small form factor machine.

If you’ve got anything larger, save up and spend an extra £25 to £30 on a GTS 450 instead.

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Howdy and welcome to the weekly app roundup! We’ve corralled some apps we reckon you folks want to take a gander at. So how did everyone make out? Was a certain, portly gift giver good to you? Just remember that it isn’t all about presents, you greedy varmit. Today, we announce the winners of the Trillian giveaway and also give you the chance to win one of 10 copies of Holidays 2011 Edition! How’s that for timing? Have a rootin’ tootin’ weekend! And a Happy New Year! Giddy up!

Freebies of the Week: Vulkano Player, Oopost, Newegg Mobile

In Case You Missed It: autoTRADER, Ringtone Remix

New This Week: PhotoDial, Cellphone Tracker, GPS Tool Plus

Cool at BlackBerry App World: Navita Sports

Contest: Win one of 10 copies of Holidays 2011 Edition!

read more

CrackBerry.com‘s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. BlackBerry App Roundup for December 31st, 2010! Win 1 of 10 copies of Holidays 2011 Edition!

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With all of the other Droid 2s going for a more reasonable price, it was only a matter of time before the R2-D2 edition followed suit. Now you can get the Droid you’re looking for, for $200 on contract; versus the original $250.

It’s time C-3P0 and Mr. T get together and put out their own edition of the Droid 2.

[Story and Image via Engadget]

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image: Nintendo of America

There seems to be an odd split in the gamer community regarding the newly released Super Mario All-Stars 25th Anniversary Edition. On the one hand you have the Nintendo faithful intent on celebrating (and in some cases hording) the limited edition product with its bundled art book and soundtrack collection CD. On the other there are the staunch critics disappointed by the glaring lack of polish applied to both this bonus content and the game itself.

The simple truth is they’re both right.

Celebrating 25 years of Nintendo’s iconic mascot is a huge deal. Mario’s position in gaming culture as well as the greater pop culture has long been cemented thanks to two and a half decades of amazing titles (and sometimes less noteworthy tie-ins). Sadly this collection only pays token tribute to the character behind the rise of contemporary gaming.

Super Mario All-Stars 25th Anniversary Edition comes packaged in a smart red and gold box that touts the set’s content. I’m tempted to say that such amenities look good on paper, but it’s much more honest to say they look great. The packaging itself truly tugs at those nostalgic heartstrings with it’s unique throwback design. Upon breaking the seal, however, you may find yourself rather underwhelmed.

The included 32-page primer on Mario’s history is less a keepsake than a glorified pamphlet. You get the requisite time line and a dash of anecdotal quotes concerning series benchmarks as well as a few classic source sketches, but it simply doesn’t feel big enough, with regard to both content and physical size,  to properly pay tribute to the character in question. The same can be said of the soundtrack CD which limits itself to ten level themes, ten classic sound effects and a bit shy of a half-hour of play time overall. Given the power of Mario’s musical legacy, this too is disappointing.

The game disc itself is also a tad underwhelming. An unadorned port of the original Super Mario All-Stars title, it’s simply little more than a ROM rip of the SNES game enabled for sideways Wii-mote play. The included games – Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (the original Japanese sequel), the domestic flavor of Super Mario Bros. 2 and NES high-water mark Super Mario Bros. 3 – still play exquisitely well all these years later, but while the convenience of having them all on a single disc is a nice touch I still have some minor gripes.

image: Nintendo of America

As this is really just the Super Nintendo collection revisited, each of the included games feature the marginally updated graphics of that age. This means that the blocky sprites of the original outing have been eliminated in favor of a more cartoony representation. This makes sense, of course, as each of these titles is available in all their 8-bit glory via the Virtual Console. Still, I, like many other old schoolers, prefer the original hits by the original artists. Moreover, the modern DVD format easily affords additional space for added selections like Super Mario World or Yoshi’s Island, but Nintendo instead elected to take the easy way out and offer the core content un-supplemented.

The problem with this collection is that it hits many of the series high points without providing very much in the way of additional bang for your buck. That being said, as the entry price for this particular trip in the Wayback Machine is a mere $30 American, it’s hard to get too bent out of shape about the lack of depth in the Super Mario All-Stars 25th Anniversary Edition. Sure, the disc itself is simply a Wii-playable repackaging of the Super Nintendo All-Stars release and the art book and CD are enjoyable if trifling additions, but there’s still something to be said for the staying power of these antiquated platformers, gussied up for current gen play or otherwise. Plus, this thing will look positively smashing on your media shelf!

WIRED: a nice collection of classic Mario titles compiled on a single disc, pack-in bonus book and CD, handsome overall packaging, low price point

TIRED: really nothing more than a port of SNES classic Super Mario All-Stars, book and CD are likewise light on content, standard aspect ratio gaming looks kind of sad on your big-screen LCD

Review materials provided by: Nintendo of America

View full post on GeekDad

Photo: Hasbro

I love trivia games. I’m usually the lone dissenter when everyone else says, “Let’s play Settlers of Catan!” I enjoy some strategy games that I’ve played (such as Torres, Carcassonne, TransAmerica, and the like), but I really love trivia. Testing my own knowledge has been fun for me since I was a kid.

I can count on one hand the number of my friends that love trivia games as much as I do. I think that number is two, and neither of them live in the same state that I do. Occasionally people humor me and play a game of Trivial Pursuit, but it always takes so long that they’re complaining that we should just declare a winner.

“You don’t think this is fun?” I think to myself.

So for those of you out there who feel the way I do about trivia games, I present the new Trivial Pursuit: Master Edition. I own and have played most of the earlier versions of Trivial Pursuit, from the original Genus edition to Genus III to Baby Boomer to the 60s and the 80s and the Millennium edition, and more.

Trivial Pursuit: Master Edition has a very familiar look and feel. The board is laid out in the same way and the categories are the same as for the original Genus edition (with blue as Geography, thankfully!). There are some subtle differences, though. The color brown is replaced with purple and the pieces have curved tops, so the filled pie looks domed, and there is no way the wedges can get wedged in the pie sideways or upside down.

One new thing for this version of the game is the addition of a timer. It seems that this timer is what makes it a master edition. After a question is read to you, someone starts the timer. You have to answer before the timer is up. This makes the game a much bigger challenge, because oftentimes when I play Trivial Pursuit, it takes my brain a while to take the right path to the correct answer. Or on a team, we’ll reason out the answer, and finally come to the correct one through logic. Neither of these strategies are possible with a timer. Of course you can play the game without the timer, too, but the questions don’t seem to be any more challenging than other editions of the game.

I’m thrilled that they are continuing to put out conventional versions of Trivial Pursuit. But this version has some oddities. First, there are the usual two boxes of cards, but there aren’t enough cards supplied to come close to filling them up. Second, the questions are more modern and up-to-date than those in the editions I’m used to playing, but their organization into categories is sometimes way off. For example, a question about Twitter and Ashton Kutcher was in Science and Nature. I would have thought that would have fallen under Entertainment, but perhaps they consider the Internet to be Science. Another example that was in the Geography category barely mentioned France in the question, but the answer related to the movie Beauty and the Beast. Again, Entertainment should have been the category. I prefer my trivia to be about real facts and knowledge, not fluff. There were plenty of questions asking about real information, too, but it was all mixed together with questions that definitely won’t stand the test of time.

As with most of the other Trivial Pursuit editions, the difficulty of the questions is mixed. Some questions are quite obscure, but others are very easy. One History question asked what the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave women the right to do. Well, that’s easy right there. It led you to the answer. It would have been somewhat more difficult if they’d instead asked, “What did the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantee?”

Still, it’s nice to have a fresh version of the game with a new set of questions. This version also adds an interesting new feature. Some of the questions are photo questions. You look at the itty bitty photo on the card and use it to answer the question. Also, sometimes the answers to the questions will not only give you the straight answer, but also tell you more information about it. In this way, it reminds me a bit of some of the Datahead questions in Cranium.

If you’re looking for an updated version of Trivial Pursuit that adds a few extra features, you can’t go wrong with Trivial Pursuit: Master Edition. But it isn’t quite the hard-hitting, full of facts that stand the test of time game that I had expected it to be.

Trivial Pursuit: Master Edition retails for $39.99 and is for ages 16 and up. Younger kids that are well-versed in history and pop culture will probably do well, too.

Note: I received a copy of this game for review purposes.

View full post on GeekDad

Not sure what to get the person who already has too much for Christmas this year? You may want to check out the Exclusive Limited Edition Bill Amberg BlackBerry Bold 9780 collection, available from Selfridges this December. Here’s the official word on them:

To celebrate the launch of the BlackBerry Bold 9780 luxury leather designer Bill Amberg has created a BlackBerry collection which will be sold exclusively at Selfridges London from 1 December.

The 60 limited edition Bill Amberg sets, priced at £1000 each, include a BlackBerry Bold 9780, a backplate and sleek matching leather case and are available in six unique colour ways – yellow on black, orange on black, red on black, pink on white, blue on white and green on white.

To get hold of an iconic BlackBerry Bold 9780 designed by Bill Amberg head to the Technology Hall on the Lower Ground Floor from 1 December.

I gotta say, as much as I’m a sucker for the notion of limited edition swiss mechanical watches, somehow the concept of seeing 1/10 or 5/10 on the back of a smartphone doesn’t quite yield the same sort of emotion for me. The two-tone battery doors are pretty hawt though. It would be nice to see an accessory manufacturer do up something similar in that $15 – $30 price range. More info and images at the link below. Thanks to Dave for sending this in!

More Info on the Bill Amberg BlackBerry Bold 9780

CrackBerry.com‘s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Money to burn? Get your loved one (or yourself) a Limited Edition Bill Amberg BlackBerry Bold 9780 for Christmas from Selfridges

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Just the fact that you’re reading this means that, if we’re serious about it, you have things to be thankful for — to whatever higher power you believe in or simply to the universe in general. But you probably didn’t come here wanting to be serious, so we’ll let you deal with such things on your own.

In considering what to include on this list, I was originally going to include “We haven’t heard anything more about the reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer without Joss Whedon, so maybe it’s dead.” Sigh. And of course, in last year’s list I included an item about how George Lucas had said there wouldn’t be another Star Wars trilogy and that the six existing movies weren’t going to be re-released in 3D. So you’ll understand why this year’s list doesn’t have anything related to Star Wars on it.

These are in no particular order, and we’d love to hear your ideas for geeky things to be thankful for on Thanksgiving Day 2010 in the comments.

1. Peter Jackson is directing The Hobbit, and the cast that’s been announced so far looks excellent. While we weren’t hugely unhappy with the prospect of Guillermo del Toro directing, the news that Jackson has taken over can only be a good thing.

2. The Verizon iPhone looks like it will actually happen within the next year, possibly the next few months. If I worked for AT&T Wireless, I would be cashing in my stock options just as soon as I could.

3. Matt Smith has silenced the skeptics and proved himself a surprisingly excellent Doctor Who. Those who bemoaned David Tennant’s decision to leave are, for the most part anyway, singing a different tune.

4. Caffeine.

5. It looks like Duke Nukem Forever, the most famous vaporware product ever, will actually be released on February 1 of next year. If it really does hit stores as scheduled, we advise caution when venturing outside on that date, due to the serious possibility of airborne swine.

6. After years of declining relevance to what was actually popular on the web, Digg finally dug its own grave with its major site restructuring.

7. Joss Whedon is directing the movie of The Avengers. We are fairly confident that Fox does not have the authority to cancel it, but if asked would probably hesitate to place a bet on it.

8. Portal 2 is set to come out in April, after garnering tons of accolades at this year’s E3 convention. We have yet to hear whether there will be cake.

9. TRON is finally getting a sequel, 28 years later. Now we just need to convince Fox that Buckaroo Banzai deserves one, too.

10. With AMC’s awesome adaptation of The Walking Dead comic book series, there’s finally a zombie story in the mainstream that relies on deeply-drawn characters, not just scaring viewers.

[The image at the top of this article is a modified version of Norman Rockwell's famous painting "Freedom From Want." Special thanks to GeekDad Nathan Barry, who assembled the image for last year's Thanksgiving despite being British and therefore not a celebrant of said holiday.]

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at GeekDad!

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We’ve got a lot to be thankful for at Phandroid, and that’s why this round of the Phan Giveaway won’t end until Thursday night at 11:59 EDT. In addition to giving ONE random commenter the below goodies, we’ll also be hooking up 3 other random commenters with a package of our Phan Gear.

Unfortunately in the holiday madness I was unable to put together a giveaway video, but most of you freeloaders just hop to the comments and drop “would like”, “do want” or a “me” anyways. Not that it’ll help your chances if you’re a bit more creative but come on, be a bit more creative

Maylong Universe Android Tablet
Last week I did a quick unboxing and hands on of the Maylong M-150 Android Tablet… and now I’m giving away the second of the two I purchased ! It only costs $100 at Walgreens.com but it’s kind of a get-what-you-pay-for scenario. It’s a 7-inch tablet with a resistive screen running Android 1.6, no Android Market and a bunch of other gotchyas. BUT, I was pretty impressed with this thing since – let’s be honest – it’s only $100.

iSteamAndy T-Shirt
We told you folks about the iSteamAndy T-Shirt earlier this month and I’m not gonna lie – it’s a pretty cool concept. Take Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous sketches and imagine if he were to dissect our beloved Android Robot. Now take that imaginary sketch and slap it on a T-Shirt and you’ve got the Exploded Android T-Shirt seen to the left (and in the video). If you don’t win, you can always purchase this bad boy from iSteamAndy.com for $19. And oh yeah, they have a bunch of other cool Android-related T-Shirts so check out their full collection!

Smartphone Coaster
Maybe a complete dock with a charging station and expensive price tag is a little much. Maybe you just want a nice looking and sturdy smartphone stand that you can lean your Android on for perfect viewing at your desk or bedside. If that’s you, then check out the smartphone coaster at NewPCGadgets.com. You can snag one of these for only $4 and they make great stocking stuffers… but the winner of today’s Phan Giveaway will get one for free!

Isotoner SmarTouch Gloves
Somehow one of these awesome pairs of gloves got tucked away beyond my vision. A quick cleanup revealed that a teal pair of thinner gloves still remained, meaning either a lovely lady winner will have a new winter companion or a guy with goodluck will have one less holiday gift to buy. In case you forgot, these sweet gloves have stitched in fabric that conducts the current in your fingers directly to your touchscreen, allowing you to flawlessly operate your phone in the coldest of weather. Don’t believe me? Check out this demo I did showing off the gloves’s unique ability.

GameGripper
If you’ve got an original Droid, Droid 2 or Samsung Moment than your gaming aspirations just got improved. While a hardware keyboard can be considered a godsend for mobile gaming success, the Game Gripper greatly improves your odds and enjoyment by providing an accessorized overlay that more accurately emulates traditional game controllers and keypads. Check out Kevin using his Game Gripper in action on the Droid 2. We’ll only include this if you’ve got one of the 3 mentioned devices… that’s our obligation to the environment since you’d likely just throw it away otherwise.

Phandroid Gear
And as usual, we’ll hook the winner up with Phandroid Gear including a Phandroid drawstring bag, Phandroid stadium cup, Phandroid pens and Phandroid mints. Stay tuned for that Phandroid T-Shirt… I promise we’re still working on details and it WILL exist at some point in the near future. Promise!

Today’s winner is guaranteed a lot of awesome stuff, and it doesn’t take much at all to enter. Glance over this very short list of things you need to do:

• Provide a valid e-mail address with your comment
• Be 18 years of age or older
• Live in the United States (sorry, I gotta ship this stuff myself)
• Submit a comment by 11:59pm EDT on November 25th, 2010
• Only 1 entry per person, multiple comments will NOT improve your chances

We’ll contact the randomly selected winners on November 26th for their address and contact info.

Let the commenting begin!

View full post on Android Phone Fans

By now, we were hoping to able to get our hands on AMD’s new Bulldozer archtecture processors, but there’s still no sign of them, so instead we back with the familiar Phenom II theme. Give it up for the new AMD Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition.

Based on the 45nm Deneb core that’s being doing duty in quad-core Phenom II chips for nearly two years, the AMD Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition sports a heady stock clockspeed of 3.5GHz. Yup, that’s precisely 100MHz or three per cent faster than the Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition, previously the fastest X4 model.

This kind of incremental upgrade is symptomatic of an ageing processor architecture on it last legs. But while Bulldozer can’t come soon enough, there’s no reason why the 970 shouldn’t be an attractive CPU. It all comes down to pricing and positioning. At £140, the 970 squares up directly against Intel’s Core i5 760. Game on.

With so many CPU models on offer from AMD and Intel, it’s not always obvious where any given chip lines up. In the case of the AMD Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition, however, its main task is very clear. It must beat Intel’s Core i5-760.

More accurately, it probably only needs to match the 760. The two chips both sell for around £140. However, thanks to typically lower motherboard prices, the overall platform cost is lower if you go with AMD. In that more precise context, how does the 970 stack up?

Initial impressions in multi-threaded benchmarks are good. The Phenom II X4 970′s healthy 3.5GHz clockspeed and quad-core layout motors through the x264 HD video encoding test in 19.4fps, just a whisker slower than the Core i5 760′s 19.7fps result.

It’s a similar story in Cinebench R10. One minute and one second for the Phenom II plays 59 seconds for the Core i5. Shift the focus to gaming, however, and the 970 begins to struggle. World in Conflict is a particularly demanding game for CPUs and it duly exposes Phenom’s weakness. The Core i5 is nearly 20 per cent quicker, despite a large clockspeed disadvantage.

Speaking of clockspeeds, the 970′s impressive stock frequency of 3.5GHz is actually its undoing when it comes to overclocking. The Phenom II architecture generally hits the wall at 4GHz, regardless of model and the 970 is no different. The same applies to Intel’s Core i5 and Core i7 chips. However, clocked at 2.8GHz, the Core i5-760 has much more headroom to play with.

We liked

AMD often has to balance value and upgradeability against raw performance when competing with Intel processors. The Phenom II X4 970 Black Edition takes those traditional AMD advantages and adds an impressive stock clockspeed of 3.5GHz. The result is competitive multi-threaded performance and no excuses.

We disliked

While high clocks and four cores will inevitably deliver plenty of parallelised punch, the Phenom II X4 970′s ageing architecture is exposed by applications that rely on strong single-core performance. What’s more, the 3.5GHz stock clockspeed doesn’t leave much room for overclocking.

Related Links

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The Sally’s Salon Luxury Edition Android App by GameHouse is a time management/strategy game for the Android platform. The object of the game is to serve each customer that comes into the salon and earn money so that Sally can expand her business. There are different types of customers that you will need to serve with different types of personalities and patience levels. Each customer has a heart meter that will depleat if they have to wait a long time or if the servie that you provide is not the best. The heart meter will increase if you serve the customers to their liking as well as provide them with service that they feel is satisfactory.

To select a ustomer press on them once and then press once on the station that the customer’s icon indicates that they would like. From there you will either wash, cut, dye or blow dry their hair. You then need to check them out at the register in a timely manner in order to getr paid. Each level has a minimum amount of money that you need to earn in order to advance to the next level. At the end of each level you will be able to use the money that you have earned in order to purchase upgrades for the salon as well as hire employees ton help you out.

Overall, this is a great time manahement/strategy game that was well designed with great graphics. At the time of this review the Sally’s Salon Luxury Edition Android App is $0.99. Thumbs Up.

Download Sally’s Salon Luxury Edition Demo

Download Sally’s Salon Luxury Edition Paid

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It’s currently the done thing in the laptop world to be kitting your machines out with high-end speaker systems. Asus was one of the first with their Bang & Olufsen NX90 notebook, and MSi followed shortly with the GX660R, a machine that boasts a Dynaudio system embedded in the chassis.

HP has gone another route with the HP Beats Edition, and employed the help and expertise of legendary Hip Hop producer Dr Dre and his Beats brand, that manufacturers high-end headphones.

Built around the chassis of a standard Envy 14, but £400 pounds more expensive, the HP Envy 14 Beats Edition features a number of audio upgrades.

These include specially designed Beats speakers and clever positioning of the notebook’s sound card, allowing for impressive sound quality when using the bundled Beats Solo headphones.

Aside from the audio upgrades, the Envy 14 Beats Edition boasts a new black rubberised chassis that we rate very highly, and a series of cutting-edge components that make this a very powerful machine.

As the Envy 14 Beats Edition is a jazzed up version of the standard Envy 14, let’s take a look at what you get for the extra £400.

The notebook is built for those looking for a premium sound from their machine, and the Envy 14 Beats Edition delivers nicely. Two front-mounted premium speakers provide excellent sound quality, and are controlled by an intuitive piece of Beats software that helps you tweak the audio to your exact specification.

Once you’ve got the settings just right, it’s simply a case of hitting the [Shift] and [b] key to activate the Beats software and effect. Without Beats, sound quality is good enough, but when it’s activated, music tracks take on a fullness and depth we’ve rarely heard from notebook speakers.

The effect is even more pronounced when using headphones. The HP Envy 14 Beats Edition comes with a pair of Beats Solo travel headphones that retail for about £150. They’re very comfortable to wear, and fold at the hinges, which make them great for tucking into a bag or pocket.

As mentioned above, HP has located the notebook’s sound card right next to the headphone jack, and this reduces the amount of audio degradation you experience compared to if, say, the card was located on the other side of the chassis.

The combination of headphones and Beats software is excellent, and especially suits bass heavy tunes – as you might expect with the Dr Dre heritage. We were especially impressed by how loud the laptop goes while showing next to no bass distortion, which is a real achievement.

The Envy 14 Beats Edition features a black rubber finish to the chassis, which looks and feels great. Not only is it easy to grip, but the material is nigh on impossible to scratch, and so easy to keep clean.

The Envy 14 Beats Edition’s chiclet-style keyboard is large and spacious. The travel is decent, the action relatively firm, and those after a notebook for regular typing will find a lot to like here. There’s no dedicated numberpad, however, which might put off those who regularly input data.

The keyboard is backlit, and the subdued red light that shines up through the board both enhances usability in low light conditions and looks great, giving the laptop a pleasingly sinister appearance.

A spacious touchpad is included below the keypad, but proves a frustrating affair. It’s irritatingly easy to brush while typing, which means that when you’re writing your text will often jump all over the shop.

Along the right side of the Envy 14 Beats Edition’s chassis sit a USB/eSATA port, an HDMI interface, Gigabit Ethernet and Firewire mini. Down the left side you’ll find a further two USB ports and the slot-loading optical drive.

It’s worth noting that there’s no VGA out, which might put off those looking to hook up TVs or monitors that don’t feature an HDMI port.

The black screen lid doesn’t feature the rubber finish of the chassis, but has got the large Beats logo spread up the back. Some might light this, but we think that it would be overkill, ruining the understated design of the notebook.

The 14.5-inch display within features a 1366 x 768 pixel resolution. It’s sharp and detailed enough to enjoy films and photos on, but a shiny screen coating makes the Envy 14 Beats edition an irritating laptop to use in very bright light.

Whereas the standard Envy 14 sports an Intel Core i5 processor, the Beats Edition boasts a Core i7 720QM. Not only does this boast Intel’s latest hyper threading and turbo boost technologies (for maximum multitasking and power efficiency), but the processor has four cores, providing some serious power.

This combined with the 4GB of memory helped the Envy 14 Beats Edition breeze through all our benchmarking tests, and there’s no doubt this is one of the most powerful 14-inch notebooks we’ve come across.

Similarly, the ATi Mobility Radeon HD 5650 graphics card is very high-end. There’s 1GB of dedicated video memory also included, and this gives the Envy 14 Beats edition the sort of graphical firepower we’d expect from a large multimedia desktop replacement system such as the Acer Aspire Ethos.

As a result you’ll have no problem playing the latest gaming titles, and will be able to carry out resource-intensive multimedia tasks, including photo and HD video editing, with no problem at all. Considering the small form factor of the Envy 14 Beats Edition, this makes the notebook a very powerful and versatile option.

A 500GB hard drive is included to home all your files and folders and, unless you have a serious appetite for movie, music and photo libraries, should provide plenty of storage for a good few years.

It’s also worth noting that the drive spins at 7200 rpm, rather than the standard 5400rpm. This allows the processor especially quick access to your data, enhancing performance.

The Envy 14 Beats Edition features a Tri-Format DVD dual layer reader and writer for reading or backing up data but, unlike many HP drives, doesn’t feature LightScribe technology, which lets you burn labels onto the surface of a disk.

With the wealth of powerful components on board you’d think the Envy 14 Beats Edition would offer terrible portability, but that’s not the case. The 209-minute battery life is perfectly serviceable and will last you the commute, while the 2.6kg makes this a notebook that’s no trouble to carry around all day long.

The notebook features the standard one-year collect and return warranty, with a range of options available for upgrading or extending the service from HP direct.

With many of us now storing our multimedia libraries on our computers, notebook manufacturers are finally confronting the age-old issue of poor sound quality.

While Asus and MSi were slightly quicker, there was never any doubt that the world’s number one manufacturer would come out of the gates firing, and HP has done exactly that.

The Envy 14 Beats Edition creates great sound quality that knocks the socks off your average notebook and, although expensive, we feel the price is justified – especially with the inclusion of the Beats Solo headphones.

But there’s a lot more to the Envy 14 Beats Edition than just good sound quality. This is an extremely powerful notebook, both in terms of everyday and graphical performance, and it provides the sort of power we’d expect from a much larger desktop replacement machine.

The notebook is also portable, making it a genuine option as a travelling companion.

We liked

There’s a serious amount to like about the Envy 14 Beats Edition. Yes, the notebook is roughly £400 more expensive than the standard Envy 14 – but the extras justify the price hike.

With that in mind, highlights include the excellent sound quality, courtesy of the Beats technology imbedded in the notebook and, of course the Beats Solo bundled headphones.

Everyday and graphical performance are also aggressive, making this a notebook that’ll provide plenty of power and future proofing – it’ll be ticking system requirement boxes for quite a few years to come.

Portability is another strong point with battery life, weight and strong build quality all impressing. The Envy 14 Beats Edition is also a great looking notebook, and one we took great pleasure in reviewing simply because it is such a usable and attractive machine.

We disliked

There’s not a lot that we disliked about the notebook. It’s a shame the Envy 14 Beats Edition screen resolution isn’t a bit higher, but that’s to be expected with such a small panel.

The lack of a VGA out does seem like a bit of an omission, however, and those with TV screens and monitors with no HDMI will be a little stuck.

Usability is generally excellent, but the touchpad is an irritant. Having to repeatedly shift text around a document because brushing the touchpad while typing has shot it to the other end of the page gets boring very quickly.

Related Links

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Following the increased popularity of Apple’s MacBook laptops, Parallels has aimed to make it easier than ever for Windows users to move to a Mac with its Desktop 6 Switch To Mac Edition software/hardware solution.

Combining Parallels Desktop for Mac software – letting you install Windows as a separate application within Apple’s OS X operating system – with a high-speed USB cable for transferring your entire Windows installation, data and programs, switching to a Mac has never been easier.

Once the software has been installed on both your Windows-based laptop and your new Mac, you connect both machines via the included cable and can then migrate your entire Windows installation to your Mac in less than 20 minutes.

With the migration complete, your old Windows installation can then be opened in a separate window directly from within the Mac OS X operating system. Allowing access to all your favourite Windows software, fi les and folders alongside your new Mac software, it truly is the easiest way we’ve seen for a Windows user to comfortably migrate to a Mac.

As well as accessing Windows as a virtual machine within its own window, Parallels takes its simplicity a huge step further thanks to its Coherence mode. Running Windows in the background, it allows you to open and use your Windows software as if they were native Mac applications – again working seamlessly.

If you do not want to import an old Windows installation and merely wish to install and run a second operating system on your Mac, then Parallels also allows that.

Using your OS installation disc, the process is as simple as migrating an old laptop. While more complex setting are automated, you can override them to configure settings as you wish.

Smooth integration

Whichever method you use to install your second – or third, or fourth etc – operating system, the integration between it and your OS X software is smooth and easy to use. Files and folders can be dragged back and forth between each OS and, in most cases, the virtual machine immediately detects and utilises your internet connection with no input required.

Finally, Parallels also lets you control your virtual machines remotely from your Apple iPhone, iPad or even your iPod Touch. Accessed via the Parallels Mobile Application, all you need to do is ensure that both your Mac and your mobile device are connected to the internet.

Providing an intuitive and staggeringly easy way for new Apple users to migrate to a Mac laptop, Parallels Desktop 6 demonstrates how all software should be – accessible and great to use.

Related Links

• TechRadar Reviews Guarantee
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Into sports and looking for a great app to keep up to date on standings, scores and more? Why not check out the freshly pressed beta of the TSN Mobile app for BlackBerry. Previously only available to iPhone users, the TSN Mobile app has made the leap to the BlackBerry platform with the release of the first beta.

TSN brings all the sports information in its number one iPhone app to the Blackberry.

A beta test of the application, featuring thorough coverage of the five major leagues (NHL, CFL, NFL, MLB and NBA) was released in early October 2010. Many more sports will be added throughout the month, with a final release slated for early November.

Having tried it out on my 9700 the new app is great for all the essentials. However, installing it on my BlackBerry Torch led to some not so poitive results. I’m sure that will be corrected over time as TSN never claimed it would work on the Torch now anyways. Be sure to check it out though if you are looking for a great app to keep track of sports scores and more.

• Click Here To Download The App Via OTA To Your BlackBerry Smartphone>>
• Click Here To Learn More Information About The TSN Mobile Application>>

CrackBerry.com‘s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. TSN Mobile: Blackberry Edition beta now available for download

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Contest: Enter to win the official John Carpeter’s Halloween theme!

Halloween is fast approaching, and that means it’s time for the CrackBerry Halloween Theme Roundup! I searched the forums looking for as many free Halloween themes as I could find for you guys, so I hope if you’re getting in the Halloween spirit you will find something you like in the post below. There are a few premium themes as well that were sent in to the tip email so I have included those. Enjoy this week’s picks!

• Halloween themes in the CrackBerry forums >>
• Halloween themes in the CrackBerry store >>

read more

CrackBerry.com‘s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. BlackBerry theme roundup for October 18, 2010 – Halloween Edition!

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