The new “Modern UI” in Windows 8, formerly known as “Metro,” is certainly controversial. Some love the flat tile-focused interface while others pine for the days of the traditional desktop Start Menu. If you find yourself in either camp, however, you’re still likely unhappy with the way that the Windows 8 Start Screen handles non-Modern UI apps. While Modern UI apps have attractive tiles that fill up their entire tile placeholder, desktop apps are portrayed as an unattractive mesh of
Apple CEO Tim Cook Headlining the D11 Conference Tonight
The annual D Conference from The Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital tech publication kicks off today at the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. While the event, now in its eleventh season, will feature many executives from a variety of tech companies, all eyes will be focused on Apple CEO Tim Cook. Mr. Cook, fresh off his visit to Capitol Hill last week, will be interviewed by AllThingsD founders Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher tonight at 9 PM
How to Disable the Character Accent Menu in OS X Mountain Lion
A handy new feature in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion is the character accent pop-up menu. Users with English keyboards who frequently type in accent-heavy foreign languages will likely love the new feature, which allows a user to bring up common accents for each character simply by holding the key for the letter you wish to accent. For example, in the screenshot above, we’re trying to spell the world “touché” properly with an acute accent. We typed the word normally
Xbox One and PS4 Can’t Provide Full Unreal Engine 4 Experience
In 2011, veteran gaming firm Epic Games created an impressive graphics demo for the Unreal Engine 3. Although written for PC hardware, the demo, called “Samaritan,” was Epic’s attempt to show console makers what the next generation of gaming performance should bring. Epic estimated that 2.5 teraFLOPs would be required from the next generation consoles in order to provide the desired level of detail at 30 frames per second with a 1080p resolution. In 2011, it took three top-of-the-line NVIDIA
Microsoft Explains the Power of the Xbox One Cloud
One of the novel features of the upcoming Xbox One that Microsoft detailed on Tuesday was the ability of the device to offload certain processing tasks to servers in the cloud. This optional feature will take advantage of the more than 300,000 servers that Microsoft is rolling out for the console’s launch. While the Xbox unveiling didn’t reveal further details, Ars Technica spoke with General Manager of Redmond Game Studios and Platforms Matt Booty to clarify the console’s capabilities. Microsoft
Intel Claims Haswell Will Offer 50% Better Battery Life
The industry has long been told that Intel’s upcoming Haswell architecture, scheduled for a formal launch June 4 at Computex, will bring improvements to battery life, but recent comments by the company indicate that the improvements could be significant. Intel’s Rani Borkar revealed Thursday that the platform will offer 50 percent more battery life for laptops than current generation Ivy Bridge-based systems. Intel has discussed several times that, while all computing platforms will receive performance and efficiency boosts, the true
Microsoft: New Kinect for Windows Will Launch in 2014
When Microsoft first revealed its Kinect motion and voice control device in late 2010, Xbox 360 owners responded positively, purchasing over 10 million of the add-on devices in less than 4 months and making it the fastest-selling consumer electronics device in history at the time. But when Microsoft brought the device to Windows in early 2012, the response was far less enthusiastic. The initial hype surrounding the Kinect had by then died down, and, although it sold Kinect for Windows
NVIDIA GTX 780 Brings “Ultra-End” Performance to the High-End
NVIDIA today released its latest GPU, the 3GB GeForce GTX 780, a card based on the GTX Titan’s GK110 with slightly reduced performance and significantly reduced cost. The GTX 780 features 2,304 CUDA cores operating at a base clock of 863 MHz and a boost clock of 900 MHz. The 3GB of memory is clocked at 6008 MHz and the card has a total of 288.4 GB/s memory bandwidth and can push 165.7 GT/s. With a TDP of 250 Watts,
The Fastest Way to Lock or Sleep Your Screen in Mac OS X
Locking your Mac’s display (or “sleeping” the display) can be a great security measure when paired with a user account password. While it won’t prevent the outright theft of your Mac, it can be a quick and easy way to prevent nosy family members or coworkers from getting access to your data. In order for a Mac lock screen command to be effective, you’ll first need to configure System Preferences to require your user account password when unlocking or waking
Editorial: Rediscovering CDs in the Age of Music Downloads
The method by which I collect music has changed considerably over the years. At a very young age, I recorded my favorite radio stations to blank cassettes, then dubbed the songs I wanted to mix tapes. When I started to earn some money, I would buy cassettes, then CDs. Then of course came Napster and, so as not to incriminate myself, let’s just say I found that service “very interesting” during my cash-strapped college days. Once the novelty of Napster
Microsoft Uses Siri to Narrate Windows 8 vs iPad Commercial
Microsoft is out today with a humorous new ad for the company’s Windows 8 tablet platform. The ad pits an ASUS tablet (the 10.1-inch VivoTab Smart) against the fourth generation iPad and uses Apple’s Siri digital assistant to highlight the more advanced capabilities of the Windows platform. In order, Siri informs the viewer that the iPad can’t “update like that,” showcasing Windows’ live tiles on the Start Screen; can only “do one thing at a time,” referring to Windows’ ability
Deal Alert: Seagate ST4000DM000 4TB Hard Drive for $149.99
Update [2013-05-23]: The sale is over, and Amazon has raised the price back to approximately $175. Better luck next time! As notebook hard drives break density records, and the market eagerly awaits 5TB desktop drives, the price on 4TB drives is starting to fall. Amazon today listed the relatively well-reviewed Seagate ST4000DM000 4TB hard drive for $149.99, more than $60 less than MSRP and about $30 less than its average street price. Newegg quickly moved to match the offer. At about $0.037