Acer Predator G6 review – CNET
The Good The Acer Predator G6 fits our VR sweet-spot components into a big, distinctive case for under $2,000. Performance is great, basic software overclocking is built in, and there’s a swappable drive bay in the front.
The Bad You really have to like the sci-fi tank look to appreciate the design. Not enough front- or top-panel ports for all your VR accessories. The case interior is not as user-accessible as some.
The Bottom Line The big, bold Acer Predator G6 scores for VR performance, but it’s not exactly the most sophisticated-looking desktop we’ve ever seen.
The Acer Predator desktop line has some of my favorite promotional copy of all time, at least when it comes to PCs. “Fight on the forefront of intergalactic gaming with a commanding advantage,” the Predator’s splash page says, promising that the system will “crush 4K gaming and prepare for virtual reality,” while allowing you to “power-up for galactic domination.”
It all fits in with the extreme design of this gaming desktop, which looks like the tank tread of some kind of future war machine. Or, as Acer describes it, an “intimidating armor-inspired design.” Even the airflow vent directing air from the front to the back of the chassis is called an IceTunnel (as in, “Gaming is hot, so stay cool with IceTunnel cooling system”).
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Sarah Tew/CNET
Behind that somewhat goofy exterior and hyperbolic marketing-speak, is a set of components that we consider the sweet spot of first-gen VR desktops, with an Intel Core i7 6700K CPU and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 graphics card (but the just-announced GeForce 1080 card will probably eclipse that soon). This configuration also includes 16GB of RAM and a 2TB HDD/256GB SSD storage combo for a very reasonable $1,999. Different configurations are available internationally, starting at £1,299 in the UK. Only the smaller, newer Predator G1 tower is currently available in Australia, starting at AU$3,299.
Acer Predator G6
| $1,999 |
| 4GHz Intel Core i7-6700K |
| 16GB DDR4 SDRAM 2133MHz |
| 4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 |
| 256GB SSD + 2TB 7200rpm HDD |
| 802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.0 |
| Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit) |
While most of the VR-ready desktops we’ve tested and reviewed have plenty of ports on the front or top panels, the Predator G6 has only two USB 3.0 ports, a media card reader and headphone and mic jacks. Keep in mind your VR setup may require a couple of USB ports, plus one more for an Xbox gamepad (at least for the Oculus Rift), and you’ll need ports for the included keyboard and mouse. Fortunately, there are four more USB 3.0 and two more USB 2.0 ports around the back. That in-the-box keyboard and mouse combo might be wired, but it’s a nice, hefty SteelSeries set, one of the better pack-in accessory sets I’ve seen.
Facebook: No, we’re not using your phone’s mic to eavesdrop
In a story that mostly proves Facebook really doesn’t manipulate what stories are popular on its service, today the company responded to a rumor that its app is listening in on users. This time around, the rumor started in an article from The Independent reporting that a communications professor from USF noticed Facebook serving ads with topics similar to stuff she’d discussed near her phone. Not surprisingly, the story spread rapidly on Facebook, and today the company responded with a statement trying to clear up the situation. As it said to Gizmodo: “Facebook does not use microphone audio to inform advertising or News Feed stories in any way. Businesses are able to serve relevant ads based on people’s interests and other demographic information, but not through audio collection.” Clear enough?
Recently FUD stories like this have spread as a result of incomprehensible terms of service wrapped in so much legalese that no one knows what they’re really agreeing to. This time however, the fuel appears to be app permissions on Android and iOS. While Facebook does list a permission to use the microphone on iOS and Android, it’s only activated when a user tries to identify something like music or a TV show.
Unfortunately, most people aren’t sure what the permissions mean — even an app like Skype with an obvious need for access has to explain it — and assume anything listed might be in use at any particular time, no matter how unlikely that is. That said, if you do want to make sure Facebook does not have access to your microphone, you can disable it on either mobile platform. On iOS, just go to settings, select Facebook, and move the slider for microphone to off, or on Android, if you look under Apps in the settings menu, find Facebook and select permissions, you should see a similar slider for the microphone.
Via: Gizmodo
Source: Facebook
ICYMI: Raining tiny satellites and the laundry-folding machine
Today on In Case You Missed It: A company called FoldiMate is selling a standalone machine to sit alongside a washing and dryer and fold about 20 garments at a time for $850. Cornell University engineers are sending tiny interstellar computers to the ISS this summer, there they will act as satellites and, eventually, collect information from our nearest neighboring star system, Alpha Centauri.
We also round up the week in our TL; DR segment. If you grew up playing The Sims, this piece of news might interest you. We’re also very interested in the Visa payment ring the Olympic athletes can wear in Rio. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
GE JGB700SEJSS review – CNET
The Good From baking to broiling, the GE JGB700SEJSS gas range is consistent when it comes to cooking food well. It also costs $1,000, which makes it one of the more affordable options we’ve reviewed.
The Bad The range lacks bells and whistles you might find on other units, such as a convection roast mode or an oven light you can turn on while your food bakes.
The Bottom Line The GE JGB700SEJSS is a solid oven for a good price.
Visit manufacturer site for details.
Manufacturers are quick to roll out new ovens loaded with impressive bonus features that drive the price of an appliance well into four (or even five) digits — LED lights surrounding the burner knobs, specialized baking modes to cook foods like pizza or chicken, even Wi-Fi and connected apps. It’s up to you to determine if you must have these sparkly extras in your next appliance purchase. But the GE JGB700SEJSS gas range makes a strong case for minimalism.
This $1,000 stainless-steel range is consistent in its ability to cook food well. It’s also easy to use and includes some simple add-ons that make cooking a little easier, such as a convection fan in the oven and an integrated griddle on the cooktop. And its price makes this appliance more affordable than units with more features.
The GE JGB700SEJSS is slim on cooking modes and lacks the sturdy physical presence of more expensive stainless-steel units, but that’s no surprise for a $1,000 large appliance. It also won’t break any records when it comes to cooking times. Minor faults aside, the JGB700SEJSS is no slouch in the kitchen, and a worthwhile purchase for a home cook that cares more about functionality than flash.
This GE range costs $1,000, and its performance…
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Basic doesn’t mean boring
This GE range is a 30-inch wide freestanding model with a stainless-steel finish.
Chris Monroe/CNET
Unlike more expensive ranges, the GE JGB700SEJSS doesn’t aspire to look like a professional-grade appliance. This unobtrusive range resembles other freestanding models with back panel controls and a row of burner knobs along the front of the unit. None of the features seem particularly strong; the knobs feel light, and the touch controls for oven temperature take a little extra “oomph” when you press them.
The griddle limits what you can do with the center burner, but it’s a good tool to have if you like this type of cookware.
Chris Monroe/CNET
The most notable feature of the oven is its five-burner cooktop. Cast-iron continuous grates cover the four burner on the left and right of the cooktop, and an integrated griddle covers the center oval burner. There aren’t any included grates you can replace the griddle with, so you’d have to switch out one of the grates on the side if you want to cook something over the center burner but don’t want to use the griddle. This is limiting if you don’t often use a griddle or need a fifth burner for a particularly active day of cooking. However, the griddle is a good size (it can hold six sandwiches at a time), so folks who often cook items like pancakes, bacon or eggs will be delighted to have it.
Just a few features, but lots of quality cooking
The GE JGB700SEJSS performed well in all of the cooking tests through which I put it. None of the results were earth-shattering, but this appliance was no slouch. The range stands up to more expensive competitors when it comes to its ability to cook food consistently well in an average amount of time, even without special features.
The Public Access Weekly: Cake every day
What a week! Not only was it Public Access’ first birthday this week — And a very happy birthday to all of you who make Public Access what it is! — But we also have stats on all the stories from May, details on a comments upgrade, special anniversary topic suggestions and an upcoming mini-contest to find our next Q&A interviewee. So. Many. Activities!
If you’d like to help us celebrate Public Access’ first birthday, you can check out our birthday post (which includes a traditional Public Access style GIF party); we’ve also got a story up that highlights the twelve most-read Public Access stories of the past twelve months. A hearty congratulations to all the authors featured in that story, and a heartfelt happy birthday and thank you to all Public Access members — we literally could not do it without you!
Over in the comments section, you may have noticed that we now have a user history enabled which means if you click on a user’s screenname you’ll get a pop up menu that displays all of that users comments. Clicking on the black box with an arrow next to the date will take you to the article that particular comment appeared in. It looks like this:
Lastly, keep an eye on the Public Access home page on Monday; we’ll be releasing the Q&A contest post that I mentioned in the birthday post — All the Public Access Weekly headlines are veiled pop culture references and the member or reader who guesses the most correctly will be our next Q&A star. Monday’s post will have all the titles, and entry details so if you’d like to be our next Q&A interviewee, this is your chance!
Hey how about some Public Access story stats from May?
- 90 total articles went live in May! Ninety. 9–0. That’s not only the best month we’ve had all year — it’s also the best month we’ve had since our launch month (June 2015). AND, it’s the fifth month in a row that our post count has beat the previous month. AND that is freakin’ awesome.
- 45 different Public Access members published posts — including 26 members who put up their very first stories. Welcome to all those new members!
- The Public Access member with the most posts published in May is: Dianna Labrien, who published nine posts in May. Second-place is a two-way tie between Lovisa Alvin and Jerry Li who each published six posts.
And the top 10 most read Public Access posts for May (as always, not counting the Public Access Weekly) were:
Double Play: How sports games reach deeper into gamers’ pockets by Richard Starr
How Technology is Changing our Vacations: Relive All of your Vacation Memories with These Three Travel-Sized Cameras by Daniel Choi
How Much Internet Speed Do You Really Need? by Sarah Pike
How Android is Making Its Mark in Medical and Health Technology by Alice Williams
Samsung Releasing Smart Contact Lenses That Are Straight Out of Spy Movies by Dianna Labrien
How Social Networks are Bringing Communities Closer Together by Allan Smith
Copenhagen Calling – Denmark Has A Thriving Start-up Scene To Rival Its World-Beating Business Culture by Edmund Ingham
Wine Merchants Across The UK Are Collaborating With Disruptive Tech Startup That Wants To Be The Amazon Of Wine by Edmund Ingham
The Final Fantasy Soundtrack: A Reflection by Mark Zita
Operation Finish All the Games: April 2016 by Kris Naudus
Looking for something to read? Check out:
Of all of our coverage of Computex 2016, Devindra’s hands-on experience with the Asus Zenbook 3 was one of the most popular — and people are not happy about the single USB port (and not in love with Asus support either).
Watch me guest host our ICYMI video show while Kerry was on vacation! Or, you know. Don’t. My feelings won’t get hurt.
Dan reviewed the Tommee Tippee Perfect Prep — a gadget that purports to help busy new parents prepare bottles for their infants. As with anything child-related or parent-oriented, folks in the comments had plenty of opinions and advice about his findings.
Looking for something to write on? Mull over:
A bill currently working its way through our legislative system is designed to ensure that retail companies inform their customers of data breaches — While the various details of HR 2205 get hashed out, tell us how should companies handle data breaches? What kind of response would you expect, or consider to be responsible, from a retail store whose data has been compromised?
Later this month, 72 new tiny emoji will be available including bacon, avocado and facepalm emoji’s. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to tell us in a Public Access post what emoji you are sorely lacking in your digital life. Maybe like me, you’re dying for a skateboard emoji or a vinyl record emoji. What emoji should get added next?
If you’re a Public Access member be sure to check out the Topic Suggestion tag after you sign in — we’ve re-released the first three Public Access topic suggestions (Growing up geek, Your first screen name, and A haiku for your ISP) for our one-year anniversary. They’ll be available for a limited time, so snap ’em up while they’re back!
Microsoft Outlook has an Android Wear watch face
Microsoft Outlook made its debut on current wearables with an Apple Watch app last year, before launching an Android Wear app in April. Now Microsoft has gone a step further, by updating its app with an Android Wear watchface. Outlook users with a Wear device get details on their day’s schedule, next upcoming meeting or unread messages right on their initial screen, without needing to dive into an app or wait for a notification. If your work setup is centered around Outlook instead of Gmail, it should make dealing with scheduling and messages far easier — grab the latest update from the Play Store and sync apps on your Android watch to get the latest version.
Source: Microsoft Office Blog, Play Store
A ‘smart’ exosuit learns its user’s movements
As military and heavy-lifting applications for robotic exoskeletons get closer to reality, the latest trend in wearable machinery is helping the elderly and those with limited mobility get back on their feet. Like their colleagues/competitors at Harvard and ReWalk Robotics, the team behind the Superflex have developed a soft robotic exosuit that could do everything from heavy lifting on the battlefield to replacing grandma’s walker.
While it’s not the first powered exosuit in development, the Superflex has an extra “smart” trick up it’s robotic sleeve. The onboard sensors actually learn the way each individual wearer moves and then uses that information to turn on the power at the precise moment when the wearer needs it. The result is a longer battery life and, eventually a less bulky set of body-mounted machinery. The main idea, SRI Ventures president Manish Kothari told the MIT Technology Review, is to empower users and “remove all of those areas that cause psychological-type encumbrances and, ultimately, redignify the individual.” Which is a polite way of saying the company wants to make you feel like a superhuman once you put it on.
The Superflex team, which was spun off from the SRI International nonprofit, doesn’t yet have a concrete date for a marketable version of the suit, but they are currently seeking partners to commercialize the prototype.
Play a free, futuristic ‘Cops and Robbers’ on your Xbox One
Rumors are swirling that we could see more of the new Crackdown in just over a week’s time at E3, but until Microsoft’s media briefing you’ll just have to make due with All Points Bulletin: Reloaded. The free-to-play online game of futuristic cops and robbers recently launched on Xbox One after a lengthy delay, and if you log in within the first month (or before its initial patch, whichever comes first), there are a few bonuses for you. In addition to weapon skins and a placard for your avatar if you play for 10 hours, there’s a special weapon (the Fireworks Flare Launcher) and vehicle (Mikro JC14 “New-Cross”) in store for everyone, regardless of play-time.
But how are Crackdown and APB even remotely connected? Well, in case you forgot, it’s time for a bit of a video game history lesson. Developer David Jones worked at Rockstar North precursor DMA Design, and was a producer on the original Grand Theft Auto. He worked on a few Nintendo 64 games after that (Body Harvest and Space Station Silicon Valley) before returning to a life of crime with Grand Theft Auto 2.
Jones founded Realtime Worlds in 2002, which was responsible for the first (and best) Crackdown, a comic-book styled open-world game that put you in the shoes of what was essentially an acrobatic superhero cop, and then the original All Points Bulletin. If you’re a fan of GTA Online, know that it got a lot of its ideas from APB.
Despite the game’s ambition and potential, though, financial woes forced the game to shut down in 2010 after the MMO’s servers had been live for just three months. It was picked up and turned into a free-to-play game by K2 Network in 2011 under the name APB: Reloaded. Now, Jones is heading up development on Crackdown 3 for Microsoft. See? Full circle.
APB: Reloaded is still scheduled for release on PlayStation 4, and the developer promises Sony fans will be able to play the game sometime after the Xbox One version’s first patch hits. The announcement post also lists all the changes that’ve been made to the game or that are en route for the new PC version as well.
Source: Reloaded Games
GE PFE28KMKES review – CNET
The Good GE’s new Profile Series French door model has a stylish slate finish and understated touch panel controls, complete with a nifty Autofill water dispenser that’ll automatically fill your glass up without spilling.
The Bad The interior feels a little more cramped than you might like in this price range — largely because some of the in-door shelves are too narrow to be of much use.
The Bottom Line This is a decent fridge and a solid, no-frills upgrade pick for modern kitchens.
GE puts out a steady stream of refrigerators under the Profile Series name. Last year’s fleet included models with a sensor-powered water dispenser capable of automatically filling up your glass, pitcher or pot. It scored as one of our favorite fridge features of the year.
This year’s refreshed lineup includes new models with that same Autofill water dispenser, including the $3,000 GE PFE28KMKES. It’s a good-looking fridge with easy-to-use touch controls and an understated slate finish (a stainless steel model is also available at the same price, if you like your fridge a bit shinier). It doesn’t have quite as many bells and whistles as last year’s models, but as a well-refined high-end appliance, there’s still a lot to like about it.
Filling up with GE’s Profile Series fridge…
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Design done right
First things first: This fridge looks great. It’s one of a growing number of slate-finish appliances from GE, and it might be the best-looking one yet, taking full advantage of the style’s modern aesthetic and inherent subtlety.
To that last point, I think GE was wise to switch from the full-color LCD touchscreen of last year’s models to a simpler, cleaner-looking touch panel. It isn’t technically as fancy as before, but it blends right in with the slate finish and seems like a much more appropriate choice than the flashy touchscreen would have been.
That touch panel is straightforward and easy-to-use, too, with all of the obvious buttons for controlling the temperature, the icemaker and the water dispenser. Key among these is the “Autofill” button in the middle. Set a glass, pitcher or pot down below and give that button a press. The fridge will fill it up all on its own with sensors that tell it when to stop.
It’s an undeniably cool feature and a surprisingly nice little luxury for your kitchen. I first tested it out a little more than a year ago, and I still “ooh” and “aah” a little bit on the inside whenever I watch it at work. It’s the exact sort of “little thing” that I wish more appliances got right.
That said, I wish that this model also offered Precise Fill, an option available in certain other GE fridges that lets you tell the water dispenser to dispense a specific quantity of liquid — say, four cups for a pot of pasta. In its place, you get a counter in the display that keeps track of how many ounces of water you’re dispensing as you’re dispensing it. It’s a nice touch, but not as helpful as Precise Fill.
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I was able to fit all of our test groceries inside along with our six stress test items, but it was a tight squeeze.
Tyler Lizenby/CNET
A look inside
The PFE28KMKES is a 27.8 cubic foot refrigerator, 18.6 cubic feet of which are allocated to the fridge compartment. That’s pretty much average for a French door model in this price range, so if you’re feeding a large family and space is at a premium, know that you can probably find something at least a little bit bigger if you shop around.
The US Navy just put a futuristic HUD in a diving helmet
Augmented reality (technology that uses screen-embedded eyewear to overlay the real world with information, images and more) isn’t quite ready for mainstream consumers — but it’s almost ready for the diving community. The US Navy says it’s developing a high-resolution, heads-up display embedded in a diving helmet. It’s called The Divers Augmented Reality Display, or DAVD for short.
The project is still in the early stages, but the potential of DAVD is fairly promising. A heads-up display with real-time data could be a big boon for underwater missions, offering divers sonar data, photographs of what they might be looking for, briefing data, text messages and more. Project leader Dennis Gallagher likens it to Tony Stark’s augmented display from the Iron Man films. “You have everything you visually need right there within the helmet,” he says.
The DAVD helmet is a little more than Google Glass underwater, though. The rig uses two transparent displays to create a stereoscopic augmented heads-up display, which makes it possible for the overlay to simulate depth perception. And perception, it turns out, is key: divers often find themselves in low-visibility situations. DAVD could potentially overlay muddy waters with a real-time map created by miniaturized high-resolution sonar. Those sensors, like DAVD itself, are still in development — but the combination of the two could be a game changer for divers in murky water.
The prototype is about to move on to phase two, which will put it to use in real underwater test scenarios. In other words, it’ll be awhile before a consumer version of this is available to the public — but for divers who want more information underwater, it may be worth the wait.
Via: Techcrunch
Source: US Navy
AIVAnet 