Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles, including 6 Ways To Get Busy People To Answer Your Emails, MSI GT60 20D 3K Resolution Gaming Laptop Review, Serial Cables 8-Port 12Gbps SAS Direct Attached JBOD Review, ASUS Radeon R9 270 Direct CU II Review, and iPad Air Overview



6 Ways To Get Busy People To Answer Your Emails @ MakeUseOf

When you walk by someone on the street and say hi, how does it make you feel when they dont say a hi back? Its amazing how small a lack of acknowledgement can make a person feel, but its also amazing just how much you can do to encourage a response. The same is true with emails. Now, imagine the reverse scenario. Youre passing someone on the street and they briefly glance at you, say hi, and then quickly look away.

Read more: 6 Ways To Get Busy People To Answer Your Emails @ MakeUseOf

MSI GT60 20D 3K Resolution Gaming Laptop Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

Today we have a new gaming laptop from MSI on our test bench and as well as being packed with the latest i7 CPU and 780M GPU it also continues their trend of offering one key feature. In this case it is a 3k resolution screen (2880x1620) which should be ideal for content creation and consumption...

Read more: MSI GT60 20D 3K Resolution Gaming Laptop Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

LG G Pad 8.3 Review @ Techradar

LG has been noticeably absent from the tablet scene in the past couple of years, but it's back and the Android powered G Pad 8.3 is the first out the blocks and it's gunning for success. You've got to head back to early 2011 for LG's last tablet and while the Optimus Pad was the world's first slate with a 3D camera it was some way off the mark of Apple's iPad 2 - garnering 3 out of 5 stars in its full TechRadar review.

Read more: LG G Pad 8.3 Review @ Techradar

NVIDIA Tegra Note 7 review: a gaming tablet with much to offer, much to learn @ Engadget

There's no shortage of tablets available on the market, but it's surprisingly difficult to find one that performs well for an affordable price. Aside from the Nexus tablets Google has put out over the past two years, we've only seen a few products in the $200 price range deserving of our praise.

Read more: NVIDIA Tegra Note 7 review: a gaming tablet with much to offer, much to learn @ Engadget

Corsair Flash Voyager GS (256GB) Review @ Hexus

High-speed USB 3.0 flash drives are one of life's little treasures. Small enough to fit into your pocket, spacious enough to store masses of content, and fast enough not to keep you waiting: they're the sort of accessory that every regular PC user should have.

And as we've often said in the past, you needn't break the bank to step into the world of USB 3.0 devices. 32GB flash drives are readily available for under £20, and these cheap-and-cheerful solutions tend to be sufficient for most consumers. But the technology is moving forward on a couple of key fronts - both speed and capacity are on the up, while NAND flash prices have fallen - so high-end users may want to try something a little more advanced.

Corsair's Flash Voyager GS, available in 64GB (£70), 128GB (£90) and 256GB (£190) capacities, ought to fit the bill.

Read more: Corsair Flash Voyager GS (256GB) Review @ Hexus

be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 850W Review @ ocaholic

With the Dark Power Pro 10 850W BeQuiet offers a high end 850W PSU that achieved the 80 Plus Platinum certification. Its insides come from Seasonic (OEM), which certainly can be considered as a plus while the suggested retail price is set at 220 CHF, roughly 183 Euro.

Read more: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 850W Review @ ocaholic

EVGA GTX 780 Ti SuperClocked w/ ACX Cooler 3 GB @ techPowerUp

Just days after NVIDIA's launch, EVGA has strapped their ACX cooler onto the GTX 780 Ti. The new card is also overclocked out of the box, which results in a large performance increase over the stock GTX 780 Ti. Now EVGA's latest card even matches performance of the dual-GPU GTX 690.

Read more: EVGA GTX 780 Ti SuperClocked w/ ACX Cooler 3 GB @ techPowerUp

Compro TN600W Plug-n-Play PTZ Cloud Network Camera Review @ TestFreaks

Today I have a very large review for you of a new IP camera from Compro Technology called the TN600W. This camera is technically called the TN600W Plug-n-Play Cloud Network Camera and it’s all of those things and more really. The TN600W is something that anyone looking for a monitoring solution for their home or business can appreciate as it has features that I think one would want in a camera of this type. The biggest and most exciting feature I think is panning and tilting, the TN600W can move all around and let you see wherever you want to in the room from your computer or even even your mobile device. The camera also features two-way audio communications so you could carry on a conversation with someone right through the camera. The TN600W also features twelve integrated infrared LEDs that can really light up a room, making it go from day to night and letting you see everything that’s going on even in the dark. This camera is very simple to setup, yes it has a lot of advanced features but if you primarily want mobile viewing it couldn’t be simpler as you just need to plug it in, install an app and scan the QR code on the camera and that’s it, you’re up and running with the ability to via and communicate right from your mobile device. We live in a very mobile world and let’s face it we live in world where surveillance cameras are the norm everywhere so why shouldn’t they be in your home as well. The TN600W from Compro has multiple uses from just monitoring your children or pets to actually protecting your home or even your business. So read on…

Read more: Compro TN600W Plug-n-Play PTZ Cloud Network Camera Review @ TestFreaks

Serial Cables 8-Port 12Gbps SAS Direct Attached JBOD Review @ The SSD Review

When we started receiving 12Gbps SAS products in the summer of 2013, we were met with typical products such as the Adaptec ASR-8885 RAID Adapter, the LSI SAS 9300-8e HBA and the HGST SSD800MM SSD. Each of these products delivered excellent performance that far outpaced the 6Gbps versions that they were built on. But, in order to have a full working ecosystem, you need more than just a RAID card and a stack of SSDs. You need cables, backplanes and enclosures. Considering how many 6Gbps SATA/SAS products that are on the market, those things should be easy to find, right? Not so fast.

When moving to 12Gbps SAS, cables and backplanes had to be specifically designed to support 12Gbps signaling. Simply changing the connectors on a 6Gbps backplane was not good enough. The T10 SAS 3.0 specification calls for transmit and receive equalization to maintain error free transfers, which is just one of the many changes required in the 3.0 spec. If that sounds even vaguely familiar, you probably know a little bit about PCI Express, specifically the 3.0 specification. PCIe 3.0 was the first serial protocol to implement this adaptive equalization. At a signal integrity level, SAS 3.0 and PCIe 3.0 are very similar. This helps explain why so much effort was put into the design and validation of 12Gbps SAS products, including cables and backplanes.

Read more: Serial Cables 8-Port 12Gbps SAS Direct Attached JBOD Review @ The SSD Review

Grace Digital GDI-BTSP201 Bluetooth Bookshelf Speakers Review @ MissingRemote

We reviewed the previous generation Grace Digital Internet Stereo System over two years ago, and while we loved it then, the world of audio has continued to evolve as users grow more and more attached to their mobile devices. That's where the GDI-BTSP201 Bluetooth Bookshelf Speakers come to play, offering a standalone left and right stereo experience while still supporting Bluetooth and direct audio, all for under $250.

SPECIFICATIONS

Let's take a look at the exact specifications of the Grace Digital Bookshelf Speakers:

Full Range High Fidelity 36 Watt Powered Stereo Speakers
1” Soft Dome Tweeters, 3.5” Composite Cone Woofers and Rear Port
Dynamic Frequency Range from 50 Hz to 20,000 Hz
Wireless Bluetooth 4.0 Connection allows Music Playback from any Bluetooth Device
Utilizes CD Quality Wireless Transmission with Integrated aptX Technology
Supports SBC, AAC, and aptX codecs and A2DP and AVRCP Profiles
Premium Leatherette Wrapped Case
RCA Auxiliary Audio Input to listen to Wired Audio Sources
Connects to TV’s, Computers, Smartphones, Tablets, MP3 Players
Supports Charging Smartphones via the USB Charging Port

Read more: Grace Digital GDI-BTSP201 Bluetooth Bookshelf Speakers Review @ MissingRemote

Gigabyte Force M7 Thor Laser Gaming Mouse Review @ Benchmark Reviews

When you first think about Gigabyte's line of quality products, more than likely a gaming mouse doesn't come to mind. However, they have a created a budget mouse targeted at the hardcore gaming crowd that is worthy of praise. The Gigabyte Force M7 Thor Laser Gaming Mouse comes in at an impressive price point (~$30) and packs quite a few high end features. The real question is how does it fare against the stiff competition in the gaming peripheral realm? In this article Benchmark Reviews goes in depth to find out what makes the Force M7 Thor a great budget gaming buying decision!

Read more: Gigabyte Force M7 Thor Laser Gaming Mouse Review @ Benchmark Reviews

BitFenix Prodigy M Micro-ATX Chassis Review @ eTeknix

The BitFenix Prodigy has been riding a wave of popularity for quite some time now, proving a popular choice for system builders, case modders, LAN gamers, HTPC user and more. Mixing an affordable price tag, unique styling and great component compatibility we’re all big selling points for the chassis and it is something that BitFenix look eager to continue.

The new model, the Prodigy M, is the answer to one question that has inundated BitFenix since the launch of the prodigy, “when will you make an mATX edition?”. Gamers flocked to the biggest little case in town to build their LAN gaming rigs, but ran into issues when they could only cram a single GPU in there. Given SLI / Crossfire is a pretty huge deal these days, BitFenix had only one option, give the fans what they wanted.

Not only have BitFenix kept the chassis at a similar price point to the original launch, but they’ve also kept it looking almost identical on the exterior! So fans on the Prodigy can hopefully upgrade to the new model and enjoy a larger motherboard, more expansion cards and still keep the exterior dimensions within the same space.

Read more: BitFenix Prodigy M Micro-ATX Chassis Review @ eTeknix

EVGA Tegra Note 7 Review: Nvidia's Tegra 4 For $200 @ Tom's Hardware

Nvidia is partnering with EVGA on the company's second Tegra 4-based device. Its Tegra Note 7 sells for $200, sports unique stylus technology, and ships with a bloatware-free build of Android. Can it set a new standard for affordable seven-inch tablets?

Read more: EVGA Tegra Note 7 Review: Nvidia's Tegra 4 For $200 @ Tom's Hardware

WD My Cloud EX4 8TB Personal Cloud Storage NAS Review @ Legit Reviews

Western Digital's My Cloud network-attached storage devices are great for storing your data, but they are single-bay devices that can't offer capacity benefits or mind assuring redundancy of having a RAID array for your data. Millions of people around the world have relied on single-bay or single-drive devices to backup their data. WD has noticed that there has been a major shift to multi-bay network attached storage (NAS) devices this year and market research shows that trend will continue in the years to come. WD realized that they did not offer any multi-bay NAS devices for the consumer market, so they decided to come up with one. WD's announcement of the My Cloud EX4 today is the answer to this market shift and hopefully the continued growth of the WD brand.
Read on to see how the My Cloud EX4 performs!

Read more: WD My Cloud EX4 8TB Personal Cloud Storage NAS Review @ Legit Reviews

ASUS Radeon R9 270 Direct CU II Review @ HotHardware.com

The seemingly never-ending onslaught of new graphics cards as of late continues today with the official release of the AMD Radeon R9 270. Like the Radeon R9 270X that came before it, the Radeon R9 270 isn't a totally new product. This mainstream graphics card actually leverages the same GPU that powered last-year's Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition. AMD, however, has tweaked the clocks and through software and board level revisions updated the card to allow for more flexible use of its display outputs...

Read more: ASUS Radeon R9 270 Direct CU II Review @ HotHardware.com

Asus R9 270 Direct CU II OC Review @ KitGuru

This week AMD launch their new R9 270 graphics card set to replace the HD7850 at the lower end of the enthusiast gaming market. Thankfully today we havenâ€t been forced to review a reference AMD solution and instead we can focus on some higher grade partner cards. Our second launch review today focuses on the new ASUS R9 270 Direct CU II featuring high out of the box overclocks and a custom two fan cooler.

Read more: Asus R9 270 Direct CU II OC Review @ KitGuru

Sapphire Dual-X R9 270 Review @ KitGuru

This week AMD launch their new R9 270 graphics card set to replace the HD7850 at the lower end of the enthusiast gaming market. Thankfully today we haven't been forced to review a reference AMD solution and instead we can focus on some higher grade partner cards.

Read more: Sapphire Dual-X R9 270 Review @ KitGuru

AMD's Radeon R9 270 graphics card reviewed, new bundles exposed @ The Tech Report

Today, AMD pulls back the curtain on the Radeon R9 270, a new graphics card that extends the R9 family down to $179. This is the most affordable member of the R9 series, and it's also the least power-hungry.

Read more: AMD's Radeon R9 270 graphics card reviewed, new bundles exposed @ The Tech Report

Sapphire Dual-X R9 270 Graphics Card Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

Today we see AMD fill another gap in their current product stack with the launch of the R9 270 which sits between the R7 260X and R9 270. We have (one of) Sapphires R9 270s on our test bench today and will be looking at it against the GTX 660, the direct competition, in games like Battlefield 4 and Batman Arkham Origins.

Read more: Sapphire Dual-X R9 270 Graphics Card Review @ HardwareHeaven.com

AMD Radeon R9 270 2GB Review @ Hardware Canucks

In what seems to be becoming a weekly tradition, AMD is once again releasing a new graphics card. This time it’s the R9 270, a product which targets the $179 price point in direct response to NVIDIA’s new cost structure for their GTX 660. According to AMD, this also makes it a prime upgrade candidate for gamers who want a budget-focused GPU that doesn’t necessitate a power supply upgrade as well.

The R9 270’s relative cost proximity to the $199 R9 270X shouldn’t come as any surprise since both use the same Pitcairn XT (now rebranded Curacao) core which was originally incorporated into the HD 7870 GHz Edition. In this iteration Curacao is equipped with 1280 stream processors, 32 ROPs and 80 texture units alongside a 256-bit GDDR5 memory interface which mirrors the R9 270X’s specifications in every way. The only real differences here are core clocks, which have been pushed downwards in order to achieve lower power boundaries and increased yields. In addition, unlike the R9 270X’s fluctuations through PowerTune, the 270 operates at a constant 925MHz.

Read more: AMD Radeon R9 270 2GB Review @ Hardware Canucks

Genius KB-G265 Gaming Keyboard Review @ HiTech Legion

Buzz words are something that has gotten completely out of control. It seems like they permeate every part of life these days. Every package of food in the super market is covered with words that do not even mean anything; every new item being sold has some descriptive word on it that really has nothing to do with the item. When I go shopping, I am bombarded with products that claim to be “fat free” or “natural”, what does that even mean? Natural, what isn’t natural? Radiation is “natural” but I don’t want extra added in my food. These words are usually just something that an advertising team has found catches the attention of the public. We need to be smarter shoppers. Knowing a lot of those popular buzz words so that we can just ignore them is the first step.

The same thing is taking place in every aspect of marketing. We even see it in the gaming community. Gaming used to be a sub culture, but with the rise in popularity over the last decade or so, and the advent of Esports, references to video games have become commonplace. As an entire generation of people become adults that were raised with video games, companies are working overtime to cash in on this market. Nowadays, just about every company is releasing a “gaming” line of products, but what makes a peripheral a gaming product?

Read more: Genius KB-G265 Gaming Keyboard Review @ HiTech Legion

AMD Radeon R9 270 Review: Replacing The Radeon HD 7800s @ Tom's Hardware

AMD packages up another sub-$200 graphics card, this time calling it the Radeon R9 270. We expected a Radeon HD 7850 replacement, but received something quite different. Is it a worthwhile step up, or just a familiar piece of hardware with a paint job?

Read more: AMD Radeon R9 270 Review: Replacing The Radeon HD 7800s @ Tom's Hardware

The AMD Radeon R9 270X & R9 270 Review: Feat. Asus & HIS @ Anandtech

Launching today is the latest member of AMD's Radeon 200 series family, the R9 270. Today we'll be looking at it alongside AMD's first 270 series card, the R9 270X.    

Read more: The AMD Radeon R9 270X & R9 270 Review: Feat. Asus & HIS @ Anandtech

Sapphire Radeon R9 270 2GB @ Hexus

There's been a deluge of graphics card announcements of late, happily coinciding with the holiday season that begins with the release of hotly-anticipated games. Sure, we'd all love a GeForce GTX 780 Ti or Radeon R9 290X, but the solemn truth is that both are way over budget for most people.

And given that many readers use 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution monitors affording a full-HD experience, looking for the card with the most attractive bang-for-buck is arguably more important than salivating after the very best silicon.

So you want to play the newest games on that inexpensive, 22-24in monitor but don't want to fork out a king's ransom to do so, right? Nvidia has the GeForce GTX 760 (£175) and GTX 660 (£140) GPUs for this purpose, and AMD counters with the R9 270X (£150) GPU launched last month, which is basically a Radeon HD 7870 with faster clocks.

Read more: Sapphire Radeon R9 270 2GB @ Hexus

OCZ Vector 150 240 Gigabyte Review @ ocaholic

DIt has been almost exactly one year, that OCZ released their first Vector SSD series. In our review on the first Vector we mentioned that it is a solid drive, which performed very good and it's even able to keep with todays fastest drives. So, what could have possibly been improved with the new Vector 150?

First of all we want to have a look at what stayed the same. Apparently the Indilinx IDX500M00-BC controller, which OCZ was using in the original Vector is a really good controller, since the new Vector 150 uses the same chip. Nevertheless there is one thing about the Vector 150 line-up which we think is worth mentioning. Since OCZ is proud of being at the forefront of SSD development we would have expected that there was a 960 Gigabyte Version of this drive, but so far the largest drive is a 480 Gigabyte model.

Now to the improvements: one upgrade concerns the NAND chips. OCZ decided to equip the Vector 150 with 19 nanometre Toogle NAND from Toshiba, which offers 3'000 P/E cycles, which is basically a very reasonable value. Other than that OCZ is using almost nine percent of the drives capacity for overprovisioning purposes. Overprovisioning is helping with endurance, sustained performance as well as keeping the warranty high. Especially when it comes to endurance OCZ offers quite an improvement over the first Vector drive. With the Vector 150, OCZ now advertises that the drive can withstand 50 Gigabyte write per day over a five year period, which is 150 percent more than what the original Vector had to offer (20 Gigabyte per day for five years). This 150 percent improvement is what influenced the name of the Vector 150, which means, that OCZ must be rather proud of this level of endurance.

Read more: OCZ Vector 150 240 Gigabyte Review @ ocaholic

AMD Radeon R9 270 Review @ Guru3D

Today we review the new AMD Radeon R9 270, not to be confused with the 270X model! The non X models are bound to offer value for money as these puppies are really Pitcairn in disguise (Radeon HD 7870). Though this product is slightly slower than its bigger brother, the 270X, it is capable of pushing some nice numbers allowing you a very decent gaming experience for a tip-top price in the 135 EUR (incl VAT) and 179 USD marker, and that is WITH a copy of Battlefield 4.

Now before we begin with the new graphics cards, the first thing that you guys will need to get used to is the new naming schema. AMD ended with the Radeon HD 7000 and 8000 series graphics card in 2013. Logic dictates that AMD would have continued with a series 9000. But hey now, we already have had the Radeon 9000 series many years ago (2003), oh and who doesn't remember the Radeon 9800 Pro, right? As such it was time to bring in a new naming schema, a bit more in line with AMD's APUs. R9 will be high-end and R7 will be mainstream and inevitably R5 being entry level. After that you'll notice products being tagged as 250, 260X, 270/270X, 280X and the coolest two of them all the Radeon R9 290 and R290X, (which are yet to be released). Though almost all of these are all new model graphics cards, most of them are respin products based of the Radeon HD 7000 series with a number of improvements. The respin products will get a new PCB, cooling, clock frequencies and much like NVIDIA boost, power, voltage, fan and load limiters. In the long run there are three products in the lineup that come with a new GPU. For example the R7 260X and then of course R9 290 / 290X will be Hawaii GPU based. The cards with new silicon come with a truckload of new features like integrated DSPs offering TrueAudio technology. The rest (270/270X/280X) will keep the older specs. I agree that is a little confusing, but we'll explain it all over the next pages.

Read more: AMD Radeon R9 270 Review @ Guru3D

iPad Air Overview @ Bjorn3D

After a lot of speculation and waiting Apple finally revealed a set of new iPads to the world a few weeks ago. While we still are waiting for the new iPad Mini we have gotten our hands on the new iPad Air and are putting it through the test to see if it is a worthy successor for the previous models. The new iPad Air comes with a much sleeker body as well as upgraded innards making it one of the best ~10 inch tablets available right now. The model we are testing today is the 16 GB WiFi-version that retails for $499.

I admit it. I was one of those who doubted that a tablet really was useful and would be successful. And I was wrong. There is a definitely use case for tablets both as entertainment products and in some cases even products for those who need to be productive.

The iPad has long been synonymous with tablets mainly because it started the tablet revolution, but also since Apple has managed to produce very good products. Lately though the market share has started to dip under the onslaught of Android tablets, and to a lesser extent, the Windows tablets. One could therefore argue that the new iPads are important for Apple to remain competitive.

Read more: iPad Air Overview @ Bjorn3D

Sapphire AMD Radeon R9 270 graphics card @ Hexus

There's been a deluge of graphics card announcements of late, happily coinciding with the holiday season that begins with the release of hotly-anticipated games. Sure, we'd all love a GeForce GTX 780 Ti or Radeon R9 290X, but the solemn truth is that both are way over budget for most people.

And given that many readers use 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution monitors affording a full-HD experience, looking for the card with the most attractive bang-for-buck is arguably more important than salivating after the very best silicon.

So you want to play the newest games on that inexpensive, 22-24in monitor but don't want to fork out a king's ransom to do so, right? Nvidia has the GeForce GTX 760 (£175) and GTX 660 (£140) GPUs for this purpose, and AMD counters with the R9 270X (£150) GPU launched last month, which is basically a Radeon HD 7870 with faster clocks.

Read more: Sapphire AMD Radeon R9 270 graphics card @ Hexus

Tegra Note 7 gets mixed reviews @ Fudzilla

Great performance, poor build quality

Read more: Tegra Note 7 gets mixed reviews @ Fudzilla