Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

11 Best Linux Distros for Programmers
ADATA EMIX H30 + SOLOX F30 Bundle Review
AMD Announces Real-Time Ray-Tracing
AMD confirms Ryzenfall vulnerabilities, but says they'll be fixed soon via routine BIOS updates
Arctic P533 PENTA Review
Asus Cerberus Fortus Review
ASUS Fusion STRIX 500Gaming Headset Review
Cooler Master MasterCase H500P Mesh White Review
Everything you need to know about the Windows 10 Spring Creators Update
Evoluent VerticalMouse C Right Wireless Review
Final Fantasy XV PC Version Review
Fresh Benchmarks Of CentOS 7 On Xeon & EPYC With/Without KPTI/Retpolines
How To Build A Commodore 64 With Raspberry Pi Zero For Under $50 Guide
Intel Coffee Lake-S processor with 8-cores spotted for the first time
iPhone SE 2 release date, news, price and leaks
Kirby Star Allies Review
MSI Vigor GK40 RGB Gaming Keyboard Review
Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom Review
NVIDIA RTX Real-Time Ray Tracing Technology Explained
NVIDIA TITAN V Video Card Gaming Review
NZXT H700i Mid-Tower Chassis Review
Open source version of webOS launches with smart device focus
Promise Apollo Cloud 2 Duo Review
Roccat Horde AIMO Keyboard Review
SecretLab Titan Review 2018: The Best PC Gaming Chair on the Market?
Silicon Power Bolt B10 USB 3.1 External SSD Review
Sumo Lounge Switch Convertible Bean Bag Chair Review
The 10 best NAS devices
The Authoritative Guide to Blockchain Development

11 Best Linux Distros for Programmers

Linux offers more than just desktop operating systems; you’ll find a version configured for almost any use, including programming.

Because Linux distributions are open-source, functional, and packed with tools, Linux offers a thriving environment for developers and programmers. Furthermore, Linux maintains compatibility with virtually any programming language.

Here are the best Linux distros for programmers.

Read full article @ MakeUseOf

ADATA EMIX H30 + SOLOX F30 Bundle Review

ADATA recently boldly stepped into the crowded gaming headset market. Their first and currently top-of-the-line product is actually a bundle of three different devices - an analog gaming headset (EMIX H30), a 7.1-channel USB sound card (SOLOX F30), and a headset stand. We set out to find out whether it is worth the asking price of $200.

There's no way to buy any part of this bundle as a standalone product, nor are there any plans to make that possible in the future. If you already have a nice headset and are only looking for an external sound card (or vice versa), well, tough luck as this is an all-or-nothing kind of deal. That's a risky move on ADATA's behalf. It means that they're putting a lot of faith in all the parts of the bundle being equally good, and good enough to be worth a full $200 at that. In this review, we'll figure out if that's indeed the case or if you'd be better off saving your money for future ADATA XPG audio products.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

AMD Announces Real-Time Ray-Tracing

The big topic at the Game Developers Conference this year is Ray-Tracing. Yesterday we covered how Microsoft is now introducing DirectX Raytracing, or GDC, and today, AMD along with GPUOpen are showing off what they have in store. AMD is announcing Radeon ProRender support for real-time ray-tracing in conjunction with its open-source Radeon Rays, which is part of the GPUOpen initiative.

Nice to see AMD is continuing the push of open-source technologies for graphics. While I still have my doubts on if this will be a reality in the near future, it is nice to see that it is finally moving forward after all these years.

Read full article @ HardOCP

AMD confirms Ryzenfall vulnerabilities, but says they'll be fixed soon via routine BIOS updates

AMD has acknowledged the Ryzenfall vulnerabilities discovered by CTS-Labs, though the chip company believes the flaws can be patched via BIOS updates issued over the next few weeks.

In a blog post authored by AMD’s chief technical officer, Mark Papermaster, AMD confirmed that the four broad classifications of attacks—Masterkey, Ryzenfall, Fallout, and Chimera—are viable, though they require administrative access to the PC or server in question. Third-party protection, such as Microsoft Windows Credential Guard, also serve to block unauthorized administrative access, Papermaster wrote.

Read full article @ PC World

Arctic P533 PENTA Review

ARCTIC initiated the trend towards quiet cooling systems for desktop PCs in 2001 and has given distinction to it ever since. Today ARCTIC is one of the leading manufacturers in computer cooling and has acquired profound knowhow in consumer electronics. Up until 2009, ARCTIC COOLING focused solely on cooling solutions. In 2010, we became ARCTIC with the additional aim to provide a comprehensive set of innovative consumer electronics and peripherals. ARCTIC’s long term goal is nothing less than being present in everybody’s home.

The headsets are packaged in a cardboard box that features the eSports PENTA team color scheme, the box itself has the following dimensions: 236 x 119 x 248mm. The front side of the box features an overview image of the headsets alongside a general photo of the eSports team. The manufacturer’s logo and the name of the product are placed on the center of the picture.

Read full article @ Tech-Legend

Asus Cerberus Fortus Review

An ambidextrous gaming mouse with RGB lighting and no software. Keeping to a budget isn't always straightforward when speccing a gaming PC. Get carried away and you can quite easily drop £250 on just a mouse and mouse mat. Appreciating that many gamers have modest resources to play with, manufacturers typically supplant their high-end solutions with more affordable alternatives.

Asus has done exactly that with a growing line-up of products launched under the Cerberus umbrella. Designed to offer gamer-grade credentials without the premium typically attached to the firm's ROG hardware, the Cerberus portfolio has grown to include headsets, mice, keyboards and graphics cards.

Read full article @ Hexus

ASUS Fusion STRIX 500Gaming Headset Review

Asus is no stranger to the gaming peripherals market, or - for that matter - the PC market in general. They are perhaps the best-known maker of motherboards, graphics cards, and high-end gaming displays. To say that the pedigree is there to create a truly awesome gaming headset is, therefore, an understatement. The Fusion 500 is - predictably - a 'grade up' from the Fusion 300 headset, and current MSRP for the 500's sits at 150 GBP, or 169.98 EUR. Asus does have a product page all ready for the Fusion 500, and you can find it linked here. There, you will find extensive information regarding the product and its feature set, though we hope you'll come back to look at our review of this unit, as well.

The Fusion 500 isn't, however, wireless, so it cannot be directly compared to perhaps its closest rival, the Corsair Void Pro RGB. However, both are similar in that they are high end targeted headsets aimed at providing a premium audio experience for those who buy them. Asus' new unit connects to devices via USB 2.0 only, with no option for connection via your standard 3.5mm headphone jack, unless you want to convert.

Read full article @ Guru3D

Cooler Master MasterCase H500P Mesh White Review

Seeking a chassis with great looks, superior thermals, RGB lighting, and a cleverly designed glass side? This could be the one you are looking for.

If you fancy yourself a PC enthusiast, not only have you heard of Cooler Master, you've most likely owned one or more of the company's products at some point: a case, a keyboard, or, well, a cooler. Today, we have the company's latest chassis on the test bench for a little review action: a tempered-glass, white-bodied version of the company’s MasterCase H500P Mesh ATX mid-tower.

Read full article @ Tom's Hardware

Everything you need to know about the Windows 10 Spring Creators Update

The next feature update for Windows 10 is coming soon, here's everything you need to know about the Windows 10 Spring Creators Update.

Microsoft is now finalizing and preparing to release the next big update to Windows 10. Known as the "Spring Creators Update" or "Version 1803," this next update for Windows 10 comes packing new improvements, UI changes, security enhancements, and features for you to enjoy. So when is the update coming? How big will the update be? What features can I expect? Here's everything you need to know about the Windows 10 Spring Creators Update.

Read full article @ Windows Central

Evoluent VerticalMouse C Right Wireless Review

The Evoluent VerticalMouse C Right Wireless ($109.95) was designed combat repetitive strain injury (RSI) and other shoulder-arm-hand discomforts, at least for the 90 percent of us that are right-hand dominant. The company claims the palm-down position used to operate conventional mice twists your forearm and puts you at risk of injury over time. The VerticalMouse C Right Wireless puts your arm in the more “neutral”—and presumably safer—handshake grip position.

I have to admit I couldn’t find any data to support this idea, though, and easily found plenty to contradict it. By most expert-y accounts, the handshake grip is not a neutral position and the proper hand and wrist Position for using a mouse is, in fact, pretty much the one Evoluent claims is the problem.

Read full article @ PC World

Final Fantasy XV PC Version Review

Final Fantasy XV has finally made its way to the PC. It is a beast of a game that demands a minimum of 86 gigs worth of room on your system as well as other requirements. Is it worth the install space on your computer? Time to dig deeper and find out. This is our Final Fantasy XV review.

Let's talk tech first and get that out of the way. My system consists of an Nvidia Geforce GTX 1060 GPU with 6 gigs of vram, an Intel I5 4690k 3.5 Ghz and has 8 gigs of of DDR3 RAM. Upon install Final Fantasy set the graphic settings to average. Even on average the game looked good and played ok on my system. Streaming with those setting caused some FPS lag and having this installed on my HD gave long load times. Once installed on an SSD the load times were definitely quicker. It should also be noted that with a fan made mod, several issues I has having with frame rate got better.

Read full article @ MMORPG

Fresh Benchmarks Of CentOS 7 On Xeon & EPYC With/Without KPTI/Retpolines

While every few weeks or so we have ended up running benchmarks of the latest Linux Git kernel to see the evolving performance impact of KPTI (Kernel Page Table Isolation) and Retpolines for Meltdown and Spectre V2 mitigation, respectively, a request came in last week from a premium supporter to see some new comparison test runs on CentOS 7 with its older 3.10-evolved kernel.

For satisfying that reader request, on the two current highest-end Intel/AMD server platforms I have available for testing (the dual Xeon Gold 6138 and EPYC 7601, both platforms kindly provided by Tyan) I ran some benchmarks using all of the latest CentOS 7 stable updates. On each system in the updated state I compared the stock/out-of-the-box performance with Spectre V2 mitigation as well as PTI (enabled on the Intel system) and then with both Spectre V2 / Meltdown mitigation techniques disabled.

Read full article @ Phoronix

How To Build A Commodore 64 With Raspberry Pi Zero For Under $50 Guide

The Commodore 64 holds a Guinness World record as the highest-selling single computer model of all time. After its initial release in August 1982, the C64 went on to sell millions of units – outselling all other popular 8-bit machines at the time, including the Apple II. For many long-time technology geeks, including me, the Commodore 64 was the first personal computer they ever owned. So, it’s no surprise that all these years later, the machine still hold a special place in our hearts.

It is with that in mind, along with knowing how popular our Building An Amiga Emulator article was, that we decided to show you how to build your own ultra small form factor Commodore 64 emulator, for just a few dollars, using the teeny-tiny Raspberry Pi Zero.

Read full article @ HotHardware

Intel Coffee Lake-S processor with 8-cores spotted for the first time

It is no longer a secret that Intel is preparing for ‘core-an war’ with AMD. The Core i7-8700K featuring 6-cores was Intel’s first high-end gaming processor for the Zxxx platform. This expansion will soon reach the mobile market where Coffee Lake-H will make a debut with 6-core SKUs.

The Z390 platform, which has been appearing in various leaked roadmaps for the past few months now, is more or less confirmed. The latest information suggests that we should be seeing Coffee Lake Refresh around summer.

It’s hard to say what else to expect from Intel, but the priority is certainly put towards multi-threading required for content creation and gaming.

Read full article @ VideoCardz.com

iPhone SE 2 release date, news, price and leaks

The latest rumors point to an iPhone SE 2 release date of May/June this year - but it's not guaranteed to arrive.

Since iPhone SE launch we've seen Apple introduce the iPhone 6S, iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 series, not to mention the supremely premium iPhone X, but for those with smaller hands, and smaller budgets the compact SE is still an enticing proposition. Apple's provided no indication that it is considering another compact smartphone though, and it means that we may never see iPhone SE 2 at all.

Read full article @ TechRadar

Kirby Star Allies Review

Few game characters can claim the kind of recognisability and history that Kirby holds. He’s one of few characters that can get away with taking the spotlight in Super Smash Bros., and he has to be one of the most adorable creations to ever grace gaming. The original intent behind Kirby is just as admirable; Sakurai wanted the kind of platformer that literally anyone could play, and thus, gave players the ability to just fly over everything if they wanted.

Since the early days, Kirby games have evolved and included a variety of features and functions, ranging from a simple and charming yarn aesthetic to a magical world of paint. With Kirby Star Allies everything feels like a very back-to-basics approach, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t attractive.

Read full article @ Wccftech

MSI Vigor GK40 RGB Gaming Keyboard Review

MSI made a big splash around the launch of its GK-701 a few years back and the company’s relationship with SteelSeries for laptop keyboards means that it now has a lot of experience in ‘what gamers want’. The MSI Vigor GK40 is priced as a mid-range product and there is a matching mouse available. With the GK40, MSI’s key focus is to deliver a mechanical ‘feel’ keyboard (using special membrane switches) at a fraction of the cost of a full blown mechanical board. The question is, can MSI offer a better alternative to the other brands crowding into the sub-£50 price space?

Read full article @ KitGuru

Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom Review

Beautiful designs and captivating swordplay are only a few parts of what makes Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom one of the essential JRPG's of 2018. Level-5 is back in prime form with their best action RPG since Rogue Legacy.

In a world far removed from ours, Grimalkin and Mousekind live together in less than harmony right alongside more fantastical beast folk. Much like our own, these factions don’t always see eye-to-eye and engage in their own political dealings. Sometimes it takes an outsider to bring about a great change to the land, and in another world where magicks are as commonplace as technology, some big changes are about to happen in Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom.

Read full article @ Wccftech

NVIDIA RTX Real-Time Ray Tracing Technology Explained

NVIDIA just announced the NVIDIA RTX real-time ray tracing technology at GDC 2018. It promises to bring real-time, cinematic-quality rendering to content creators and game developers. Find out what NVIDIA RTX is all about, and what it means to all of us!

Read full article @ Tech ARP

NVIDIA TITAN V Video Card Gaming Review

What does $3,000 US buy you in terms of gaming performance on the PC in 2018 We are about to find out. We've got the Volta GPU powered NVIDIA TITAN V video card in-house, tested in thirteen games at 1440p and 4K, oh and we even overclocked it, just because.

First and foremost, the NVIDIA TITAN V is not a gaming-oriented video card. This is extremely important to differentiate the market segment the NVIDIA TITAN V is positioned for. The NVIDIA TITAN V at $2,999.00 is positioned for the professional workstation-class video card in the GPU-Compute environment, Deep Learning, AI and Cloud Computing. It packs a ton of CUDA Cores and a ton of Tensor Cores inside to play the role of a powerful GPU-Compute Supercomputer Accelerator. However, it can also game.

Up until now the TITAN line has ridden the edge between a gaming video card and a cheaper workstation-class GPU-Compute video card for professionals. Well it seems NVIDIA has finally got its act together and separated TITAN completely from the gaming GeForce GTX brand and firmly planted it in the ground of being a Supercomputer GPU-Compute accelerator video card. Finally, the naming structure is not confusing, TITAN V is clearly a successor to all other NVIDIA TITAN video cards.

Read full article @ HardOCP

NZXT H700i Mid-Tower Chassis Review

Anyone who has been around the PC game for a while knows that the H Series from NZXT is nothing new. Off the top of our heads, we recall the H230, which by today's standards, is not going to win any beauty contests, but at the time the chassis did offer some excellent features.

Then the H440 showed up at our door, and we were more than pleased with the way the evolution of the series had gone. Even by today's standards, many would still appreciate this design. We do have a feeling that the H660 showed up between the two, and was the chassis which filled the gap of moving from the 230 to the 440. However, NZXT has given things another go, with a new trio of cases with the H Series moniker.

Read full article @ TweakTown

Open source version of webOS launches with smart device focus

LG has released webOS Open Source Edition, expanding its HTML5-savvy Linux distro beyond its smart TVs and fridges to a larger “smart devices” market.

In collaboration with the South Korean government, consumer electronics giant LG announced the release of webOS Open Source Edition, an open source version of its well-traveled, web-oriented Linux distro. Under LG’s ownership, the old Palm- and HP-directed OS has been a largely proprietary stack running on its smart TVs and refrigerators. LG’s webOS OSE, which is backed up by a community site with forums, guides, tools, and source code, is now available to the open source community to build a range of “smart devices.”

Read full article @ LinuxGizmos

Promise Apollo Cloud 2 Duo Review

Promise's Apollo Cloud 2 Duo has a simple setup process on the iPhone that just about anybody can handle, and is the closest thing we've seen yet to network storage as an appliance -- and we've been beating on one for a month.

The Apollo Cloud 2 Duo hardware was released in August. For $499, the package ships in two configurations with dual 2- or 4-terabyte "surveillance-class" hard drives which can be configured in RAID 0 or 1 configurations. A USB 3.0 type A port allows for backup, transfer, and restore.

Read full article @ Apple Insider

Roccat Horde AIMO Keyboard Review

Roccat’s newly updated Horde Membranical keyboard now features Aimo RGB intelligent lighting, and a plastic wrist wrest for better comfort, but its £89.99 price point seems quite steep considering fully mechanical options at similar price points.

Do the added macro and media keys make up for the lack of a proper mechanical switch or is the Hoard another just another membrane “gaming” keyboard?

Read full article @ KitGuru

SecretLab Titan Review 2018: The Best PC Gaming Chair on the Market?

In today's review, we put the SecretLab Titan chair to the test to see if it holds up as a high-end gaming chair. We rated it based on its comfort, its price, and its adjustment features. Ultimately, you won't want to purchase the Titan (or any other chair) until you read this review first.

It’s been a little over a week since I’ve unboxed the SecretLab Titan on my YouTube channel. And today, I’m back with the full review (both the written and video).

Now, the Titan costs $400 bucks, and the one I got is the Stealth edition of the chair. You can also get the Titan in a few other color schemes. I’ve linked to the Titan’s product listing on SecretLab.co below so you can check those other color schemes out.

Read full article @ TechGuided

Silicon Power Bolt B10 USB 3.1 External SSD Review

Bolt B10 was thought as a very compact, light storage device which can accompany you everywhere, while providing quite a bit of storage space. Wear Leveling helps extend the SSD life span, while the LDPC Error Correction mechanisms are in place for protecting against data corruption. The drive is compatible with the latest USB standards, but backwards compatibility is also enabled for USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 devices.

Read full article @ Mad Shrimps

Sumo Lounge Switch Convertible Bean Bag Chair Review

Sumo Lounge was founded in 2004, so they have been around for quite some time and they know a thing or two about bean bag chairs. They offer everything from small personal bean bags to large multi person bags in multiple colors and different fabric options. Today we are taking a look at the Sumo Switch, and this particular bean bag chair is wrapped in their pitch black cover. The Switch differs from your traditional bean bag chair, and the three Sumo Lounge products we have reviewed previously (the Omni, the Sultan, and the Sway) in that it has a more 'chair-like' structure to it.

The Sumo Switch is two seating surfaces in one. Folded up you have an elevated seating position which is very similar to a standard chair seating height with a reclined back. Flipping out the bottom cushion you have a lounger. Inside it is stuffed with a mix of standard fiber fill and Styrofoam beads.

Read full article @ Bigbruin.com

The 10 best NAS devices

Access your data anywhere in your home or office with these supercharged hard drives that connect to your wireless router.

One of the most appealing things about the best NAS devices is that, for the most part, they’re platform-agnostic – they’ll work with any device no matter what operating system they’re running on. Windows, macOS or Linux – the best NAS devices will work for you regardless of your device.

Read full article @ TechRadar

The Authoritative Guide to Blockchain Development

Cryptocurrencies, ICOs, magic internet money---it's all so damn exciting, and you, the eager developer, want to get in on the madness. Where do you start? I'm glad you're excited about this space. I am too. But you'll probably find it's unclear where to begin. Blockchain is moving at breakneck speed, but there's no clear onramp to learning this stuff.

Since I left Airbnb to work full-time on blockchain, many people have reached out to me asking how to get into the blockchain space full-time. Consider this my authoritative (and inevitably incomplete) guide on how to get into blockchain engineering.

Read full article @ TechSpot