Here a roundup of todays reviews and articles:

8 Mac System Features You Can Access in Recovery Mode
bequiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 Heatsink Review
Cooler Master CM Storm Trigger Z Gaming Keyboard Review
D-Link Wi-Fi AC750 SharePort Go III DIR-510L Router and Charger Review
Five features missing from Windows Phone 8.1
Func KB460 Review
High-End NVIDIA GeForce vs. AMD Radeon Linux Gaming Comparison
HTC One mini 2 Review
Is Emulation the Best Feature of the Nvidia Shield?
JLabAudio JBuds J5M Earphones Review
Netgear R6300 802.11ac Smart Wi-Fi Router Review
Pure Acoustics MCP-100 Bluetooth Portable Entertainment System Review
SanDisk Extreme PRO 128GB USB3 Flash Drive Review
SteelSeries Siberia Elite vs Sennheiser G4ME ZERO
Thecus N2310 2-bay Intelligent NAS Review
Zalman Reserator 3 Max Dual Liquid CPU Cooler Review

8 Mac System Features You Can Access in Recovery Mode

A Macs Recovery Mode is for more than just reinstalling Mac OS X. Youll find many other useful troubleshooting utilities here you can use these even if your Mac cant boot normally. To access Recovery Mode, restart your Mac and press and hold the Command + R keys during the boot-up process. This is one of several hidden startup options on a Mac. Reinstall Mac OS X Most people know Recovery Mode as the place you go to reinstall OS X on your Mac. Recovery Mode will download the OS X installer files from teh Intenret if you dont have them locally, so they dont take up space on your disk and youll never have to hunt for an opearign system disc. Better yet, it will download up-to-date installation files so you dont have to spend hours installing operating system updates later.

Read full article @ Howtogeek

bequiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 Heatsink Review

There are several flavors of heatsink on the market from tiny OEM styles to oversized versions aimed at maximum performance. While the majority of the heatsinks we have reviewed are designed for overclocking a select few focus on cooling efficiency in an attempt to be as quiet as possible.

In this review we will be looking at the bequiet! Dark Rock Pro 3. The Pro 3 is a dual tower heatsink that is designed to be a no compromise cooling solution for silent operation and thermal performance. Some of the bequiet! coolers we have reviewed in the past have been large single fan design that function more like passive coolers to keep the overall noise footprint down. The Dark Rock Pro 3 takes a different approach that favors active cooling over pure thermal mass.

Read full article @ Hardware Asylum

Cooler Master CM Storm Trigger Z Gaming Keyboard Review

Trigger-Z represents a slight update from the original Trigger, comes with three switch options with different colored backlights and a large wrist rest for additional comfort. Thanks to the ARM core 32-bit CPU at 72MHz, we are able to work with the hardware macro playback function and five macro keys are available on the left side which can be pre-programmed thanks to the included software interface.

Read full article @ Madshrimps

D-Link Wi-Fi AC750 SharePort Go III DIR-510L Router and Charger Review

For today’s review we will be looking at the D-Link Wi-Fi AC 750 portable router and charger – the SharePort Go III (DIR-510L). This multipurpose device allows users to share Internet connections whether they are 3G/4G, Wi-Fi or Ethernet-based.

With simultaneous dual band it provides uninterrupted performance using 5 GHz channel and transfer speeds of 300 or 433 MB/s.

But there’s more, as the Wi-Fi AC 750 also is a portable charger featuring a 4000 mA battery to replenish most mobile devices. If attaching a USB drive to this unit you can store and share media files using the free mydlink SharePort mobile app or through a web interface.

Read full article @ TestFreaks

Five features missing from Windows Phone 8.1

With Windows Phone 8.1 close to general availability we take a look at some of the features that were supposed to be part of the update but never showed up. Here are our top five rumored features.

Read full article @ Neowin

Func KB460 Review

The KB460 is a mechanical gaming mechanical keyboard made by the rather young manufacturer of gaming peripherals, Func. This keyboard features a palm rest, red backlight and multimedia keys and we're curious to find out how this thing does.

Read full article @ ocaholic

High-End NVIDIA GeForce vs. AMD Radeon Linux Gaming Comparison

After last week carrying out separate NVIDIA Windows vs. Linux OpenGL benchmarks and similar AMD Radeon Windows 8.1 vs. Ubuntu 14.04 tests, today we are pitting the GeForce and Radeon graphics cards against each other on Ubuntu Linux with the very latest drivers to see how their performance compares now head-on. With this testing we have some Steam games plus are also monitoring the power consumption, performance-per-Watt, and GPU thermal metrics.

Read full article @ Phoronix

HTC One mini 2 Review

Last year around this time, HTC had yet to release a mini version of their flagship phones. As OEMs continued to push bigger and bigger displays into bigger phones, there was a distinct push for a phone that had flagship specifications, but without the size that normally entailed such flagship specifications in the Android space. HTC then proceeded to launch the One mini, a phone that was the size that everyone had been asking for, but just wasn’t the same as its larger cousin. While there are now phones around the size of the One S that have flagship specs, the One mini was a distinctly midrange device, with a number of concessions made to reach a midrange price.

Of course, that was the past. Today we’re looking at the successor to the One mini. Unfortunately, for those that want everything in a One (M8) repackaged to fit into a phone the size of a One S, this is not that phone. However, the bigger question is how well this phone fits into the mid-range spectrum, and how well it compares to the competition. To this end, HTC seems to hope that better design and the halo effect from the One (M8) will differentiate the One mini 2 from the rest of the competition. To find out how well it did, read on for the full review.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Is Emulation the Best Feature of the Nvidia Shield?

Emulation is a popular pass time for many PC gamers, and in recent year there has been a big increase in GPU horsepower in the mobile market, allowing us to enjoy many classic games on the go, not just on our desktops. The Nvidia Shield is one of the most powerful mobile gaming devices on the market, and this is especially thanks to its Nvidia Tegra 4 GPU/CPU, which is not only capable of running many older games such as those from the Super Nintendo and Mega Drive, but also a lot more advanced 3D titles from consoles such as the Nintendo 64, Sega Dreamcast and more. What I hope to find out today is whether or not these games work well enough to justify using the Nvidia Shield as a dedicated emulation device.

Obviously there are some grey area legal issues when it comes to emulation, most of which focus around the piracy of compatible roms, so I feel obligated to mention that I do not condone anyone downloading games, but that there are also many other ways to obtain these games. There are tools and apps out there which let you rip games you own, and this applies to both cartridge based games as well as disc based games. Fortunately I’ve been collecting games for many years now and can use games I already own and have at my disposal, but keep in mind that you’re responsible for sourcing your own titles how you see fit, as we here at eTeknix take no responsibility for this, nor will be providing sources to where or how you can obtain the games. Boring stuff out of the way, let us get back to the action!

Read full article @ eTeknix

JLabAudio JBuds J5M Earphones Review

Up for review today I have the JLabAudio JBuds J5M Earphones which also feature an in-line microphone and multimedia controls. These earphones are budget priced, but they are well made of aluminum and even have a Kevlar reinforced cord. The sound quality isn’t the greatest though, they do have decent bass and treble but they have a slightly muffled sound to them. For the price yes these aren’t a bad set of earphones, but if you have a little more to spend I’d recommend getting something else as they do have some other issues besides the sound quality. Read on to learn more..

Read full article @ DragonSteelMods

Netgear R6300 802.11ac Smart Wi-Fi Router Review

Today we are going to take a look at one of the latest wireless routers from Netgear – the R6300. This offers the latest in dual-band wireless technology, supporting the 802.11ac specification. This should offer significantly better throughput than a 802.11n network, theoretically up to around 1,300 MB/s. We are very interested to see how the Netgear R6300 fares in our tests.

Read full article @ KitGuru

Pure Acoustics MCP-100 Bluetooth Portable Entertainment System Review

I reviewed the Pure Acoustics MCP50 a few weeks ago, and it was a good all-round Bluetooth speaker/ karaoke system for the home. Today, I’ve got it’s larger cousin, the MCP-100 to put through it’s paces. There are some similarities, and some differences.

Read full article @ TestFreaks

SanDisk Extreme PRO 128GB USB3 Flash Drive Review

While there is no doubt that in the not too distant future we will be transferring gigabytes quickly across the planet at very little cost – right now the movement of very large files still requires a physical device. Always happy to play at the high end in terms of quality and price, we are happy to see the SanDisk Extreme pro 128GB USB 3 drive land in our offices. Let’s see if it is driven to succeed.

Read full article @ KitGuru

SteelSeries Siberia Elite vs Sennheiser G4ME ZERO

When it comes to headsets, we are extremely fortunate to have all the options we have, in all shapes and sizes, to fit all different head types, in all different price points. But when you start rising up in price point, there’s less room for forgiveness when it comes to things like comfort, sound quality, and the usefulness of included special features. That’s why we were so anxious to get our hands on two top end headsets from SteelSeries and Sennheiser, just to see, how life is at the top end of the price spectrum, and how these “expensive cans” compare to one another.

Read full article @ Futurelooks

Thecus N2310 2-bay Intelligent NAS Review

In the opening weeks of this year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, I took some time to meet up with the guys from Thecus to see what they had coming to the market in 2014. Although their stand was comparatively small compared to the hundreds of other vendors that made an appearance, their goal was straight and to the point, displaying a small selection of their latest systems and letting the performance and strong recognition within the market do most of the talking. For those who may not know, Thecus are part of the top ten NAS vendors globally, covering every sector of the market; from the home based entry-level user, right up to the large enterprise environment that we see in data centres, for example.

Of the items that Thecus had to show off, one of the systems caught my attention due to its slightly different design and also the highlight of Thecus’ new ‘Intelligent NAS’ Software. Built for a new line of systems, Intelligent NAS is designed to make the setup and management process of a network storage system less daunting for the first time user, where the thought of having to connect through IP addresses and look for a system manually is, for many, quite scary. As a result of the reservations that are put against network storage, the result is the addition of hard drives to computers and sharing the content out from there – this in fact can be a lot harder than using a NAS; believe it or not.

Read full article @ eTeknix

Zalman Reserator 3 Max Dual Liquid CPU Cooler Review

Sometimes you need to think outside the box. If we didn’t, invention would stagnate altogether. When you look at the biggest advances in technology, it is typically done by a device that no one assumed would work at all at first glance. We all fall victim to expecting certain items to look a certain way, so when a new technology is presented to reach a common end that gets there in a completely different way, it is often initially scoffed at. Take the poor Apple 1 and it’s wooden frame as a prime example.

So, at this point, closed loop liquid coolers have pretty much stagnated. Performance seems to have gone as far as it can go without some major design changes, with the top tier CLCs showing cookie cutter-like numbers. With the exception of the Antec 950/1250, they all also look pretty much the same. Of course, stronger pumps, moving from aluminum to copper/brass rads and better contact blocks would make a tremendous difference, as Swiftech proved with the open loop H220. But, for some strange reason….Swiftech seems to be the only manufacturer around willing to (or possibly “capable of”) produce such an item. If CLC is going to progress, it’s obvious an entirely new take on the concept is needed, and Zalman is first out of the gate with a radically new concept.

Read full article @ HiTech Legion