‘Titanfall’ beta launching on Valentine’s Day on Xbox One and PC

Respawn Entertainment’s upcoming shooter will go into beta on February 14^th, with the game set for an official launch on March 11.

Titanfall is scheduled to enter beta on February 14^th, with the first round of beta set to run until February 19^th. Vince Zampella, head of Respawn Entertainment, announced the news via a tweet, but failed to mention whether it will be an invite only or public beta. More details regarding the beta are set to be announced in the coming weeks, with the game eventually making its way onto store shelves on March 11.

The mech shooter is exclusive to Microsoft platforms, and it was revealed today that the Xbox 360 version of the game would be outsourced to Bluepoint Games, who developed HD versions ofGod of War, Metal Gear Solid 1-3 and Ico & Shadow of the Colossus in addition to the PS Vita port of the All-Stars Battle Royale.

The standard version of Titanfall will retail for $59.99. Microsoft is also launching a Titanfall-themed controller for the Xbox One, which will be available by the time the game launches.

Less silly and more epic tablet cameras with Sony’s new accessory

Sony gives the upgrade that our tablet cameras have always needed: a high-quality lens camera attachment.

Let’s admit it; we do tend to ignore tablet camera specs nowadays. That’s because though they’re good for point-and-click shots, professionals are still definitely better off using a DSLR, not to mention that we look a bit silly trying to take pictures with our huge 10-inch tablet. Thankfully, Sony seems to have bridged this issue for us, by releasing a tablet version of their previous smartphone camera attachment.

The SPA-TA1 Cybershot QX lens camera attachment is, as what you might expect, an accessory that is intended to take near-DSLR quality pictures to a tablet. The dimensions of the attachment itself are at 65.6 x 33.9mm, nearly the same as its smartphone version. Unlike the smartphone version though, it has a set of six adjusters, from 85mm to 190mm, that you can use to fix the camera lens firmly onto the tablet regardless of the size of the tablet or it’s camera’s position.

Sony has yet to reveal specifications for the tablet version of their camera lens attachment. However, it would most likely have the same overall technical specs and adjustment features as the smartphone version.

In Japan, it will be available as early as April 4, 2014, with an estimated price that is equivalent to $36.00

Nvidia’s GeForce GTX Titan Black edition gets listed online in Finland

A Finnish retailer has listed the GTX Titan Black edition for a staggering $1330 (€974.90).

Nvidia is readying a new high-end video card for market to take the place of the GTX Titan. Dubbed the GTX Titan Black, the new version is said to feature the same fully unlocked GK110 GPU as the GTX 780 Ti, but with more video memory.

It has been estimated that the GTX Titan Black would oust the GTX Titan from its $999 price point. While there are no official details regarding the card as of now, a Finnish retailer by the name of Multitronic Webshop has just listed Asus’ variant of the GTX Titan Black for $1330. The $1330 price is inclusive of all taxes, with the pre-tax cost of the card set at around $1070 (€786.21).

It is to be noted that the card shares a lot of the same hardware details as the GTX 780 Ti, with 2880 CUDA cores, 240 TMUs and 48 ROPs on a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. The only major difference is the inclusion of 6 GB of video memory to the 3 GB that is present on the GTX 780 Ti. In addition, it also features full double-precision floating point GPGPU performance.

Alienware’s Steam Machine aims to compete with Xbox One and PS4 in price and power

PC gaming manufacturer Alienware plans on selling their Steam Machine systems for the comparative price range of an Xbox One, effectively taking on the next-gen gaming market and offering a “bargain” in the process.

Alienware is one of the twelve manufacturers involved in Valve’s new Steam-based ecosystem, wherein each company fashions their own hardware–officially branded Steam Machines–as they see fit; form factor, price points, and specs.

Valve’s Steam OS software, which serves as the operating system and enables access to its digital game store, will tether each console-like PC to Valve’s new living room-based environment. Up until now, the living room has been the home turf of the console gaming market, but the Steam Machines are taking on consoles–the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in particular–in a battle for dominance of couch-based gaming.

Alienware is eager to challenge both high-profile consoles, and plans to do so by taking them on at one of the major deciding factors for consumers: the price tag.

“The commitment we are making from a price perspective is that it will be competitive with Xbox One and PS4,” Alienware’s Global Marketing Director Bryan De Zayas confided to TrustedReviews.

“From a price point perspective, we actually think that costing as much as an Xbox One or PS4 is going to be a big benefit.

“It will help better align us with that mentality from a gaming perspective that this fits in the same living room model.”

De Zayas didn’t confirm any sort of concrete price range, and nothing is official at this point; he merely revealed that the company is interested in competing with the PS4 and Xbox One by offering a PC gaming system for a comparable price.

But why should consumers pick up an Alienware-branded Steam Box instead of building their own PC? Assembling your own rig and buying individual parts is often seen as an advantageous method, especially since some of the parts can be purchased at discounted rates from outlets like Newegg, Tiger Direct, and even auctioned from eBay.

Alienware’s General Manager, Frank Azor, asserts that you won’t be able to build a PC that performs as well for the price of their Steam Machine:

“Nobody will be able to build their own computer, that will perform this well, at the price we are going to be selling it for.”

Azor further underlined that the cost factor won’t break your bank like many of the expensive PC’s in their catalog. “In the past, there has been a premium when it comes to buying Alienware PCs, that is absolutely not going to be the case for this product.”

Whether or not this will be an actual bargain remains to be seen, as the specs might reflect the cost of the hardware. Azor finished up by confirming that Alienware’s Steam Machine will have “optimized performance” with higher-end Intel CPU’s and NVIDIA GPU’s–and although no specifics were given, Dell has previously announced that the hardware would come with Intel’s Haswell processor.

“We are going to get the latest and greatest Intel CPUs, we are going to get the latest and greatest NVIDIA GPUs in this box, you are going have great memory configuration, great hard drive configuration, optimised performance, an incredible form factor.”

It will be interesting to see if Alienware’s Steam Machine can duke it out with the current kings of the console market, and what exact price range they’ll end up tagging their system with. Digital Storm’s high-end Steam Machine will run at $1469, featuring a dual-operating system and expansive specs, and the beta consoles sent out by Steam have been tallied up to an estimated total of $1300 worth of hardware.

Alienware’s Steam Machine is expected to roll out in September 2014, and like other units bearing the Steam name, will come with a optimized Steam Controller.

Korean media pegs LG G Pro 2 release for February, G3 for May

Samsung may not shake up its manufacturing cycle after all and roll out the Galaxy S5 exactly one year behind the S4, but one of the company’s traditional mobile adversaries, LG, is now believed to ponder a strategy shift of sorts.

Namely, according to sources close to usually reliable Korean news outlets, the G2 makers plan to sandwich the S5 release between G Pro 2 (G2 Pro?) and G3 launches. The former is to land next month, if these tipsters are correct, and the latter on May 17.

Hmm, that last part is a little specific, don’t you think? For crying out loud, it’s four months and one or two high-profile device announcements away, yet it’s already set in stone? Not to be a negative Nancy, but I call BS.

And while we’re at it, does it really make sense for LG to unveil two different flagships in the space of just three months? I mean, what’s the point? Flood the market, ensure future software support for high-enders will be even lousier than nowadays? Nuh-uh, it has to be bogus.

Or maybe there’s another angle. Remember LG’s Odin octa-core CPU? The one with all the hoopla surrounding it, but incapable of surpassing Qualcomm’s now old Snapdragon 800 in raw speed, exactly.

If those benchmarks were the real deal, the biggest mistake LG could make is insist with the underwhelming SoC. So I’m thinking the G Pro 2 gets Odin and then the G3 Snapdragon 805, which coincidentally is said to debut sometime in May.

Makes a little more sense, though I still don’t understand who’d be so foolish as to buy the G Pro 2. Probably size junkies, as the big guy is expected out with a 5.9-inch display, whereas the G3 will measure a “measly” 5.5 inches. Quad HD resolution (or 2K, or whatever) for everybody, and for once, LG might actually challenge Samsung.

Asus launches the Poseidon GTX 780 with a hybrid cooling solution

The Poseidon GTX 780 is based on Nvidia’s GTX 780, and comes with a hybrid cooling solution that lets you use a liquid cooling solution or the standard on-board fans.

Asus’ new Poseidon GTX 780 features an innovative DirectCU H20 cooling solution.

The card comes with the standard aluminum cooling fins along the surface of the GPU, along with two 90mm fans to direct airflow. In addition, it also has the provision for attaching a liquid cooling radiator to your card. There is a DirectCU water block just behind the aluminum cooling fins, which can be directly connected to your liquid cooling solution via built-in G1/4-inch threads to further reduce temperatures.

Asus claims that temperatures can de decreased by 7 degrees Celsius by using the fans alone, and by 24 degrees when used in conjunction with a liquid cooler. Other than the hybrid cooling solution, the card is quite similar to Asus’ standard GeForce GTX 780. It features the same 10-phase power design and DIGI+ VRM voltage regulators for increased longevity.

The card itself is based on the GeForce GTX 780 rather than the newer GTX 780 Ti. A card based on the GTX 780 Ti should be available in the near future. However, that doesn’t mean that this card is a slouch. Far from it. The Poseidon GTX 780 is based on the GK110 GPU, features a core clock of 954 MHz, along with a boost clock of 1006 MHz. It comes with 2304 CUDA cores, 192 TMUs and 32 ROPs. It has 3GB GDDR5 memory with a memory clock of 6008 MHz on a 384-bit interface.

The card comes with two DVI out (one DVI-D and one DVI-I), one DisplayPort and one HDMI out. The card uses 240-250 Watts of power under full load, and connects using one 8-pin and one 6-pin connector. There is also an LED light that glows when the card is running, and users can easily tweak the card settings via Asus’ tweak tool that not only allows them to configure the card’s hardware settings, but also broadcast live gaming sessions to the Internet.

Asus is selling the Poseidon GTX 780 now for $745

Samsung SM-W750V tipped for MWC debut with Windows Phone and Full HD panel

Nokia might no longer be the sole Windows Phone player to take the platform seriously, as Samsung apparently plans to exploit the operating system’s newfound Full HD support by rolling out a high-end handheld so far known as the SM-W750V.

Said device has last month popped up in the rumor mill for the first time, thanks to a Zauba listing, and now a Bluetooth SIG certification and User Agent Profile helps fill in a few blanks.

First off, this is indeed a phone (well, duh), one prepped for North America (now we’re getting somewhere), and rocking 4G LTE connectivity. The UA Prof also reveals the default pre-loaded browser is Internet Explorer, meaning there’s absolutely no way the SM-W750V runs Android.

But the truly big news is the display resolution is listed, at 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, otherwise known as Full HD. And since Zauba already disclosed the size – 5 inches – we can also work out the pixel density: 440 ppi.

Sure, by the time the big guy lands, Quad HD (or 2K) contenders from Sony or Samsung may themselves be official and ready to roll, but some consider 1,080p+ pixel counts overkill, so in the end the SM-W750V could have what it takes to go toe to toe with each and every other 2014 flagship.

Let’s just hope Sammy doesn’t mess up the processing speed, RAM, battery size or design. Or pricing. Yup, variables still galore, so my advice is to dream small until the ATIV S follow-up breaks cover. Which rumor has it will happen next month, in Barcelona, at the Mobile World Congress (MWC).

Then again, between this, Sony’s almost certain Windows Phone dive and Nokia’s on-the-rise prestige, it’s crystal clear Microsoft’s perspectives in the mobile game are brighter than ever. Time for Android and iOS to start fearing WP? You tell us.

Sources: Sammy Today, Bluetooth SIG, Samsung

Razer introduces Adaro headphone series

Razer isn’t waiting until the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2014 before introducing a new line of audio products for music enthusiasts. 

PC gaming company Razer has launched the Adaro series of headphones designed for personal entertainment, which isn’t aimed at gaming, and is instead geared towards music listeners.

The Razer Adaro In-Ears earbuds have a $79.99 MSRP, featuring 10mm drivers, sound isolation, and a flat anti-tangle cable.  More manufacturers are using flat, anti-tangle cables which tend to have a sleek look that is great with backpacks, hats, and baggy exterior clothing.

The Razer Adaro Stereos headphones will be available with a $99.99 MSRP, providing over-ear headphones featuring a 40mm driver, anti-tangle, fiber cable, and fully-adjustable leatherette ear cushions.

Razer’s Adaro Wireless Bluetooth headphones can be ordered for $149.99 MSRP and includes 20 hours of playback via Bluetooth 4.0 promising “CD-quality audio” using the wireless headset.

The highest-end product in the Adaro series is the Adaro DJ headset, sporting a $199.99 MSRP, and has adjustable noise isolating ear cushions with a fully adjustable and foldable design.

All four audio products in the Razer Adaro series are available for pre-order now, with official release expected sometime in February.

The company’s decision to compete in the casual audio market, against the likes of Beats, Skullcandy and Sol Republic will open Razer to a new potential customer base.  Razer, which stormed onto the scene manufacturing gaming mice, mouse pads and headsets, has evolved to focus on the consumer electronics market as well.  The proliferation of smartphones and MP3 players makes the consumer music market an appealing target, but Razer will have to compete with well-established, better known brand names in 2014.