Just a note, the video contains adult language. Viewer discretion is advised, as they say on television.
source: YouTube via Gizmodo
View the original article here
Monday, February 20, 2012
Siri will do a lot of things, but won't get you in shape
Just a note, the video contains adult language. Viewer discretion is advised, as they say on television.
source: YouTube via Gizmodo
View the original article here
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
For some AT&T unlimited users, throttling is just 2GB away
Now it is possible that Cozen actually used more than 2.1GB of data for the month and the up to date figures did not yet reach his AT&T iOS app, which he used to measure his data use. But if it is correct, consider the irony of AT&T's new $30 3GB monthly tiered plan. Those unlimited plan users like Cozen could end up throttled using less data than someone who paid the same monthly rate for a tiered plan. Back in October, AT&T computed that to make the top 5%, an AT&T customer would have to use 12 times the amount of data as the carrier's average customer. Once a customer's account is throttled, it remains at the lower speed until the start of the next billing cycle.
source: MacRumors
View the original article here
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Apple Strikes Back In Jailbreak-Siri Arms Race
The problem, of course, is that Apple gets to decide what devices are compatible, not the users. So they’ve taken steps to undo the work that hackers and jailbreakers have done to bring Siri to older iOS devices. Today brings a new volley, though it’s only a matter of time before it too is circumvented.
Spire, the jailbreak-related Siri porting tool for non-4S devices, has been disabled by an update from Apple that adds an extra requirement to the Siri authentication process. A new “SetActivationToken” plist file prevents the current hack from functioning correctly. Well, that’s it, everybody go home, Siri is safe from interlopers.
In fact, it has been pointed out that a little deep file management fixes the problem — not a fix a casual user would do, but few casual users will have gone through with the non-trivial Spire install process to begin with. Chances are a small fix will be made available and then a more thorough one will hit when 5.1 hits.
Apple, in the meantime, will continue to desultorily fight back. Their rationale for not supporting older devices isn’t really clear, but it probably doesn’t have anything to do with the older devices being unable to perform the tasks Siri does on-device. Commentators seem to agree that it was a combination of marketing and an inability to scale to support the whole iOS population. That would explain why their work to disrupt non-4S Siri devices has been something less than intense. A hundred thousand jailbreakers won’t knock over the servers, but 50 million iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches would be sure to.
view original article here
Monday, February 13, 2012
Motorola seeks 2.25% of Apple iPhone sales for use of patents
Apple wants to show the court by using the Qualcomm-Motorola agreement that the latter's request is too high. Additionally, Apple's lawyers in Germany have started asking the court to grant Discovery motions to allow it to get information from other manufacturers proving the unFRANDness of Motorola Mobility's royalty demand. So far, motions were granted for Apple to contact LG, HTC, Nokia and Ericsson and seeks any information about deals or licensing agreements that each entered into relating to Intellectual Property from Motorola Mobility.
If Motorola Mobility were to get what it is asking for, that would work out to about $15 for each 16GB Apple iPhone 4S sold, $17 for each 32GB version and $21 for each 64GB variant, based on the unsubsidized price of the models. Considering that 93 million Apple iPhones were sold last year (although not all of those were the iPhone 4S) and it would be quite an impressive payday for Motorola Mobility. Which is why Apple's attorneys are working so hard to prove the unreasonableness of Motorola Mobility's demand.
source: FOSS Patents
View the original article here
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Asus Eee Pad Slider unboxing
Looking at its packaging, it’s very similar to the one we found with the Transformer Prime very recently, as it sports a mostly black exterior, while an image of the tablet is plopped right at the center to show off its slide-out keyboard. Around the sides though, we find a profile view of the tablet in its closed position – though, it’s not scaled to the actual size of the tablet. Furthermore, to show us how the tablet collapses and opens to expose its keyboard, another motion-style image is found properly in the rear. Inside, there’s nothing out of place, seeing that it packs all the usual set of items we’d expect – like its set of documentation, proprietary USB cable, and wall charger.
Just as a quick refresher, some of the big things that jump out at as upon checking out the tablet include its thicker overall size, soft touch covered body, and heavy weight. Then again, when we think about the keyboard its hiding, it all makes plenty of sense, but still, it’s undeniably larger than other tablets on the market. Snapping its keyboard into position, its chicklet style keys are slightly raised to offer us some distinction from one another, but the biggest thing we’re combating from the onset is its cramped feel. For now, we’re going to be reserved and simply use it longer to get a good feel for it all, so expect our in-depth review soon!
View the original article here
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Should Mark Zuckerberg Think Twice About Establishing A Dynasty?
Congratulations Facebook! You have made history and changed the world. So, here are some thoughts from one of your biggest fans. Like the rest of the planet, I love Facebook and use it every day. So, there may never be a better time than now, when things are going really well, to add a dose of humility and perspective to the Facebook conversation.
Remember the movie Gladiator? Commodus, the bad son, murdered his aging father, Emperor Marcus Aurelius, preventing him from passing the empire down to his adopted good son, Maximus. Thus, instead of carrying on a centuries old tradition of merit-based succession, power passed to an unworthy blood relative and corruption followed.
What does this have to do with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg? Well, according to the $5 billion IPO filing, legal documents give him absolute control over the post-IPO company, even beyond the grave, just like a Roman emperor. That kind of power can have unintended consequences.
The story of Facebook’s spectacularly successful founder serves as a blueprint for others who hope to create corporate dynasties. Still, both he and those who seek to emulate him would be wise to take the counsel of history and establish at least a minimally representative corporate governance structure that includes one or more independent board members.
How did governance get to this point?
Facebook came of age after Google’s founders obtained super majority control at IPO, followed by LinkedIn, Groupon and Zynga (and more). In its early days, Sean Parker, a serial entrepreneur (Napster, Plaxo) who played an important early role as a confidante to Mr. Zuckerberg, helped convince him of the importance of founders maintaining control. As such, the Facebook founder has long dominated his board of directors, appointing three out of five seats.
Now, Facebook takes the founder-control trend to the extreme. By converting his shares into a class of super-voting stock at IPO, and designating Facebook as a “controlled company,” Zuckerberg will not only control 57.1% of the vote, but will also have the legal right to name 100% of the board of directors. He can also designate whomever he chooses as the successor to his corporate authority.
The unintended consequence of such absolute control may be the opposite of what Zuckerberg hopes. It isn’t a stretch to believe that he genuinely wants control in order to keep the business focused on the long-term social mission he described in his letter to shareholders, rather than the short-term gains often demanded by financial managers. What may happen instead is that the post-IPO business finds itself subject to whimsical decision-making and vulnerable to the inevitable securities lawsuits.
When founder-controlled companies sell shares to the public, they should plan for the possibility of the emperor at some point “having no clothes.” Eventually, even the best founders can lose their mojo, or appoint a successor who proves unequal to the task. This is when having independent views and fiduciaries can help shield the business from liability and guide it to a better place, even without legal control.
Of course, founder-controlled companies are often extraordinarily successful. In the United States, the founding family is an influential investor in more than one-third of the Standard & Poor’s 500 companies. Founding family owned companies tend to do well because of the long-term influence, interest, and investment of owners who are motivated by mission, not just by financial gain.
For example, Ford Motor Company has managed to sustain a profitable founding family business since Henry Ford incorporated it in 1903. Since 1956, the Ford family has wielded at least 40% of the company’s voting rights by setting up a system to ensure that only family members can own Class B stock. The family’s voting power includes the exclusive right to approve a merger, sale, or liquidation of the company.
In their desire to control but not stifle the business, the Fords enlisted qualified advisers, including original counsel Clifford Longley, investor Goldman Sachs, and independent directors. And it worked; Ford has survived multiple recessions, including the most recent economic downturn. Ford was the only American carmaker that didn’t need a government bailout.
Mr. Zuckerberg has so far made a different choice about the governance of Facebook. While appointing Sheryl Sandberg as a strong #2 has been brilliant, what will he do when she moves on? He and his heirs can exercise more corporate power post-IPO than when it was private. Opting to function as a “controlled company,” Facebook will be exempt from the customary stock exchange corporate governance rules that apply to the vast majority of public companies.
From the Facebook prospectus (S-1):
Because we qualify as a “controlled company” under the corporate governance rules for publicly-listed companies, we are not required to have a majority of our board of directors be independent, nor are we required to have a compensation committee or an independent nominating function.Instead of a nominating committee for directors, all directors will be selected, removed and replaced by Mr. Zuckerberg, who is also imbued with the power to unilaterally choose a successor.
Mr. Zuckerberg has the ability to control the outcome of matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election of directors and any merger, consolidation, or sale of all or substantially all of our assets … Additionally, in the event that Mr. Zuckerberg controls our company at the time of his death, control may be transferred to a person or entity that he designates as his successor.While Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt at Google also maintain control, with
majority ownership and voting rights, the triumvirate approach has balanced governance, and none of their rights extends to the power to appoint and remove independent directors at will. The same goes for Reid Hoffman at LinkedIn, Andrew Mason at Groupon and Mark Pincus at Zynga.
So, if you are a company founder, and you single-mindedly want to make your business a founder-controlled dynasty, Facebook is your blueprint. If, on the other hand, your goals include protecting the durability of the company you founded, even when you and your heirs may no longer project the visionary qualities that you do today, you should: 1) empower your company’s non-founder shareholders to elect at least 1 independent director; and 2) commit to a succession plan that is not hereditary by default.
Eva Arevuo also contributed to this article.
view original article here
Friday, February 10, 2012
Look Out AT&T Customers, Your Upgrade Fee Doubles On Sunday
The memo states that the fee hike is needed because “the overall costs associated with upgrading to a new device have increased.”
Strangely, the part of the memo that BGR has released doesn’t mention anything about a cap like the one Sprint offers, so it’s possible that families and groups looking to upgrade en masse could really get stung here.
And here’s a question worth thinking about: what will the consumers have to say? Verizon Wireless got a very public earful when it was discovered that they planned to charge customers a $2 “convenience fee” whenever they used a credit card to make an online or over-the-phone bill payment. After one day, public pressure and scrutiny from the FCC forced Verizon to kill the plan in its tracks. Given enough exposure, AT&T customer may be inclined to lash out in a similar way.
Hopefully this move doesn’t inspire Verizon to try something similar. We’ve seen it happen before: Verizon killed their unlimited data plans one year after AT&T did, and AT&T began requiring data packages for messaging phones not long after Verizon implemented the idea.
view original article here
Foursquare Adds NFC Support To Its Android App
NFC, or near field communication, allows devices to exchange data over short distances, typically with a wave or a tap. In Foursquare’s Android update, NFC support has been added for the app’s Venue, Lists and Me pages.
On Android, NFC support has been rebranded for marketing purposes, and is called “Android Beam.” The touch-to-share functionality lets NFC-enabled Android phones share information between each other, including contacts, web pages, and videos, for example. Any Android developer can also use the NFC APIs provided by the mobile operating system to add specialized NFC actions to their own apps.
With the Foursquare update, Android 4.0 users with NFC phones can now share their lists and the venues they’ve visited with a friend just by tapping phones. Users can now tap phones to initiate friend requests or tap their phone against an NFC tag or poster to check in.
Unfortunately, the functionality is currently limited to phones that have both an NFC chip built in and run Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0). At this point, that means the Galaxy Nexus is pretty much your only option. (But that’s why you got that phone, right? You wanted to use the latest technology first. Well, here you go.)
The question remaining is why would Foursquare bother to push out an update that impacts such a small niche of the current Android user base?
In an Untether.tv interview with Holger Luedorf, VP of Mobile and International at Foursquare, he talked about why Foursquare added NFC to its app.
“The good news is the technology is already there,” he says. Plus,”going forward, some of the other platforms will be NFC-enabled.” (Please mean iOS!)
But it’s also about making the Android experience the best for its users, Luedorf said.
“The user experience is great. You just hold your phone against the tap [point]. The checkin screen automatically pops up with the right venue. You’re basically shaving very valuable seconds off the checkin process,” he says.
“We try to leverage the native experiences and APIs that are available through the platform as those usually drive the best user experience,” Luedorf continued. “We’re trying to leverage this because we feel that pinpointing someone down to a location through an NFC chip definitely has some value.”
view original article here
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Top 10 Gaming Laptops – February 2012
Top 10 Gaming Laptops – February 2012
This list is based on actual or estimated gaming performance, factoring in the hardware specification (particularly the graphics card) relative to the laptop’s size.Feb Update: Although AMD has released very promising 28nm products for the desktop, all of the dedicated laptop graphics cards are still using the old 40nm process, so regardless of Nvidia’s and AMD’s inventive naming schemes there are very little changes in the current 600M and 7000M-series GPUs. The GTX 580M and Radeon HD 6990M will remain on top for a while longer, since their 28nm successors have not yet been given release dates.
Intel’s final (most likely) Sandy Bridge update before Ivy Bridge is now widely available and all new Intel-based laptops ship with CPUs that have been given an upwards clock frequency adjustment of about 200MHz while retaining the same pricing. The new processor models in the high-end (quad core) segment are the Core i7 2670QM (replaces 2630QM), 2760QM (replaces 2720QM), 2860QM (replaces 2820QM) and finally the Extreme Edition Core i7-2960XM, which replaces the 2920XM.
Current Alienware Coupons:
1. Take an additional $50 off any Alienware laptop configured at $999 or more (that would be pretty much all of them) with the coupon code: BHW1L0MX0D?MCX
Shortcuts
Top 10 17″+ Gaming LaptopsSub 17″ Gaming Laptops
17-Inch +
1. Clevo X7200
If you are looking for the most powerful laptop in the known universe, there is no doubt that the Clevo X7200 is it. However, you will have to account for the fact that this monster is just barely a laptop–it uses desktop processors, so you can equip it with a hexa-core (12-thread) desktop Core i7 Extreme Edition and up to 24GB of triple-channel full-size DDR3 RAM. On the graphics side you can configure it with dual Radeon HD 6990M’s in CrossFireX or Nvidia GeForce GTX 580M GPUs in SLI. The most powerful mobile GPU solutions on the planet in combination with desktop processors make this laptop’s performance unbeatable, but its battery should mainly be thought of as backup power with a 60 minute life span. Other than that it also has room for three hard drives or SSDs in RAID 0, 1 or 5. It’s a large, heavy, and if you want all the bells and whistles, very expensive machine, but this kind of performance comes at a price.——————————————————————————————————————————
2. Alienware M18x
The Alienware M18x is now available with dual Nvidia GTX 580M graphics cards in SLI or dual AMD Radeon HD 6990M GPUs in CrossFireX. Simply put it’s an exceptional gaming laptop that will handily defeat quite a few gaming desktops in terms of frame rates and visual bliss. Either of these solutions will let your games run at the 18-inch display’s native 1080p resolution with most or all of the details maxed out. It can also be equipped with other GPUs in CrossFireX/SLI or a single video card. It comes with a choice of 2nd-generation, quad core Intel Core i7 CPU, the fastest of which is a factory overclocked i7 Extreme Edition that runs at 4GHz in Turbo Boost mode. Other features include USB 3.0, 1600MHz DDR3 memory, the usual AlienFX back-lighting artillery, as well as optional WirelessHD that lets you stream lossless Full HD video and audio to an external HDTV or other setup. The base model starts at $1,999 and includes a 2GHz quad core Core i7 and a single GTX 560M.Note: When ordering from Dell, use the coupon code BHW1L0MX0D?MCX to take an additional $50 off the price tag.
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3. Alienware M17x
The M17x has also been given the GTX 580M treatment, although this smaller (relatively speaking) Alienware gaming machine can only house a single GPU configuration. Pretty much every component in the M17x is configurable. There’s a choice of high-end Nvidia or AMD GPUs, up to 16GB of RAM, various quad-core Core i7 processors, 1600×900 or 1920×1080 panels and dual hard drives or SSDs in RAID 0. It is also available in a 3D version that includes the mandatory 120Hz panel and Nvidia 3D Vision kit. The base model ($1,499) includes a GTX 560M, but from a price/performance perspective, the Radeon 6990M upgrade is very attractive. This GPU is neck-and-neck with the GTX 580M and considerably faster than the GTX 560M. Unfortunately it is not eligible for an Nvidia 3D Vision upgrade.Same as the above: Use the coupon code BHW1L0MX0D?MCX for an additional $50 off from Dell.
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4. MSI GT783
MSI has updated its 17-inch GT780 twice–once with the Nvidia GTX 570M (GT780DXR/DX) and now an even more powerful version with the GTX 580M is available. Most of them ship with the new quad-core Core i7-2670QM. The GT780DX. It comes with a multi-color backlit keyboard designed by SteelSeries that resembles those from Alienware. What makes this and other high-end MSI laptops a little more interesting than the rest is the TDE (Turbo Drive Engine) feature that automatically overclocks the laptop by up to 30%. It also ships with 12GB of DDR3 and either plenty of hard drive storage or an SSD/HDD combo.| MSI GT783 Price Comparison: | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | $2279.00 |  |  |
5. Clevo P170HM
The 17-inch Clevo P170HM is sold by several different boutique gaming brands and can be configured with either of the two fastest mobile GPUs ever–the GTX 580M from Nvidia or the HD 6990M from AMD. It can also be equipped with a range of quad-core Intel Core i7 processors. In combination with the fastest single-GPU graphics solution on the market and (in its class comparatively) lightweight chassis (8.6lbs) this is a very desirable laptop. If you don’t want to pay a premium for the fastest of everything, you can also opt for the base configuration, which includes a capable GTX 460M. The EON 17-S has four memory slots with room for up to 32GB of DDR3 1333MHz or 16GB of DDR3 1600MHz. Moreover, it has room for dual hard drives or SSDs that can be configured in RAID 0 mode. Or you could use an ultra-fast Vertex 3 as the boot drive and a secondary 7,200rpm hard drive for storage.——————————————————————————————————————————
6. ASUS G74Sx Republic of Gamers
The Asus G74Sx is a high quality gaming laptop; reasonably cool and quiet, and not as bulky as many 17-inch desktop replacements tend to be. Moreover, it is relatively inexpensive compared to the closest competitors, but still delivers more than decent gaming performance thanks to the new GTX 560M GPU from Nvidia with higher clock speeds and better power management compared to the GTX 460M that it replaces. The G74Sx is also available in a 3D edition called G74Sx-3DE, which is equipped with an Nvidia 3D Vision kit and a compatible 120Hz panel. Both the 3D and non-3D versions have 1920×1080 resolution screens.| ASUS G74Sx Prices: | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| $1399.99 | | |
7. Toshiba Qosmio X775
Qosmio is Toshiba’s premium entertainment brand, so the most surprising aspect of the X775 is the affordable price point for the entry models. For less than $1,200 (at this writing) you get a capable desktop replacement with a Sandy Bridge Core i5 CPU and more importantly for gamers–a GeForce GTX 560M to take care of your gaming needs. There are other and considerably more pricey configurations available though; some with quad-core CPUs and 3D kits, but the base model should hold up pretty well in just about any game thanks to the solid GPU.——————————————————————————————————————————
8. HP Envy 17 / Envy 17 3D
HP has updated its premium Envy lineup with an entirely new design and partly new hardware, including a very impressive speaker system with a physical “Beats Audio” volume knob. The result is an exclusive machine with lots of customization options including a 3D version with similar hardware but a 120Hz, 3D-ready display. Both versions ship with the new(ish) AMD Radeon HD 7690M with 1GB of GDDR5 and a range of Core i7 or i5 CPUs. This hardware is quite impressive considering the thin and (for a 17-inch laptop) lightweight chassis that surrounds it.| HP Envy 17 Price Comparison: | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | $1249.99 | | |
| HP ENVY 17 Customizable Notebook PC | |||
| $1449.99 | | |
| HP ENVY 17 3D edition Customizable Notebook PC | |||
9. HP Pavilion dv7t Quad Edition
The quad-core edition of the HP Pavilion dv7t is another interesting option for gamers–not least because of the level of performance it offers for the money. You can order it with a range of 2nd-generation Core i7 CPUs, and the graphics as of 2012 are handled by a still unspecified Mobility Radeon GPU (which is actually an HD 7690M that differs very little from the previous HD 6770M. Nevertheless, this is still enough to give the dv7t and it’s 15.6-inch counterpart the dv6t plenty of gaming power considering the highly affordable (in relative terms) price tag. It’s important to note that the 7690M is an optional upgrade though, and an absolute must-have if you want to call it a gaming laptop.——————————————————————————————————————————
10. Dell XPS 17
The latest revision of the Dell XPS 17 desktop replacement came with some major upgrades – most importantly the latest Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs. Another nice perk is an included 3D Vision kit from Nvidia (optional), powered by a capableGeForce GT 550M or the faster GeForce GT 555M GPU (same as the M14x). As usual with Dell, there are lots of upgrades available although the base configuration is quite powerful. But if you want a gaming model, the GPU upgrade to a GT 555M is highly recommended.——————————————————————————————————————————
Up to 15.6″
1. Clevo P150HM
When it’s fully tricked out in the GPU department, the Clevo P150HM is the fastest 15-inch gaming laptop on the planet at this writing. It is known under different names and built-to-order by Origin PC, Sager, AVADirector a number of other gaming PC specialists. What makes the P150HM special is that it’s configurable with either one of the two fastest GPUs on the market right now–the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M or the AMD Radeon HD 6990M–and also a quad-core Intel CPU all the way up to the Core i7-2920XM Extreme Edition. It can also house up to 32GB of RAM. This hardware puts it a step ahead of all of the competition in the 15-inch segment today, no matter if compared in gaming performance or raw processing power.Read our full review here.
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2. MSI GT683DXR
The new GT683DXR from MSI is generously equipped with very powerful hardware for its size. It has the new GeForce GTX 570M, which is a big step up from the GTX 560M. It’s also equipped with the standard-issue quad core Intel Core i7-2630QM as well as 12GB of RAM. Just like its bigger brother the MSI GT780 it also comes with MSI’s proprietary overclocking technology TDE that boosts the CPU/GPU clocks by up to 30% with the push of a button.| MSI GT683DXR Price Comparison: | |||
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| $1519.00 | | |
3. Alienware M14x
The M15x has been decommissioned in favor of a the more portable M14x, so if you want the Alien head logo and all the extras that come with an Alienware laptop, but prefer a more portable version than the M17x, the M14x is a much more convenient alternative. Like all laptops from Dell it can be customized with a wide range of components, including a number of different 2nd-generation quad-core Core i7 CPUs with eight threads. In the graphics department, there’s an Nvidia GeForce GT 555M with either 1.5GB or 3GB of video RAM. This one isn’t quite as fast as some of the alternatives in the M15x, but it comes in a more portable package. Other options include a 1600×900 WLED panel and a fast 256GB Samsung solid state drive. The M14x also comes with the latest and fastest 1600MHz RAM.Read our full review here
When shopping from Dell, use the coupon code BHW1L0MX0D?MCX for an additional $50 off.
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4. Asus G53SX
We have been listing the G53SW here for quite a while, but now that the updated G53SX is widely available we are simply replacing it with the new model, which by and large is the same laptop but with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M instead of its predecessor the 460M. The newer GTX 560M is not much of an improvement on the 460M–although it has higher clocks and the same power consumption it has also been given a smaller, 128-bit memory bus (this is covered in our review). The Republic of Gamers’ G53SX remains one of the most interesting options in the 15.6-inch segment, not least for its attractive price tag. It is more or less a 15-inch version of the 17-inch G7x series and comes with a 1080p display, a quad-core Intel CPU and a backlit keyboard, but unlike the 17-inch model ——————————————————————————————————————————
5: HP dv6t Quad Edition
HP’s Pavilion dv6t is the more portable version of the dv7t, and just like it’s bigger counterpart, the Quad Edition of the dv6 comes with a choice of the latest quad-core CPUs from Intel as well as a Mobility Radeon HD 7690M GPU from AMD (optional upgrade). This graphics card is not a major upgrade over its predecessor the HD 6770M, but the pricing is unchanged and it all adds up to an affordable yet powerful 15.6-inch laptop, capable of playing all the latest games without breaking the bank. Another plus is that HP has taken the design of their premium Envy lineup and applied it to the Pavilion series. The result is a nice-looking laptop with a lot more performance under the hood than meets the eye.——————————————————————————————————————————
6. Alienware M11x R3
The Alienware M11x wins the title for smallest and lightest gaming laptop on the planet. Make no mistake – in spite of its size it clearly qualifies as a gaming machine, especially in its 3rd iteration with brand new low-voltage Sandy Bridge CPUs and an Nvidia GeForce GT 540M. In combination with the small screen and comparatively low (1366×768) resolution it can run any recent game on medium or even high detail settings.| M11x R3 Price Comparison: | |||
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 | $899.00 | | |
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There are lots of factors to take into consideration when choosing a good gaming laptop; hardware, build quality, features you value personally, and of course the price tag. As for the hardware, the graphics card plays the key role in a gaming notebook. Sure, the processor is very important for overall performance, as is the hard drive (or preferably: SSD), but at the end of the day the graphics card is what determines the frame rate and whether your games are playable.
To play the latest titles at high resolution with all the detail knobs turned up, you are going to need a powerful GPU. No amount of tweaking or optimizing will substitute better hardware. Both AMD (formerly ATI) and Nvidia have highly capable mobile video cards on the market. In bigger, 17-inch plus laptops, you will also find them in dual GPU configurations–called SLI or CrossFire for Nvidia’s GeForce and AMD’s Mobility Radeon series, respectively. The fastest mobile graphics cards as of October 2011 are the AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6990M and the Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 580M, which are practically tied for first place–only what particular game you play seems to decide which one is the fastest. However, Nvidia’s GPU generally fares better in SLI configuration.
view original article here
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