Halo 4 grosses more than $220 million at launch; will it beat Black Ops II?

The end if the year holiday season is when we see the launch of the best games in the business of gaming. This year, in November, we have seen two of the most anticipated first person shooters hit store shelves – Halo 4 and Call of Duty Black Ops II (which launched yesterday).Halo 4 has already set a record by grossing a whopping $220 million in the first 24 hours of sale globally. In its first week, Halo 4 is on its way to cross the $300 million mark making it a significant milestone in the world of gaming.But earning the big dollars isn’t something new to the Halo franchise. Halo: Reach, the game launched prior to Halo 4 and the last to be developed by the developer that started it all, Bungie, grossed $200 million on launch day in September, 2010.The baton of the Halo franchise shifted from developer Bungie to 343 Industries whose first venture is the beginning of a new trilogy starting with Halo 4. We have had some hands on time with the game and we can assure you, it doesn't disappoint. The game indeed lives up to its reputation. Both the single player campaign and multiplayer will keep you coming back for more. Check out our first impressions of the game, here.The only disadvantage, in terms of money making for the publisher, is that Halo is an Xbox 360 exclusive title and hence will cater only to the audience that owns the console.Now, moving on to the other big gun in the first person shooter genre, Call of Duty Black Ops II. Its predecessor, Call of Duty Black Ops was met with rave reviews but the formula stuck close to the tried and tested. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing since the franchise is a real big cash cow for publisher Activision and immensely popular among gamers.Black Ops II however has tried something different. To start with the game has received rave reviews online from a variety of gaming websites. Black Ops II is set in a future US war scenario, and the campaign along with the multiplayer modes for which the franchise has been made famous has received great reviews.Since its past few iterations, the Call of Duty franchise has been criticised for its single player mode, but that seems to have changed with Black Ops II. The single player campaign is a refreshing change from the past iteration and the biggest improvement is the ability to make decisions that alter the course of the game including decisions that involve who lives and who dies.The biggest reason why we think that Call of Duty Black Ops II will surpass Halo 4 in sales is because the game is a multi-platform offering, apart from being awesome. The game will be available on the Xbox 360, PC, PS3, Wii U. A PS Vita version of the game called call of Duty Black Ops Declassified is all set to make its debut on the handheld as well. As yet, no sales figures have been released.So tell us, which of the two games will you play? Or will you get your hands on both? Which franchise do you think is better, Call of Duty or Halo?

 

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Build a $1,500 Gaming PC

As we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, $1,000 is our favorite place to begin building a gaming PC. (Though, as we showed in the weeks before that, you can still put together fine, 3D-focused computers for $500 or $750.) But it's not a good place to stop if you don't have to. With many things in the technology world, the more money you can invest, the more impressive the final product will be—and that's undoubtedly the case here. So we upped our budget again, this time to $1,500.

Believe it or not, this was the hardest of all the builds we did for this project. When you're faced with a severe price restriction you have to get both extremely detailed and extremely creative, which makes the process seem like it's more about open doors than closed ones. And when you have essentially no price restriction, you can do whatever you want. But with $1,500, you’re free to ignore so much less-expensive equipment that you may feel as though you don't have room to move. You can buy some terrific hardware, but not a lot of it is the best that’s out there—and having to “make do” with something that’s only mostly excellent is less fun than it sounds.

So figuring out the proper balance between the good stuff and the really good stuff is not just crucial to building a system in the upper-middle pricing tier—it’s also maddeningly difficult. Still, this isn’t a bad problem to have, and with that spare $1,500 you’ll be able to build a gaming computer you can feel really positive about, even if the road to it is paved with (tiny) cobblestones of regret.

For our final installment in two weeks, we’ll look at the kind of system you can put together for $2,000. We love it, but our feelings for this $1,500 machine are only slightly less strong.

Choosing the Components

We’ve said in previous weeks that choosing the video card is an easy way to start laying out a gaming system. That remains true at $1,500, but there are more pitfalls here. You have enough money to buy some of the best (single-GPU) cards on the market, but you don’t want the rest of your computer to suffer as a result. So do you go all out on the graphics, or do you hold back just a bit so that the overall system is really a screamer?

Ultimately, we opted for the latter approach. Doing our shopping via Newegg we built on the base configuration we established with our $1,500 machine, but tweaked upward wherever we could. A number of things we just didn’t bother to change. We went with the same case (the $99.99 NZXT H2), power supply (the Thermaltake TR2 TRX-650M, priced at just $59.99 after rebate), and motherboard (the Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3, which this time we caught on an outstanding special-rebate combo for just $104.99), CPU (the $219.99 Intel Core i5-2500K).

As we mentioned last time, we arranged for our previous hard drive, a $99.99 1.5TB Western Digital Caviar Black, just before the recent Thailand floods caused an ungainly price spike throughout the hard drive market. Unfortunately we couldn't avoid paying more for less this time, but we decided to give up some speed and get more capacity with a 2TB Western Digital Caviar Green ($189.99)—it uses less energy and spins more slowly. But we weren't too concerned about rotational speed, because this time we had enough money to set up a two-drive system with one of the drives having more than enough speed to compensate: a solid-state drive (SSD), the price of which hasn't been adversely affected by the flooding. We settled on a 120GB OCZ Vertex 3—it’s not necessarily the fastest drive you can get, and certainly its capacity is nothing to email home about, but at $149.99 after rebate it’s a compelling entrée into the segment. Pairing that as an OS drive with a larger storage drive meant we’d get the best of both worlds, which is exactly what we wanted.

We made use of every other inch of wiggle room we could find in our budget, too—and the value-oriented components we'd already selected made it easier to splurge in a few other places. One of them was the third drive we needed: an Asus Black Blu-ray burner for our optical storage needs. Coming in at just $69.79 after a mail-in rebate, it would let us both read Blu-ray discs and burn DVDs—a nice combination. We also decided to spend a bit more ($94.99) on 8GB of extra-fast Corsair Vengeance memory, so we’d be able to maximize efficiency wherever we could to make up for the less-speedy-than-absolutely-ideal processor.

Last but by no means least was the video card. We didn’t even have a choice here: It had to be based on the Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 chipset—the fastest you can get in a single GPU card. We lucked out and found an overclocked EVGA version for $479.99 after rebate that we knew would make an outstanding centerpiece for our system.

For less than $1,500, we had put together a computer that would kill with nearly everything we threw at it, and that looked terrific to boot. Yes, for $2,000 we could go even further, but this system left us no room for complaints.

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Samsung Galaxy Camera up for pre-order in India

Samsung has started taking pre-orders for its Android-based camera, the Samsung Galaxy Camera, on its online e-store in India. Consumers interested in pre-ordering the Samsung Galaxy Camera will have to pay an initial amount of Rs. 3,000, with the rest to be paid within three days of the launch of the device. Those that pre-order the camera will get a 16GB microSD card free. There is no cash on delivery option provided by the South Korean manufacturer and those that have pre-ordered the Samsung Galaxy Camera will be notified via email prior to its availability.Those consumers that do not pay the full amount within three days of pre-ordering the device will not get the free 16GB microSD card and those that don't pay the balance amount within 15 days of availability will have to forfeit the Rs. 3,000 booking amount.Samsung has used the same sales strategy in the past with the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S III, Samsung Galaxy Note II and the Samsung Galaxy Note 800.Those of you that are interested in pre-booking the Samsung Galaxy Camera can do so here.The Samsung Galaxy Camera runs on Google Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and is powered by a 1.4GHz quad-core processor.It has a 16MP BSI CMOS 1/2.3" sensor, and a wide angle (23mm) lens with 21X optical zoom. It sports a 4.77-inch 308ppi HD Super Clear LCD. On the face, the Galaxy Camera feels like a camera because of its build and physical shutter button but flip it over and the device feels like an Android smartphone.This isn't the first Android camera we've heard of. Nikon recently launched the 16MP Coolpix S800c, which runs on Android, and is meant to be the ideal device for those who often share on social networks. Check out our review of the S800c, here.You can take a look at our hands on with the Samsung Galaxy Camera here.

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12 Great Tips to Scan Your Family Pictures

In the age of digital photos, photo scanners are still around largely because most of us—or our parents and grandparents—have collections of old film-based photos. Most people would like to get those photos scanned, if they could only figure out how. If that's the boat you're in, here are some tips that can help.

1. Face Reality. Scanning photos is a time-intensive operation. Almost anything that speeds it up (other than buying a faster scanner) lowers scan quality. So pick the level of quality you want, and then accept the amount of work that comes with it.

2. Know Your Classes of Scanners. If you're still looking for a scanner, the balance of scan quality and ease of use should be your key concern. Unfortunately, the scanners that are easiest to use tend to have the lowest quality. That said, if you'll be satisfied with scans that are suitable for viewing onscreen or reprinting at the same size—although with noticeable color shifts and loss of resolution—consider using an inexpensive sheet fed scanner like the Kodak P461 Personal Photo Scanner ($139.99 direct, 4 stars). These scanners make all the settings decisions for you so all you have to do is feed the photos through a slot.

For quality suitable for just about anyone but a pro or prosumer, consider an inexpensive flatbed scanner, like the Editors' Choice Epson Perfection V300 Photo ($99.99 direct, 4 stars). For still better quality, consider a more expensive flatbed, like the Epson Perfection V700 Photo ($550 street, 4 stars). Also keep in mind that for the best quality, you should skip the printed photo, and scan the original negative instead, if it's available, preferably with a scanner like the V700, which can scan 12 slides at once.

3. Scanners on MFPs Aren't Great. Most MFPs are aimed at scanning documents and are best avoided for photo scanning. You can recognize the few exceptions by options in their scan utilities that are clearly meant for photos, like a color restore feature. Even for those, however, don't expect great quality. The best MFPs we've seen at PC Labs are in the same class as an inexpensive flatbed.

4. Choose a WIA or TWAIN Scan Drivers. Many scanners give you the choice of scanning with a separate scan utility or by calling up a driver from a program -- using PhotoShop's File 

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No Android 4.2 update for Nexus S and Motorola Xoom

In a move that might spell the end of the line for these two devices, Google announced that there will be no Android 4.2 Jelly Bean updates for the Nexus S and the Motorola Xoom, two previous platform lead devices. The latest version of Google’s massively popular Android smartphone OS was launched this week, to rave reviews and much anticipation. Jean-Baptise Queru, technical lead, Android Open Source Project, posted on an Android Building Google Groups page, “There is no support for 4.2 on Nexus S and XOOM. Those devices should continue using 4.1.2. I can’t comment about the future of Nexus S and XOOM, sorry.”After this official statement, there is very little else that can be predicted about the future of these devices. However, there is the possibility that Google might find a way to give Nexus S and Motorola XOOM users a small look at the features that the latest version of Android would’ve offered them. As platform lead devices, both have been iconic in the development of Android-supported phones and tablets (the Motorola XOOM was the first tablet to use Honeycomb, while the Nexus S phone was the first to use Ice Cream Sandwich), and there are a lot of dedicated fans and users out there who’ll be unhappy with Google’s decision to stop support for them for newer versions of the Android OS.Only time will tell if there is likely to be some development that lets Nexus S and Motorola XOOM users access the newest version of the Jelly Bean OS. Currently, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean is available for the Nexus 7 and various versions of the Galaxy Nexus.

 

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Your New iPad: What You Need to Know

When talk turns toward tablets, it's extremely difficult to overlook the Apple iPad ($499, 4.5 stars), which single-handedly created the new take on slates and inspired several clones. Here's what you need to get started with your brand new iPad.

Get an iPad Case. The iPad is a marvel of sleek modern gadget design, so why risk scratching the beautiful aluminum? Or worse, enduring the pain that comes when the large, 9.7-inch glass display suffers a crack? Your first order of business is to protect the slate from damage by purchasing an iPad case. Fortunately, there is a wide variety of iPad cases available, ranging from lightweight sleeves to advanced cases that can be folded into a stand that props your iPad in prime position for typing, gaming, video viewing, or ebook reading. Regardless of your choice, make sure you get an iPad case. You'll be glad you did.

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PC version of Borderlands 2 gets a mammoth patch

A mammoth patch for the PC version of the hit game Borderlands 2 has been released. While immensely enjoyable, the game hasn’t been without its issues. November 13 saw the release of a major Borderlands 2 patch, which fixed various glitches and bugs, and also repaired a slew of broken missions.Here are a few of the major changes, as detailed by developers Gearbox: Fixed fast travel stations from downloadable content sometimes disappearing when loading a saved game. Fixed an issue where players could occasionally be unable to connect to one another if one of them had recently been in DLC that the other doesn't have. Fixed an issue where players were sometimes unable to pick items up after another player had bulk-picked-up a nearby item. Improved PhysX fluid rendering quality at high resolutions. Fixed an issue causing players to sometimes crash or freeze after killing Master Gee in the Captain Scarlett DLC. Fixed challenges showing inaccurate completion amounts for area-specific challenges. Fixed a bug where the player's active mission would sometimes fall back to main-game missions when completing other missions in DLC areas. Fixed a bug that could cause players to lose mission rewards that they had not claimed when switching between Normal mode and True Vault Hunter mode. Added a confirmation dialog when opening the golden chest in Sanctuary. Fixed a bug causing players to sometimes get stuck zoomed in when in "Fight for Your Life" mode. Balance adjustments to "The Bee": Increased Recharge Delay Significantly increased Recharge Rate Reduced level of DLC raid bosses in Normal Mode. Fixed issue resulting in infinite leveling exploit with Fleshstick. Increased the health of Terramorphous, Willhelm, and Blue.Fixed issues with the following missions that could cause players to get stuck or not be able to complete them: Plan B Wildlife Preservation Mighty Morphin Animal Rescue: Food The Man Who Would Be Jack Get To Know Jack Where Angels Fear to Tread Trailer Trashing Clan War: First Place Stalker of Stalkers The Once and Future Slab Home Movies Shielded Favors You Are Cordially Invited: Tea Party (Captain Scarlett) Freedom of Speech

 

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Ion Audio Expands iCade to Entire Line of Mobile Gaming Products

LAS VEGAS – Last year, Ion Audio released the iCade, an arcade cabinet for the iPad that at first was a joke made by ThinkGeek.com. While it began as an April Fool's gag, demand was no joke, turning it into one of the most recognizeable gaming accesssories for the iPad. Ion Audio is now expanding it into an entire line of mobile gaming products.

The iCade Jr. is just that: a junior version of the iCade. It's an arcade cabinet for a smartphone, not an iPad. Because it's much smaller, it could be seen as a novelty device, but Ion Audio added a set of back buttons to serve as additional ways to control games, and to let users hold the cabinet like a gamepad.

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Nokia introduces Here Maps for multiple mobile platforms and web

Nokia has unveiled a new mapping service called Here, which will be available on multiple platforms apart from Nokia smartphones, with a free HTML5 based iOS app due in the coming weeks. Nokia's Here app for iOS will include offline capabilities, voice-guided walk navigation, and public transport directions."People want great maps, and with HERE we can bring together Nokia's location offering to deliver people a better way to explore, discover and share their world," said Nokia President and CEO Stephen Elop. "Additionally, with HERE we can extend our 20 years of location expertise to new devices and operating systems that reach beyond Nokia. As a result, we believe that more people benefit from and contribute to our leading mapping and location service."Nokia also announced a strategic partnership with Mozilla to bring Here Maps to the Firefox OS. Nokia says it plans to debut a mobile web version of Here Maps for the new Firefox OS next year.Nokia also demonstrated an Android OS-based reference application and announced plans for the availability of a Here SDK for Android OEMs in early 2013. This is aimed at enabling partners to create location-based applications for Android devices with Nokia's leading content.To advance the 3D capabilities of Here, Nokia also announced its plans to acquire ‘earthmine’, based out of Berkeley, California. The company's reality capture and processing technologies will become integral parts of Here's 3D map-making capabilities. Nokia expects the transaction to close by the end of 2012.Those interested can take a look at the online version of Here, here.It would be great to see the Here make an appearance on iOS especially after Apple removed the native Google Maps app with the introduction of iOS 6 and its own maps apps that hasn't received the warmest of welcomes.Source: Nokia press page

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Build a Touch-Screen All-in-One Desktop

Normally 'round these parts we restrict our build projects to standard desktops. After all, those are what most DIYers do, and the vast majority of hardware on the market has them in mind. But you don't need to be left out of the building game just because you don't need (or want) a PC that boxy. With the right kind of help, you can build almost anything—even an all-in-one desktop.

That's right. You may think that these systems, which combine the computer and display in one attractive package, are too complicated or esoteric to put together at home, but you're wrong. You can build one with (almost) all the currently available components you want, at a price you can afford to pay—and you can even get a touch screen as part of the bargain. When you're through, you won't only have a solid system (that you can further upgrade at your discretion), you'll also have an attractive showpiece ready for display in your living room, kitchen, or anywhere else in your home you might want a computer but not a bulky tower.

Did we mention that it's also not that much harder than constructing a regular desktop? That's because you don't have to worry about actually putting together the screen yourself, or even fiddling around in ultra-cramped spaces to get the motherboard installed and working. We found a bare-bones kit that contains all the basics (the chassis, with the screen and the motherboard preinstalled; a heat sink; fan; and even an adjustable stand so you won't need to bother with wall mounting), and runs you just $449. Once you have this, your work is essentially half done.

Admittedly, the ECS AIO G11 LED Multitouch with Motherboard is not the fullest-featured system in the world. Its "extras" count a handful of USB ports, Ethernet, HDMI out, headphone and microphone jacks, a multiformat card reader, one Mini-PCI Express slot for a bit of expansion (in case you want to add Wi-Fi connectivity, for example), and not much else.  And there are certain things, such as play intense 3D games, that you'll never be able to do very well on the G11.  But if you're okay with that, it has a nice 21.5-inch screen and a simple, clean, and attractive design, complete with a glossy finish and a laid-back look that should help it fit snugly into any décor.

As for the rest of the components, you have some limitations, but still a lot of choice. The big boundary is the motherboard, which can only use Intel Sandy Bridge processors with TDPs of 65 watts or less—this means that top-of-the-line chips, like the Core i5-2500K and the Core i7-2600K, are off-limits. RAM needs to be in the form of SO-DIMMs, which are considerably smaller than the DIMMs desktops typically use. And if you want an optical drive, it must be the half-height variety. But you can still choose from a wide selection of processors, memory (the system can hold up to 16GB), and hard drives (you can use full-speed 3.5-inch models), so feel free to go as far as your imagination—and your bank account—will take you.

We wanted to keep our choices (and thus our budget) relatively modest, so we went with an Intel Core i3-2120 CPU (for $117), 8GB of Kingston memory ($39.99), a 2TB Western Digital Caviar Black hard drive ($199.99), and a Lite-On DS-8A5S DVD burner ($32.99). But faster processors, double the memory, and a lot more hard drive space are possible if you want them. On the next pages, we'll demonstrate the process of combining all this hardware into a finished, working all-in-one; even if you think you know the drill, it's worth checking out to see an example of something you might never have known you could build—but that could be just what you need to round out your home technology collection.

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