EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Superclocked+ review: See how this card unleashes Maxwell’s true power

Heading into this week, I eagerly anticipated reviewing the most powerful single-GPU graphics card to ever grace PCWorld’s test bench—and I wasn’t disappointed. But the card that claimed that title wasn’t the one I expected! While AMD’s new, hotly anticipated Radeon R9 Fury X is a beast in its own right, the title of new heavyweight champion instead lies with EVGA’s $680 GeForce GTX 980 Ti Superclocked+ with ACX 2.0+(whew!), a custom-cooled, overclocked variant of Nvidia’s ferocious GTX 980 Ti.

EVGA sent me this card out of the blue on the same day I received the Fury X—a coincidence, I’m sure. But the GTX 980 Ti Superclocked+ doesn’t just triumph over AMD’s new flagship, it outpunches Nvidia’s own $1000 Titan X in raw firepower.

What’s more, even though AMD’s dual-GPU Radeon R9 295x2 still manages to outrun EVGA’s beast, the GTX 980 Ti Superclocked+ illuminates a key advantage the 980 Ti family holds over all other 4K-capable graphics cards.

Let’s dig in!

EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Superclocked+ under the hood

The EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Superclocked+’s spec list. Click to enlarge any image in this article.

For the most part, EVGA’s card rocks the same basic tech specs as the reference GTX 980 Ti, which we covered in full in our initial review of Nvidia’s gaming goliath. You find the same 2,048 CUDA cores, the same 6GB of GDDR5 memory with a 7Gbps clock speed and a 384-bit bus, the same port selection, et cetera. You can find more details about Nvidia’s GM200 chip itself in our earlier review. The chart at right has the basic technical information specifically for the EVGA GTX 980 Ti Superclocked (henceforth to be referred to as the GTX 980 Ti SC+).

So what makes the EVGA GTX 980 Ti SC+ so special? The (full) name gives it all away. The card ditches the GTX 980 Ti’s reference cooling in favor of EVGA’s respected ACX 2.0+ cooling system, which has made an appearance on several Nvidia GPUs at this point. Rather than talking about its dual fans, custom heat pipe, MOSFET cooling pipe, and quiet operation yet again, here’s an EVGA-supplied diagram showing it all. You’ll see the end results in our benchmarking section.

Apple takes a greater role in Bluetooth development

The company has been named to a permanent seat on the board of directors for the wireless standard.

Apple will be playing a larger role in the development of Bluetooth as the company pushes into wearable technology, home automation, and more.
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group, which oversees the development of the wireless communication standard, announced Tuesday that Apple has become a “promoter member” of the group, giving the company new power to guide Bluetooth’s development. Promoter members are given a continual seat on the group’s board of directors, and are also the only membership class that can vote on its corporate matters.

How to create an insane multiple monitor setup with three, four, or more displays

Studies have shown that dual monitors can increase productivity, but the jury’s still out on whether adding even more monitors means even more productivity. That aside, having multiple monitors (and I’m talking three, four, five, or even six) is just…awesome, and something you totally need in your life.

Right now, my main PC has a triple-monitor setup: my main 27-inch central monitor and my two 24-inch side monitors. I use my extra monitors for a number of things, such as comparing spreadsheets side-by-side, writing articles while also doing research, keeping tabs on my social media feeds, and, of course, watching Netflix.

A vertically-oriented monitor can save you a lot of scrolling trouble in long documents. If you’re a gamer, well, I don’t need to sell you on three-plus monitors can be for games that support multi-monitor setups. You just need to plan ahead. Here’s our full guide on setting up multiple multiple monitors—and all the factors you’ll need to take into account before you do so.

ROBERT CARDIN

Check your graphics card(s)

Before you run out and buy a bunch of extra monitors, check to see whether your computer is physically capable of handling all that graphics prowess. The easiest way to do this is to look at the back of your PC: How many graphics ports (DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort, and VGA) do you see?

If you do not have a discrete graphics card, you may only see video two ports—most motherboards come with integrated graphics that can only run dual-monitor setups. If you do have a discrete graphics card, you'll probably see at least three ports, not including the ports on your motherboard.

Tip: While it is possible to set up multiple monitors using ports on both your motherboard and your discrete graphics card, you’ll see a performance drop and some lag when you move windows between monitors. If you want to do this, you will also need to enter your PC’s BIOS and go toConfiguration > Video > Integrated graphics device and set it to “Always enable.”

 

How technology is changing the way we shop, forever

Shopping used to be an intimate dance between the consumer and a sales person, but increasingly it’s one that’s going the way of the waltz. A recent study revealed 58 percent of shoppers prefer to look up information on their smartphone or tablet while shopping in a store rather than speak to a store employee.

That shift speaks to the way technology has dramatically transformed the retail experience over the last several years. Apps like Amazon Price Check and BuyVia allow consumers to comparison shop on their phones while in stores—a phenomenon called“showrooming” that nearly half of Americans have participated in. Virtual dressing rooms let shoppers “try on” clothes without the hassle of standing in fitting room lines with an armful of outfits. Near-field communication apps such as Google Wallet facilitate purchases at checkout without tendering physical payment. Apple even lets shoppers walk into their stores and make a purchase without interacting with a single human being. All of these tools empower consumers to get the best deals with the least amount of work.

Google's clock app now available for download in the Play Store

This move lets Google update the app as often as it wishes without the carriers or manufacturers getting in the way.print

If the clock app that came with your phone is terrible, or if you just want to check out Google’s take on time management, then grab the clock app from the Play Store.

The Google clock app functions as an alarm, timer, stopwatch, or of course a world clock.

The app, with version 4.0.1, is the same as what you’ll find in the Android M developer preview. Along with functioning as a stopwatch and alarm to wake you up for the daily grind, you can check the time in hundreds of cities worldwide. It also plays with Google Now’s voice commands. When you say, “OK Google, set an alarm” the app will be at the ready.

The story behind the story: This is the latest in a long line of dominoes to fall. Google puts its apps in the Play Store so it can update them directly. Otherwise you’d have to wait for an Android operating system update - and we all know how long that takes.

Behold the beast: Full AMD Radeon R9 Fury X tech specs and design details revealed

AMD's taken the full wraps off its cutting-edge graphics card. Here's every detail you need to know.

AMD’s formal unveiling of the beastly new Radeon R9 Fury X at E3 earlier this revealed a lot about the graphics card, but several technical details were left glaringly undetailed. Today, AMD’s taking the wraps off the rest of the information, giving us a full profile of its impressive new $650 flagship—a flagship where just as much care was spent on aesthetics as on raw technological firepower.

We’ll go through it all in detail, but let’s kick things off with the premier feature: The Fury X’s revolutionary high-bandwidth memory.

AMD's HBM design.

Traditional dies for GDDR5 DRAM need to be arrayed on the board around the graphics processor, which sucks up a ton of space on the card. HBM is a new technology that stacks DRAM vertically instead, connecting the dies and the GPU via interposers. You can read all about HBM here, but in a nutshell, it requires far less room on the graphics card and also delivers a ton of memory bandwidth, by pairing low clock speeds with a ridiculously wide memory interface.

Specifically, the HBM in the Radeon R9 Fury X is clocked at a mere 1Gbps. That may seem paltry when compared to the 7Gbps speeds standard to the traditional GDDR5 memory in Nvidia’s flagship graphics cards. But Nvidia’s GDDR5 memory travels over a 384-bit-wide interface, which the Fury X’s 4GB of HBM utilizes a 4,096-bit bus. Yes, you read that correctly. That combination gives the Fury X 512GBps of total memory bandwidth, compared to the ferocious GTX 980 Ti’s 336.5GBps.

Craziness.

The AMD Fiji GPU at the heart of the Fury X.

AMD Radeon R9 Fury X tech specs. (Click to enlarge.)

HBM’s drastically reduced footprint also lets AMD pack a ton of tech into its new Fiji GPU—literally. Fiji rocks 4,096 stream processors and 8.9 billiontransistors, compared to the older R9 290X’s 2,816 stream processors and 6.3 billion transistors. (Nvidia's Titan X packs 8 billion.) Clocked at up to 1,050MHz, it’s able to pump out up to 8.6 teraflops of compute performance. You can see the full tech specs for the Fury X’s HBM and Fiji processor in the chart at right.

All that power needs a pair of 8-pin connectors and 275 watts from the wall under heavy gaming scenarios, which is similar to the 980 Ti’s needs. (Nvidia’s card asks for 250W).

So now for the elephant in the room: How does the Fury X compare against Nvidia’s similarly priced GeForce GTX 980 Ti? It’s impossible to tell until we’ve put the Radeon through its review paces, given that AMD’s stream processors and Nvidia’s CUDA core technology aren't directly comparable, and HBM adds an unknown factor. But these AMD-supplied benchmarks—which were obviously chosen to place the Radeon in the best possible light—show the two cards performing fairly neck-and-neck in most games. You'll find the graphics settings AMD used in each game here.

AMD-supplied benchmark results pitting the Radeon Fury X against Nvidia's GeForce GTX 980 Ti in several games at 4K resolution.

But the liquid-cooled Fury X was made to be overclocked. “You’ll be able to overclock this thing like no tomorrow,” AMD CTO Joe Macri said at the card's unveiling. “This is an overclocker’s dream.” So here are more AMD-supplied benchmarks showing performance gains in various games after a 100MHz overclock is applied to the Fury X.

Remember: That's all with the Radeon R9 Fury X being water-cooled—Nvidia's 980 Ti relies on air. You have to wonder how the benchmarks will shake out when the air-cooled Radeon R9 Fury launches July 14. Hey! That’s a nice segue to…

AMD Radeon R9 Fury X design details

AMD’s new flagship draws a lot of design cues from the Radeon R9 295x2, AMD’s immensely powerful dual-GPU graphics card from the R200 series generation.

As mentioned, the Radeon R9 Fury X sports a fully integrated water cooling solution. It cools all elements of the graphics card, eliminating the need for a fan on the card’s board, which allowed AMD to eliminate the grill on the rear port bracket and extend the shroud to the sides of the graphics card—an area left open in many graphics card designs. Locking down the card so tightly prevents heat from your other PC components from interfering with the Fury X’s cooling, AMD representatives said.

AMD's Radeon Fury X graphics card alongside its the fan and radiator for its integrated liquid cooling.

The closed-loop liquid cooling solution itself is a custom design dreamed up by AMD and Cooler Master, paired with a 120mm Nidec Gentle Typhoon on the radiator. That fan can spin up to 3000 rpm, though representatives say it mostly spins at a much quieter 1500 rpm. AMD claims the liquid cooling keeps temperatures at a chilly 50 degrees Celsius—similar performance to the Radeon R9 295x2’s integrated liquid cooling—with noise levels around 35 decibels. Hey overclockers: AMD says this cooler supports up to 500 watts of thermal capacity.

In case it isn’t obvious yet, the Fury X uses a very unique design. So unique, in fact, that AMD’s add-in board partners (like Asus, MSI, and Sapphire) won’t be able to customize the card with their own cooling solutions. The Fury X will be reference design-only, though AIBs will be able to tinker with the air-cooled Radeon R9 Fury released in July.

That means all Fury X cards will be physically similar no matter which manufacturer you buy from.

The Fury X measures a mere 7.5 inches long, or 30 percent shorter than the older R9 290X. It’s constructed of multiple pieces of die-cast black nickel aluminum, finished with a mirror gloss on the exoskeleton and black soft-touch on the side plates. Removing four hex screws will let you take off the shroud; the Fury X also features a full backplate. (Yes!)

Port-wise, you’ll find three full-size DisplayPorts as well as an HDMI 1.4a connection. AMD learned the folly of the Radeon R9 295x2's heavy reliance on Mini-DisplayPort connections, it seems, though the lack of HDMI 2.0 means you'll be limited to 30Hz when pushing 4K video through that port. The Fury X is capable of driving up to six displays simultaneously, though doing so would obviously require a DisplayPort hub.

The AMD Radeon R9 Fury X's backplate, side shroud, and power pins (with "GPU tach" lights).

You’ll find an LED-illuminated Radeon logo on the face and outer edge of the card, as well as a new feature: 8 small lights located above the 8-pin power connectors. Dubbed “GPU tach” (as in “tachometer”) by AMD, more of these lights will flare to life the harder you push your graphics card—a nifty gimmick, though I’m not sure that cranking it to 8 has quite the same allure as cranking it to 11. A ninth green LED will illuminate when the GPU is put to sleep by AMD’s ZeroCore technology.

Speaking of cranking it to 11—er, 8—AMD’s PR keeps stressing that the Fury X will be a kick-ass overclocker. The card’s design speaks to that, featuring a dual BIOS switch, 6-Phase power design with up to 400 amps of power delivery, and AMD’s standard SVI2 interface to the voltage regulator, which sports full telemetry readback and lets you tinker with power settings via AMD’s PowerTune. (If you didn’t understand any of that, don’t sweat it—they’re hardcore overclocking features.) And while the Fury X typically draws just 275W of power while gaming, the dual 8-pin connectors support up to 375W. Read: OVERCLOCK ME.

Finally, the Fury X supports all the software features you’d expect: the next-gen DirectX 12 and Vulkan APIs, FreeSync, Virtual Super Resolution, the aforementioned PowerTune, and AMD’s new frame rate targeting control, which allows you to set a maximum frame rate output to reduce power draw and, by association, noise output. Here are more AMD-supplied benchmarks showing FRTC in action:

Ubuntu Server Free Download

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Ubuntu Server Overview

Ubuntu server is a fast and free of cost Debian based Linux distribution. Ubuntu is an operating system that is perfect for desktop, laptop and servers. It is equally useful for anyone whether at home or at work as it contains all the necessary applications that one needs frequently like word processor and Email applications etc.

One thing that is good about this tool is that they say it is free and always will remain free. You don’t need to pay any fee for using this tool. So what else one wants a tool which has all the basic ingredients required for performing every day tasks on the PC without any charge. You can share Ubuntu with your friends and family without paying anything.

Ubuntu server issues a new version after every six months which means you ca  enjoy new apps which are offered by the open source world. One thing that every user has concerns about is security. Ubuntu has it in mind and provides the best possible security for 18 months without pay even a penny.

The installation process of Ubuntu server is quick and takes less than 25 minutes to accomplish. Once installation process is completed you can immediately access the full features of Ubuntu and can use it.
Ubuntu server does not have its own interface. During installation the tool give choice to the users to add different services like DNS, PostgreSQL, SAMBA etc.

A version of Eucalyptus is also included in the Ubuntu server which is an open source tool for implementing Linux on public or Private clouds.
On a conclusive note we can say that Ubuntu server is a tool which will give you everything you need.

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• Free of cost.
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• A version of Eucalyptus included.

Ubuntu Server System Requirements:

Before you start Ubuntu Server free download, make sure your system meets the minimum system requirements.

• Operating System: Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8
• Processor: 700MHz Processor
• RAM: 512MB
• Hard Disk Space: 7GB space required

Technical Setup Details For Ubuntu Server

• Software Name: Ubuntu Server 13.10
• File name: ubuntu-13.10-server-amd64.iso
• Setup Full Size: 672 MB
• Latest Version Release Added On: 11th Feb 2014
• Developers: Ubuntu Server
• License: Freeware

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Hands-on: Windows 10 Mobile build 10136 shows polished Cortana, new Photo app

Microsoft claims the latest version of its Cortana digital assistant within build 10136 of Windows 10 Mobile is nearly complete, and it shows. It launches quickly, provides a comprehensive view of your day, and sparkles, fresh and clean.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite as impressed with the rest of it.

Microsoft released the latest build of Windows 10 Mobile on Wednesday, after warningthat prospective testers would either have to downgrade their existing Windows 10 Mobile phones back to Windows Phone 8.1 or else upgrade a newer phone. I chose the latter, upgrading the massive Lumia 1520 phablet to the latest build.

That proved fortuitous, because build 10136 adds a one-handed mode for straphangers, covert texting, and other scenarios where you can’t hold your phone with two hands. Microsoft also delivered a lovely update to the Photos app, organizing your photos thoroughly—and, even better, adding the Lumia Camera app to phones like the Nokia Icon. There’s also a number of other random, minor UI improvements scattered throughout. But Cortana's the star attraction for Windows Phone, and the app looks and feels terrific.

What's not so terrific in this build: an inability to pin tiles to the home screen, multiple Search (Cortana) apps, Live Tiles that either wouldn’t work or simply stopped working, and the like. I can certainly chalk these up to preview software, but let’s hope Microsoft solves these problems soon.

First, the good news: Cortana looks great

MARK HACHMAN

Here’s the overview of what Cortana thinks you need to know.

Google Now, Apple’s Siri, and Microsoft’s Cortana continue to elbow each other aside as the three digital assistants compete to be the most prescient and helpful. Following Apple’s unveiling of improvements to Siri with iOS 9, it’s now Microsoft’s turn to improve Cortana, and build 10136 does just that.

Each assistant has its own style: Siri works quietly behind the scenes. Google Now briskly doles out a series of cards. Cortana provides a one-page executive summary of what she believes you ought to see, and presents it to you when you trigger what’s now called the Search app.

After a bit of introduction, Cortana gets down to work: She opened my page with the score of the Oakland A’s game in progress, reminded me I had a water bill to pay, and finished off with the latest Microsoft news. Be sure and scroll down—there was actually a long list of items that includes local weather and nearby places to eat, arranged in a card-like fashion.

Cortana didn’t find a note from Amazon announcing that a shipment was en route, as it promises to do. When I asked, “where is my package,” it snapped up a list of search results lickety-split—not the answer I was looking for, though. You can ask her stock prices and other facts, and the results were swift in my experience.

MARK HACHMAN

Cortana on (from left to right) Windows 8.1 Update, Windows 10 Mobile Build 10030, Windows 10 Mobile Build 10136.

What I like about this version of Cortana is that she is explicitly helpful. Cortana explained that she was providing me the in-game score, and also asked midway down the page whether I wanted to continue receiving restaurant recommendations. Google does this as well, but much more impersonally. 

If this is the Cortana Microsoft ships as part of Windows 10, I think you’ll like it.

A series of Live Tile issues, solved with a reboot

You may experience some problems with Live Tiles on the home screen after installing the new build; I did.  For whatever reason, I was able to add apps as Live Tiles soon after the build was installed. But I quickly found that I couldn’t add any more apps, and that those that I had installed on the start screen either failed to show live information or inexplicably stopped working. They even rearranged themselves randomly on one occasion. That prevented apps like Cortana or my battery meter from displaying live information. Fortunately, a reboot seemed to solve the problem. 

The new build also showed me two identical Search and Phone apps in my app list, leaving me to wonder which one was “wrong.”

Photos continues to look better

Microsoft’s Photos app has evolved into a universal app that will eventually straddle PCs, tablets, and phones, and it looks like it: The thumbnails are a bit smaller than you may be used to on Windows Phone 8.1, and they load slowly. They are, however, more neatly organized, especially with a new by-month view that allows you to quickly find your vacation photos from last August. 

The month-by-monthn view within the new Photos app helps you find shots quickly.

If you’re running the new build on one of Microsoft’s somewhat tired flagship phones—the 930, Icon, or 1520, as well as the new Lumia 640 or Lumia 640XL—Microsoft recommends that you download the new Lumia Camera beta app. It allows you to shoot video with Lumia Moments, then extract pictures; quickly snap pics with the camera; and dynamically adjust the flash using Rich Capture. Unfortunately, Microsoft thought I had maxed out the number of Windows phones allowed under my account and wouldn’t let me download the app. Still, I’ve tried the new camera apps elsewhere and can wholeheartedly recommend them.

One-handed use: sort of, well, meh...

I’m a big fan of phablets, and I carry a bag that typically holds the Lumia 1520, a Lumia Icon, and a Samsung Galaxy Note 3. But on any crowded Bay Area BART train, I find it difficult to fumble with my phone while holding on to a strap or handrail. Microsoft solves this problem—sort of—via long-press of the Windows home key, which moves the top of the screen closer to your stretching fingers.

This works all right in practice. Aesthetically, I dislike the black background that Microsoft shows on the top of the screen while the rest of it is pulled down. It feels like you’ve fallen off the home screen. (Show the background instead!) But it works, including the ability to pull down the top drawer of quick-action items.

A potpourri of icon changes

Microsoft also made a number of random changes to the new build’s UI. The PIN pad is transparent, for example. The quick-action shortcuts on the top of the screen differ somewhat from the last build, too—they’re flatter, and boast a different font. I noticed that when I tapped the back arrow to load a previous app, a grid of apps appeared, rather than a horizontal queue.  Microsoft also tucked a new background behind my home screen, of a swimmer cutting though the water.

The new Action icons within Wndows 10 Mobile.

Because I loaded the new build of Windows 10 onto a new phone, I wasn’t able to draw direct comparisons to the performance of the new build, one over the other. It’s quite a mixed bag, however. Cortana’s responses were extremely snappy, to the point that I wondered if frequent requests were cached on the phone. But every time I jumped back to the home screen, I saw a “loading” icon for a second or two. I don’t want to see that, ever.

My Surface Pro 3 also failed to recognize the Windows Phone when connected to it. The phone's OneDrive app doesn’t seem to quite work, either, so it’s a bit of a pain getting photos off the device. Twitter’s app repeatedly crashed, as well.

We can chalk all that up to beta software. Still, the clock’s ticking. If the reports are correct, we have about three and a half months, max, before Windows Mobile 10 rolls out. I’m enthused by how Cortana looks. The next step is applying the same sort of rigor to the remainder of the operating system and its apps.

RoboLinux v7 Free Download

RoboLinux v7 Free Download ISO Latest Version. It is full Bootable Final ISO Image of RoboLinux v7 for 32 bit 64 bit PC.

RoboLinux v7 Overview

Robolinux is a Linux distribution system which has its roots in Debian GNU/Linux operating system and is tilted more towards those Windows users who are planning to shift towards open Linux platform. Robolinux is free of viruses and malware as all the other Linux based operating systems. It is very customizable and has the capability to configure many hardware components automatically. You can also download Kali Linux.

RoboLinux has the ability to install Windows XP or 7 virtual machines instantly with just a single click with the help of powerful VirtualBox virtualization tool. It also gives you the feasibility to install more than 300,000 software packages with a single mouse click. It also lets you installs drivers for every WiFi adopter, printer or graphics card. You may also like to download Slackware.

RoboLinux v7 has got a very user friendly interface and it is actually very highly customizable GNOME 3 desktop environment. It consists of two portions. The upper portion has got main menu, clock, calendar and an area for system tray. While the bottom portion is dedicated for launching applications.  RoboLinux v7 has most of the applications based on GNOME preinstalled into the it like GNOME Disk Utility, GNOME Terminal, Gedit text editor and Tomboy notes etc. It has got the entire LibreOffice suite preinstalled into it and has also got Firefox and Google Chrome web browsers. You may also like to download Tails 1.3 32 Bit ISO

All in all RoboLinux v7 is a very handy operating system which has got all the GNOME apps preinstalled into it and serves as a bridge for all the Windows users to shift to Linux OS.

Features of RoboLinux v7

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• Based on Debian GNU/Linux operating system.
• Free of viruses and malwares.
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• Can install more than 300,000 software packages  easily.
• Let you install drivers for every WiFi adopter, printer and graphics card.
• User friendly interface.
• Entire LibreOffice suite preinstalled.
• Empowered with Google Chrome and Firefox web browsers.

RoboLinux v7 Technical Setup Details

• Software Full Name: RoboLinux v7.9.1 GNOME x86 x64
• Setup File Name: robolinux32-live-gnome-v7.9.1.iso, robolinux64-live-gnome-v7.9.1.iso
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• Setup Type: Offline Installer / Full Standalone Setup
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System Requirements For RoboLinux v7

Before you start RoboLinux v7 free download, make sure your PC meets minimum system requirements.

• Memory (RAM): 1GB of RAM required.
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PowerDVD 15 review: The best picture, bar none

At a Glance

Chances are that if you purchased a computer with a Blu-ray drive, it shipped with a version of Cyberlink’s PowerDVD. No free solution will play commercial Blu-ray discs, and vendors like to avoid user complaints when they can.
But PowerDVD also has another strength that will endear it to just about everyone—incredible-looking output. Cyberlink’s TrueTheater effects bring old movies to life and make modern animated films, which generally look darn good to begin with, appear as if they were rendered at twice the resolution. It’s not half-bad with mainstream movies either.
PowerDVD 15, released today, adds a small set of refinements and yet another trick to make video look better.

Interface and cataloging

PowerDVD is rendered in a riff on the Windows 8/Metro style, which works quite nicely with Windows 10, 8, and 7. It’s easy to navigate the main window and major features, but options could be better organized and placed. While you’re playing music, for instance, the EQ is readily available, but the effects are two dialogs deep. Also, because of the ultra-thin borders and dead-center alignment of stacked dialogs, it can be difficult to tell which elements belong to which. I clicked the wrong "close" button more than once.
On the other hand, Cyberlink has backed off on the automatic cataloging of files. In PowerDVD 14, this proceeded with reckless abandon, sometimes choking your system. PowerDVD also features a “cinema mode”, aka a 10-foot interface; i.e., an interface that can be controlled with a remote control from a distance. To that end, Cyberlink provides both remote-control and playback apps for both Android and iOS.
The PowerDVD librarian is easy to use and offers a battery of cataloging features, but it’s a quirky in spots. For instance, there’s a main heading that says “playlists,” but those are only for music files. As such, it should be under music. I’m being picky, but as I’ve already mentioned, there are other less-than-intuitively placed options, too.

Playback quality

PowerDVD 15 renders movies better than anything else available, and does so without the fuss other players require on the user’s part, such as loading shaders (FX), tweaking contrast and saturation, and so on. The effect on older movies and animated movies is startling—and to be honest—addictive. There’s even after-the-fact video stabilization for home movies.

PowerDVD made even this high bit-rate, 1080 copy of The Incredibles look sharper and more vivid.

The biggest add for version 15 of Power-DVD is some very tasteful color enhancement, called, of course, TrueTheater Color. It’s like turning up the saturation control in other players, but it’s smarter in that it leaves skin tones alone, so there’s no spray-tan effect. Vivid but not cartoonish.
The Cyberlink folks have finally made PowerDVD nearly the equal of Microsoft's Windows Media Player and Apple's QuickTime player for augmenting music playback. Though the effects are a bit hard to find (Setting/Player Settings/More Audio), you can now apply Dolby Virtual Speaker and TrueTheater Surround to your tunes. Alas, they only work on a subset of the file types that PowerDVD supports. Sadly, that list doesn’t include FLAC, my go-to codec for all things classical.

Codec support

Two of my continuing gripes about PowerDVD are that it’s a pay program that doesn’t understand DirectShow filters, and that it lacks support for a number of legacy codecs. It handles all the advanced stuff, including everything HD, 4K, and HFR (High Frame Rate), but just some of its fails were FLV with the Sorenson Spark codec, a MPG-PS file with AVC video, Quicktime 6 (Road Pizza), and Ogg Theora. Also, navigating an individual VOB file from a DVD rip hung the player. The DVD rip when launched from the IFO file played fine. Windows Media Player with the LAV filters, Media Player Classic- Home Cinema, and VLC (VideoLAN Player) all played these files with nary a hitch.
Audio file support is much better, with PowerDVD recognizing and playing wave files up to 96kHz/32-bits, 5.1 and 7.1 surround, MP3 and AAC, as well as Windows and Apple Lossless, FLAC, and APE. About the only files it didn’t pick up on were RealMedia and Opus. The only issue is that not-being-able-to-apply Dolby or TrueTheater Surround thing to all files types.
In addition to the ability to play commercial Blu-ray discs, PowerDVD 15 Ultra also has a driver that will allow you to play ISO rips of said discs. MPC-HC and VLC can do that only if you first mount the ISO as a virtual drive using something like Elaborate Bytes' CloneDrive. And, although it seems that everyone has gotten over 3D for the third time in my lifetime, PowerDVD supports it in both video and photos.

Performance

PowerDVD has never actually stayed on my system for long after a review. Not because of its now shrinking list of peccadilloes, but because it has never been particularly stable and tended to hog system resources. That finally seems to be a thing of the past.
PowerDVD is a now a much more tightly coded program player that uses hardware assist whenever possible. CPU utilization with any reasonably modern processor is quite low, even for 4K videos, so your system will remain responsive during movie playback. It’s not quite as efficient as MPC-HC and its LAV filters, but close enough, especially in light of all the TrueTheater optimization it’s performing.
The playback coup de grace is support for Windows Audio Session Application Program Interface (WASAPI), the high-performance, hardware-direct audio portion of the Windows multimedia libraries available from Vista on. At least it should be. When I engaged the “exclusive” mode of WASAPI which should result in perfect performance, the music skipped occasionally. Go figure.

Online

PowerDVD 15 Ultra interfaces with both YouTube and Vimeo, so you can browse and play videos from those services without firing up a browser. You can also save videos for offline viewing (pinning), and if what you’re looking for is actually just the music, PowerDVD will extract the audio track as an MP3 for offline listening as well. This is of dubious legality, but the whole YouTube thing is iffy to begin with. Caveats aside, both those features are super handy. Especially as you can find lots of stuff on YouTube that can’t be found elsewhere.

PowerDVD does a great job searching and downloading video, as well as ripping audio tracks from YouTube. But my test version bogged down when other programs were downloading from the Internet at the same time.

The only problem I found with the online browsing was that PowerDVD didn’t like competing for bandwidth. If I was downloading via any other program, the YouTube browser spun its wheels and eventually said nothing was found. Kill the other downloads, and it was happy as a clam.

Versions and pricing

There are three versions of PowerDVD: the $100 Ultra that I looked at, the $80 Pro version, and the $60 Standard SKU. Standard has all the video and audio enhancements, but no support for 3D, HEVC, AVC, and other HD codecs. It’s for making your average video file look nice. I say skip that and stick with MPC-HC or VLC. Pro adds Blu-ray and AVC support. But if you’re going to pay, I say skip that as well and go directly to Ultra which adds the 3D and more, including 20GB of online storage for a year. That’s the simplified breakdown—the myriad differences are charted online at Cyberlink’s Web site.
You can also rent—excuse me—subscribe to PowerDVD 15 Ultra for $15 for three months or $45 per year. The former could be handy if you just need that super-quality picture for a few presentations or the like. But as I said, the picture quality can be addicting.

Should you buy it? 

PowerDVD 15 Ultra is the crème de la crème of media players, paid or free: It delivers the best picture, support for Blu-ray discs, 3D, and every advanced HD codec under the sun. Is it something most users need? No. I learned a long time ago is that content is considerably more important than presentation. Is it something most users will want? Yes. The picture looks that good.
To those who’ve noted that I said PowerDVD had never taken up permanent residence: Yes, it’s staying. And I’m pretty happy about it.
I’ll be even happier when Cyberlink implements audio effects on all music files, fills the gaps in its legacy video and music codec support, adds subtitle search capabilities, and uses better judgement placing pertinent options.

Read old emails from Outlook Express,

A friend of Russ and Sheila Stevens needs to access his late father’s Outlook Express messages—tricky since Outlook Express is no longer available. My answer covers more than Outlook Express.
Keeping old emails is pretty easy as long as you keep the same email client. Once you move from one mail client to another, however, you may need special software to access older mail.


But first, a quick review:
Outlook Express was a mail client that came with Windows from 98 through XP. It stored email messages in DBX files. Each file contained all of the messages within a single folder, such as Inbox.dbx.
Windows Mail came with Windows Vista. It stored each message in its own EML file. The result was a lot of little files, with Windows folders doubling as mail folders. For instance, your Inbox folder would contain a separate EML file for each message in your inbox.
Windows Live Mail is a free Microsoft download—one of the Windows Essentials collection. It also uses EML files in the same manner as Windows Mail.
Since Windows Live Mail is readily available and free, it provides one solution. It reads EML files, and it can import Outlook Express DBX files, turning the contents into EMLs. But if you’re not going to use it as a mail client, there are simpler solutions.
One of them is built into Windows 7. The Windows Explorer file manager can search EML files for content. It can also display the contents of a message in the Preview Pane.

Unfortunately, Windows 8’s File Explorer doesn’t support EML in the Preview Pane, although it can still manage a search.
Another option: If you have Microsoft Office, you can read the files in Outlook. In fact, double-clicking an EML file will bring it up in that program.
But neither Microsoft file manager nor Outlook supports DBX files.
So if you have old Outlook Express files, or if you’re using Windows 8, you should download the free and portable MiTeC Mail Viewer. It searches and displays EML and DBX files.
It also supports Mozilla Thunderbird files, but I didn’t test this feature.
The program isn’t perfect. It displays each message as one big paragraph. And its search tool works on only one folder at a time.

Another option: Install Windows Live Mail and use that to convert the DBX files into folders filled with EML files. Select the dark-blue tab to the left of Home, then select Import messages.

Fingerprint Smart Lock

Ola is keyless and phoneless fingerprint smart lock, which unlocks your door in less than a second. It incorporates fingerprint sensor FPC1020AM and Bluetooth connectivity to register your fingerprint. It integrates one set of 4 AA batteries, which is the equivalent of two years of normal use. In case of an emergency, you can power it with a micro USB.


The fingerprint sensor utilizes a radio frequency signal to scan the pattern under the surface of the skin. A fake fingerprint has no pattern under the surface, so this radio frequency technology saves from someone who may copy your fingerprints.
You can also share access with friends and family, either with a Bluetooth key or by registering their fingerprint. Also you can schedule temporary keys for visitors or guests.

The project campaign is on the Kickstarter. The early bird pricing are gone, but you can still get it for $159, and estimated delivery is on March of 2016.