Blue, a 20-year leading innovator in audio technology and design, today announced the new Yeti X USB microphone for gaming, streaming and podcasting. Yeti X features new Blue VO!CE technology, which enables content creators to dial up professional vocal effects and custom presets at the push of a button. A four capsule condenser microphone array delivers exceptional focus and clarity, high-res LED metering provides visual, real-time feedback for vocal levels, and a multi-function smart knob provides instant control over essential mic functions. Combining legendary Blue audio quality with innovative new features, Yeti X is the ultimate tool for creators who want to deliver professional content and build their audience.

Intel Graphics switched gears from being integrated graphics solutions for basic 2D desktop and video, to something that could appeal to gamers. The change appears to have been brought about by hiring of Raja Koduri, who led graphics teams at AMD and Apple. Intel discovered that its iGPUs can play many e-Sports games such as PUBG, World of Tanks, Warhammer: Vermitide 2, etc., and so, the company decided to do more for this segment of PC gamers that still games on iGPUs, beginning with regular driver updates that pack game-optimizations, the switch to the new DCH driver model for Windows 10, and apparently, a new Control Panel app designed for gamers.

Teased in a YouTube presentation by Intel Graphics, the Control Panel appears to show a game launcher and settings optimization tool modeled along the lines of GeForce Experience. Intel has also made big changes to the functional bits of the Control Panel, which deal with global display settings, monitor setup, etc. The new Control Panel gives us a direction of where Intel Graphics is headed: it doesn't want to leave behind gamers. The Gen11 iGPU which will be part of the company's 10 nm "Ice Lake" processors already spark rumors of massive 3D performance improvements over current Gen9.5, and reportedly have over 1 TFLOP/s of raw compute power. The company is also working on a discrete GPU lineup under the Xe brand, targeting a variety of market segments, including gamers.The video presentation by Intel Graphics follows.

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), the global leading motherboard, Mini-PC, Notebooks, mobile device and smart city solutions provider, is pleased to announce the LIVA Q2 - the silent, energy efficient multi-functional mini PC designed for various smart solutions such as home entertainment, smart offices, and modern classroom. It can also be used with digital signage and successfully used in smart retail solutions. Ultra-mini body design, but the applications are beyond imagination.

With the beautifully designed LIVA Q2 mini PC can meet all the device connections you need by providing full I / O support. The mini PC support for Microsoft's latest Windows 10 operating system. The LIVA Q2 is integrated with Intel Pentium Silver/Celeron processor. Simply by using the Intel Unite application on client's device, which clients can easily integrate participants, solutions and platforms into one.

Neil Blomkamp is one of today's most well-regarded sci-fi filmmakers - and for good reason. While you may know him for his feature-length films (such as the legendary District 9 and the even more legendary, for me, Elysium), he has been making forays into conceptual filmmaking ever since he set up Oats Studios. The goal for Oats Studios was to create cinematographic thought-experiments with a sci-fi twist, and the studios have released a number of great works that you can follow on their YouTube (such as Zygote, Firebase, and Rakka), even going so far as to fully experiment with the power of Unity in the making of some seriously impressive pieces in their Adam series. If you don't know the studio's work yet, do yourself a favor and take a look.

That said, EA and Bioware have clearly picked up on the potential for Oats Studios, and ordered a cinematic, live-action story set on the Anthem universe. Named Conviction, the short serves as a teaser for the games' release, and showcases the impressive world of Anthem being brought to life with real people and settings. I won't dive into much detail here; I've given you the background. Suffice it to say that I am left even more wanting in regards to Neil Blomkamp's canceled Halo project after watching this. I bet you'd love to see something such as this brought to life in more detail and depth than a short three minutes and forty-five seconds allow for.

YouTube began posting its first test videos that implement the AV1 video CODEC, which aims to significantly reduce video stream bandwidths without sacrificing quality, exceeding the compression standards set by even HEVC. AV1 provides an architecture for both moving and still images, and Google, which is partly funding its development, foresees a future in which it replaces entrenched standards such as JPEG and H.264. Besides better compression, its key USP is its royalty-free license, which could translate to tangible operating-cost savings for YouTube and other video streaming services.

YouTube developers posted this playlist with a selection of videos that are encoded in AV1. You may not notice a reduction in your data consumption just yet, because the first batch of videos have been encoded at a very high bitrate to test performance. Future playlists (which will pop up on YouTube Developers channel), could test the CODEC's other more important aspects, such as data savings. To watch them, and test YouTube's AV1 player for them, you'll either need Chrome 70 beta or the latest nightly-build of Firefox (64.0a1), which pack AV1 support.

Denuvo's impact on gaming performance has been spoken of immensely - as always has been the case for any and all DRM solution that finds its way into games. However, evidence always seemed to be somewhat anecdotal on whether or not Denuvo really impacted performance - for a while, the inability to test games with Denuvo implemented and officially removed (which, unsurprisingly, isn't the same as it being cracked) was a grand stopgap to any sort of serious testing.

Now, courtesy of Overlord's YouTube channel, we can see whether or not Denuvo impacts performance. In a total of seven games tested on a platform with an Intel Core i7 2600K stock CPU (for adequate testing of whether Denuvo really impacts more the CPU than any other system component) paired with a stock clocked 1080 ti. You really should take a look at the video; it's a short, informative one, but the gist of is this: Some games revealed performance improvements with Denuvo being removed: Mass Effect: Andromeda saw a huge boost from an average of 57 FPS all the way to 64 FPS due to the removal of the DRM solution; and Mad Max saw a more meager 54 to 60 FPS increase. The other games (which included Hitman, Abzu, and others, didn't see any performance difference.

Web mining's advent was the opening of a veritable Pandora's box when it comes to users' peace of mind while surfing the internet. What started with The Pirate Bay's implementation and ended up with a full-on browser war against these injected, unauthorized hijacks of users' electricity and computing resources has now taken to one of the world's most known and visited websites: YouTube.

Users of YouTube started getting heads-up that something might be wrong due to their antivirus protection kicking off some cryptocurrency mining warnings that seemed to only pop up when users were visiting YouTube. These warnings kept popping up even after a web browser change, and then, on Friday, researchers from TrendMicro touched upon the issue, saying that YouTube's web mining injections had led to a more than three-fold spike in the total number of cryptocurrency web mining warnings. Luckily, the web mining exploit wasn't deployed across the entire world: Trend Micro researchers said that the attackers behind the ads were abusing Google's DoubleClick ad platform to display them to YouTube visitors in select countries, including Japan, France, Taiwan, Italy, and Spain.

We have always been at the side of musicians wherever music is made. On stages throughout the world, in studios across cities, and now we can accompany them to the ends of the earth. Thanks to Fox. The new USB microphone can capture any music in any place, at any time. There is now no way to lose a melody. Because you'll always have your studio with you. The beyerdynamic FOX guarantees excellent sound quality, be it for recording vocals or speech, for a performance with an acoustic guitar, a regular podcast/ gaming or Let's Play videos on YouTube.

Studio-quality microphone technology
The beyerdynamic FOX features a high-quality microphone capsule, as found in professional studio microphones around the world. This large-membrane condenser microphone provides high sensitivity compared to common dynamic microphones. This means that even quiet sounds and the finest nuances can be captured perfectly. The cardioid polar pattern shields against rear-incident noise, providing ideal protection against background noise. The elastic suspension on the microphone capsule prevents structure-borne noise - eliminating footsteps and fret noises. The microphone capsule's high quality is no accident: beyerdynamic has more than 90 years of experience in developing and constructing a wide variety of microphones. beyerdynamic has been responsible for the audio quality of countless music, sound and television productions. The new FOX provides beginners with access to the results of this extensive wealth of experience.

Intel delivers industry-leading innovations and creates new experiences across its portfolio products. Today, Intel unveils the all-new Intel Pentium Silver and Intel Celeron processors.

The new Intel Pentium Silver and Intel Celeron processors are based on Intel's architecture codenamed Gemini Lake, and are engineered for a great balance of performance and connectivity for the things people do every day - working on office documents and spreadsheets, browsing online, enjoying favorite shows and movies, and editing photos - with great battery life. And it can all be performed on a range of devices at an amazing value. Pentium Silver will deliver 58 percent faster productivity performance compared with a similar 4-year-old PC.

Google Tuesday announced that it is discontinuing YouTube on Amazon's home entertainment platforms Fire TV and Echo Show. YouTube is the world's most popular on-demand video service, and continues to be the largest video sharing site. In a statement, Google said that the decision to pull YouTube from Amazon platforms was in reciprocity to Amazon continuing to hamper sales of Google devices, and preventing Amazon Prime Video from working on Google Chromecast. "Amazon doesn't carry Google products like Chromecast and Google Home, doesn't make (its) Prime Video available for Google Cast users, and last month stopped selling some of (our sister company) Nest's latest products. Given this lack of reciprocity, we are no longer supporting YouTube on Echo Show and Fire TV," Google said.

As if preventing Prime Video from working on Chromecast doesn't amount to "selectively blocking customer access to an open website," a hypocritical Amazon retorted "Google is setting a disappointing precedent by selectively blocking customer access to an open website." Google has, in its statement, left the door open for a possible agreement between the two. "We hope we can reach an agreement to resolve these issues soon," Google stated. This could likely see Google devices such as Chromecast and Google Home return to Amazon, and the availability of Prime Video on Chromecast and other Google Cast platforms. If it gets any worse from here on, Google has another, more destructive weapon in its arsenal against Amazon - Search results.

Intel today released its latest Graphics Driver for Windows (GDW). Version 15.60 WHQL (15.60.0.4849), which is applicable for integrated graphics embedded into 6th generation "Skylake," 7th generation "Kaby Lake," and 8th generation "Coffee Lake" processors. The drivers are WDDM 2.3 compliant (Windows 10 Fall Creators Update), and add support for Netflix HDR and YouTube HDR on Windows 10. The drivers also add support for 10-bpc (1.07 billion colors) displays over HDMI, and adds video decode hardware acceleration for several formats introduced after DirectX 12.

For those with beefier Iris Pro graphics, Intel GDW 15.60 adds optimization for "Middle-earth: Shadow of War," "Pro Evolution Soccer 2018," "Call of Duty: WWII," "Destiny 2," and "Divinity: Original Sin." As a WDDM 2.3 compliant driver, version 15.60 enables Windows Mixed Reality headsets plugged into the integrated graphics connectors. Download the driver from the link below.DOWNLOAD: Intel Graphics Driver for Windows 15.60

Alienware and Dell head into this year's E3 with a triad of new PC gaming systems and components - high-end Alienware gaming desktops with new multi-core processor options, a full range of performance gaming monitors and peripherals with Alienware's signature design and a new Dell Inspiron Gaming Desktop bringing VR to all. Alienware and Dell continue to demonstrate why, together, they have become a leading PC gaming brand worldwide with gaming solutions for players of all levels and budgets.

Driven by a fierce commitment to deliver what PC gamers want in gaming products and community, Alienware and Dell continues to make solid investments in PC gaming, virtual reality and esports through ever-expanding offerings and partnership innovation. This has stoked an incredible 17 consecutive quarters of PC growth*, continuously innovating with PC performance and designs, both in the realm of gaming, VR and beyond.

NVIDIA has released an update to its GeForce Experience application that is sure to be loved by streamers and gamers alike who previously found ShadowPlay support on Vulkan and OpenGL games to be lacking. Version 3.6 of the program adds official support to games that make use of these renderers. Screenshot, video, and broadcast functions that Shadowplay enables are enhanced by the addition of support for these APIs, which means you can now use ShadowPlay with a press of a hotkey to record and stream your Doom and Minecraft gameplay at 4K 60fps.

Other improvements include a unified Broadcast screen and a newly revamped Video and Screenshot upload interface: YouTube and Twitch streamers can now control broadcast options from a unified screen, and log in to all services from there as well. NVIDIA has also worked some improvements to its GeForce Experience Gallery, by adding an upload history screen that displays all prior uploads and locations. You now also have the option of instantly jumping to the file location of a screenshot or video in Windows Explorer through a new button.

Even though the NDA still isn't up on AMD's second volley of Ryzen-based CPUs, some lucky buyers are already running some of the upcoming Ryzen 5 processors after some sellers jumped the gun. Now, a YouTube video by user "Santiago Santiago." is making the rounds in which he compares gaming performance between the Ryzen 5 1400 (4-core, 8-thread part @ 3.2 GHz base, 3.4 GHz boost), Intel's i5 7400 (4-cores @ 3.0 GHz base, 3.5 GHz boost), and the Pentium G4560, a Kaby Lake dual-core CPU with Hyper Threading @ 3.5 GHz base clocks. The user even snapped a picture proving he has his hands on this chip.

YouTube user TechMax has uploaded a video in which he shows a way to circumvent GeForce Experience's most wanted feature of all time: the mandatory login. One of the least popular features of NVIDIA's most recent GeForce Experience 3.0 update was the introduction of the mandatory logins, meaning that if you didn't, you wouldn't have access to GeForce Experience features, and even the in-app driver update wouldn't be available to you. In case you don't want the green genies to know when you're online, for how long, what hardware you use, and which games you play, and want to make use of the features embedded in NVIDIA's app, watch the video below and follow its steps. You'll need to copy and paste some lines of code, but it shouldn't prove too difficult. You can find the YouTube video below, and a transcript of the steps after the break.

QNAP Systems Inc. today announced the release of the latest addition to its Silent NAS series, the more advanced HS-251+ with a quad-core Intel Celeron 2.0GHz processor, 2GB DDR3L RAM, and powerful integrated graphics. It is designed as a home NAS for entertainment, and supports a wide range of multimedia applications, HDMI connectivity for local playback, real-time and offline video transcoding, and scalability to accommodate large HD media collections. Housed within a stylish and compact set-top box design with no moving parts and supporting up to two 8TB hard drives, the fanless HS-251+ is the best choice for those looking for a silent NAS, as well as a Home Theater PC/NAS combo.

"We are proud of our Silent NAS series and are happy to announce the launch of the upgraded quad-core Silent NAS which provides more power to handle multimedia applications and brings greater entertainment potential with a free remote control," said Jason Hsu, product manager of QNAP, adding "This amazing NAS is coupled with an unrivalled set of apps and features that allow home users to enjoy a perfect home theater experience while providing a secure centralized storage for all of their files, and much more."

AMD released Catalyst 15.10 Beta drivers. These drivers address issues with Star Wars: Battlefront Beta, and comes with quality and performance optimization for Ashes of the Singularity in DirectX 12 mode. It also addresses a rare crash that occurs when maximizing a minimized web-browser window with a YouTube 4K video playback in it. Issues with Cyberlink PowerDVD playback on 3D displays connected via HDMI are also addressed.DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 15.10 Beta for Windows 10/8.1/7 64-bit | Windows 10/8.1/7 32-bit

TechPowerUp presents its very own YouTube channel! We take you on a journey though the very latest in the world of tech, with news, views, previews, and more. We're thrilled to present one of our first official videos. We're still learning, and welcome any and every feedback on what you'd expect from the moving-images version of your favorite tech site.

TechPowerUp's foray into the YouTube medium can be led by you. Yes, you! Do you think you can talk hardware and gaming in front of a camera, for our thousands of readers? If so, sign up for our TechPowerUp YouTube Channel project, and you could be the face of this site on YouTube. All you need to be, is aged between 21 and 30, based in US or Canada; be presentable (we're not too strict on this), and have a good command over English, with an easy international accent; have basic video editing skills, and most importantly, have a good aptitude with PC hardware (you needn't be too technically sound or have a formal education in this area).

Upload a sample of your work, while keeping it "unlisted" (eg: describe a piece of hardware, or explain a recent news story at length, while keep it interesting. We are interested in seeing your face, personality and speech), and e-mail a link to that video to w1zzard@techpowerup.com . You needn't be a regular forum member of TechPowerUp. Do not post links to your videos in the comments. We will get back in touch with shortlisted candidates to talk turkey.

Ahead of summer builds and upgrades by PC enthusiasts, NVIDIA announced an interesting new social media challenge, called the GeForce Garage. Open to residents of Poland now, NVIDIA plans to take it to several other markets very soon. The challenge is simple - build a gaming PC, make a video of yourself doing that, try to offer interesting / useful commentary while building it (eg: an interesting way to manage cables, cooling/ventilation, mods, post-build OC, benchmarks, etc.) Post it on YouTube, and share it with NVIDIA. Show the world that building a gaming PC can be as fun as cooking up something special and rewarding. It doesn't matter what hardware you use in your build, and it needn't be an extravagant build. Three of the best entries will win some cool new gear from NVIDIA, with notable mentions of participants. The winner gets an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 and a Shield Tablet; first runner up gets a GeForce GTX 970, and the second runner up gets a GeForce GTX 960. Friends from Poland, this way please.

Razer, a world leader in connected devices and software for gamers, today announced the Razer Seirēn (stylized as "Seirēn" and pronounced "Sigh-ren"), a plug-and-play digital microphone designed for studio-grade recording and streaming.

The Razer Seirēn features a versatile multi-pattern USB digital connection capable of four different recording pattern configurations with three custom-tuned 14 mm condenser capsules. This makes the Razer Seirēn digital microphone ideal for the needs of professional musicians, streamers and YouTubers who demand superior clarity. With plug-and-play simplicity this microphone is simple to use at the studio or at home.

LG Electronics will unveil the first-ever LG Chromebase, an all-in-one computer powered by the Google Chrome operating system, at next month's 2014 International CES. The LG Chromebase (Model 22CV241) offers the highly efficient Chrome operating system for a fast, simple, secure and affordable computing experience. Along with the unique operating system, a 21.5-inch widescreen Full HD IPS display and a raft of advanced features, this innovative new desktop computer comes packaged in a chic, space-saving design.

The LG Chromebase all-in-one computer is underpinned by a simple yet powerful architecture and comes with several outstanding Google applications. It also serves as a gateway to tens of thousands of web apps in the Chrome Web Store, many of which work just as well offline as they do online.
The LG Chromebase allows users to write emails and documents, read the latest news and Ebooks, edit videos and photos and play entertaining games. The streamlined platform makes almost any task effortless and is the perfect device for taking advantage of Google products such as Gmail, Drive, Search, Maps, YouTube, Play or
Google+ Hangouts.

AMD today announced that it will webcast a special product showcase taking place at the AMD GPU '14 Tech Day event Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2013 at 3 p.m. EDT.
A real-time video webcast of the showcase can be accessed on the Investor Relations homepage. A replay of the webcast can be accessed approximately one hour after the conclusion of the live event and will be available for 30 days after the event. Additionally, viewers may access the webcast on the AMD Gaming Facebook page and AMD'sYouTube channel. A replay of the webcast can be accessed on AMD's YouTube channel.

ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of visual solution products, today unveiled its innovative smart display product family, adding the 24" VSD240 to the recently launched 22" (21.5" Vis.) VSD220.

Aimed at changing the way people compute, the VSD240 integrates a 24" (23.6" Vis.) 1920x1080 Full HD LED screen with the quad-core, 1.7Ghz processer from nVIDIA and an Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean" operating system, delivering a lightning fast and silky smooth computing experience.

Genius announces an ultra wide angle webcam for conference calls - WideCam 320. With its 100° view angle the entire boardroom can be captured in a single frame.

The ultra wide 100° angle view ensures that everyone around the conference table can be seen without any crowding together. The high-quality manual focus lens ensures well-defined video of the entire room. Everyone can be heard clearly around the room as well. The WideCam 320 has a built-in sensitive microphone that picks up the speaker's voice clearly while filtering out any background noise.