Opera 10.60 brings the latest and greatest Opera to Window, Linux and Mac

Opera 10.50 was possibly the most groundbreaking release of the browser in recent history, with massive upgrades to its JavaScript and rendering engine, standards support, and a new design. It made the otherwise major v10 seem light-years behind. The most disappointing thing about the 10.50 release was perhaps that Linux and Mac users were left out.

While 10.50 never managed to reach stable status on Linux, and came to Mac much after the 10.50 release for Windows, with Opera 10.60, Opera Software is bringing the versions of Opera for all platforms to sync.

Of course, that is just a minor part of Opea 10.60. After the immense boost of performance that came with Opera 10.50, the latest 10.60 further boosts its performance by up to 50% according to Opera Software. The standard SunSpider test revealed that Opera 10.60’s performance is at par with that of Chrome 6’s latest dev version. It is also twice as fast as the latest Firefox 4 build, and almost thrice as fast as Firefox’s latest stable version 3.6.6. While the SunSpider test alone isn’t enough to gauge the performance of all aspects of the browser, there is a pattern here.

Opera 10.60 also comes with better support for upcoming standards, including Geolocation, and it is the first stable browser to support WebM media. Other standard features include AppCache, for offline applications and Web Workers. There are a few more tweaks to the Opera UI and features which improve the browser overall. The Opera menu being one of them. Opera 10.50 included a huge rectangular button for exploring all menu options, this has now been replaced with a much more appropriate looking button labelled “Menu”. Additionally, Opera features such as the download tab, history tab etc. now display icons instead of tab previews. Another subtle change is the inclusion of Bing as a search engine in the browser – although Google is still the default. Another subtle enhancement in Opera 10.60 is the support for search suggestions from websites such as Wikipedia.

Another thing Opera users may notice when they use Opera 10.60 is that it no longer shows tab previews in the Windows 7 taskbar. While the feature has its utility, for many power users it is simply an annoyance, since the whole point of browser tabs was to not clutter the taskbar. Those who still want to turn it on needn’t worry. The option is still there.Opera 10.60 also brings new security features in the form of an “AVG-supported anti-fraud systems and phishing protection”. This is coupled with live feeds which carry information educating users of current scams, and potential malware.

Opera 10.60 further evolves Opera towards a perfect browser. Chrome and now Firefox have adopted an out of process model for plugins, and this is one of the few things missing from this browser which gets better with each iteration.

Olympus E-330 shoots amazing stills, reveals deadly cancer cells on LCD

If you were ever wondering, how fast the technology has evolved, you would be startled to know that cancer could be tested at your fingertips! Not to mention, the height of excitement and disbelief you would experience, if you were asked to capture a few snapshots of your body cells to reveal the presence of cancerous tissues. All of the above is said to be true with the world's first DSLR carrying the live view LCD (at the rear) - Olympus E-330.

Researchers at the Rice University have reportedly discovered that the Olympus E-330 could be used to differentiate the cancerous and healthy cells, without even exporting the photos. It is reported that the camera's built-in LCD is capable of identifying a harmful cell with grain like structures, hinting the growth of cancerous tissues. It appears that a medical degree would no longer be needed to identify potential signs of cancer or perform a cancer diagnosis.

Sony's new Walkman players are water-resistant & bass-enhanced, starting at Rs. 2,890

Sony has launched new iterations of its W and B series ofWalkman MP3 players, targeting those consumers who desire their music on the go, in a portable and durable form.

The Walkman W Series is water-resistant and washable, suitable for those into active sports, and designed to be used in rainy or dust-laden environments. It features an ergonomic design, and is uniquely wire-free, making it super comfortable to use while exercising. The W Series also has a unique music navigation feature called Zappin, which allows users to listen to the main chorus of each song while scanning through their music library and playlists to find the song they are looking for.

The NWZ-W250, priced at Rs, 4,990, is available in three colours: black, white, pink. It weighs just 43 gms, and provides up to 11 hours of playback time with a full charge of 90 minutes. It also has a Quick Charge function that lets it play up to 90 minutes of music with just 3 minutes of charging time.

The Walkman B Series is sleek with a metallic finish, and is designed to offer special bass output with its integrated one-touch Bass Enhancer. While the B Series also supports the Quick Charge feature, it also has a longer battery life than the W Series, with up to 18 hours with just 70 minutes of full charging.

The NWZ-B150 is available in four colours, black, pink, red, gold, and starts at Rs. 2,890. It also offers jazzy LED lights that pulse with the music, as well as the Zappin feature described in the W Series.

 

Here comes the first build of Firefox 4!

We have finally, a build of what is to become Firefox 4!

Those who live in the Nightly realm of Mozilla’s Minefield, will notice that the latest update is Minefield4b2. While this is essentially the same as the Firefox 3.7a6 line of code which was building on Gecko 1.9.3 this line was to some day become Firefox 4, and that day is today.

Since the nightly line has already been labeled 4b2 for working on the second beta, you can expect that Firefox 4 beta 1 will be released soon, officially. If you don’t want to wait, you can get a build of Firefox 4 beta 1 (although probably not the final beta 1!) from here (Windows build, 32-bit Mac build, 64-bit Mac build, 32-bit Linux build, 64-bit Linux build).

Beta 1 will be a very early look at Firefox 4, and will feature few of the brilliant features that will be found in the final release. However it will come with the UI:

And the new add-on manager:

Firefox 4 also comes with Windows 7 taskbar integration, with support for jumplists and tab previews. Which unlike most other browsers can be turned off.

As you may have notices, with Firefox 4, the browser has gone for a tabs-on-top approach. Here is a rather onvincing arugement favoring this change. As always this can be changed from tabs on top to tabs on bottom if desired.

Mobile version of Google Docs now available; no editing yet

The users of Google's cloud-based office suite, Google Docs, have a reason to rejoice as the mobile version of the service is now available. With the growing popularity of the service, this update was expected soon. The service is supported by all Android phones, as well as by iOS devices, such as the iPhone and iPad. The service opened neatly, even on our little Xperia X10 Mini. iPhones and iPads will also support pinch to zoom. Honestly though, the service is still not very usable as editing the documents through your mobile device is still not possible. But we wonder how long would it take for that feature to appear too.

Indiagames releases Shivam Gupta's 26/11 game, Terror Attack: Project Fateh, for free

The entirely India-developed first person shooter previously known as Mission Fateh has now been released as Terror Attack: Project Fateh. It is available from Indiagames for free, and can be downloaded from here.

Developed by young animation prodigy, 14 year old Shivam Sai Gupta, the 3D FPS game is based around the horrific events of 26/11/2008. Terror Attack: Project Fateh was developed on DarkBASIC, and sports some rather great graphics, especially for a free game, up to the mark of the massively popular CounterStrike.

This is the author’s description of the game:

The sole purpose of this game is to unite you all to stand up against terrorism. This is a war we need to win. The catastrophic incident on the 26 November 2008 the day when Mumbai was attacked with massive explosions and brutal gunfire which took the lives of 195 fellow citizens and injured many, is still painful. This is our effort to tell them, We will not fall; We will stand tall. Kasab, the only terrorist caught alive will be sentenced to death and her-eon, all such anti-social elements will be exterminated from our society. We salute to all our policemen and NSG Commandos who risked their lives to keep us safe. 

Windows 8 plans leaked, sound awesome; Windows Store to be Microsoft's App Store

In the last few months, leaked pictures and documents become have become a daily affair for us.



However, this one made us sit straight and notice - leaked footprints for Windows 8. Seriously, we haven’t yet poured even half our love over the awesome Windows 7, before this thing hit us square this morning. Like all leaks, only time shall confirm the authenticity of these numerous leaked slides. But the detail and the obvious directions they point to, give them a lot of weight.

These slides, each labelled confidential, probably were used for some behind-the-doors presentation and contain tremendous detail and some very mouth-watering prospects. For the eager eyes, here lies the list and our views.

Kinect-style sensing: When Microsoft put so much effort behind the creation of the wonder that is Kinect (earlier known as ‘Project Natal’), we expected (and wished in our dreams!) that the technology would be ported to the Windows too. There is ‘no’ sign of motion gestures for operating Windows, or any mention of motion-based gaming, but the slides show the plans of motion-detection to put Windows to ‘sleep’ or ‘wake’ it up. Yes, as the slides above indicate, plans are that user’s entry or exit would be used to log-in or put the computer to sleep. This would also mark the introduction of sensor support, like proximity sensors, to Windows. Neat, but we want more of Kinect!

Quick on/off: Booting times are irritating, we know! They may soon, however, be a thing of the past as Microsoft plans to introduce a feature, dubbed as ‘Log off+Hibernate’, that would enable quick powering up from 0 watts consumption. This also is in line with the “Big stuff” that ‘ This is an absolute necessity, considering that Windows 8 is as much for handhelds (which needs always-on operating system) as it is for desktops. More on ‘Windows 8 and handhelds’, read on.

 Windows Store: It’s a trend Apple started and now everyone wants to have an App store. But we suppose that Windows is a platform which needs this the most. Here’s our view: Rivals have always thrown dirt on Microsoft for the vulnerability and the security loopholes in its operating system. App store not only give Microsoft a huge source of revenue but also a point of centralised vigilance. As one of the slides suggests, developers would be able to upload the app to be available in only certain geographical areas, and also decide the type of devices it would be available for. The concept pictures show an all-encompassing vision, especially the 'developer's dashboard' above, which would be additional lure for them, if billions of users of Windows aren't. We just can’t seem to stress enough how much difference this would make. Instead of unreliable software from around the net, finally, we can have reliable, checked Apps. The largest of platforms might be the last to get its App store, but take our word, it would dwarf all others around.

Windows 8 and handhelds: It is common knowledge that Microsoft has not yet been able to get any kind of hold on tablet or handheld market. Windows 8 plans to change that with more support for portable devices like slates. We can safely assume that the Windows would surely get more touch friendly. Another major plus would be the supposed portability of the Apps you buy for PC, onto the tablet. Even your settings would be ported to your portable device. (see slide) Seamless!

The different flavours of Windows 8: We are all too familiar with the different flavours of Android that different mobile manufacturers have been serving by customising the UI of the ‘vanilla’ Android provided by Google. Windows 8 would follow the same lines, as manufacturers would be able to customise the UI and add application on the ‘vanilla’ Windows. Moreover, for further bonds with manufacturers, Microsoft will enable them to have their own customised stores too, something like ‘HP Store - powered by Windows Store’. Also, Microsoft will enable them to customise the OS in accordance with the kind of device they want to port it to. Thus, the manufacturers would be able to customise five aspects of Windows 8: Application, Devices(that the Windows is running on), Multimedia, Help & Support, and UI & Theming.

Support for newer technologies: 3D is the next big thing. And Microsoft acknowledges that. There is a mention of this in one of the slides and we our imagination is running wild already. So when a window is minimized, how about it going ‘deeper’. How about a folder really ‘popping-out’. Ah! the right half of our brains is hyper-active. The OS would be touch friendly and HD-ready. There is also support for sensors, like proximity sensors (and maybe infrared sensors for Kinect-like gaming!). Moreover, the new Windows would have built-in support for USB 3.0 and Bluetooth 3.0.

Quick reset: We have wished this a million times each day. Having our Windows run like it did on the very first day. But our precious data and tedious re-installation of applications forces us to drag on. But Windows 8 could probably do this with the feature called "Push to Reset', with one click, without loss of data. And as one of the slides shows, their is a one button solution to download and install all your applications again. The perfect back-up solution too.

We are already very excited at the prospects of the concept that this Windows is turning out to be. So has Microsoft finally learned the success recipe? Well, there were ‘EXTRA CLEAR’ indication of whose teaching these recipes to MS. Click the picture below and see for yourself!

OCZ Behemoth Mousepad

While there are SSDs in the mix, today's prize is an OCZ Behemoth Mousepad. The mousepad measures 380 mm x 260 mm and is 4mm high, that's almost 15" x 10"! You can find the full spec sheet here.

We've also heard your requests so we're making a slight change to the way we accept entries, you now only need to email your info in once. You still have to post a comment in any giveaway thread you are trying to enter though, but you don't have to keep sending emails. And if you've already sent in an email we'll hang on to your info until the end of the contest period.

To enter the giveaway all you need to do is two things:

1) Respond to this post with a comment, and
2) Send an email to giveaways AT anandtech DOT com with your AnandTech user name, full name, birth date, telephone number and mailing address. This will be the address your prize is sent to if you win. If you've already sent an email with this information to giveaways AT anandtech DOT com since June 21, 2010 you do not need to send another.

Now the rules. This contest is unfortunately only available to US residents in one of the 50 states. I realize that AnandTech is an international site and I do highly value all of our readers, unfortunately extending the contest rules outside of the US is a bit more than we're able to reliably handle today. That's not to say that we won't at some point in the future, we just have little experience doing such things and don't want to get burned early on.

Secondly, you are only allowed to enter once. Multiple entries will disqualify you.

Entries will be accepted from 11:45 PM PDT on June 25, 2010 through 11:45PM PDT on June 26, 2010. Winner will be selected by June 28, 2010.

Good luck everyone :)

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Cisco Plans Business Tablet for Mobile Collaboration

Cisco is building a business tablet called Cius based on Android that integrates with Cisco's collaboration and communications applications. With HD video streaming and multiparty conferencing, Cisco's Cius tablet is aimed at businesses and students. Cisco's Tony Bates said Cius will also lower IT costs per user for collaboration.
Cisco, apparently wondering why consumers should have all the tablet fun, announced on Tuesday a "mobile Relevant Products/Services collaboration Relevant Products/Services business tablet." The new device, called Cius (pronounced "see-us"), is based on Google's open-source Android operating system Relevant Products/Services and provides virtual desktop Relevant Products/Services integration Relevant Products/Services with Cisco's collaboration and communications Relevant Products/Services applications.

The tablet weighs in at 1.15 lbs, and supports HD video Relevant Products/Services streaming, multiparty conferencing, e-mail, messaging, browsing and applications for creating, editing and sharing content in a local network Relevant Products/Services or through the cloud Relevant Products/Services. An optional HD audio station has a speakerphone, HD DisplayPort and USB ports, and, for audio conferences, there are dual noise-canceling microphones. Connectivity includes 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-FI and 3G, with 4G available later.

Health Care, Retailers, Students

There's also a 720p front-mounted HD camera and a five-megapixel camera on back, a seven-inch-high super VGA touchscreen, and a detachable eight-hour battery. As with an increasing number of mobile devices, an accelerometer allows the display to orient in either a portrait or landscape mode as the user turns the device.

Tony Bates, Cisco senior vice president and general manager of enterprise, commercial and small business, noted the wide range of uses and users Cisco has in mind for its new product line. He said the Cius "can transform how health-care professional advance patient care, how retailers deliver service Relevant Products/Services experiences to consumers, or how universities deliver world-class education to their students."

While the tablet is being directed at businesses, the student market is growing and Cisco's emphasis on communication and collaboration could appeal to that market as well.

"Best of all," Bates said, the Cius allows IT Relevant Products/Services departments a way to "dramatically lower the cost per user of provisioning those new experiences."

Third-Party Apps

The Cius will support Relevant Products/Services a wide range of Cisco collaboration applications, including the social-collaboration business platform Quad, the Show and Share "social video system," WebEx Connect, WebEx Meeting Center, and Presence, and it will interoperate with TelePresence, whose functions can be operated through a single button. According to the company, the device can easily be integrated into existing Cisco environments, including AnyConnect VPN Relevant Products/Services Security.

With virtual desktop integration, IT departments can host apps in the data Relevant Products/Services center and deliver them to the Cius as an "anytime, anywhere" service, which the company cited as one of the ways in which the new tablet can help consolidate resources and reduce software licensing costs.

Perhaps most importantly for the long-term health of Android-based tablets for business, Cisco is touting the growing number of business-class, third-party applications for this operating system. To help that effort, the company is offering Cisco Collaboration Application Protocol Interfaces, or APIs, through a software developers kit.

The tablet is expected to be released for customer Relevant Products/Services trials in the third quarter, and to be available in the first quarter of next year. The company has not announced prices. 

General says cyber attacks must be stopped

Former NATO commander General Wesley Clark has confirmed a "growing number" of severe cyber attacks against US government and commercial installations.

According to Clark, the US currently possesses both the technology and "means" to stop the unrelenting cyber offensive."The job now is to deploy these assets as soon as possible," Clark told an audience of security specialists at the National Press Club.

He noted that thousands of cyber attacks that already have been launched against such key government agencies as the Departments of Defense, State, Treasury & Commerce. 



Coordinated strikes have also targeted various electric grids and other critical infrastructure across the continental United States.

"[Clearly], the nation's security and economy are at risk of being 'closed down' or seriously compromised at any moment.

"This would be a major disaster for the United States and our allies throughout the world. We have no time to waste. The time for action is now."

Clark - who chairs the advisory board of InZero Systems - urged the rapid adoption of the company's heavily armored hardware platform, which has reportedly rebuffed "millions" of sophisticated cyber attacks.

"Nothing gets through...In test after test, it has proven to be totally unhackable," claimed Clark.

"We know this technology works and is relatively economical...But equally important, it is readily available. We should be installing it as widely as possible before that disaster strikes."

AMD launches triple- and quad-core notebook CPUs

Playing catch-up with Intel, AMD has announced its first triple-core and quad-core laptop processors as part of a major brand overhaul.The lineup includes two triple-core and three quad-core Phenom II chips running at between 1.6GHz and 2.3GHz and drawing between 25 and 45W.

There are also new single-core and dual-core low-voltage http://www.amd.com/us/products/notebook/platforms/home/2010- Athlon II Neo and Turion II Neo processors designed for ultrathin laptops; running at speeds between

1.3GHz and 1.7GHz, they draw between 12 and 15W. These are aimed at laptops with screens between 11 and 13 inches and measuring less than 25mm thick.

The chips are expected to appear in over 100 different products from vendors including HP, Dell and Lenovo, starting from the end of this month.

Emulating Intel's Core range, the processors include DDR3 memory, HyperTransport 3, support for Direct X 11 and improved battery life. They don't, however, include AMD's TurboCore technology.

The company is also changing its marketing. It's extending its Vision branding - which segments products into four levels by performance - to include desktop systems.

"With Vision Technology from AMD, we are finally connecting how people use their PCs with the way people purchase them," said senior vice president and chief marketing officer Nigel Dessau.

"Today, after little more than 200 days in market, our partners are introducing more Vision-based PCs than ever before; a testament to both the competitiveness of AMD platform technology and the simplified marketing approach."

AMD has failed to make ground against Intel's dominance, with just 18.8 percent of the X86 market in the first quarter of this year, compared with Intel's 81 percent, according to IDC.

New quadruple-layer Blu-ray Disc developed to store up to 128GB

A new type of Blu-ray Disc has been developed that stores data on four layers, increasing the capacity to more than 27 times a standard DVD, up to 128GB. The Blu-ray Disc Association has approved this format as the quad-layer BDXL standard, as well as the other new BDXL format, a triple-layer rewritable capable of storing up to 100GB.

However, for now, no Blu-ray Disc player is capable supporting these formats, so we’ll just have to wait for the next-gen of players to come around. According to the Blu-ray Disc Association’s chairman, these formats will be especially useful when data-intensive 3D content becomes more commonplace.

OnLive Cloud-Based Gaming: Is This The End Of High-End PCs?

We've been hearing about OnLive's cloud-based service for more than a year now. The company claims it can offer the latest games on demand, without a need for meaty hardware requirements on the client end. Could this really be the end of high-end PCs?

Count me amongst the many who heard Steve Perlman’s announcement of OnLive in 2009 and went “No bloody way. They can’t do that.” Yet here I am, some months later, with a Founding Members invite and access to a handful of the games I’ve used to benchmark graphics cards and CPUs on Tom’s Hardware. Well I’ll be…

I’ll refrain from bloviating on the specifics of how OnLive does what it does—I’ve already read plenty of analysis one way and the other about what a cloud service could mean for gaming and why it’s a technically infeasible (one of the best, from Digital Foundry’s Richard Leadbetter, can be read here). Moreover, OnLive has been fairly low-key about the information it’ll give out. All that matters today, on Day 1 of availability, is how it performs—the experience OnLive enables. It’s time to step away from the “what ifs” and dig into the “how does it do?”

Loading Up

Getting up and running after receiving the email literally took five minutes. You fill in your information, billing data, and download a 500KB client setup app, which, by default, runs in a window on your desktop. Just make sure that when you fire up the client, you’re not doing anything else to tax your Internet connection—which must be at least 5 Mb/s for a high-def stream. I have access to AT&T’s 24 Mb/s U-Verse plan, so I’m alright there, but when I tried to load the service with a file transfer running in the background, I was politely turned away from logging in. If it turns out that you share your pipeline with a college roommate, for example, that’s going to quickly become a problem. Here, we’re going from worrying about our graphics card to stressing over who’s using the network.

With all other transfers halted, I hopped on. For the folks who get in on the Founding Members plan, you can join OnLive for 12 months free, after which you pay $5 a month for the privilege of having your content delivered in this manner. From there, you can play many games in demo mode, 30 minutes at a time (without the ability to save). I need another monthly recurring bill like I need a hole in my head.

If you want to continue on, you’ll need a PlayPass, available in Full (unlimited access), 5-day, and 3-day options. Now, not all PlayPasses are offered for each game. If you want to play Batman: Arkham Asylum, you can buy a 5-day pass for $7 or a 3-day pass for $5, but there is no full pass. Assassin’s Creed II is only available as a full pass for $40. DiRT 2 is only available as a demo. The model that makes the most sense, I think, is paying a few bucks for a game you’d otherwise play and beat in a week and never touch again. Fair enough. No way I’d pay $50 for the full version of a game without a way around OnLive’s imposed Internet-optimized settings, though. Charge an extra $5 or $10 and give me the option to download the full game locally and I might be interested.

Just Cause 2 running on a desktop and Just Cause 2 on a notebook with integrated graphics. Thanks OnLive!Just Cause 2 running on a desktop and Just Cause 2 on a notebook with integrated graphics. Thanks OnLive!

Now, I wanted to get the experience of using OnLive on a powerful desktop that’d have no trouble playing any of the available games using its own hardware, and then on a notebook with no chance of touching 3D at all.

Use Case 1: Desktop

Not surprisingly, OnLive shows poorly on a Core i7-960-based desktop with a pair of GeForce GTX 480s installed. There’s simply no reason to pay for a service like this if you already have the hardware to back up better quality settings. Nevertheless, a large percentage of the Tom’s Hardware audience has capable components at its disposal, so it’s absolutely worth noting that the enthusiasts already running 1280x720 or higher probably aren’t going to like what they see, quality-wise, from OnLive.

If you want a better comparison, check out the two videos below in 720p—one captured via OnLive and the other captured locally—of Just Cause 2. Try to look past the choppy frame rates. They don’t accurately convey the performance of playing on both systems. Even on machines with SSDs, FRAPS doesn’t seem to like capturing at a 60 FPS target while gaming. Take my word for it, the OnLive version ran at a constant 20 FPS or so, while the local version ran at 120 FPS. While 20 frames per second sounds low, it turned out to be playable. With that said, real-world gameplay did get choppy on occasion.

The OnLive Gaming Service

But I think we can all agree that this isn’t the market for which OnLive is gunning. They want the guys on notebooks with Intel integrated graphics, or the guys using Macs without much choice when it comes to game access. So let’s move on to the more ideal test case.

I have an older Core 2 Duo T9300-based laptop with 4GB of RAM and Intel’s GMA X3100 graphics engine. It’s wholly incapable of playing Just Cause, Batman, F.E.A.R., or any other of the games OnLive is hosting. It'll handle WoW, so long as you turn every setting down to its lowest option. But the system does satisfy OnLive’s minimum hardware requirements for running its client.

This is where the service is totally in its element. In DiRT 2, Just Cause 2, and Batman—the three games I spent some time in—frame rates were ample to play smoothly, though nowhere near an even 60 FPS. With my 1280x800 screen running much closer to OnLive’s native 1280x720, quality appeared much better than the professional Dell 1920x1200 displays on my workstation. Latency, though perceptible, still didn’t prevent me from doing well in single-player campaigns.

Truly, this is where OnLive really shines. I have to wonder, though, how many folks with four-year old notebooks and no better desktop system at their disposal pay for 5+ Mb/s Internet connections? As it stands today, I’m certainly not worried about cloud-based gaming impinging upon what enthusiasts expect from a desktop gaming experience. Note also that you need a wired connection. There goes the novel idea of fragging out at Starbucks.

And there’s another factor to take into account here. Just because OnLive relieves you of the hardware burden doesn’t mean that load is magically alleviated altogether. Server-side requirements for each physical connection are substantial, and the service is still in its infancy. Performance is respectable right now, but we’ll have to see how OnLive handles scaling as an increasing number of curious gamers take a peek under the kimono.

I’ll be honest—OnLive is a point-blank look at life in the cloud, which will almost certainly be a more prolific usage model moving forward. As much as I (we) resist it, there’s an inherent convenience to having your documents, pictures, videos, and—maybe someday—games available from anywhere and on a more diverse range of hardware platforms. I’m not there yet. For as much as friends and family rave about Google Docs, I prefer everything local, on my networked storage, and within the confines of my own infrastructure. That includes games. Let me pick my quality settings. Let me set my resolution. Let me decide when I want to play and on what platform. And don’t require that I have at least a 5 Mb/s wired connection. There’s only one place I have access to that—at home. And at home, I have the hardware I need to play at 2560x1600. I don’t foresee hitting the road and getting a hotel room with enough bandwidth to play Just Cause 2 on a netbook anytime soon, so the convenience of portability only really goes as far as the high-speed Internet connections at your disposal.

Fairly constant network load. CPU utilization was around 9% of a Core i7-960 during game play.Fairly constant network load. CPU utilization was around 9% of a Core i7-960 during game play.

But this push forward is frightening for reviewers everywhere, understandably. OnLive is telling you that your hardware doesn’t matter—they’ll take care of it. Suddenly, it ceases to be relevant that Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 480 offers superior tessellation, or that AMD’s Radeon HD 5870 was the first DirectX 11 graphics card by more than half a year. It’s also threatening to enthusiasts, who lust after the most powerful components, and don’t necessarily want to see their gaming experience distilled down into whoever has the fastest Internet connection—though saving thousands of dollars on high-end hardware takes the sting off somewhat, I have to imagine.

At the end of the day, though, OnLive does not deliver a gaming experience to rival what a power user at home with even a modest PC can already achieve. This is very much the theater-cam version of a movie, when what you really want at home is the Blu-ray. Games run at pre-determined quality settings at a maximum resolution of 1280x720. That’s a far cry from the enthusiast-class resolutions we test here at Tom’s. And even then, putting a game like Just Cause 2 at 720p running remotely next to the same resolution locally is a completely one-sided comparison.

OnLive can't match the image quality of local play.OnLive can't match the image quality of local play.

To OnLive’s credit, the gaming service works. It masks latency well enough that more casual gamers on ample connections should not be hampered by the delivery mechanism. It turns an out-of-date notebook into a capable gaming platform. The company is actually doing something I didn’t think was possible one year ago. And while the first demonstration of OnLive’s technology came under scrutiny for what was undoubtedly a controlled showcase, I’m a good 250 miles away from the company’s Santa Clara data center. This is definitely a real-world trial of the service. It’s just not something I’d pay for today. And I’d really avoid paying full price for the titles in OnLive’s library, preferring to perhaps “rent” the game for three days instead.

To anyone who suggests that you may never need another high-end PC to play the latest games, I respond: I’ll hold onto my high-end PC, thanks. OnLive doesn’t come anywhere close to displacing it.