Icy games: Alan Wake finally coming to PC in early 2012

Alan Wake, originally planned as a PC and Xbox 360 game, but later launched as a console exclusive, has finally been announced again for PC.
Featuring the The Signal and The Writer DLC add-ons, it will arrive in early 2012.

A Remedy spokesperson couldn't confirm PC-specific features like DirectX 11 support when quizzed by Shacknews, or the game's distribution channels, but the developer did offer one screenshot (right).

It's good news for PC players, although we can't say we're totally surprised. Earlier this week, ninja PC gamers spotted a listing for Alan Wake in Steam's registry, sparking speculation that the title could finally be released on the platform.

Alan Wake's XBLA follow-up, American Nightmare, was announced this weekend. Source from computerandvideogames.com

PogoPlug Series 4 Introduced; USB3.0 Meets The Cloud

PogoPlug has been making appearances in a number of products for a few years now. The premise is simple: take a low-power ARM computer, give it a NAS optimized Linux build, add storage and network access and you have what's been termed the "personal cloud." Access your files anywhere from your PC, phone or tablet; and never beholden to a data center. PogoPlug's particular hardware has been integrated into branded docks and also to OEM branded storage solutions. PogoPlug recently improved its service to include 5 GB of cloud storage available free to anyone interested. 

Today, PogoPlug introduces their Series 4 device, an update that adds one key addition. Like the original Seagate DeskStar dock, the Series 4 acts as a dock for Seagate GoFlex mobile hard drives and includes an SD card reader, Gigabit ethernet, single USB 2.0 port and two USB 3.0 ports. The USB 3.0 addition is new, and while the added throughput might be wasted to slow broadband and cellular access, the performance should help with local streaming. 

We can expect more personal cloud devices coming our way. While the convenience of storing all your data in a massive redundant data center is great, having to contend with network difficulties and service fees can be less than ideal, particularly the high costs of expanding storage. Personal cloud devices remove the fees and storage barriers, and leave users with the task of optimization and network upkeep. If you're up to the task and interested in expandable cloud storage, this may be one of the best options around.The Series 4 is available now at your favorite e-tailer for $99. source from Anandtech

Seagate 2nd Generation Momentus XT (750GB) Hybrid HDD Review

To say I liked the original Momentus XT would be an understatement. While Seagate had the lofty goal of negating the need for an SSD with its first mass-market hybrid HDD, the reality was the Momentus XT ended up being the best 2.5" hard drive on the market. In many cases, it was fast enough to be better than 3.5" desktop hard drives as well.

Seagate earned this praise by combining a small amount of of SLC NAND (4GB at the time) with a traditional 7200RPM 2.5" hard drive. A separate NAND controller was introduced to handle caching of frequently accessed data to the NAND. By acting solely as a read cache (only read requests to the drive are pulled into the cache), Seagate skirted the complicated issue of effectively building an on-board SSD by only caching reads from the hard drive and not writes to it... Full review at Anandtech

Icy games: Assassin's Creed Revelations: 'Think huge sequences of high adventure '

It's not only Ezio and Altair who are the stars of the Assassin's Creed series, but it's also the atmospheric, evocative city and landscapes that make this one of the most beautiful series in gaming.

For Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Ubisoft Montreal has rebuilt that famous crossroads of the ancient world, Constantinople, as well as several diverse secret locations.

As part of our Unlock the Animus campaign, we sat down with art director Raphael Lacoste, creative director Alexandre Amancio and scriptwriter Darby McDevitt to give you the low down on Revelations' locations...

You'll spend a lot of time in Revelations in Constantinople. That must have been quite a canvas to work with, can you tell us about the process of bringing it to life?

Raphael Lacoste: Our team invested itself heavily into both historical and on-location research to bring 16th century Constantinople to life. Via many trips to modern Istanbul to fully grasp the feel of the city, to hundreds of hours of research into the political and social realities of the period, we hope that we have brought this rich period of history to life in a convincing and believable manner... completed news go to ComputerAndVideoGames.com

Icy comment: Assassin's Creed is one of PC games I love so much. Especially I was touched when playing Episode 2 because it fully presents the scene and architectures of  the Renaissance period. Unfortunately I have time to get through Brotherhood due to busy...Just share your feedback about it!

Icy news: Samsung 6Gb mSATA SSDs in Production

64GB to 256GB, eight grams, for ultra-slim notebooks

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. announced volume production of SSDs that support the mSATA interface. 

The drives are designed for use in ultra-slim notebooks such as Ultrabook PCs.

"Samsung's compact mSATA SSDs will provide performance of the highest quality in helping to deliver the advanced ultra-slim PCs that consumers have been wanting," said Myungho Kim, vice president of memory marketing, Device Solutions, Samsung Electronics. "Samsung plans to continue providing timely delivery of advanced SSD solutions, while preserving its leadership position in the SSD market for notebook PCs."

Combining Samsung's mSATA SSDs with the latest multi-core processors will help PC manufacturers to improve performance of their Ultrabook-class portable PCs up to that of notebook PCs.

The new Samsung mSATA SSDs (The mSATA PM830 SSDs are available only to OEMs for installation in new PCs or other devices) will be available in 256, 128 and 64GB densities as main storage devices, and also at 32GB for caching. They measure 50.95 x 30 x 3.8 millimeters and weigh eight grams.

The new SSDs will be part of the Samsung PM830 product family that was introduced earlier this year. They make use of Samsung's 20 nanometer class NAND flash memorycomponents which incorporate the toggle DDR interface.

Utilizing SATA 6Gb/s controllers-based on Samsung's own technology, the new mSATA SSDs can operate at the industry'ssequential read and write speeds of 500MB/s and of 260MB/s respectively, under optimum conditions. This is more than six times the speed of hard disk drives typically offering a data transfer rate of 80MB/s. The Samsung SSDs also enable faster system boot-ups (in the 10-second range) and will transmit five DVD files in about a minute.

In addition, the Samsung mSATA SSDs feature an hardware-based security solution including 256-bit AES protection, which will prevent unauthorized access to data on a lost or stolen notebook PC.

Beginning this year, the market for Ultrabook-class mobile PCs has been growing rapidly and is expected to expand beyond that of tablet PCs as early as next year due to outstanding performance characteristics, more advanced processors and use of the Windows 8 operating system. According to market research firm IHS iSuppli, the Ultrabook share of global notebook shipments will exceed 40 percent in 2015. News from  Storage newsletters

Icy comment: Start from iPad, tablet PC can be said the most popular electronic gadgets in market now, portable, user friendly, slim and light...laptops market seems to face a competitor. Now ultra books start to get the market back now. It is also particular about slim and light body, longer endurance of battery, high storage capacity and performance.Next year will be a battle field of ultra book and tablet PC...which one you support?