Waterfield?s MacBook Air case is as well crafted as what it holds

The MacBook Air is one of the sleekest and best designed laptops that I?ve ever owned, made by a company at the top of its game. It?s only fitting that one of the better cases for carrying it around comes from Waterfield, bag maker extraordinaire.

Waterfield is a San Francisco based bag maker that builds all of their products in-house. They use top-notch materials like self locking zippers and every bag that I?ve seen so far from these guys has just been incredibly solid. The Travel Express for the MacBook Air is no exception.

At 13.5? long by 9.1? high and 1.9? thick, the case is large enough to hold a MacBook Air in the main compartment, along with a set of accessories like the charging cable and a few extras in the main portage area. The sides of the bag gain some added rigidity from plastic inserts so it holds its natural shape well. This makes it easy to slip items in or out.

The self locking zipper opens the bag on two sides, making it even easier to get bulky accessories in and out. The MacBook pocket is lined on both sides to prevent scratching, of course.

I like that the divider is the trademark Waterfield yellow, as it makes it easier to see dark cables and accessories inside if there is a bit of contrast. I would love to see the whole panel in a brighter color to make it even easier to see, but there are two stretchy pockets attached to it that make it easy to organize cables so I?ll give it a pass. There are also three pockets on the inside of the exterior wall as well for thinner items.

The exterior is ballistic nylon with a decorative stripe that you can get in one of a variety of colors. You can also choose to attach the optional strap if you?d like to carry it over the shoulder, although I primarily tucked it under-arm. Although the strap is thin and light, the shoulder pad is padded and ample, although it restrains its width to just over 1.5?. Since the Air is so light, the smaller pad doesn?t make a huge difference in terms of comfort, although this is definitely not an ?all day? strap.

The model I tested was for the 11? Air, but you can get flavors for the 13? as well. With the 11?, the bag was the perfect size for an Air and an iPad in a case. If you fudge it a bit you can also get the Air?s power adapter in there. It really is a sweet travel size. Most of the time I packed an Air, a standard Moleskine, my iPhone in a case, a pen and the Air?s power adapter without any fuss.

My one major issue with the bag, and it?s not really all that egregious, is the fact that the zipper doesn?t end at a stopper when you close it. Instead, the zipper is sewn in a continuous loop all the way around the mouth of the bag. This means that when you?ve zipped it closed, there is still a small loop that won?t close off. You can see it in the image below.

It?s small enough that it probably won?t be a huge point of entry for dust or water, but it is there and it leaves just a bit more possibility that stuff will get in. It?s easy to see why it was made this way, as this allows the case to clamshell open wide to allow you easy access to the interior, but it still leaves behind the gap as a consequence, so it?s worth mentioning.

The MacBook Air Travel Express is another fantastic bag from Waterfield that should please anyone wanting a slim folio to carry the Air and a couple other items without a lot of bulk. It?s incredibly difficult to find much to complain about here besides the small zipper quirk. Great workmanship, solid materials and obvious care have all gone into the making of the Express, and it all oozes out with an overall satisfaction with using it.

The Waterfield MacBook Air Travel Express is available in 11? and 13? sizes, and in various colors, for $79-$89 at SFbags.com.

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With G.O.P. Unity at Risk, Boehner Tries Tougher Style

?I didn?t put my neck on the line and go toe to toe with Obama to not have an army behind me,? Mr. Boehner declared at a private party meeting, according to some House members. He demanded the fealty of conservatives who were threatening to sink his budget proposal and deny him the chance to confront the Senate with a take-it-or-leave offer on a debt ceiling increase.

Mr. Boehner really had no choice but to go all out. A defeat of that plan ? which seemed likely Tuesday night before its prospects improved Wednesday ? would have been a disastrous repudiation, in effect a stinging vote of no confidence in him.

Since taking over what some people now describe as the worst job in Washington, Mr. Boehner has found himself caught between two imperatives: to lead his majority, bolstered by Tea Party newcomers, in its crusade to cut spending and the size of government, while serving as responsible partner in governing with a Democratic White House and Senate.

The current impasse is the starkest illustration yet of that tension as the speaker labors to persuade House Republicans, who find the notion of increasing the debt limit repugnant, to do so in order to prevent what Mr. Boehner, a former businessman himself, knows could be a disastrous default.

In a conference call to his membership on Sunday, Mr. Boehner reminded his caucus members that they had a duty to the nation, even if they did not like what he was asking them to do.

?Let me thank all of you for your patience, and for your confidence, and for your commitment to our country,? Mr. Boehner said, according to participants on the call. ?We?re doing the right thing, and you all know that the right thing isn?t always the easiest thing to do.?

The speaker has used the many resources at his disposal to coax along his fellow Republicans, from listening sessions in which House leaders sought to educate Republican newcomers on the issue, to an informal party last week. It was held in a storied room on the first floor of the Capitol known as the Board of Education, where another speaker from Ohio, Nicholas Longworth IV, used to gather with colleagues during Prohibition to unwind. Mr. Boehner fed the freshmen debt limit talk along with pizza, sliders and chicken wings.

But it remained a tough sell, with Mr. Boehner in danger of losing the vote, particularly after a Congressional Budget Office report showed that the House plan fell short of the savings estimated by the speaker. The leadership regrouped, beefed up the savings in the measure, used the party meeting to make its case and appeared to gain ground headed into Thursday?s floor fight.

Though Mr. Boehner seems to have temporarily regained his footing with his Henry V performance in the party meeting ? he received his third standing ovation in three days ? he is hardly out of danger.

Even if he prevails in the House vote expected on Thursday, the next few days could still spell the difference between success and catastrophe for Mr. Boehner, whose Republican establishment temperament diverges sharply from the fire-breathing conservatives among the rank and file.

While it seems unlikely now, getting the Senate to swallow the House proposal would be a major victory for the speaker, who will have delivered the solution to the debt impasse over the objections of Democrats and President Obama. But if Republican intransigence is blamed for a default or his caucus is forced to accept some version of the Senate Democratic plan ? an outcome some House members would consider far worse than allowing the nation to not pay its bills ? Mr. Boehner could be weakened.

Still, many Republicans consider him safe because of the general good will he has built with many members despite their differences. And there are few signals from other Republican leaders that they are ready, or even want, to take him on.

?I find it hard to believe that even if some critics have a beef with Boehner on how the final debt limit solution will look (and surely some will), that they will have the courage or the inclination to try to oust him,? John Feehery, a party strategist who served as a top aide to Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, wrote on his blog on Wednesday. ?Boehner has done a good job.?

In interviews in recent weeks, roughly two dozen members, even some who vehemently oppose Mr. Boehner?s plan, said they respected how he had conducted his negotiations with the White House. And they said they appreciated his inclusiveness, especially freshmen who expected otherwise as they pushed early on for more aggressive cuts.

?Leadership gets great credit for having been very straightforward,? said Representative Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia.

Representative Renee Ellmers of North Carolina said she came to Washington suspicious of Mr. Boehner. At Tea Party rallies before she was elected, she heard that he was part of the problem.

?When I got here I realized that wasn?t the case at all,? she said. ?I was told he wasn?t conservative. He is conservative, and that?s what I tell other people in our discussions. He has been great to all the freshmen.?

Allies of the speaker say they expect that most of the 87 Republican freshmen will back the House debt limit plan in the end.

Despite all the vitriol in the debt limit fight, Democrats have been careful to not go too far in impugning Mr. Boehner ? Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Democrat, on Wednesday called him a ?good and reasonable man? ? in the event they have to work with him. But they have also sought to portray him as a captive of the right wing of his caucus.

Still, Democrats are keeping the door open for Mr. Boehner, hoping that in the final resolution of the impasse he will have to join with them in enacting a debt limit increase that extends through 2012. At the moment, though, Mr. Boehner is not ready to walk through the opening.

Jennifer Steinhauer contributed reporting.

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With G.O.P. Unity at Risk, Boehner Tries Tougher Style

?I didn?t put my neck on the line and go toe to toe with Obama to not have an army behind me,? Mr. Boehner declared at a private party meeting, according to some House members. He demanded the fealty of conservatives who were threatening to sink his budget proposal and deny him the chance to confront the Senate with a take-it-or-leave offer on a debt ceiling increase.

Mr. Boehner really had no choice but to go all out. A defeat of that plan ? which seemed likely Tuesday night before its prospects improved Wednesday ? would have been a disastrous repudiation, in effect a stinging vote of no confidence in him.

Since taking over what some people now describe as the worst job in Washington, Mr. Boehner has found himself caught between two imperatives: to lead his majority, bolstered by Tea Party newcomers, in its crusade to cut spending and the size of government, while serving as responsible partner in governing with a Democratic White House and Senate.

The current impasse is the starkest illustration yet of that tension as the speaker labors to persuade House Republicans, who find the notion of increasing the debt limit repugnant, to do so in order to prevent what Mr. Boehner, a former businessman himself, knows could be a disastrous default.

In a conference call to his membership on Sunday, Mr. Boehner reminded his caucus members that they had a duty to the nation, even if they did not like what he was asking them to do.

?Let me thank all of you for your patience, and for your confidence, and for your commitment to our country,? Mr. Boehner said, according to participants on the call. ?We?re doing the right thing, and you all know that the right thing isn?t always the easiest thing to do.?

The speaker has used the many resources at his disposal to coax along his fellow Republicans, from listening sessions in which House leaders sought to educate Republican newcomers on the issue, to an informal party last week. It was held in a storied room on the first floor of the Capitol known as the Board of Education, where another speaker from Ohio, Nicholas Longworth IV, used to gather with colleagues during Prohibition to unwind. Mr. Boehner fed the freshmen debt limit talk along with pizza, sliders and chicken wings.

But it remained a tough sell, with Mr. Boehner in danger of losing the vote, particularly after a Congressional Budget Office report showed that the House plan fell short of the savings estimated by the speaker. The leadership regrouped, beefed up the savings in the measure, used the party meeting to make its case and appeared to gain ground headed into Thursday?s floor fight.

Though Mr. Boehner seems to have temporarily regained his footing with his Henry V performance in the party meeting ? he received his third standing ovation in three days ? he is hardly out of danger.

Even if he prevails in the House vote expected on Thursday, the next few days could still spell the difference between success and catastrophe for Mr. Boehner, whose Republican establishment temperament diverges sharply from the fire-breathing conservatives among the rank and file.

While it seems unlikely now, getting the Senate to swallow the House proposal would be a major victory for the speaker, who will have delivered the solution to the debt impasse over the objections of Democrats and President Obama. But if Republican intransigence is blamed for a default or his caucus is forced to accept some version of the Senate Democratic plan ? an outcome some House members would consider far worse than allowing the nation to not pay its bills ? Mr. Boehner could be weakened.

Still, many Republicans consider him safe because of the general good will he has built with many members despite their differences. And there are few signals from other Republican leaders that they are ready, or even want, to take him on.

?I find it hard to believe that even if some critics have a beef with Boehner on how the final debt limit solution will look (and surely some will), that they will have the courage or the inclination to try to oust him,? John Feehery, a party strategist who served as a top aide to Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, wrote on his blog on Wednesday. ?Boehner has done a good job.?

In interviews in recent weeks, roughly two dozen members, even some who vehemently oppose Mr. Boehner?s plan, said they respected how he had conducted his negotiations with the White House. And they said they appreciated his inclusiveness, especially freshmen who expected otherwise as they pushed early on for more aggressive cuts.

?Leadership gets great credit for having been very straightforward,? said Representative Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia.

Representative Renee Ellmers of North Carolina said she came to Washington suspicious of Mr. Boehner. At Tea Party rallies before she was elected, she heard that he was part of the problem.

?When I got here I realized that wasn?t the case at all,? she said. ?I was told he wasn?t conservative. He is conservative, and that?s what I tell other people in our discussions. He has been great to all the freshmen.?

Allies of the speaker say they expect that most of the 87 Republican freshmen will back the House debt limit plan in the end.

Despite all the vitriol in the debt limit fight, Democrats have been careful to not go too far in impugning Mr. Boehner ? Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Democrat, on Wednesday called him a ?good and reasonable man? ? in the event they have to work with him. But they have also sought to portray him as a captive of the right wing of his caucus.

Still, Democrats are keeping the door open for Mr. Boehner, hoping that in the final resolution of the impasse he will have to join with them in enacting a debt limit increase that extends through 2012. At the moment, though, Mr. Boehner is not ready to walk through the opening.

Jennifer Steinhauer contributed reporting.

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White House Memo: President on Sidelines in Critical Battle Over Debt Ceiling

He spoke repeatedly but without specifics of private conversations and nonstop meetings involving administration officials ?up to the highest levels? ? White House shorthand for the president. Finally, exasperated, he asked whether reporters expected ?a President Bartlet moment? ? say, a march up Capitol Hill to whip Congress in line, à la fictional president in ?The West Wing? television series.

?Yes,? one reporter replied.

Reality is not so simple. The two parties remain seemingly further apart than just days before the Treasury Department?s Aug. 2 deadline for raising the $14.3 trillion debt limit, threatening a financial crisis that could ripple through the economy. But with the collapse last week of Mr. Obama?s back-channel talks with House Speaker John A. Boehner, the action has shifted to Congress.

Having already deployed the heavy weapons from the presidential arsenal, including a national address on Monday night and a veto threat, Mr. Obama is in danger of seeming a spectator at one of the most critical moments of his presidency. Having been unable to get the grand bargain he wanted ? a debt limit increase and up to $4 trillion in debt-reduction through spending cuts and taxes ? Mr. Obama?s challenge now is to reassert himself in a way that produces the next-best outcome, or at least one that does no harm to his re-election hopes.

Behind the scenes, administration officials led by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the White House chief of staff, William M. Daley, and Mr. Obama?s budget director, Jacob J. Lew, are scrambling via telephone, e-mails and trips to the Capitol to try to shape the emerging legislation as Mr. Obama and Congressional Democrats want. Their goal is a $2.4 trillion increase in the debt limit that would extend the government?s borrowing authority past the 2012 election campaign, not the shorter increase the Republicans now want, and also provide a similar amount in deficit reduction over the decade.

On a parallel track the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, is ?omnipresent? at the White House, by one official?s description, leading the effort with Mr. Lew to plan for emergency actions by the government and the financial system should Congress and Mr. Obama fail to reach an agreement.

No measure can pass without the president?s signature, so Mr. Obama is far from irrelevant. But his limited ability in a divided government to affect the legislation and his inability before now to shape a compromise with House Republicans, many of them dedicated to never compromising with him, is proving the most significant test to date of his campaign promise to bridge the two parties and make Washington work.

Worse, with the health of a still-fragile recovery resting on the outcome, a bad ending could leave Mr. Obama more vulnerable politically than he is now, with 9 percent unemployment, on the issue that is likely to define the 2012 elections ? his handling of the economy.

?I don?t think a president is ever completely helpless, but having said that, my interpretation of the nationally televised address that he gave was that he had no arrows left in his quiver,? said Bill Galston, a former Clinton administration official and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a research organization. ?If he?d had another card to play, that was surely the time to play it. He?s the ultimate decider but, on the other hand, I think his capacity to shape what gets to his desk has been substantially reduced? as Republicans stand their ground, Mr. Galston said. Even Mr. Boehner has found it hard this week to get an agreement with the Republicans he ostensibly leads, he added.

Vin Weber, a Republican strategist and former congressman, said Mr. Obama could be hurt by the summer?s saga even though his position in the debt-limit debate ? for a balanced package of spending cuts and revenue increase ? is more popular than Republicans? demands for deep spending cuts only, and a reshaping of Medicare and Medicaid.

?I think that his position on the issue is more broadly shared than Republicans would like to think, but he is damaging his leadership image because people don?t see him solving the problem,? Mr. Weber said.

?I?m not saying the president has an easy task ahead of him and he can do it at the snap of his fingers,? Mr. Weber added, in reference to Congressional Republicans? hard line. ?I?m just saying in the end the failure to solve this problem is going to weigh more heavily on him than on anybody in Congress.?

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Three-Dimensional Photonic Crystals Shine

For the first time, researchers have made high-quality three-dimensional photonic crystals and used them to make a highly efficient light-emitting diode (LED). Three-dimensional photonic crystals promise to boost the performance of just about any optical device, be it a display, a solar cell, or an efficient lightbulb?but until now, no one had been able to make them using commercially viable methods or workable materials. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are now working on solar cells based on the structures.

Photonic crystals can control the absorption, emission, and movement of light in a very precise way based on their structure. They've been a hot area of research since the late 1980s. So far, it's only been practical to make flat, two-dimensional photonic crystals. These control the movement of light very well in two dimensions, but not perfectly in the third. Still, they've been very successful. A company called Luxtera, for example, has developed ways of building photonic-crystal-based optical interconnects directly onto computer chips. Bringing optical signals closer to computer processors helps speed data transmission, and using photonic crystals helps keep the size of these links compact. Luminus has focused on LEDs, for which the crystals help improve light output, making these devices brighter and more power-efficient.

However, three-dimensional photonic crystals would make even better optical devices. "The key advantage is, you can really control the propagation of light in all dimensions," says Paul Braun, professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois. Braun is leading the work on three-dimensional photonic crystals, and his group is also working on making solar cells from the crystals.

Making these structures is tricky. Photonic crystal structures vary, but they're often made by drilling nanoscale holes, rods, and other features into a material. Patterning a flat slab of material with the necessary nanoscale structures to make a two-dimensional photonic crystal is a relatively simple process. It's far more difficult to get that kind of patterning into a thick chunk of material to make a three-dimensional structure without degrading the material. And the kinds of photonic crystals that are most useful?those that can actively convert between electrical signals and optical ones, in addition to precisely manipulating the flow of light?are the hardest to make because material flaws are introduced during the process. This light-to-electricity and back conversion is critical in LEDs, solar cells, and optical data interconnects for computing.

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White House Memo: President on Sidelines in Critical Battle Over Debt Ceiling

He spoke repeatedly but without specifics of private conversations and nonstop meetings involving administration officials ?up to the highest levels? ? White House shorthand for the president. Finally, exasperated, he asked whether reporters expected ?a President Bartlet moment? ? say, a march up Capitol Hill to whip Congress in line, à la fictional president in ?The West Wing? television series.

?Yes,? one reporter replied.

Reality is not so simple. The two parties remain seemingly further apart than just days before the Treasury Department?s Aug. 2 deadline for raising the $14.3 trillion debt limit, threatening a financial crisis that could ripple through the economy. But with the collapse last week of Mr. Obama?s back-channel talks with House Speaker John A. Boehner, the action has shifted to Congress.

Having already deployed the heavy weapons from the presidential arsenal, including a national address on Monday night and a veto threat, Mr. Obama is in danger of seeming a spectator at one of the most critical moments of his presidency. Having been unable to get the grand bargain he wanted ? a debt limit increase and up to $4 trillion in debt-reduction through spending cuts and taxes ? Mr. Obama?s challenge now is to reassert himself in a way that produces the next-best outcome, or at least one that does no harm to his re-election hopes.

Behind the scenes, administration officials led by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the White House chief of staff, William M. Daley, and Mr. Obama?s budget director, Jacob J. Lew, are scrambling via telephone, e-mails and trips to the Capitol to try to shape the emerging legislation as Mr. Obama and Congressional Democrats want. Their goal is a $2.4 trillion increase in the debt limit that would extend the government?s borrowing authority past the 2012 election campaign, not the shorter increase the Republicans now want, and also provide a similar amount in deficit reduction over the decade.

On a parallel track the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, is ?omnipresent? at the White House, by one official?s description, leading the effort with Mr. Lew to plan for emergency actions by the government and the financial system should Congress and Mr. Obama fail to reach an agreement.

No measure can pass without the president?s signature, so Mr. Obama is far from irrelevant. But his limited ability in a divided government to affect the legislation and his inability before now to shape a compromise with House Republicans, many of them dedicated to never compromising with him, is proving the most significant test to date of his campaign promise to bridge the two parties and make Washington work.

Worse, with the health of a still-fragile recovery resting on the outcome, a bad ending could leave Mr. Obama more vulnerable politically than he is now, with 9 percent unemployment, on the issue that is likely to define the 2012 elections ? his handling of the economy.

?I don?t think a president is ever completely helpless, but having said that, my interpretation of the nationally televised address that he gave was that he had no arrows left in his quiver,? said Bill Galston, a former Clinton administration official and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a research organization. ?If he?d had another card to play, that was surely the time to play it. He?s the ultimate decider but, on the other hand, I think his capacity to shape what gets to his desk has been substantially reduced? as Republicans stand their ground, Mr. Galston said. Even Mr. Boehner has found it hard this week to get an agreement with the Republicans he ostensibly leads, he added.

Vin Weber, a Republican strategist and former congressman, said Mr. Obama could be hurt by the summer?s saga even though his position in the debt-limit debate ? for a balanced package of spending cuts and revenue increase ? is more popular than Republicans? demands for deep spending cuts only, and a reshaping of Medicare and Medicaid.

?I think that his position on the issue is more broadly shared than Republicans would like to think, but he is damaging his leadership image because people don?t see him solving the problem,? Mr. Weber said.

?I?m not saying the president has an easy task ahead of him and he can do it at the snap of his fingers,? Mr. Weber added, in reference to Congressional Republicans? hard line. ?I?m just saying in the end the failure to solve this problem is going to weigh more heavily on him than on anybody in Congress.?

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Hardware 25 - What, no Tanks?

Hardware 25 - What, no Tanks?

Posted on 8th Jul 2011 at 14:20 by Podcast with 11 comments

It's been a while since our last podcast so James, Paul, Antony and Harry had plenty to talk about when they took their seats in the studio this week.

First on the agenda was James and Paul's trip to Computex in Taiwan, where they got to see what the industry had planned for the next six months. Certain things were of particular interest to us though such as the LGA2011 boards being shown at the exhibition.

The other big slice of news that's hit since our last podcast is the launch of AMD's new desktop Lynx processors. The APUs (as AMD calls them) are potentially interesting for those looking for a low cost rig that's also capable of gaming.

Finally, we sneak in a little discussion about Intel's new 50-core maths co-processor card and attempt to answer a reader question about thermal compound.

As always, we've also set up our weekly competition, the lucky winner of which will walk away with a brand new Corsair VX550W PSU.

Hardware 25 - What, no Tanks?

As ever, the bit-tech hardware podcast features music by Brad Sucks, and was recorded on Shure microphones. You can download the podcast direct, listen in-browser or subscribe through iTunes using the links below. Also, be sure to let us know your thoughts about the discussion in the forums.

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This augmented reality app will help you find public printing locations

You may have a laptop, smartphone, tablet and a gazillion other gadgets to access digital content, but sometimes you simply need a hard copy of something. And fast. So what do you do if you?re in the middle of a city, and no idea where to even begin looking for a public printing venue?

Well, WorkSnug has updated its existing app to integrate with HP?s ePrint® location data, making it the first third-party mobile app that lets users navigate what is the first global network of publicly available printers. The HP ePrint® network has more than 9,000 printers installed in public spaces around the world, including hotel lobbies, FedEx centres and even coffee shops.

WorkSnug Pro uses augmented reality to pin the location of printing places on the screen, directing users to those locations:

WorkSnug was founded in London in late 2009, and since that time it has partnered with companies such as Plantronics, Skype, HP and Cisco.

The initial WorkSnug app was launched as a tool to connect mobile workers to the nearest and best places to work. WorkSnug?s review teams and community have visited and reviewed many thousands of co-working spaces, covering WiFi access, noise levels, power provision, community feel, the quality of the coffee  and more.

WorkSnug founder, Richard Leyland, said:

?WorkSnug already provides a unique, user-generated database of the very best touch-down working locations around the world and we know our users will love the ability to find nearby printers. We see ourselves as the Swiss Army Knife for mobile workers, and we just acquired a superbly useful new blade!?

WorkSnug Pro is free to download from the App Store now, and it?s compatible with the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, on iOS 3.0 and above.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2011/07/28/this-augmented-reality-app-will-help-you-find-public-printing-locations/

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Is There Still a Need for Water-Cooling?

For me, water-cooling began out of necessity. I water-cooled my first PC nearly ten years ago, when, living in a house with a flat roof, my bedroom got incredibly hot in the summer months. I was already hooked on overclocking at the time and strove to save money by buying cheap, but very overclockable hardware. Unfortunately, the combination of the house's architecture and high system temperatures meant that my PC was intolerably noisy and unstable.

Infuriated, I made the move to water-cooling - not a particularly easy one as there were few guides and even fewer off-the-shelf components back then, which resulted in regular trips to the local DIY store to search for parts. I initially water-cooled my CPU, and my overheating and noise issues were solved instantly - my PC went from a hot, noisy box to a cool and quiet machine of wonder. I had more overclocking headroom than before too.

Every one of my main rigs since then has also seen me spend entire weekends building and leak-testing. In fact, the last three PCs I've built have had a water-cooled CPU and GPU, as well as the various hotspots on the motherboard too. However, a lot of today's hardware simply doesn't need water-cooling as urgently as its equivalent back in the day. People still want water-cooling, but it seems to be a desire that's separate from the need to actually cool the hardware.

Even as far back as the release Intel's first mainstream quad-core CPUs, such as the Core 2 Quad Q6600, air coolers were quickly becoming potent enough for newcomers to question the significant outlay involved with water-cooling. The new heatpipe-clad tower coolers were becoming more efficient at every step, and there's usually an air cooler that will enable you to push all but the hottest running CPUs to the max, albeit with additional noise.

However, with Intel's LGA1155 CPUs, we've seen time and time again that air coolers such as Thermaltake's Frio and BeQuiet Dark Rock Advanced are more than able to provide just as much overclocking headroom as a decent water-cooling kit, and with similar noise levels too. Our current LGA1155 thermal test kit is a case in question - we've overclocked our Core i7-2600K to a lofty 4.6GHz, and both the aforementioned coolers handled this overclock admirably.


Graphics cards are a slightly different matter, however, as we've found just as much reason to water-cool the current graphics cards such as the GeForce GTX 590 3GB as any previous generation. In fact, even mid-range graphics cards such as the GTX 560 Ti 1GB get quite warm and noisy under load, and many third party coolers haven't been able to tame them significantly.

Motherboards are a bit of mixed bag, though. I'd go as far as saying that I've had far fewer failures and stability issues since I've been water-cooling the motherboard in my PCs - the hot-running chipset on LGA1366 motherboards, for example, is almost certainly the reason for quite a few dead systems in our lab, as well as other problems I've read about in various forums.


However, water-cooling your motherboard is an expensive business - full cover blocks can retail for over £100, and most LGA1155 motherboards simply don't require shedloads of voltage either. With Intel and AMD's next-generation high-end CPUs on the horizon, it will be interesting to see how future families of motherboards fare on a day to day basis - will LGA2011 be another hot-running LGA1366 for example?

Aside from noise reduction, where water-cooling still has the edge in a few key areas, there is one other reason to invest in water-cooling. It looks fantastic. There's a reason why we award points to cases that look good, and why modding projects are so popular. Lots of us want to have a cool-looking PC and are willing to spend money achieving that goal. Thankfully, the water-cooling industry has taken notice and strived to meet the demand for a diverse and flexible range of hardware.

You only have to look at websites such as Aquatuning, Chilled PC and FrozenCPU to see the huge the range of components on offer these days, which makes it very easy to make a unique water-cooled PC. In addition, the huge range of gear is appealing to those who want to go one step further than just bolting a load of off-the-shelf parts together, and instead want to either mod their PC or even build it from scratch.

Even if the next generation of hardware doesn't notably benefit from water-cooling, there's always a small gap between air cooling and extreme cooling, and there will still be a huge market for it, for the simple reason that it's cool.

What do you think the future has in store for water-cooling? Have you been put off for any reason, or do you swear by it? Let us know in the forums.

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Hardware 25 - What, no Tanks?

Hardware 25 - What, no Tanks?

Posted on 8th Jul 2011 at 14:20 by Podcast with 11 comments

It's been a while since our last podcast so James, Paul, Antony and Harry had plenty to talk about when they took their seats in the studio this week.

First on the agenda was James and Paul's trip to Computex in Taiwan, where they got to see what the industry had planned for the next six months. Certain things were of particular interest to us though such as the LGA2011 boards being shown at the exhibition.

The other big slice of news that's hit since our last podcast is the launch of AMD's new desktop Lynx processors. The APUs (as AMD calls them) are potentially interesting for those looking for a low cost rig that's also capable of gaming.

Finally, we sneak in a little discussion about Intel's new 50-core maths co-processor card and attempt to answer a reader question about thermal compound.

As always, we've also set up our weekly competition, the lucky winner of which will walk away with a brand new Corsair VX550W PSU.

Hardware 25 - What, no Tanks?

As ever, the bit-tech hardware podcast features music by Brad Sucks, and was recorded on Shure microphones. You can download the podcast direct, listen in-browser or subscribe through iTunes using the links below. Also, be sure to let us know your thoughts about the discussion in the forums.

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