Asus ROG G551VW: A must-buy for hardcore gamers

Asus ROG G551VW: A must-buy for hardcore gamers

The running around involved in assembling a gaming rig has dissuaded many from PC gaming. But for a hardcore gamer who wants nothing less than a 60-frames-a-second (fps) rate, a good gaming laptop can do the trick.

Fortunately for me, I got my hands on Asus' ROG G551VW. Touted as a mean machine, the laptop claims to provide optimum gaming experience. Fitted with a Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M graphics card coupled with 4GB DDR5 graphics memory, the laptop runs graphic-heavy games with ease. Under the hood, it houses a quad core 6th Gen Intel i7 processor, which reduces the chance of a lag.

The 15.6-inch display and a 4K IPS panel makes it perfect for watching HD videos. I tried it out with my copy of The Great Gatsby and found the colours to be vibrant and sharp.

As it's a gaming laptop, it was natural for me to play as much as I could. It has a backlit keyboard so nocturnal gamers can rejoice. To begin with, I ran Far Cry Primal. Playing as Takkar in the Stone Age was not only immersing but the graphics card ensured there were no lags. Next, I ran Arkham Origins. The result was equally impressive - the creases on Batman's cape and distinct raindrops were a proof of how good the graphics card was. Interestingly, the laptop doesn't heat much, thus removing the need of a cooling pad.Read More.

Apple is bringing Siri to Mac & third-party apps, says WSJ

Apple is bringing Siri to Mac & third-party apps, says WSJ

Tech giant Apple is likely to bring Siri, its computer programme that works as an intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator, to the Mac.

The company will also give developers access to Siri so that they can incorporate it into their apps.

The announcement is likely to be made during the week-long Worldwide Developers Conference, which kicks off Monday, the Verge quoted the Wall Street Journal as saying.

Apple introduced Siri as an iPhone feature in 2011, creating a way to find information or complete tasks by speaking to the phone instead of typing or tapping.

Siri uses a natural language user interface to answer questions, make recommendations and perform actions by delegating requests to a set of Web services. The software, both in its original version and as an iOS feature, adapts to the user's individual language usage and individual searches with continuing use and returns results that are individualised. Read more.

ASUS GL552VW: Lightweight and decent gaming notebook

At Rs 82,490, this laptop makes a nice proposition for any gamer

A friend from school got in touch the other day after a really long time. A high-flying information technology (IT) consultant and mentor now, I've always admired him for blowing up his first big bonus on a state-of-the-art gaming laptop roughly around the time I was taking baby steps in journalism. But years of carrying around mean gaming machines had taken their toll; as he still spent considerable time in airport lounges and on flights, he was looking for a lighter gaming notebook, he said.

A gaming laptop that's light? It used to be something of a paradox. Till I came across the ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) GL552VW (Rs 82,490), launched late last month. At a shade above 2.5kg, this 15.6-inch notebook was roughly the weight of any mainstream laptop. Read more.