In a federal lawsuit filed this week, Apple asserted that nearly all the iPhones, chargers and cables it surreptitiously purchased from online retailer Amazon were fakes.
"As part of its ongoing brand protection efforts, [Apple] has purchased well over 100 iPhone devices, Apple power products, and Lightning cables sold as genuine by sellers on Amazon.com and delivered through Amazon's 'Fulfillment by Amazon' program," Apple's complaint said of a nine-month operation. "Apple's internal examination and testing for these products revealed almost 90% of these products are counterfeit."
Although Apple did not target Amazon in the lawsuit -- instead, Apple sued Mobile Star, a New York-based former supplier to Amazon -- the retailer came off poorly in the complaint.
"Apple makes great efforts to combat the distribution and sale of counterfeit Apple products bearing its trademarks," the Cupertino, Calif. company's lawyers said. "Despite Apple's efforts, fake Apple products continue to flood Amazon.com. Each month, Apple identifies and reports many thousands of listings for counterfeit and infringing Apple products to Amazon.com under its notice and takedown procedures."
Monday's lawsuit took aim at Mobile Star because, after buying a dozen iPhone chargers and cables from Amazon, the e-tailer told Apple the products had been supplied by Mobile Star.
All 12 of the power-related iPhone products had been advertised by Amazon as genuine Apple gear -- often accompanied by product images copyrighted by Apple -- which sometimes came in packaging that mimicked Apple's or sported bogus Apple serial numbers. But each product purchased was counterfeit.
Apple's complaint went beyond damage to its brand or loss of revenue; instead, it steered toward safety.
"Apple tested a number of the Mobile Star-supplied power adapters it had purchased and each one failed the Hipot Test (high potential (high voltage) test), also known as the Dielectric Withstanding Voltage test, confirming that the products lack sufficient insulation and/or spacing between the high voltage and low voltage component and have the potential to overheat or deliver a lethal electric shock to a user of the device," the complaint charged.
"Visual inspection of counterfeit adapters that Apple disassembled showed the counterfeits have improper soldering of internal wiring and some even lack critical safety fuses to protect against overheating in the event of a power surge. To conceal the dangers that these Mobile Star products pose to consumers, many also bear a phony UL safety certification," Apple added.
After Apple told Amazon of its findings, the retailer revealed Mobile Star as the supplier of the hardware, then turned over the rest of the Mobile Star inventory to Apple for testing.
Apple said letters sent to Mobile Star in June initially went unanswered, but when the vendor did respond, it claimed it had bought the goods from "reputable suppliers," then refused to divulge any additional information.
The lawsuit asked the federal court to stop Mobile Star and a host of "John Does" from distributing any more fake Apple products, and award Apple up to $2 million per counterfeit mark.
Love pro football but don't have cable TV? It's finally possible to watch all local and nationally televised games, plus NFL RedZone.
Update:Get ready for Thursday's night's match-up between the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers. Take a look at our guide to all the ways you can watch the game and cancel your expensive cable subscription!
Thanks in part to new streaming options for cord-cutters, it’s possible to watch all your local NFL games without cable, along with all nationally televised games on Sunday, Monday, and Thursday nights. With the NFL season just a week away, now’s a good time to run through all the ways* that cord cutters can watch or stream NFL games, so you’ll be ready for kickoff:
Over-the-air antenna
As it was last season, the best way to watch NFL games for free is with an over-the-air TV antenna. Cheap indoor antennas sell for as little as $15, while more expensive flat designs from Mohu and Winegard can mount on a wall or to a window. All the major networks typically broadcast in high definition, so with a strong enough signal, the quality should be comparable to the set-top box you’d rent from a service provider (or perhaps even better, since the broadcast signal isn’t as compressed).
Mohu
An indoor antenna like the Mohu ReLeaf could be all you need to watch in-market NFL games for free.
All you need besides the antenna is a coaxial input on your television; and with additional hardware, you can even add DVR capabilities to your antenna, or stream the video to other devices around the house over Wi-Fi. If your TV was manufactured prior to the 2009 digital TV transition, you might also need an analog-to-digital conversion box.
NFL games you’ll get (reception permitting):
All local Sunday day games on CBS and Fox
All Sunday night games on NBC
Ten Thursday Night Football games (CBS on weeks 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7; NBC on weeks 11, 13, 14, 15, and 16)
Sling TV
With “skinny” streaming bundles such as Sling TV, you can now get live channels that previously required a cable subscription, while still avoiding the sneaky pricing tactics and oversized bundles that tend to make cable so expensive.
Sling TV splits ESPN and NFL Network into separate channel bundles. You’ll need Sling Orange to get the former and Sling Blue to get the latter.
That said, deciphering what NFL coverage you’ll get with Sling TV is a bit tricky. Local NBC and Fox feeds are available only in select markets, so if you only get on-demand access to those channels, you won’t get the games. Meanwhile, ESPN and NFL Network are split into separate bundles. The former requires Sling Orange for $20 per month, while the latter requires Sling Blue for $25 per month, though you can get them together for $40 per month total. Sling Blue users can also add NFL RedZone for an extra $5 per month through the Sports Extra add-on. This story has a complete guide to all the Sling TV channels.
NFL games you’ll get:
All local Sunday day games on Fox (with Sling Blue in local broadcast areas only; see Sling’s website for supported cities)
All Sunday Night Football games and five Thursday Night Football games on NBC (with Sling Blue in local broadcast areas only; see Sling’s website for supported cities)
All Thursday Night Football games on NFL Network (with Sling Blue)
All Monday Night Football games on ESPN (with Sling Orange)
NFL RedZone (with Sling Blue and the Sports Extra add-on)
Supported platforms: Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Xbox One, Channel Master DVR, iOS, Android, PC, Mac
Don’t miss this other great story about watching football: Second-screen apps make NFL games even more fun to watch
PlayStation Vue
Sling isn’t your only streaming bundle option for live NFL games. You can also subscribe to Sony’s PlayStation Vue service and get all the same coverage options.
Here again, the way it works can be confusing. NBC and Fox games require a non-”Slim” package, which includes live local channels. This is available in select markets and costs $10 more than Vue’s “Slim” bundles. CBS, meanwhile, is available in some areas with Slim packages, and some areas with that don’t carry non-Slim packages. The best way to figure out what you can get is to visit Sony’s PlayStation Vue plan page and plug in your zip code.
NFL Network is included in the PlayStation Vue Core and Elite packages; you can get an entire season of NFL RedZone for an additional $40.
As for ESPN, the former is included in all PlayStation Vue plans (starting at $30 per month in most markets), while NFL Network is part of the Core ($35 per month) and Elite ($45 per month) packages. If you get NFL Network, an extra $40 delivers NFL RedZone for the entire season.
NFL games you’ll get:
All local Sunday day games on Fox (with any non-Slim plan; check your zip code on Sony’s website)
All local Sunday day games and five Thursday Night Football games on CBS (in supported cities; check your zip code on Sony’s website)
All Sunday Night Football games and five Thursday Night Football games on NBC (with any non-Slim plan; check your zip code on Sony’s website)
All Monday Night Football games on ESPN
All Thursday Night Football games on NFL Network (with Core or Elite plans)
NFL Redzone (with Core or Elite plans, plus a one-time fee of $40)
Supported platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Amazon Fire TV, Roku. After signing up through one of those devices, access is also available through iOS, Android, and Chromecast
Twitter
No, seriously. After paying a rumored $10 million for the privilege, Twitter will live-stream 10 Thursday Night Football games—the same ones that will air on CBS and NBC—for free. All you need is a device that can access Twitter.
NFL games you’ll get: 10 Thursday Night Football games (weeks 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 11, 13, 14, 15, and 16)
Supported platforms: iOS, Android, Windows, the web. An Apple TV app is rumored
Mooching someone’s cable login
In the legal and moral gray area of password sharing, it’s possible to get a fair amount of NFL coverage. That’s because NBC, Fox, ESPN, and NFL Network/Redzone all offer live-streaming apps to anyone who gets their channels through a traditional pay-TV package. (PlayStation Vue subscribers can authenticate through these apps as well.)
NFL games you’ll get (subscriber must receive the corresponding channel):
All Sunday Night Football games and five Thursday Night Football games on NBC Sports Live Extra
All local Sunday day games on Fox Sports Go
All Monday Night Football games on WatchESPN
All Thursday Night Football games on NFL.com
NFL RedZone on NFL.com
Devices:
NBC Sports Live Extra: Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Xbox, iOS, Android, Windows, web
Fox Sports Go: Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Roku, iOS, Android, Windows, web
WatchESPN: Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Roku, Xbox One, iOS, Android, Windows, web
NFL: iPad, Android tablets, Apple TV, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Web browsers
NFL Game Pass
As a last resort, NFL Game Pass lets you watch every regular season game for a one-time charge of $99—with one major catch: You can’t watch the games live. Instead, Sunday day games become available after the 4 p.m. round of games conclude, while night games become available immediately after the live telecast is over. (The package does include live radio broadcasts if you get impatient.)
NFL Game Pass
NFL Game Pass lets you watch all the regular-season games for a one-time fee of $99. But you won’t be able to watch them live.
Devices: Apple TV, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, iOS, Android, Windows
* There are a couple of intentional omissions from this guide: Pirated sources, which are too unreliable and adware-ridden to list, and DirecTV’s streaming Sunday Ticket package, which is available only if you physically can’t put a satellite dish on your roof. (It’s outrageously expensive anyway.)
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Why you won't need Comcast or Charter to wrangle all your online video services.
Credit: Thinkstock
Aside from lower bills and greater flexibility, one of the many benefits of ditching cable TV is that you’re less dependent on an industry with historically awful customer relationships. The less one has to interact with Comcast or Charter or DirecTV or—well, you name the service provider—the better.
But cutting ties with cable TV does have a downside: Instead of dealing with just one company for TV services, you might have to manage multiple streaming accounts. As the number of online video services proliferates, you might wish there was a way to bundle them all together under one bill—kind of like you did with cable.
Unfortunately, cable TV cheerleaders seem incapable of looking at this problem with fresh eyes. As always, when cord cutting presents a new challenge, they reflexively point to the cable TV industry as the answer. It’s no surprise, then, that some pro-cable pundits believe Comcast and Charter will be the streaming bundlers of the future, rolling up online video services the same way they do with traditional TV channels now.
A recent piece by Vox’s Todd VanDerWerff encapuslates this argument:
Instead of subscribing to all of these services piecemeal, you’ll probably pay for an all-in-one streaming bundle, complete with a set-top box that will enable you to search through all of their inventories for exactly what you want. You’ll have access to all of the bigwigs, then choose various subscription tiers for how many niche services you want. Just like your current cable subscription.
The future of TV, in other words, looks a lot like the present of TV—and your friendly local cable company will probably still be bringing it to you, no matter how much you might groan to hear that.
While there is value in bundling multiple video services under a single bill, that doesn’t mean cable companies—with their unfair pricing, sluggish technology upgrades, and poor customer service—should be the ones to do it. Millions of people are now streaming video on devices from Apple, Amazon, Roku, and Google; those are the companies who should be in charge of the bundling as more networks push their own streaming services.
Why the new bundlers will be better
Vox’s Todd VanDerWerff argues that cable companies are in a better position than anyone else to bundle TV services at low prices because of their large, geographically segregated audiences:
If a major media company walks away from the table with Comcast, they’re going to lose a lot of customers in Comcast-dominated cities like Philadelphia, Denver, and Atlanta. They can’t go to other cable companies like Time Warner or Charter to reach those same customers.
What VanDerWerff doesn’t mention is that the cost of cable TV has escalated out of control in recent years as TV networks demand more revenue for the same content (especially sports). The average cable bill now costs more than $100 per month, up 39 percent between 2011 and 2015, according to Leichtman Research Group. Cable and satellite companies don’t really want to drop those networks from their megabundles, so their ability to negotiate is limited in practice.
Streaming video has introduced a new dynamic, in which customers can finally vote with their wallets against rising costs. And guess what? It’s working. Netflix’s monthly price has only increased by $2 since 2011, and Amazon Prime has only gotten a single price hike of $20 annually (roughly $1.67 per month) since its inception. Hulu, meanwhile, has held steady on pricing, as have newer services like HBO Now, CBS All Access, and Showtime. (VanDerWerff tries to claim that the cost of all these streaming services adds up to something greater than cable, but this argument proves bogus if you actually do the math.)
The advantage of devices like Apple TV and Amazon’s Fire TV is that they’re built around the streaming model. They’re unbound by the legacy cable business and its inability to avoid giant bundles. As such, they appeal to the rapidly growing number of people who’ve either walked away from cable or never had it in the first place. (Skinny bundles such as Sling TV are an attempt to bridge the gap, but as I’ve argued, these services are just transitional on the way to more standalone options.)
When it comes to tying multiple online video services together, those streaming platforms will have plenty of bargaining power. Roku has 10 million active users. Amazon Prime, by one unofficial estimate, has 54 million U.S. subscribers. Google has sold 30 million Chromecasts to date. Some analysts expect Apple to sell 24 million TV boxes this year. Why wouldn’t content providers want to be part of attractive bundles on those platforms?
From “one bill” to “one bundle”
Today, the groundwork for bundling online video is already in place, as Apple, Amazon, Roku, and Google all have their own billing systems that streaming providers can hook into.
Apple users, for instance, can subscribe to more than a dozen streaming services directly through iTunes, including Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, Showtime, Starz, and CBS All Access. All subscriptions are billed to the same credit card, and all of them can be managed through the iOS Settings menu or within the iTunes app—a process that’s far less painful than calling up your cable company to cut back service.
Amazon, meanwhile, goes a step further with Amazon Channels, an a la carte subscription service for on-demand video. Provided you have an Amazon Prime subscription, you can tack on channels like Starz and Showtime, along with online services like Acorn, SeeSo, and CuriosityStream. Again, all of these services get tied to a single credit card and are managed through Amazon’s customer account portal. Amazon told The Information this week that the offering has been a hit with Hollywood studios.
Amazon is slowly rebuilding the bundle with on-demand “Channels.”
Amazon’s approach offers a glimpse at what streaming video bundling should look like: With a device like Fire TV, you get a single interface for browsing and searching across all your subscription content, and you can add or remove subscriptions with just a few taps of the remote. This system already exists today on Amazon devices; you’d be crazy to think that Amazon’s competitors aren’t working on anything similar.
Once these systems are in place, it’s just a short hop to the notion of saving money by bundling multiple services together. Again, Amazon is already dabbling in the “bundle and save” concept, offering discounts on both Showtime and its new Music Unlimited service for Prime subscribers. Google bundles on-demand streaming music with its ad-free YouTube Red service. Meanwhile, analysts have been chattering about a potential all-in subscription service from Apple.
In the long term, as the number of subscription services grows, it’s not hard to imagine companies getting more creative with their bundles. You might see, for instance, a discount for getting multiple channels from the same network, or a multi-network bundle that applies to a particular genre. Effectively, they’ll rebuild the bundle around the principles of flexibility and choice.
Bundling as a concept is a good thing, because it promotes more savings for consumers and more subscribers for content creators. It’s just the cable bundle in particular—with its inflexible price structure, costly __hardware rental fees, and poor customer service—that is failing. Instead of counting on the cable companies to save themselves, let’s look to the companies who’ve been trying to build something better.
For a wholly different perspective, take a look at this story about how well Comcast has integrated Netflix into its Xfinity X1 set-top box.
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Nintendo finally revealed the hybrid game console previously known as the NX with a new trailer that shows off its design, planned games, and official name: Nintendo Switch.
Nintendo Switch Console Design
The Nintendo Switch consists of several individual pieces, including a display, two detachable controllers, and a docking station. The display portion of the system appears to be the most important, as it allows the Switch to be used as a portable game console.
The two detachable controllers each look like half of a typical gamepad. They attach to either side of the display when it’s used as a handheld gaming device, and they can also be connected to the skeleton of a more traditional game controller when the Nintendo Switch is used as a home console.
Nintendo built a stand into the display that allows it to be propped up on a table, counter, or other flat surface. When the console is set up thusly, the detachable controllers can be used wirelessly, allowing for a more comfortable gaming experience and multiplayer games to be played on a single display. Although some games will likely require one player to use both controllers, the trailer also showed two people using one detachable controller each.
These features will make it easier for people to play games with their friends while they’re on the go. Unlike many other handheld game systems, The Switch doesn’t require anyone to purchase a second controller, bring their own system, or rely on a network connection -- everything is included in one device. This might not be the case for gaming on the big screen, however, as the trailer shows a more traditional game controller that might have to be purchased separately.
In the trailer, that separate controller was used when the Nintendo Switch was connected to a television set via its docking station. The station appears to be used to charge the console, too, and to allow multiple controllers to be used for multiplayer games.
Hardware & Software
Following the launch of the Nintendo trailer, Nvidia announced that the Switch uses a Tegra processor designed exclusively for the console. We weren’t given exact details on core count, but Nvidia implied that the Switch’s GPU is based on the Pascal architecture. The GPU is also reinforced by a revamped physics engine, new code libraries, and specialized game tools. The system also uses a new API codenamed "NVN."
Nvidia also said that the SoC has enhanced __hardware for accelerating video playback and audio effects.
We also got a peek at some software titles that will run on the Switch. In addition to supporting the upcoming Legend Of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the trailer also showed the Switch running a game that looks like the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Mario Kart, an unnamed basketball game, and a new Mario title.
As a few of these are Wii U games, it appears that Nintendo may be porting its Wii U titles to the Nintendo Switch. If this is true, then the Switch could launch with a solid library of games.
Can The Switch Save Nintendo?
The Wii U has had lackluster sales since it was introduced four years ago, and many gamers have questioned whether or not Nintendo will be able to survive in the home game console market. Others have also questioned if Nintendo should turn its attention to producing games for other devices rather than its own.
Though the company has struggled in the home console market in recent years, it should be noted that sales of Nintendo’s handheld game systems have been strong. The company has sold more than 200 million Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS handhelds combined over the last several years, with software sales for these devices exceeding 1.2 billion units.
Given this information, it would be natural for Nintendo to focus its attention on the handheld market, but the Switch does more than that. Thanks to the docking station, the Switch is able to function just like a home game console, which may attract gamers that want a device for gaming at home and on the go.
Nintendo didn’t give us an update about the Nintendo Switch’s price or release date, but it is expected to be released sometime in March 2017.
The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that websites in the EU are free to store IP addresses if it can help them improve the security of their websites. The websites can do it even without user consent, which is normally required by EU Data Protection laws when website operators want to store data beyond the information necessary for billing.
Anonymous Web Surfing
Patrick Breyer from the German Pirate Party launched a lawsuit against the German government for storing IP addresses of visitors arguing that users have a right to surf the web anonymously. The Federal German institutions were storing IP addresses to prevent cybernetic attacks and make it possible to bring criminal proceedings.
The right to surf anonymously may still be in place if users themselves take measures for surfing anonymously, such as using Tor or a VPN. However, according to the CJEU, the government and other organizations can still legally register and store the IP addresses they see connecting to their sites, if they can use them to stop cyber attacks.
The issue at hand was also about whether storing dynamic IP addresses, which is what Breyer was using, represents an infringement on privacy. By definition, dynamic IP address change automatically, so it wouldn’t be possible to easily identify a person through the IP address unless the government also requests more information from the user’s ISP.
Ensuring Continued Site Functioning
The CJEU believes that website operators can register and process user data without consent as long as there is a legitimate interest in ensuring the continued functioning of the websites. However, that interest should go beyond a specific use of their publicly accessible websites. In this case, the IP address data can be used to prevent cyber attacks, which is something all websites may have to do to ensure their continued functioning.
The Court also said that the use of data should not override the fundamental rights of users (from the Charter of Fundamental Rights). In other words, websites shouldn’t collect data for purposes of, for instance, mass surveillance, which the Court has said before is non-proportional and indiscriminate, violating the fundamental right to privacy.
Good News For Facebook?
A Belgian court ruled earlier this year that Facebook can’t track non-users through cookies (which is a little different than tracking by IP); Facebook responded by positing that the tracking is necessary to protect Facebook users against cyber attacks, among other things. Facebook ended up winning that case because of a jurisdictional issue, but it may have to face the same case again at a later time, whether in Ireland, where its data gathering happens, or elsewhere.
The Year of VR is now. Perhaps 2017 will be the year of mixed reality (or “MR,” or simply “XR” to cover the whole gamut of virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality experiences): CastAR announced that its “mixed reality gaming and entertainment platform” will finally arrive some time in 2017.
We first got a good long look at CastAR way back at CES 2014. (That article includes an excellent early history of the company and its technology, including its founder's early ouster from Valve.) CastAR is more along the lines of a HoloLens-like projected AR technology than any sort of VR. Like Microsoft, CastAR would pitch itself as “mixed reality,” although its technology appears to be very much dictionary-definition augmented reality.
Although the company has been mostly quiet since that first look, it’s popped up here and there a few times, most notably this summer when it brought in a new CEO (Darrell Rodriguez, former president of Lucas Arts) and a new COO (Steve Parkis, formerly of Disney, Zynga, and Storm8) and opened a mixed reality studio in Salt Lake City bolstered by talented folks from Avalanche Studios.
The announcement that CastAR is coming next year was buried in a press release announcing a trio of hires for the company. New to the company, starting immediately, are Peter Dille, CMO; Mel Heydari, Head of Talent; and Arnie Sen, VP of Engineering.
“Individually they have launched some of the most beloved interactive platforms, recruited Silicon Valley’s most sought-after talent and engineered bleeding-edge technologies across gaming and visual optics. Their expertise scaling across industry giants such as Activision, Sony and Tesla will bolster the organization,” read a press release.
According to the release, Dille played a key role in launching the original PlayStation, PS3, and the PlayStation Network. Heydari filled the same role at TiVo and has worked for Tesla, Twitter, and Google. Sen has put in time with Immersion, Activision, and Aurora Optics, where he helped develop “high precision optical systems,” according to the press release.
Razer announced a new thin and light gaming laptop with specs you wouldn't expect to find in a thin and light device--most notably, an Nvidia GTX 1080 graphics module.
The Razer Blade Pro is a 17.3-inch mobile monster of a machine with an Intel Core i7-6700HQ, 32GB of memory, and RAID 0 PCIe M.2 SSD storage up to 2TB. It features a 4K (3840 x 2160) IGZO display with Nvidia G-Sync, in addition to Killer Doubleshot Pro networking (E2400 Gigabit LAN and Wireless AC 1535). Somehow, all of this is crammed into a chassis that's less than an inch thick (0.88") and weighs only 7.8 lbs.
The Graphics, The Cooling
Razer isn't a stranger to the thin and light market, with the Razer Blade Stealth and Razer Blade laptops offering a similar hook: go thin and light with some ample horsepower under the hood. However, the new Blade Pro takes that concept to a whole new level, almost redefining what a thin and light device could be with the inclusion of the incredibly powerful GTX 1080.
The Razer Blade Pro is not the first laptop from the company to sport a mobile Pascal-based GPU. Indeed, although the Razer Blade now has the GTX 1060 as an option, the GTX 1080 is a cut above.
Of further note, the Razer Blade Pro has a USB Type-C Thunderbolt 3 port, which indicates that it's ready for pairing with the Razer Core external GPU dock. (However, the onboard GTX 1080 would seem to obviate the need for the mega peripheral.)
The powerful GPU does, however, necessitate a robust cooling system. One does not simply cram a GTX 1080 into a slim chassis, to borrow the meme. To that end, Razer boasted of its vapor chamber cooling, stating that it's paired with a custom fan design and dynamic heat exchanger.
Mechanical Switches On A Laptop, And What's Up With That Touchpad?
In a move that is as expected as it is welcome, Razer tricked out the Razer Blade Pro with ultra low-profile mechanical keyboard switches. We assumed we'd see these switches land on the company's laptops when it announced them this summer--there was no way they would remain as an option for something as un-Razer-like as an iPad accessory. (Time is ticking on when we'll see low-profile Kailh switches emerge on competing notebooks.)
Another striking design choice (brave or stupid, depending on your point of view) is the placement of the touchpad on the Blade Pro. Instead of positioning it under the keyboard, as it is on virtually every laptop in the world, Razer stuck it off to the left. In a way, this puts the touchpad where a mouse would more naturally be if you were typing on a desktop. Razer also cleverly placed a volume roller just above the touchpad.
Thin and light devices usually have a hefty premium attached, and the Blade Pro is no different. Starting at $3,699, the Razer Blade Pro is expected to ship in November.
Acer announced the 24-inch XB241YU, which will also be known as the Predator XB1, as the latest addition to its continuously updated Predator line of gaming displays.
The TN panel in this monitor has a 2560x1440 resolution, which on a 24-inch format will mean razor-sharp images. From the factory it supports a refresh rate of 144Hz, but if that’s not enough for you, Acer said that you can overclock the monitor to reach 165Hz. On top of that, it also comes with integrated Nvidia G-Sync support for buttery smooth and tear-free gaming.
Further specs include 1ms response times, a 1000:1 static contrast ratio, 16.7-million color support, 100% sRGB color coverage, and 350Nit brightness. In use, the monitor will consume 27W.
Display inputs consist of DisplayPort and HDMI, and Acer will include a cable for each of those connectors right in the box. The Predator XB1 also has a built-in four-port USB 3.0 hub and two 2W speakers. The display’s stand supports tilting from -5° through 35°, can swivel 30°, has a height adjustment range of 5.91 inches, and allows you to flip the monitor into portrait mode.
Overall, the Predator XB1 promises a sharp and clean gaming image without reaching an uncomfortable size. Because it’s a 1440p monitor, it also won’t bog your system down as much as 4K displays will, so you’ll be much more capable of making the best of its 144Hz refresh rate.
Apple Pay marks its two-year anniversary this week, and while it supposedly helped spark a revolution for in-store mobile payments, there's not much celebrating by Apple or its payments rivals.
While Apple, Samsung Pay, Android Pay and many others keep adding users, the rate of adoption is far below what was expected when Apple Pay arrived on Oct. 20, 2014.
More worrisome is the low repeat-user rate. Many consumers will sign up for a payment app and try it out with contactless technology like Near Field Communications (NFC) on a smartphone once to buy something in a store. After that, many don't bother to do it a second time, because it is just too easy to use a credit or debit card -- or even cash, according to a recent survey.
The problem is especially pronounced in the U.S.
Strategy Analytics estimates there are now 11 million contactless mobile payment users in the U.S., but just 2.3 million who are active users. The firm said there are just a third as many NFC-based mobile payment users as it projected in 2010.
Analyst firm eMarketer estimates that more than seven million people use a smartphone mobile in-store payment app at least once every six months in the U.S. higher -- a number that's expected to more than double in 2020.
"There are two reasons why mobile in-store payments have failed to take off: conventional payments are not broken and consumers aren't clear on the benefits of switching to mobile payments," said Nitesh Patel, an analyst at Strategy Analytics.
Ditto, said other analysts.
If it's not broke, fix it
"Mobile wallets haven't yet proven they are measurably better than incumbent payment mechanisms, which general work quite well," said Jordan McKee, an analyst at 451 Research.
"It's incredibly easy to swipe or dip a credit or debit card at a payment terminal and U.S. consumers are used to this mature payment application where they know they are well protected from financial loss," added Avivah Litan, a Gartner analyst. "It will take a lot of persuasion and financial incentives to get consumers to change their payment habits."
Even industry insiders understand the dilemma. In-store mobile payments, "in a way, are a cool ploy with no purpose," said Mark Ranta, director of product management for digital banking at ACI Worldwide. ACI provides mobile and other payments __software to banks, merchants and others.
"People ask, 'What's the benefit?'" Ranta added. "For someone who's not tech savvy, they have probably tried it once and said, 'What's the big deal with this? Opening up my wallet and swiping my card wasn't a big deal to me, so why do I need to get rid of that habit? Instead of relying on some weird, wireless thing -- screw that. I have a physical card that I can put in a terminal."
Not everybody feels that way. The biggest users of mobile wallets are under age 35, according to various surveys, including one in May by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Smartphone users will pay for goods over the internet or through an app without entering a store, but in-store mobile payments are not as popular.
"We're still at the early-adopter stage," said Bryan Yeager, an analyst at eMarketer.
Ranta, who is in the under-35 age group, likes the idea that he can use his iPhone with Apple Pay instead of a credit card to pay for things. The only problem is that not every store will accept Apple Pay.
"I'm pretty outspoken with my frustration with Apple Pay," Ranta said. "I live in New York and can't really use Apple Pay without my wallet for purchases at gas stations and other places. When I pull out my phone to pay, I have to know they accept apple Pay. The biggest problem they have is that it's not universally accepted."
Yeager agreed, saying a lack of widespread acceptance by stores of NFC and other forms of contactless payment is the biggest challenge. "I might try it once and then it's really a matter of where I shop next and whether they have it, so you'll have a drop-off in users," he said. "Once we have ubiquity and more promotion of the technology and its security, it will take off."
Samsung Pay's play
To some extent, Samsung Pay has circumvented the problem with its purchase of LoopPay mobile magnetic payment technology to include the ability to pay at a magnetic stripe reader terminal as well as with NFC. "Samsung Pay has the ability to mimic a swipe of a mag-stripe card, which gives it a little bit of a leg up," Ranta noted.
With Apple Pay now two years old, Ranta said it will take another three years before NFC payment terminals are widely available in the U.S. The implementation of smart chip cards mandated by banks and card companies for retailers a year ago is slowly making NFC payment terminals more widely available, even in smaller stores. Those NFC terminals can accept Apple Pay and many other smartphone payment apps, as long as __software is turned on to accept it.
Ryan Faas
Apple Pay sticker on the door at the Crush and Cask in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Some smaller stores, however, may not want to enable every mobile payment app from various banks, merchants and smartphone maker because there are so many.
Ranta believes, however, that smartphones will soon be used to store multiple payment apps to increase the chances of having one that works at nearly every store. There are already too many ways to pay for merchandise in stores, which will put demands on the financial services industry to consolidate, he said.
"We already have point-of-sale paralysis," Ranta said. "You have 13 different ways to pay for gum: maybe with three different credit cards, cash cards, Apple Pay or another app and you could also have a QR code from Dunkin.'"
Starbucks and Dunkin' use QR codes
One irony is that despite all the mega-investments Apple, Samsung and others have made in NFC on smartphones, Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts and Walmart Pay let customers pay using a QR code displayed on a smartphone -- a far cheaper alternative.
Strategy Analytics estimated that Starbucks customers in 2015 spent almost $3 billion using the Starbucks app with QR code transactions,
The biggest reason for the Starbucks' success is not necessarily QR codes, but how well it and other companies are building customer loyalty with their payment apps through coupons and rewards. A free coffee might come on a person's birthday, for example, or a coupon for a special holiday offer might be easily redeemed with a wave of a phone.
"So far, mobile wallets, particularly NFC, have yet to integrate payments with loyalty in a compelling way," Patel said. "You need a single tap to redeem or accumulate points and coupons."
Added McKee: "It's what you build on top of the payments that truly matters. The ability to use a smartphone as a credit card surrogate isn't sufficient to drive mass market adoption."
Ranta said that Walmart Pay "could be big" if only the retailer would credit a user 5 cents right in the app for every candy bar purchase. "They have all the pieces for mobile payments, but not having rewards is killing them," he said. "Rewards are the holy grail of mobile payments."
Not everybody agrees. "Loyalty programs aren't right for every type of merchant," Yeager said. "It makes a lot of sense for Starbucks to make the app stickier. The problem for smaller businesses like the local coffee shop is how to create a digital punch card to buy coffee. It will help smaller merchants to have something like Apple Pay."
Bank backing matters
Consumer incentives to use mobile payments probably need to come from credit card companies and the banks that back them. But they're unlikely to do so without threatening the credit-driven ecosystem they've built over decades, Litan said.
"The credit card industry has spent billions on consumer incentives for plastic payment cards, with loyalty programs, marketing and security protection -- and it has definitely worked," Litan said. "I haven't seen the same kind of incentives introduced for mobile payments. But the card industry really doesn't have anything to gain by doing so.
"In fact, they could lose, because once U.S. consumers embrace mobile payments big time, the payment software inside mobile payments could move away from credit and debit cards into cash-like payments and then easily erode credit card market share. The bank and credit card industry is highly aware of this fact."
What Walmart and many other major retailers want more than anything is to move away from the "swipe" fees they pay banks for each credit card transaction. (Those fees average about 3%.) To do so, they are attempting to use their own mobile payment apps.
"Banks are in an enviable spot and still own the keys to the kingdom," Ranta said. "They are too strong today, but there's downward pressure on swipe fees from companies like Square," which charges less for swipes.
Ranta doesn't believe that cash loaded onto mobile payment apps will ever replace credit card apps. "Banks won't be displaced, but their position is weakening." He predicted swipe fees will be lowered, eventually, as banks feel pressure to do so. That could create partnerships between banks and card companies with retailers to create consumer rewards and other incentives to use payment apps.
"The banking industry has to change," Ranta said. "It's been a monolithic industry with minimal innovation for over 20 years. It's kind of crazy for banks to point out that they added the smart chip to credit cards, but that's not really innovation. It's evolutionary; the old product wasn't secure so they just added a chip for security. We're at an inflexion point with mobile payments.
"Where the revolution has to happen is at the banks, most of us agree."
Chest straps are uncomfortable and fitness bands can be unreliable, so Moov is putting a heart rate sensor on your temple.
Credit: Moov
Heart-rate sensors are becoming de rigueur in fitness bands, because having that data leads to more accurate workout tracking. But while sensors on the wrist have improved in terms of accuracy, they’re still not quite up to the gold standard of consumer-grade heart-rate monitoring devices: chest straps. For some (picture me raising my hand here), chest straps aren’t exactly fun to wear. Now fitness band maker Moov is putting a sensor on a more comfortable spot: your head.
The new Moov HR can be tucked inside the HR Sweat headband or the HR Swim swim cap, each costing $60 or $100 for both, and measures your heart rate through your temples. I saw a demo video of the Moov HR sensor in action on a treadmill runner who was hooked up to an EKG machine, and the heart rate data was consistently spot on. (I haven’t yet tested the Moov HR for myself, so I’m taking the company at its word here.)
“After extensive research and testing, we’ve determined that the best location for accurate pulse reading is the head,” Moov CEO and cofounder Meng Li said in a press statement. “That’s why we’ve developed technology around these findings, so that anyone, regardless of their fitness level or goals, can get the most out of every workout for a fraction of the cost other wearables and gyms charge.”
Moov
The Moov Personal Coach app for iOS and Android will take that heart rate data and use it to coach you through high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts such as running, indoor cycling, and bodyweight circuit programs. If you select another workout in the Moov app, like swimming, outdoor cycling, or cardio boxing, the Moov HR sensor will still track your heart rate but won’t offer the voice coaching available with the HIIT programs.
Moov is on the right track by making affordable and powerful fitness trackers, like the popular Moov Now. Diving into heart-rate tracking could be a risky move, but at $60 a pop, Moov’s new HR sensor is unbeatable on price. (We’ll have to see about accuracy.)
I can’t wait to test out how heart-rate tracking on the head compares to the sensors in chest straps and fitness bands, so stay tuned for a full review of Moov HR and its voice-coaching capabilities.
At issue is how the carrier slowed down connections for those on unlimited plans without any type of notification.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere and the root of the FCC's concern.
Credit: YouTube
Call it the “Un-fine.”
Perhaps that’s how T-Mobile, the self-described uncarrier, will spin Wednesday’s settlement with the FCC. The nation’s third-largest wireless network will pay $48 million total including customer benefits, education donations, and a fine as part of an agreement reached with the FCC.
Good settlement with FCC today. @TMobile believes more info is best for customers. #themoreyouknow https://t.co/XFY6dHPfN6
— John Legere (@JohnLegere) October 19, 2016
At issue was how T-Mobile throttled the connection for customers who were in the top three percent of data usage. Customers were unaware in advance that they were having their connections intentionally slowed down.
That’s a big no no, as the FCC requires full disclosure and notification for a carrier to take this kind of action. To make amends, T-Mobile has also agreed to give 20 percent off accessories to customers of both T-Mobile and MetroPCS who were impacted by the policy.
Additionally, affected customers will be eligible for 4GB of additional data under the “Simple Choice MINT” plan. The customer benefit program is to cost the carrier $35.5 million. A $7.5 million fine is to be paid directly to the U.S. Treasury and $5 million will be donated for school services and equipment.
The impact on you: If you’re a T-Mobile or MetroPCS subscriber who is impacted by the settlement, you should receive a notification from your carrier. This isn’t the first time T-Mobile has run into throttling issues, as many raised concerns about how data was throttled through Binge On.
A lawsuit filed against Mobile Star claims up to 90 percent of Apple-branded cables and chargers offered on Amazon are phony.
Credit: Unten44 on Flickr
Amazon is full of knockoff products, but if you’re buying genuine Apple-branded cables and chargers sold directly by Amazon and not a third party, you should be OK, right? Well, maybe not.
Patently Apple dug up a lawsuit filed by Apple against Mobile Star LLC, which Amazon identified as the manufacturer of counterfeit cables and power adapters that had been sold as being made by Apple. The complaint says that Apple had purchased the items from Amazon, and tested them interally to determine they were counterfeit. The complaint also cites an Amazon.com customer review claiming one of the adapters caught fire.
Mobile Star’s phony products were sold directly by Amazon, but Apple also took issue with the “fulfilled by Amazon” program, where third-party sellers can have Amazon distribute their products. The company claims in its complaint, “Apple’s internal examination and testing for these products revealed almost 90% of these products are counterfeit.”
The counterfeit items have been removed from sale, but Apple still seeks an injunction against Mobile Star, as well as damages. You can read the whole complaint at Patently Apple.
The impact on you: This is another case of, “If something seems to good to be true, it probably is.” Genuine Apple cables and power adapters—especially the MagSafe adapters for laptops—are pretty consistently priced, and if you find one selling for next to nothing, that should be a red flag. Buying directly from Apple is the safest bet, since you’ll know you’re getting what you pay for.
The tech CEOs both made a short list of possible vice presidential candidates.
Apple CEO Tim Cook in Brussels on Jan. 21, 2016.
Credit: European Parliament
Apple CEO Tim Cook and Microsoft founder Bill Gates were both on a list of potential vice presidential candidates for Democrat Hillary Clinton, according to a leaked email published on Tuesday by Wikileaks.
The email, apparently sent by campaign chairman John Podesta on March 17, named the two tech titans alongside 37 other people as "a first cut of people to consider for VP."
Also on the list, published by WikiLeaks, was Gates' wife Melinda. She co-founded the charitable foundation that bears both their names.
Other business leaders that made the cut were General Motors CEO Mary Barra, Bloomberg News founder and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Xerox CEO Ursula Burns, Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent, Rockefeller Foundation president Judith Rodin, and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.
Clinton's eventual vice presidential pick, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, and former Democratic presidential candidate rival Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont were also on the list.
It's unclear from the email how far in vetting any of the names got.
Cook subsequently held a fundraiser for Clinton in August. In June, Cook also held a fundraiser for Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Journalists will gather in Cupertino next Thursday for the "Hello again" special event, where Apple is expected to announce a redesigned MacBook Pro.
It’s official—the wait for new Macs shouldn’t be much longer. Apple just sent out invites to journalists to a product unveiling at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino. The event will take place next Thursday, October 27, at 10 a.m. Pacific.
Naturally, the invitation doesn’t specify what Apple will announce—the tagline is simply “Hello again.” Smart money is on updated Macs, since nothing but the 12-inch MacBook has been updated this year. Rumors have been swirling that Apple is prepping an update to the MacBook Pro line, which will include a set of touch-sensitive OLED keys to replace the function row along the top of the keyboard, allowing those keys to change based on the application you’re using.
The other rumor is new ports: Apple may be ditching standard USB-A ports for USB-C. This would match Apple’s approach for the MacBook, which has a single USB-C port for charging and connectivity—although we hope the MacBook Pro would have three or four, and it should get Thunderbolt 3 (which uses the same port type) too. The lack of USB-C peripherals and docks was a problem when the MacBook first launched in 2015, but since then the ecosystem has matured, and finding adapters and docks is easier. (And it better have a headphone jack!)
The MacBook Pro design hasn’t changed in years.
As with any redesign, we expect Apple to go thinner and lighter. The trackpad will probably get bigger, and we wouldn’t be surprised if the new MacBook Pro got the lower-travel butterfly-mechanism keyboard found on the MacBook line. Apple has never included Touch ID in a Mac before, but now that Sierra supports Apple Pay on the Web, adding a Touch ID button could let you authorize payments without needing an iPhone or Apple Watch handy—as well as let you log in more securely, of course.
What about the rest of the Mac lineup, though? According to the very handy MacRumors Buyers Guide, all of Apple’s computers could use a refresh. The MacBook Air lineup was last refreshed in March of 2015, although Apple did bump the base-model MacBook Air to 8GB of RAM this past April. The Mac mini got its most recent upgrade, to a Haswell processor, way back in October 2014. The long-neglected Mac Pro (last updated December 2013) might be headed for the history books, but Apple’s other desktop option, the iMac, has gone a full year without an update too. Apple has been rumored to be working on a 5K display with its own GPU to replace the discontinued Thunderbolt Display, as well as new iMacs, so if those are ready, perhaps we’ll see them on stage next week.
We’ll be in Cupertino next Thursday to bring you the news as it happens, and Apple also plans to live stream it. Have you been holding out for a new Mac? Let us know what you’re hoping to see in the comments.
We test VR, SLI, Nvidia's new high-bandwidth bridges, and the concern that HBM2 might have been a better choice for Titan X.
Introduction
Two Titan X (Pascal) In SLI: Nvidia dropped the GeForce brand too late in development.
Let me start with what this article is not about. It's not about value. It's not about mainstream (or even enthusiast) gaming. It's not about comparing AMD and Nvidia.
Now that official support for three- and four-way SLI in games is gone, this article is about the pinnacle of performance achievable in late 2016 with Nvidia's Pascal architecture, assuming money is no object.
Good Luck Buying One (Or Two)
In order to get my hands on two Titan X cards, I set myself an agenda alert on August 2 to check Nvidia’s online sales page. I checked at midnight. Nothing. I signed up for the "Notify me" email, woke up, and went to work. Still no email. Then I checked at 9:15 AM EST and saw the “Buy Now” button. I took the opportunity and snatched two cards. The notification email arrived about an hour later. Oh, and I totally forgot the new "SLI HB" bridge, so I ended up ordering that separately.
Not long after, Nvidia's online store was out of stock. Since then, we've seen them in and out of stock. But as of October 17th, they're available for purchase from geforce.com. If you’re crazy and lucky enough to get your hands on a pair, consider snagging the SLI HB bridge, too.
MORE: Best Graphics Cards
MORE: Desktop GPU Performance Hierarchy Table
Less SLI Is More SLI
As you no doubt read in our Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Pascal Review, Nvidia is curtailing SLI quite a bit. The 1060 doesn't support SLI at all. Moreover, the 1070 and 1080 officially only support two-way configurations in real-world games. The same goes for Titan X. If you were hoping to run three or four of these, you’d have to jump through some hoops. And even then, they’ll only work in approved benchmarks (not games you'd actually play). If you absolutely must try a three- or four-way arrangement in something like 3DMark, you'll need to generate a unique __hardware signature using software from Nvidia that can be used to request an “unlock” key.
Last but not least, the Pascal-based boards introduce a new SLI bridge dubbed "SLI HB Bridge," which Nvidia claims "doubles the bandwidth of previous SLI bridges." Technically, you can still use the old "soft" SLI bridges, though.
For reference, the bandwidth of old-school SLI bridges has long been officially quoted as "up to 1 GB/s." At the Pascal launch event, Nvidia mentioned the new SLI bridges supporting a higher pixel clock of 650 MHz (versus the older interface’s 400 MHz), while allowing for a dual-link connection, effectively bringing the available bandwidth in the 3GB/s range for two-way SLI configurations. By comparison, that's less than four lanes of PCIe 3.0 bandwidth.
Nvidia asks you to shell out $40 plus shipping and handling for these, and the company sells them directly on its site. EVGA offers them too.
From an engineering perspective, we really don't care that three- and four-way SLI support was dropped. Based on the multi-GPU rendering technique commonly used (Alternate Frame Rendering), PCs with several graphics cards contend with increased latency, diminishing scaling beyond two GPUs, compatibility issues (especially when it comes to zero-day game support), and a lack of functionality in VR. Particularly given the performance of today’s Pascal-based GPUs, the only way three- and four-way setups make sense is for synthetic benchmarking. Hopefully that means Nvidia will put more effort into improving the current state of two-way SLI.
Test System
Intel Core i7-6700K
$419.99 Amazon
EVGA GeForce GTX 980 SC ACX 2.0
$554.99 NewEgg
Nvidia Titan X
$1200.00 Nvidia
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x 8GB)
$69.99 Newegg
Asus Z170-Deluxe
$319.99 Newegg
Samsung SM951 512GB SSD
$499.95 Amazon
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
$139.99 Newegg
It would have been great to compare two Maxwell-based Titan X cards to the newer Titan Xes for a generational comparison. Alas, I don’t have two of the older cards on-hand. I did, however, have a couple of EVGA GeForce GTX 980 SCs in SLI.
SLI And VR
Without going into depth on how SLI works (you’ll find more detail in Nvidia's SLI Technology In 2015: What You Need To Know), it primarily utilizes that AFR technology mentioned on the previous page, which imposes a two-frame delay (or queue) to properly provide scaling benefits. And while you won't mind those extra milliseconds on a typical desktop display, an additional 17 ms of motion-to-photon lag in VR will affect your experience.
The workaround for VR is assigning GPUs to specific eyes for stereo rendering acceleration. This naturally requires optimization on the developer’s end, and as a result, SLI just isn’t supported by most VR titles as of mid-2016.
Consequently, we did some testing of the Oculus Rift using the only title we know punishes a GeForce GTX 980, Elite: Dangerous. We’re manually reporting performance based on the in-HMD debug tool display. Unfortunately, Oculus has not responded to our requests to enable logging-to-disk of that tool's data, so we can’t chart that experience out quantitatively.
SLI is disabled in these runs. You can leave the technology turned on in Nvidia's control panel, but the application only exploits one GPU no matter what.
Photon2
Headroom
Avg FPS
Notice that a single Titan X (Pascal) is barely able to keep up using the Ultra detail preset, with a minimal performance headroom of ~10%. Conversely, a GTX 980 just isn't fast enough to facilitate a smooth experience, averaging 73.1 FPS (below the 90 FPS target), while almost doubling motion-to-photon latency. Not even the Titan X manages to stay below the 20 ms that John Carmack of Oculus describes as the "sweet spot" of VR. You'll have to drop the quality level for an optimal VR experience in Elite: Dangerous for now.
MORE: Best Virtual Reality Headsets
The Need to Overclock…Your CPU?
I've been using 3DMark Fire Strike as a synthetic benchmark since it came out in 2013. Its "basic" run (non-Ultra and non-Extreme) is pretty taxing on GPUs in its two graphics tests. The other two tests tend to be CPU-bound.
So here's the news: two Titan X (Pascal) cards in SLI are actually CPU-bound in the first graphics test of Fire Strike, though not in the second. And that’s with a Core i7-6700K boosting to 4.2 GHz. Forget about using Unigine Valley or other older tests to saturate the Titan Xes. GPU utilization sits at around 50% in those; the bottleneck is clearly our host processor.
DX12 TS
DX11 FS
I managed to get the two cards in SLI stable at +190 MHz core and +160 MHz memory, which represents about a +10% overclock. As you no doubt know, clock rates in SLI are synchronized, so your headroom is limited to the less-scalable GPU.
MORE: Best CPUs
MORE: Intel & AMD Processor Hierarchy
The Lack Of HBM2 Is No Big Deal
Given AMD’s use of HBM on its Fiji-based cards, __hardware enthusiasts are quick to question Nvidia’s lack of HBM2 on the Titan X. The company instead chose to give this card a massive 12 GB of GDDR5X with a nominal memory bandwidth of 480 GB/s. That's a 42% increase over the previous-generation Titan X that offered 337 GB/s.
While it is true that HBM2 facilitates a bandwidth advantage over GDDR5X, the benefits of more throughput would only become apparent in situations where on-die resources aren't being fed fast enough. The concept is akin to PCIe 3.0/2.0/1.1 links between CPU and GPU, and you can already run any modern card with four lanes of third-gen PCIe with little or no performance degradation. Bumping up that bandwidth with eight or 16 lanes yields a 1% to 2% performance increase on average, and anything beyond confers negligible gains.
Below you can see a short run of The Witcher 3 running on two Titan Xes in SLI at 5K (5120x2880p).
Scaling Is Good At 5K; SLI Is Overkill For 1440p
In games with proper SLI support, you might expect scaling between +70-80% when you add a second Titan X. That’s a fairly typical number in graphics-bound workloads.
SLI Disabled
FR 1440
FR 2880
Indeed, the Titan X’s SLI scaling falls within that range…unless you’re gaming at 2560x1440, where two GP102-powered cards become CPU-limited. Consequently, scaling pares back to +43% in Total War: Warhammer (a Gaming Evolved title) and +54% in The Witcher 3 (a GameWorks title).
What If We Skip The SLI HB Bridge?
Now, you could argue that if you splurge on $2400 worth of graphic cards, skimping on the $40 SLI HB bridge that supposedly doubles (or even triples) available bandwidth between the cards is a silly thing to do.
And yes, of course, it really would be silly. But as a check of how essential that component may be to Titan X (and also GTX 1080/1070) owners, we decided to run a few tests using an old-school flexible SLI bridge.
FROT 1440
FROT 2880
SLI HB TW3
SLI HB TW
The results are interesting. Total War: Warhammer sees absolutely no difference with the low-bandwidth SLI bridge that came with our Asus motherboard, while performance in The Witcher 3 drops from 25% (at 1440p) to 35% (at 2880p) using the flexible connector.
Conclusion
Assuming you're swimming in cash and lucky enough to catch the Titan X in stock, $2400 gets you the best gaming performance that money can buy.
The card’s scaling in two-way SLI is pretty good; expect 70-80% over a single card (depending on the game) at 5K. If you plan on playing at 1440p (or lower), you’re more likely to see a 40-50% speed-up before your CPU becomes the bottleneck at higher frame rates.
We've also proven that you want that $40 SLI HB bridge on top (something that GTX 1080/1070 owners will appreciate knowing), else you may face a 25 to 35% performance hit in certain games.
For VR, you're better off with just one card at the moment. It'll be a while before developers start taking advantage of multiple GPUs—growth on that front has been slow thus far. Still, a single Titan X is capable of running Elite Dangerous using the Ultra preset at a steady 90 FPS on an Oculus Rift (although motion-to-photon latency is still a sub-optimal 27 ms.)
Whether your rig is a $500 value box with second-hand-parts scavenged off of eBay or a $10,000 behemoth, we'll leave you by the same letters Nvidia inscribed inside the box of the Titan X:
Mohu 
NFL Game Pass 
Ryan Faas 
Moov 
