There's no telling when this 3200x1800 resolution screen will land, but it's certainly amazing to see such a high resolution in a screen so small. Now, if only panel manufacturers can produce 16:10 panels again with that kind of efficiency and pixel density.

Source: Business Wire

Source: Ars Technica

While many people may imagine gold mining as something achievable with a pickaxe, it actually involves a great deal of chemistry as many gold sources are crude, and have it bonded with other, undesired elements. Currents methods of isolating the gold from these other elements require cyanide, which results in hazard waste products. The Northwestern researchers however stumbled upon a new way to grab the gold out of solutions while trying to create cubic nanostructures for storing small molecules and gases. Instead of cubes, needles formed and once these were examined, the researchers found the gold atoms within them were isolated, along with other metals.

After some experimentation, the researchers found it was alpha-cyclodextrin, a starch fragment that was most capable at isolating the gold atoms. In fact it is more efficient at isolating gold than the current cyanide based methods, so we may soon see industries adopting it to harvest gold from natural sources, and potentially scrap alloys.

Source: Northwestern University

Video Cards
HIS 7790 iCooler Turbo 1GB @ Madshrimps

Motherboards
ASUS Maximus V Formula @ LanOC Reviews
ASUS unveils Z87 Lineup @ Madshrimps
Gigabyte Intel Z87 Motherboard Lineup Preview @ PC Perspective

Cases
Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 @ Benchmark Reviews

Speakers/Headphones
Mad Catz F.R.E.Q. 5 Gaming Headset @ Madshrimps

Storage/Hard Drives
Kingston 64GB microSDXC SDCX10/64GB @ Bjorn3D

Mobile
What To Expect From The Next iPhone @ ThinkComputers

Miscellany
Case Mod Friday: Amethyst @ ThinkComputers

Three heroes are initially available with an additional thirteen unlockable by beating levels. In order, heroes include Knight, Forest Hunter, Fire Mage, Pirate Sharpshooter, Skeletal Warrior, Gnome Inventor (hurls bombs), Champion, Lightning Mage, Ninja, Demon, Warden Spirit, Dark Wizard, Orc Warlord, Assassin, Ice Mage Princess, and Elemental Monk. While you start each game with just one hero, heroes randomly drop when you kill an enemy. When you beat one of the first thirteen levels for the first time, unlocking a hero, the hero automatically gets added to your snake at the start of the next level. As such, I actually found my first couple runs to be far better than my later attempts, as I had an easier time gaining extra fire power. As in Snake, when you get longer you do have a tougher time maneuvering – and if you crash into yourself, it's game over – but due to the attacking mechanic, growing and maintaining a long snake is essential, as you'll want to dispatch enemies as quickly as possible.

Nimble Quest also features some light RPG aspects. Aside from possibly dropping a hero, killed enemies also drop gems or one of seven items. Items include a chest that spills gems all over the level, a healing potion, an increased attack speed buff, a magnet to draw gems to you, a bomb that destroys any enemies within the blast radius, a shield, an item that temporarily freezes all enemies on the screen, and tokens. Gems can be used to upgrade the items, such as increasing the duration of the magnet or increasing the blast radius of the bomb, or to upgrade your heroes. Heroes can be upgraded three times each, improving such stats as attack rate, armor, damage, and range, depending on the hero. The first upgrade is fairly affordable, but the third upgrade is crazy expensive. Everything in the game can be earned and upgraded by playing, but micro-transactions certainly speed up the process if you're lazy, frustrated, or just want to support the developer.

While gems are spent on permanent upgrades, tokens are spent on one-offs. At the start of each level, you can add a hero, skip a level, increase the health of all heroes by 25%, increase run speed by 25%, start with a shield, or increase the attack speed of all heroes by 25%. Each of those things cost one token and are only active for that playthrough. You can also spend one token when you die to retry the stage you were just on. You probably won't be surprised to learn that tokens are quite rare. You can buy them for 1000 gems, though it appears there may be a limit of five through that method (I do not have enough gems to test that out). Of course if you're willing to spend real money, you can always purchase tokens and gems, but again, it's not necessary to play and advance in the game.

If you're wondering how I've already played Nimble Quest, it's because the game is already available for free in the iOS App Store, Mac App Store, and Google Play. I have been playing the game on my iPad. There appears to be this elitist attitude by many Steam Greenlight voters wherein they believe mobile games have no place on Steam. I think that is absolutely ridiculous – if a game is fun, why does it matter what platform it originated? And Nimble Quest is indeed fun. If you don't believe me, go download it on your iOS or Android device (or if you don't own one of those devices, ask a friend who does). Nimble Quest is free-to-play, so what to you have to lose? And on that note, let's end this elitism and welcome Nimble Quest onto Steam with open arms!

Previous Spotlight: Flowstorm. Favorite the OCC Steam Greenlight Spotlight Collection. And don't forget to visit the forum thread.

Source: Press Release

Source: Press Release

The card will need a 6-pin and an 8-pin PCIe power connector, and it has a TDP of 230 W. The cooler is apparently going to be the same as the one used on the GTX Titan, which should keep the card rather cool and quiet. Two DL-DVI, an HDMI, and a DisplayPort output has been fitted on the board, so it should work with most modern monitors.

Performance has been estimated to be anywhere from 10 to 20 percent faster than AMD's HD 7970 GHz Edition; though in some games, like Tomb Raider, Crysis 3, and Max Payne 3, the GTX 770 will be on par or a little faster.

A price has not been revealed yet, but it is expected to be around the same as the HD 7970 GHz Edition.

Source: Fudzilla

NVIDIA's website lists the SHIELD will ship by the end of June, but again no solid date is mentioned. Each SHIELD includes a copy of Expendable: Rearmed and Sonic 4 Episode II THD to get your gaming started right away.

Source: NVIDIA SHIELD

Originally 'laser' was not a word but an acronym standing for Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation. This new device however operates quite differently as it uses polaritons to generate the photons, instead of other photons. This technique was first proposed in 1996 and works by electrically exciting electrons to higher energy states, creating an exciton; an electron-hole pair. By carefully tuning the microcavity these excitons are in and subjecting them to a magnetic field, it is possible to couple them to a photon, making them into polaritons. What that translates to is that when the electron and hole recombine, they will release a photon of a specific frequency. This fails to meet the definition of a laser because one photon does not cause other photons to be released.

While it may not technically be a laser, it could eventually be used to replace them as it can operate using 1000 times less energy. Before we can see them being used in modern electronics and networks though, they will have to be redesigned to function at room temperature, as they currently require cryogenic temperatures.

Source: University of Michigan

Storage/Hard Drives
ADATA DashDrive Air AE400 Wireless Storage Reader and Power Bank @ Madshrimps
Patriot Supersonic Magnum Flash Drive @ Benchmark Reviews

Miscellany
Podcast #251 @ PC Perspective

Source: Press Release

Source: Press Release

This is not the first time that cells have been modified to perform calculations, but unlike many of those previous experiments, the MIT bacteria are analog instead of digital, which comes with many advantages. Analog signals exist on a continuum, so one signal can carry quite a bit of information, compared to a single digital signal that is either 0 or 1. This allows for simpler circuits, such as the square root circuit which only has two parts, compared to the digital equivalent that has over 100. Another important advantage for analog circuitry is that cells already respond to analog signals, so the circuits could take advantage of existing mechanisms.

The researchers created their calculator from just three basic parts and are now working to develop more parts, to potentially create a library of parts to be used in cellular circuits. Eventually this could lead to more advanced molecular sensors, gene expression, as well as cellular computation and actuation.

Source: MIT

A 140 mm fan is installed behind the motherboard and there is room for two additional 140 mm fans in the sides. The case comes with two expansion slots, four 2.5" hard drive slots, and an optional SFX power supply. The case allows PCIe cards to be 200 mm long, power supplies to be 125 mm long, and the CPU cooler can be up to 130 mm high.

The PC-Q30 should be available in June for $149.

Source: Lian Li