Spotify honors Nirvana with a horrible mess of a music documentary series

Spotify Landmark is a new audio documentary series, which Spotify says will capture “the story behind some of the greatest moments in music, told by the people who made them.”

The pilot episode (Spotify link, but you can listen online here without a Spotify account) centers on Nirvana’s final studio album, In Utero, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

Unfortunately for Nirvana fans—and for Spotify—the pilot episode of Landmark is kind of a horrible mess.

This episode features recorded phone interviews and commentary from Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and In Utero producer Steve Albini, as well as interviews with The Meat Puppets’ Curt Kirkwood and comedian Bobcat Goldthwait, who toured with the band folllowing the album’s release.

While this collection of commentary should amount to a treasure trove of pure fan boy goodness, it comes off as a chaotic jumble of sound clips.

Rather than edit all the clips together into long-form documentary, in say the style of the far superior Nirvana audio documentary Nevermind, It’s an Interview (Spotify link), Landmark is sliced into dozens of little snippets, which all haphazardly flow into each other. Listening is a jarring and annoying experience.

If you remember buying this, you are old.

The series cuts every segment into its own track. Every segment. For example, track two is a five-second introduction of the series that is immediately followed by a four-second track introducing Krist Novocellic, which is then followed by a minute-long track of Krist speaking.

This wouldn’t be that big of a problem, except that it is either not edited properly, or the app does not skip through the tracks in the way Spotify intended. Either way, all the hard edits make the thing nearly unlistenable.

I have to assume that the episode was originally meant to be presented as several longer tracks, but it was later cut into smaller cuts to accomodate more ads. This was a mistake.

While Spotify has every right to sell ads to its audience, the less annoying path would have been to create various multi-minute long segments (see: Nevermind, its an interview) in-between which Spotify could sell concert tickets and Squarespace deals.

The pilot episode of Spotify Landmark does succeed in one way: The “’In Utero’ with Commentary (US/MX)” playlist interjects the original album tracks with commentary tracks talking about the background of the individual songs. That works.

A Spotify spokesman commented over email that the service doesn’t yet have any more episodes of Landmark to announce. However, it is probably safe to assume more are in the works—the website refers to this episode as “Landmark 1”.

While Landmark is an unfortunate mess (that could still be fixed with the right editor), I hope this is the type of content we can see more from Spotify or other streaming services in the future.

Spotify is rumored to be experimenting with different forms of original content across dfferent mediums. Original aural documentary series could certainly be a way to drive listeners to the service and separate it from the ever-growing list of streaming competition.

Evan lives in Brooklyn, NY and enjoys writing about what future may hold and taking long romantic walks on the beach.
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Lenovo reveals the Flex laptop series, a pair of new Yogas, and the Flex 20 all-in-one PC

Lenovo makes more noise at IFA today, announcing two new ThinkPad Yoga models, the Flex thin-and-light series, and the Flex 20 portable all-in-one PC. Each of four new PCs will feature fourth-generation Intel Core processors (aka Haswell), but the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro is the most interesting, thanks to its 13-inch display that delivers an eye-popping resolution of 3200-by-1800-pixels.

The Yoga 2 Pro feature’s the now-familiar dual-hinge design that allows the display to be oriented into four modes: Tent, stand, tablet, and laptop. But unlike previous models, this one will boast a 13-inch multi-touch display with native resolution of 3200 by 1800 pixels. The new chassis is also thinner and lighter than previous models, measuring 0.61 inches thick and weighing 3.06 pounds.

The Yoga 2 Pro, also pictured above, features a backlit keyboard.

Processor choices will range up to a Core i7 with integrated graphics, coupled with up to 8GB of DDR3 memory. Storage options consist of 128, 256, or 512GB SSDs, and I/O ports include one USB 3.0, one USB 2.0, micro HDMI, and an SD/MMC card reader.

The Yoga 2 Pro will be available in October at prices starting at $1100.

The ThinkPad Yoga delivers all the presentation flexibility of the consumer-oriented Yoga in an IT-friendly form factor.

Many corporate IT departments eschew Lenovo’s consumer-oriented IdeaPad product line, a policy that left a lot of suits disappointed that they couldn’t pack the earlier IdeaPad Yoga 11S or Yoga 13 in their briefcases.

That barrier should disappear with the ThinkPad Yoga, a rugged convertible featuring a magnesium-alloy shell, a 12.5-inch Gorilla Glass touchscreen, and a “lift-and-lock” keyboard that automatically retracts the keyboard to present a flush surface when the notebook is placed in tablet mode.

The ThinkPad Yoga will be available with Intel Core i3, Core i5, or Core i7 CPUs and up to 8GB of DDR3/1600 memory. In spite of its 0.74-inch thickness, the machine will be outfitted with a 1TB hard drive as standard equipment, with a 256GB SSD as an available option. The ThinkPad version of the Yoga will be limited to 1920 by 1080 resolution, but it will be available with an optional Wacom pen digitizer. It will also get a better collection of I/O ports, including two USB 3.0 ports and a four-in-one card reader in addition to mini HDMI.

The ThinkPad Yoga will be available in November at prices starting at $949.

It’s easy to mistake the Lenovo Flex, available in 14- and 15-inch configurations, for the Yoga series, but there’s a key difference. The display on the Flex series pivots only 300 degrees. You can position it to face forward to watch a movie or make it easier to use the touchscreen, but you can’t pivot it into tablet mode.

No, that's not a Yoga. It's the Lenovo Flex 14 (unlike it's more limber cousin, its display can pivot only 300 degrees).

The Flex 15’s display delivers full 1920 by 1080 resolution, but the 14-inch model is limited to 1366 by 768 pixels. Discrete Nvidia mobile graphics will be offered as options. Both models will be available with up to Intel Core i7 CPUs and up to 8GB of memory. Storage comes in the form of mechanical hard drives (up to 500GB for the Flex 14, and up to 1TB for the Flex 15), with 16GB SSD cache drives as available options. The Flex line will also be thicker and heavier than the Yoga series, with the 15-inch model measuring 0.87 inches thick and weighing 5.07 pounds.

The Lenovo Flex series will be available later this month at prices starting at $630.

I was quite taken with Lenovo’s 27-inch IdeaCentre Horizon portable all-in-one, but carting a 19-pound computer around the house isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. The Flex 20 scales that concept down to a 19.5-inch touchscreen display, shaving more than 10 pounds in the process. Unfortunately, the Flex 20 also scales the resolution down: to 1600 by 900 pixels. On the bright side, it’s compatible with the joysticks, strikers, and e-dice that Lenovo developed for the Horizon.

You might think of the Lenovo Flex 20 as a scaled-down IdeaCentre Horizon 27.

The Flex 20 will be available with up to a Core i7 processor, 8GB of DDR3 memory, and a 500GB hybrid hard drive with an 8GB SSD cache. I/O ports are limited to two USB 3.0 ports and a headset jack. The all-in-one will have an integrated 720p webcam and stereo speakers. Lenovo says it should be capable of running on battery power for up to three hours.

The Flex 20 will be available later this month at prices starting at $900.

Michael manages PCWorld's hardware product reviews and contributes to TechHive's coverage of home-control systems and sound bars.
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Intel's new Core i7 Extreme Edition series: Gaming power for those who can afford it

Most of us go about our daily computing tasks secure in the knowledge that something like our Intel Core i5 or AMD A6 will render our Web browser just fine. But then there are the “1 percent” of geeks who demand the best of the best for gaming and high-end computing.

Intel built its three new Extreme Edition chips, including the six-core Core i7-4960X, for members of this elite. The new processors appear atop Intel’s price list, and you can expect to pay up to $990 for the processor alone—not including a CPU cooler.

Nevertheless, if you’re interested in pulling maximum frame rates and detail levels from top-tier titles like Metro 2033 or the Crysis series, you’ll want to consider Intel’s new chips. And you’re hardly alone: Recent reports suggest that the gaming hardware market is alive and well, with hundreds of millions of dollars spent in preparing rigs for a single game.

Despite their 4000-series model numbers, the new Core i7 chips are based on Intel’s older Ivy Bridge microarchitecture, not on Haswell (the code name for the new Extreme Edition series is Ivy Bridge-E). That means it’s restricted to Socket 2011 motherboards running Intel’s X79 chipset. The good news for people looking to upgrade from a previous-gen Extreme Edition CPU is that the new chips are backward-compatible, though you’ll need to flash your board’s BIOS with new firmware. That option will save you a couple of hundred dollars, but enthusiast motherboard manufacturers will do their best to tempt you with brand-new models, too.

According to Intel, the new Core i7-4960X will deliver a performance boost of just 7 percent in 3D gaming—based on the 3DMark benchmark—over its older Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition CPU. So we may not see a rush of consumers eager to upgrade from that part. Intel provided PCWorld with a sample of the new CPU for benchmarking, but the test motherboard we ordered didn’t arrive in time for our deadline. We’ll post a follow-up story as soon as we’ve had a chance to run our own benchmarks on it.

Intel claims the new Core i7-4960X is 36 percent faster with 3D games than the newer Haswell-based Core i7-4770K part that PCWorld tested in June. Put another way, the Core i7-4960X is a beefed-up, third-generation Core chip that Intel says will outperform its high-end fourth-generation chip.

IntelIntel's new Ivy Bridge-E die.

Don’t expect that advantage to be permanent. A Haswell-based Extreme Edition chip should arrive eventually. But for now, the Core i7-4960X appears to be the fastest chip you can buy from Intel.

For the true gaming aristocracy with money to burn, the Ivy Bridge/Haswell complication won’t matter. But socket issues are always a concern with PC builders. Midrange Ivy Bridge chips require Socket 1155 motherboards, Haswell chips need Socket 1150 boards, and these high-end Ivy Bridge chips need Socket 2011 boards. Each socket requires its own chipset architecture and motherboard, so upgrading from one microarchitecture to the next can be a pain. (If you’re interested in building a powerful, inexpensive Haswell system for less than $1000, check out our guide from June.)

AsusMotherboards such as the Asus Rampage IV Extreme have multiple PCIe slots to accommodate multiple graphics cards.

The X79 chipset that the LGA 2011 infrastructure supports includes 40 PCIe 3.0 lanes—enough to support several high-end graphics cards (using Nvidia’s SLI or AMD’s CrossFire X technology). That capability combined with a high-end CPU and lots of fast memory can make for one ferocious system.

DIYers will be able to buy Intel’s new chip through retail channels, and a number of boutique PC builders—including CyberPower, Digital Storm, Falcon Northwest, and Origin—will offer custom rigs based on the new chips.

Intel has launched three Ivy Bridge-E chips: The four-core/eight thread, 3.7GHz Core i7-4820K is priced at $310. The six-core/twelve-thread, 3.4GHz Core i7-4930K will cost $555. And the six-core/twelve-thread, 3.6GHz Core i7-4960X will go for $990.

Each of Intel’s Extreme Edition chips is an “unlocked” processor, so there are no hardware limitations for overclocking your chip (that is, making its clock run at a higher rate than stock in order to gain higher performance). In fact, these chips are designed to be overclocked. Sites such as HWBot.com publicize the accomplishments of enthusiasts who have pushed their CPUs to 5GHz and beyond, often relying on exotic cooling systems to avoid overheating. But before you consider joining their ranks, be aware that overclocking can put your entire computer at risk, and damage from overclocking is usually not covered by manufacturers’ warranties. I’ll go into more depth on overclocking shortly.

As you can see from the chart above, the new Extreme Edition processors have much higher thermal design power (TDP) than chips in the Haswell family, even though they don’t have integrated GPUs as Haswell processors do. Also, unlike Haswell processors sold in retail packaging, Ivy Bridge-E chips will lack a stock cooling system. To that end, Intel is introducing its own Liquid Cooling TS13X kit—a water block, radiator, and 120mm fan—to be sold separately for between $85 and $100. Third-party air- and liquid-cooling systems from vendors such as Antec, Corsair, and Thermaltake will also be available.

The existing X79 chipset that the Core i7-4960X relies on supports up to four channels of DDR3/1866MHz memory. In addition to the forty PCIe 3.0 lanes plumbed directly to the CPU, the X79 chipset provides eight PCIe 2.0 lanes, plus input/output architecture that includes fourteen USB 2.0 ports, six SATA ports (two of which are 6-gbps SATA (“SATA 6 Gbit/s”), eSATA, gigabit ethernet, Intel’s first-generation AVX instructions, and AES encryption acceleration.

Intel's TS13X liquid-cooling system.

As noted earlier, Intel’s own comparisons between the new Core i7-4960X and the older i7-4770K show that the new CPU delivers a 36 percent boost in graphics, and a 37 percent boost in 3D modeling. Intel says that “everyday computing” tasks will run about 18 percent slower on the Core i7-4960X than on the Core i7-4770K (the unlocked Haswell CPU) because the newer chip lacks integrated graphics. But no one buying an Extreme Edition processor is likely to be concerned about that deficiency.

Here’s another angle to consider: improved overclocking. You can push the cores on these unlocked processors to a CPU/bus ratio of 63, versus 57 for prior chips. Assuming a 100MHz bus, that means the CPU should overclock up to 6.3GHz—though temperature, voltage, and speed-path hurdles must be surmounted along the way, an Intel spokesperson said. (Each of the chips has Intel’s Turbo Mode, which can automatically overclock a single core while running a single-threaded application, built in.)

Intel has also included a new feature: real-time core overclocking and turbo voltage control. “The previous generation Extreme Edition parts (Sandy Bridge-E) required that any change to individual per active core states, power limits or additional turbo voltage via CPU register controls required a reset to take effect,” Intel’s spokesperson explained in an email. “The new Intel Core i7 processors (Ivy Bridge-E) provide a new dimension of flexibility in that all three of these items can be controlled at the OS level without resetting the system. Therefore if an end user wants to easily toggle through overclocking states without ever leaving their application or work, it is achievable (using a tool like XTU or other ODM applications), where it was not as readily achievable in the previous generation.”

Intel’s Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU) has been upgraded to version 4.2, integrating HWbot.com support and adding an AppTune beta for application-specific tuning.

So is it worth it? Kelt Reeves, chief executive of boutique builder Falcon Northwest, weighed in.

”It’s a really nice step for the 6-core audience, with its lower power consumption and faster clock-per-clock performance,” Reeves said via email. “I don’t think it’ll blow the press away though, as the chipset remains unchanged, and the top overclock speeds are a bit lower than last gen. So the net result at the benchmark drag-races in the press are scores that are pretty similar to the last generation—not an exciting story. But for the normal professional buyer that buys their 6-core systems at standard speeds, [Ivy Bridge-E] is a win for them.”

Falcon Northwest is one of many boutique PC builders planning to offer systems based on Intel's new Extreme Edition processors.

Enthusiasts won’t need to buy a top-of-the-line i7-4960X to realize a healthy performance boost over Intel’s best Haswell processor. The “low-end,” $310 Core i7-4820K runs at a higher clock speed, has more onboard cache, and supports more memory channels—and faster memory—than a $350 Core i7-4770K (but it also requires a video card, since the Ivy Bridge-E series doesn’t have an integrated GPU).

Naysayers might turn up their nose at “just” six cores, and figure that the Ivy Bridge-E generation will close out the LGA 2011 infrastructure, forcing gamers to buy another motherboard—plus memory and a CPU—for next year’s revision. That could represent an investment of at least $1200 or so.

But for users who would consider spending more than $900 for a new CPU—the price of a midrange PC desktop with discrete graphics—the limitations probably won’t be deal-breakers. And then there’s the overclocking angle.

Gamers can also choose to buy a PC with practically all the bells and whistles they desire. According to Reeves, Falcon won’t charge a premium for the new part, and will simply swap in the Ivy Bridge-E chips for “existing 6-core offerings we have now.”

Intel’s Ivy Bridge-E processors do offer a range of pricing options for value-oriented enthusiasts. Popular X79 motherboards like the AsRock X79 Champion build in multiple PCIe slots, permitting “Frankenbuilds” that can reuse older graphics cards. Basically, if you’re a gamer who sees the need to invest several hundred dollars a year to feed your PC games habit, the new Ivy Bridge-E series should be right up your alley. And if you’re a gamer who doesn’t, there’s always a console.

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Samsung Series 9 S27B971D

Pros Rich, accurate colors. Wide viewing angles. Stylish design. Lots of ports.

Cons Expensive. Weak dark grayscale performance. No USB 3.0 ports. Bottom Line The Samsung Series 9 S27B971D is an attractive 27-inch PLS monitor that delivers bold and accurate color reproduction and very dark blacks. It is well equipped and offers wide viewing angles but it has trouble at the dark end of the grayscale and is very expensive.

By John R. Delaney

The Samsung Series 9 S27B971D, Samsung's latest addition to its Series 9 family of desktop monitors, bears a striking resemblance to its predecessor, the Samsung Series 9 S27B970D. Both use a 27-inch PLS (Plane-Line Switching) panel to deliver bold, vibrant colors, both use the same circular base and adjustable stand to support the cabinet, and both carry exorbitant price tags. However, this time around the folks at Samsung switched out the glossy panel treatment for a non-reflective matte treatment and dropped the edge-to-edge glass design. Calibrated at the factory, the S27B971D's color accuracy is outstanding, as is its off-axis viewing performance, but its grayscale performance could use some work.

Design and Features
Like its predecessor, the S27B971D is a sharp-looking monitor. For this model, Samsung did away with the one piece shiny glass surface used on the Samsung S27B970D and went with a matte anti-glare coating that is non-reflective. The 27-inch, 2,560 x 1,440 panel is framed by textured black bezels capped off with a band of silver trim. Two moderately loud 7-watt down-firing speakers are embedded in bottom edge of the cabinet, but as with the Samsung S27B970D, a dedicated audio input is missing, which means there's no way to bring audio to the monitor when using a DVI signal.

There are no buttons, ports, or LED indicators on the cabinet itself; everything is contained in the base. As a result you can't mount this model on a wall. The base is round with a silver metal over black plastic finish. A thin silver mounting arm connects the cabinet to the base and provides 4-inches of height and 17-degrees of tilt adjustability but does not allow you to swivel or pivot the panel.

At the point where the mounting arm meets the base is a smallish control panel with four touch sensitive buttons including a power button, a menu key, a color mode key, a brightness key, and an input select key. At the rear of the base are HDMI, DVI, and DisplayPort video inputs, an upstream USB port, and the power jack. The HDMI port supports MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link) technology so you can connect the monitor to compatible smartphones and tablets and other MHL peripherals. There are two downstream USB ports on the right side of the base, but as with the earlier model, they support the older and slower USB 2.0 technology rather than the faster and more current USB 3.0 technology.

The OSD menus consist of Picture, Color, Size and Position, and Setup sub-menus. Picture settings include brightness, sharpness, contrast, dynamic contrast, and HDMI black level. There are also three response time settings that aid in reducing motion blur. The Color menu offers five modes including Standard, Cinema, sRGB, High bright, and Calibration. The Calibration mode, when used with the included Natural Color Expert software, allows you to save a custom color profile. Unlike the NEC MultiSync PA271W, there is no Adobe RGB mode. Other settings include individual Red, Green, and Blue intensity levels, a range of Color Temperature modes from 4,000K to 10,000K, and Gamma presets ranging from 1.6 to 2.7.

Samsung covers the S27B971D with a one-year warranty and includes DVI, DisplayPort, HDMI- MHL, and USB cables in the box. It also comes with resource CD containing drivers, a user guide, Natural Color Expert software, and a multi-screen utility that allows you to create multiple screen partitions.

Performance
The S27B971D is pre-calibrated at the factory, which explains it's excellent out-of-the-box color accuracy. As illustrated by the CIE (International Commission On Illumination) chromaticity chart below, reds, greens, and blues are all inside their respective boxes (each box represents the ideal CIE coordinates for color accuracy).

Grayscale performance was similar to what I saw with the Samsung S27B970D; the panel did a good job of displaying swatches of light gray from the DisplayMate 64-Step Grayscale test but the transition from gray to black was sudden at the dark end of the scale (the swatches should gradate evenly from gray to black). Colors appeared sharp and accurate and the picture remained bright when viewed from an extreme angle.

The PLS panel did a good job of displaying small fonts from the Scaled Fonts test. Text set to 5.3 points (the smallest on the test) was legible and well defined. The panel's 5-millisecond (g-g) pixel response did an admirable job of handling fast gaming action without much blur, and while some motion artifacts were apparent from time to time, you have to be actively looking for them to really notice them.

The S27B971D used 43 watts of power during testing while operating in regular mode. With the Eco Saving option set to 75-percent of full power it used 32 watts, and the 50-percent setting reduced power usage to 21 watts. However, the 50 percent setting is way too dim. By way of comparison, the NEC PA271W used 82 watts in regular mode, 77 watts in Eco mode 1, and 50 watts in Eco mode 2.

Rich, accurate colors and a striking design make the Samsung Series 9 S27B971D a good choice for users seeking a PLS monitor that looks as good as it performs. Its three digital inputs and built-in USB hub offer a variety of connectivity options, and the addition of a matte anti-glare screen means you won't feel like you're staring into a mirror when the screen goes dark. However, at just under a grand this is one pricey monitor; for that kind of money I'd expect better grayscale performance and newer USB technology. Our Editors' Choice, the NEC MultiSync PA271W, offers outstanding grayscale reproduction and is packed with features for the same money, and it has a panel that pivots 90 degrees.

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Toshiba announces Satellite E series notebooks

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