Synology teases new OS for its NAS range, Apple Watch app for 2016

Anthony Garreffa | Storage | Oct 7, 2015 8:01 AM CDT

Synology has teased that it is making some very large changes in 2016, where the NAS maker will be unveiling its new DiskStation Manager (DSM) 6.0 operating system, apps for wearables like the Apple Watch, advanced network attached storage (NAS) products, and its first ever router - the Synology RT1900ac.

Synology teases new OS for its NAS range, Apple Watch app for 2016

The company will launch the DSM 6.0 beta today, with the full release scheduled for sometime in 2016. Synology Marketing Manager Jason Bonoan said: "Synology is more than NAS devices. Many of our business customers use our DiskStations and RackStations as replacement servers. So, it makes sense that SMEs and SMBs asked for more features for virtualization, data protection, disaster recovery, and productivity apps. We've listened and redesigned our OS and hardware to meet their demands".

On the consumer side of things, Synology is working on being the first to support Apple Watch with DSM 6.0. Synology's updated OS will be the first to support Apple Watch, where users can "use simple gestures or voice control to quickly check or create notes, or enjoy their favorite music - whenever and wherever they want". Inside of DSM 6.0 will be a new Video Station which is "refreshingly new, strikingly intuitive" according to the company. Synology added: "the completely redesigned Video Station will use a popular on-screen button layout, making navigation smoother and more intuitive than ever. New support for offline transcoding and Windows 10 enables users to switch between different devices and platforms - so they can enjoy an uninterrupted viewing experience".

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This tool allows you to use your taskbar on any multi-monitor setup

Chris Smith | Software & Apps | Oct 7, 2015 4:20 AM CDT

If you're a fan of multiple monitor setups and enjoy the productivity that it gives, you may sometimes run into taskbar related issues, seeiong as you're only able to utilise the taskbar on your primary monitor.

This tool allows you to use your taskbar on any multi-monitor setup

Released by Actual Tools for Microsoft Windows OS only, 'Actual Multiple Monitors' software allows you to put a fully functional taskbar on any other monitor, including a fully functional recycling bin, start button and system tray.

As a celebration for its 13th anniversary, Actual Tools is offering this window manager for 40% off - priced at $29.95 for a limited time. Although possibly quite useful, is it worth that amount of money? The answer to this question is up to you to decide.

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Cyberpunk 2077 is 'far bigger than anything' CD Projekt Red has made

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Oct 7, 2015 2:06 AM CDT

Now that CD Projekt Red is done with The Witcher 3, the studio is pumping more resources into Cyberpunk 2077, its upcoming sci-fi RPG. The developer is now beginning to talk more about Cyberpunk 2077, teasing that it's going to be absolutely huge.

Visual Effects Artist Jose Teixeira talked with MCV recently, where he said: "Cyberpunk is far bigger than anything else that CD Projekt Red has done before. Far, far bigger. We're really stepping into the unknown in terms of complexity and size and problems we encounter". He continued, saying that the scope of The Witcher 3 has really helped the studio with the open world of Cyberpunk 2077.

Teixeira added: "The Witcher helped Cyberpunk quite a bit, because the game got so big and so complex that it really taught us. We really didn't know what was going to happen. If anything, working on The Witcher 3 was a really good and often brutal learning experience. Cyberpunk is going to benefit greatly from it. I can almost guarantee it. I have a lot of things that I want to change and do better the next time around, and I can guarantee that almost everyone in that studio has something that they go 'I did this this time, next time I can do it differently, I can do it better'".

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Roku 4 announced, has 4K support, remote finder and much more

We knew it was coming, but now it's official: the Roku 4 is here. The new media layer has 4K video playback capabilities, but it also has some unique features; like a remote finder.

The new Roku 4 has a quad-core processor, 1.5GB of RAM (up from the 512MB on the Roku 3). This means the Roku 4 is more than capable of playing back 4K video streams at up to 60FPS. Inside, the Roku 4 features 802.11ac MIMO WI-Fi, optical audio out, Ethernet, HDMI, a microSD card slot, and a Wi-Fi Direct powered remote with voice search, a headphone jack and the awesome remote finder.

The remote finder works by pressing a button on top of the box, which will make a sound come out of the remote so you can find it. If you constantly lose your remote, or like me have little ones at home who are always moving them around, this will be a killer feature.

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Halo 5 will have a 'much more sociable' story thanks to 4-player co-op

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Oct 6, 2015 8:37 PM CDT

One of the biggest, if not the biggest Xbox One games coming out this year will feature 4-player cooperative mode. 343 Industries, the developer behind Halo 5: Guardians, has said that the 4-player cooperative mode for the single-player side of the game can be controlled by other gamers, or by AI.

343 Industries says that it wanted to tell a "much more sociable" story, with the developer continuing: "We were winding down on Halo 4 and thinking about moving to a new console, and we had already planned some of the technological upgrades that we wanted to make to the engine. And early on we started talking about the types of stories that we wanted to tell and the experiences that we wanted to create, and we really wanted to focus on a much more sociable experience, especially in our campaign".

While cooperative play isn't new to Halo, the studio acknowledges that past Halo games didn't really do it well, in terms of gameplay and story. Executive Producer on the game, Josh Holmes, added: "I think co-op has always been a big part of Halo's campaign, but in the past it's sort of been treated as a completely separate experience, where you just have three other clones of the Master Chief running side by side. The narrative breaks down. One of the big creative goals that we had for Halo 5 was to bring that into focus and support it through the story".

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Microsoft's Continuum turns Lumia 950s into mobile PC's

With Continuum, Microsoft essentially wants to turn Windows 10 phones into portable PCs. The tech giant showcased a live Continuum demo at their New York event, revealing just how potent and revolutionary the feature actually is.

Along with a slew of cross-device functionalities like Windows Hello biometric authentication, Continuum is supported on Microsoft's new flagship Lumia 950 and Lumia 950XL duo. Continuum represents a new shift in PC dependence, moving away from the traditional tethered desktop environment to a more free, unified ecosystem powered by Windows 10.

But how does it work? Continuum harnesses the Lumia 950's octacore processor to simulate a PC-like experience, making the phone the central heart or brains of the operation. This lets you completely circumvent the PC altogether. Just hook up a Lumia phone, a keyboard, mouse and monitor to the Display Dock hub to simulate a fully-fledged PC-like work environment.

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Ubisoft announces Far Cry Primal set in Stone Age, coming 2016

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Oct 6, 2015 2:12 PM CDT

Ubisoft has finally unveiled the specifics around yesterday's mysterious teaser, and it really is a Far Cry caveman survival sim...well sort of.

The game is officially called Far Cry Primal and takes place during the Stone Age era where giant mastodons and saber-toothed tigers roamed open expanses. Players will take the role of Takkar, a grizzled hunter that happens to be the last survivor of his clan. The goal of the game is to simply survive--but in a world where everything has teeth the size of your leg, that's easier said than done.

The reveal trailer shows off spears, bows and clubs as the major weapons, taking players back to the barebone basics of a cruel prehistoric world. "This isn't the Stone Age you thought you knew. This is the Stone Age with irreverence and mayhem. This is the Stone Age by Far Cry," Ubisoft says.

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KitGuru editor in chief apologizes for 'inflammatory' AMD article

Sean Ridgeley | RAM | Oct 6, 2015 12:45 PM CDT

KitGuru staff writer Anton Shilov yesterday reported AMD was beginning to sell new DDR4 RAM modules compatible with Intel platforms and its own next-gen platforms. This is true, but the trouble came when he made this very biased statement: "AMD's Radeon R7 DDR4 memory modules are not performance champions, but fans of AMD's Radeon video cards and modders make purchase decisions based on design and visual aesthetics, not on performance."

The article -- which sports a 1.6/5 rating courtesy of 63 reader votes as of press time -- has since been edited accordingly. The statement now has a strikethrough, and editor in chief Allan Campbell describes the statement as "incorrect [and] inflammatory". Further, there is a link to a full apology by him, where he explains the statement does not reflect the views of the website. The text in its entirety can be found below.

This morning I woke up to complaints from many readers regarding a post made by one of our European news team last night - Anton Shilov. This post took place when the UK team were all in bed. This article was entitled 'AMD begins to sell DDR4 memory modules for Intel and next-gen platforms' and can be found HERE.

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Microsoft's new 12.3-inch Surface Pro 4 starts at $899

It seems like everyone wants to get in on the success of Microsoft's Surface hybrid: Google has the new Pixel C tablet, and Apple has the transforming iPad Pro. In order to stay on top, Microsoft had to push the bar even further, leading the Redmond tech giant to create the Surface Pro 4.

Microsoft's new 12.3-inch Surface Pro 4 starts at $899

The new Surface Pro 4 is an all-around improvement over the previous Surface line: it's thinner, lighter and much more powerful thanks to the onboard Intel Skylake CPU. It has a 12.3-inch display that utilizes new PixelSense technology. Microsoft actually fashioned a dedicated G5 chipset to run the new optical stack, which powers PixelSense to bring dramatic improvements to latency, parallax and palm detection for fluid writing and drawing with the new Surface Pen. The pen itself has 1,024 levels of pressure sensitive and comes with an eraser (an obvious jab at Apple's iPencil), and doesn't need to be recharged more than once a year.

Microsoft's new Surface tablet is just 8.4mm thin and features a laptop-class keyboard designed for performance input. Under the hood the Surface Pro 4's silicon soul is powered by a sixth-generation Intel Skylake CPU. Full Windows 10 Pro integration gives access to a slew of cross-platform apps as well as full stables like Office, Outlook, Skype and even Cortana voice-searching with a single button press of the stylus.

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Microsoft's new Surface Book laptop sports GeForce GPU, Skylake CPU

Derek Strickland | Laptops | Oct 6, 2015 11:08 AM CDT

Microsoft has taken aim at Apple's Macbook line with its own 2-in-1 Surface Book, a 13.5-inch Windows 10 laptop that features higher-end specs while fitting right into the new Windows ecosystem.

The Surface Book is touted as the "world's most powerful, thinnest PC" and Microsoft boasts that "ounce for ounce its the fastest 13-inch laptop on the planet". The hybrid laptop can be docked or removed from the base to transform from a laptop or a tablet, but the GPU itself is located in the base so you'll need to keep it docked to tap its power.

Even with these claims Microsoft has been somewhat vague on the GPU specifics, saying that the Surface Book has an accelerated NVIDIA GeForce GPU with GDDR5 memory that's been tuned by the Xbox team. It sports Intel's latest 6th-generation Skylake Core i5 and i7 processors for beefy performance, and can utilize up to 16GB of RAM. There's word that a NVIDIA GeForce 940M could be the GPU that powers the Surface Book's base, but nothing's been confirmed just yet.

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