Did you miss it? Beats by Dre headphones cost $14 to make

Chris Smith | Audio, Sound & Speakers | Mar 18, 2015 8:06 PM CDT

You may have seen this argument somewhere on the internet recently, it's a real growing trend. As soon as someone offers up the suggestion for Beats by Dre to be added to an audio collection everyone is up in arms about the sound quality and mostly the 'paying for the brand' experience.

These headphones that generally enter the market at $380 for higher graded models and have often made people wonder - how much 'brand cost' is actually associated with this device.

Well in case you missed it, All Hiphop released the news last year that Dr. Dre's magical sound devices cost an estimated $14 to produce.

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The next-gen Pascal-based GeForce could feature 32GB of VRAM

GTC 2015 - One of the things we didn't quite have the time to talk about yesterday was the 3D Memory and HBM 2.0 side of the upcoming Pascal architecture form NVIDIA. This architecture should find itself onto a new VGA card sometime in 2016, rocking a huge 32GB of VRAM.

NVIDIA briefed the crowd at its GPU Technology Conference here in San Jose, California where they displayed a slide with the amount of VRAM per GPU architecture. We can see that Kepler in 2012, which the last flagship card based on Kepler was the GeForce GTX 780 and GTX Titan Black featuring 3GB and 6GB of RAM respectively, while the Maxwell architecture provides between 4GB (on the GTX 980) and 12GB (on the GTX Titan X) respectively. The slide teases that Pascal will feature 32GB of RAM, and Volta will rock up to 72GB of RAM in 2018.

The way NVIDIA will do this is thanks to SK Hynix's High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) which allows for four-layer stacks, which is also known as 4-Hi. This will come in 1GB and 2GB varieties, but eight-layer stacks will eventually arrive, which should see a huge increase in the amount of framebuffer on the next generation of GPUs.

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Poll: 40% of current iPhone owners interested in Apple Watch

Michael Hatamoto | Wearable Computing & Fashion | Mar 18, 2015 6:10 PM CDT

The Apple Watch has gained a lot of attention from consumers, and around 40 percent of adult US Apple iPhone owners are interested in possibly purchasing the device, according to a poll by Reuters/Ipsos.

A previous Reuters/Ipsos survey found that 69 percent of American consumers aren't actually in a big rush to purchase the Apple Watch - but Apple hopes its first new product in years will be popular among iPhone owners.

There are more than 100 million iPhone owners in the United States, and almost 500 million across the world, so there is a huge base of potential customers.

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Supermicro shows off its latest GPU machines at NVIDIA GTC 2015

William Harmon | IT/Datacenter & Super Computing | Mar 18, 2015 5:38 PM CDT

GTC 2015 - Today at NVIDIA GTC 2015, we stopped by Supermicro's booth to look at the latest Tesla GPU Superservers. As always, Supermicro has a wide variety of servers and workstations to meet the needs of its customers.

Sumit Gupta, general manager of Accelerated Computing at NVIDIA explained to us: "Supermicro's new high-density servers provide a range of computing solutions for enterprise and HPC customers," he continued: "Designed to take full advantage of ultra-high performance Tesla GPU accelerators while minimizing power consumption, the servers bring new levels of energy-efficient performance for compute-intensive data analytics, deep learning and scientific applications."

The first offering is the SYS-7048GR-TR, 4U Dual Processor GPU SuperWorkstation with 4-Way GeForce SLI Support.

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One Stop Systems shows off its 16 GPU monster machine at GTC 2015

William Harmon | IT/Datacenter & Super Computing | Mar 18, 2015 5:33 PM CDT

GTC 2015 - Walking around at NVIDIA GTC 2015 you could not help but notice the 16x GPU Compute Accelerator from One Stop Systems. These external GPU accelerators are used in applications like seismic modeling, trading algorithms and research.

The showstopper is One Stop Systems High Density Compute Accelerator (HDCA), which can accommodate up to 16 NVIDIA Tesla K80s. This beast of a machine includes dual redundant 6,000watt PSUss to power all those GPUss. The interface for these systems is One Stop Systems PCIe expansion card, which is used to connect One Stops Systems to a host machine to expand its GPU capabilities.

One Stop Systems feature smaller GPU boxes called "The Cube". These boxes expand a systems GPU capability by using OSS's PCIe expansion card and come in many different sized boxes from the pCUBE with 1x GPU all the way up to The CUBE3 supporting 8x GPUs.

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Microsoft introduces Windows Hello biometric sign-in for Windows 10

Michael Hatamoto | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Mar 18, 2015 5:05 PM CDT

Microsoft plans to offer the Windows Hello biometric sign-in feature for its upcoming Windows 10 operating system. Users will have the chance to scan their face, fingerprint or iris, which can be used to unlock PCs, laptops, or smartphones.

Windows Hello can be used to access protected content, authenticate apps, and other "online experiences," Microsoft says.

Meanwhile, Intel said all systems that utilize its RealSense F200 sensor can support Windows Hello. All data will be stored locally on each PC or device, and will remain anonymous in case hackers compromise it.

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Microsoft announces League of Legends will work on Windows 10

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Mar 18, 2015 4:29 PM CDT

Something strange just happened: Microsoft has teamed up with Chinese giant Tencent to announce that they are bringing League of Legends to Windows 10. Firstly, where's Riot Games? Secondly, why wouldn't League of Legend work on Windows 10 by default?

There will also be other games connected to this partnership, with Cross Fire and Dungeon & Fighter delivered to the Windows 10 marketplace. Tencent will be offering a free upgrade to Windows 10 in order to reach "as many Chinese consumers as possible, as soon as possible". But with League of Legends now arriving on Windows 10, and Windows 10 running on "the broadest types of devices" according to the head of Windows, could we expect League of Legends on mobile devices in the near future?

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Nintendo is going mobile, with its first game coming later this year

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Mar 18, 2015 2:42 PM CDT

We've heard rumors of Nintendo moving into the mobile market, but now the time has come: Nintendo has teased it has mobile games coming in the future. The news came from a talk between TIME and a few of Nintendo's top executives.

When it comes to Nintendo and its mobile future, the Japanese giant talked about free-to-play and in-game purchases. Satoru Iwata, the President and CEO of Nintendo, said: "Nintendo does not intend to choose payment methods that may hurt Nintendo's brand image or our intellectual property. It's even more important for us to consider how we can get as many people around the world as possible to play Nintendo smart device apps, rather than to consider which payment system will earn the most money".

The bigger question is, will Nintendo be designing games for mobile, or dedicated gaming hardware. Iwata added: "I have never intended to dismiss the entertainment experiences that people are enjoying on smart devices or any other media. On the other hand, my understanding is that, on smart devices, the main demand is for very accessible games which smart device users can easily start and easily finish. These are not necessarily the characteristics that people demand from games for dedicated video game systems".

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iDrink - the world's first iPhone case with a built-in breathalyzer

One of the most interesting, and usable things I've ever seen has just hit Indiegogo: the iDrink. iDrink is a case for your iPhone with a built-in blood alcohol content (BAC) breathalyzer, a first.

All you have to do is breathe into the iDrink with its fold=out mousepiece, and you get "super accurate BAC readings instantly" through their intuitive app. The company didn't stop there, as they also have a "ground breaking video game that changes difficulty based on a user's BAC level". The game is an interesting take, as it provides users with the ability of looking at what it would be like behind the wheel of your car based on your BAC level.

iDrink also helps iPhone users, as it will let you call a taxi to your GPS location, runs off of its own rechargeable battery, and of course - protects your iPhone from bumps and scratches. iDrink requires $20,000 of funding, and has 35 days left to go. The first edition iDrink case costs $150 and ships in March 2016.

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Premera Blue Cross hacked, putting 11M customers at risk

Michael Hatamoto | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Mar 18, 2015 1:08 PM CDT

The Premera Blue Cross health insurer has confirmed it suffered a data breach, putting 11 million customers at risk. Compromised data includes financial information and medical information, including names, bank account data, Social Security numbers, and clinical information.

The FBI is now working with Premera to gauge the seriousness of the data breach, with compromised records dating back as far as 2002. The company is now offering two years of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services, Premera said on a special website designed to discuss the issue.

"All of us here at Premera have been by affected by this attack and we understand and share your concerns," said Jeff Roe, President and CEO of Premera. "Please know that we're committed to making sure you get the tools and assistance you need to help protect you."

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