Latest News - Page 2720

The polished metal finish and unique color design ensures that this new addition to the Corsair Dominator series is like no other. The Dominator series as a whole certainly isn't new, I remember filling my i7 2600k system back in 2011 with a few sticks of red Dominator's - however the product name lives on and it sure has aged well!

Custom-designed for and paired brilliantly with the GIGABYTE GA-X99-SOC Force motherboard, we can't wait for this DDR4 RAM to be thrown into a system - paging all modders!

Featuring a tested Latency of 16-18-18-40, this set of RAM is "guaranteed to run at 3400MHz at ambient room temperature" according to Corsair's official website.

Google doesn't like the idea of the FBI being able to easily access Internet-connected devices owned by consumers, with the company sending a 14-page letter to officials.

"Law-abiding citizens who were the target of an unconstitutional search but are not charged with a crime will almost certainly never learn of the search and therefore will not be able to challenge the search," said Richard Salgado, director of information security and law enforcement for Google, in a letter to the US government.

Not surprisingly, the federal government thinks it needs access to user data to bust criminals and for better national security:

While Epic Games' founder Tim Sweeney is teasing that VR will be indistinguishable from real life within 10 years, the company has just announced its Unreal Dev Grants program that will see developers working in and around its powerful Unreal Engine 4.

Epic Games has placed $5 million into the kitty for Unreal Dev Grants, where the studio will award developers amounts between $5000 and $50,000. Better yet, the studio will not be attaching any strings to the project. Tim Sweeney has weighed into the chat about Unreal Dev Grants, where he said that in order to fund the release of his first game, Sweeney borrowed his father's tractor and spent two entire summers mowing lawns. He said that the cost of getting games from the prototype stage to finished projects takes much more than just a part-time summer job.

Sweeney spoke with Polygon, where he said: "There's absolutely no substitute for money because some of these things require real-world expenses and can't be solved just by creativity and motivation alone". He added: "It's really hard for an indie now, given how crowded the market is. Even if you're going to start a Kickstarter campaign, that takes a significant effort. And that's a big change from the original days. So we set up this grant program to help people make that first big leap, which we see pretty consistently now requires some financial resources".

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has big goals for his company's Internet.org campaign, designed to bring affordable, reliable Internet access to people across the world. Ideally, the organization will be able to shorten the technological gap of citizens, especially in developing nations where there are plenty of mobile users - but unreliable Internet access.

Zuckerberg launched Internet.org in 2013 and Facebook has largely worked behind-the-scenes with Samsung, Qualcomm, Ericsson and other corporate partners. A free mobile app has been released in a number of nations, giving users access to Facebook, Google Search, AccuWeather - creating opportunities for first-time users to benefit from connected services.

"Yeah, our team is in contact with them frequently, and I talk to a number of folks over there," said Zuckerberg, in an interview on Studio 1.0 on Bloomberg Television. "When we launched in Zambia, Google was actually one of the services that was in the Internet.org suite, and that's valuable. In addition to health services and education, jobs and different government services and communication tools, people need to be able to search and find information. And whether we work with Google or others on that in all of these other countries, I think that is an important thing. I'd love to work with Google. They are a great search product."

Rock Band was a staple of parties and catch ups with friends, but with the PS4 and Xbox One now here, it's all but dried up. That is, until a new report from Bloomberg teased that Harmonix is working on a new Rock Band title for the PS4 and Xbox One consoles.

Harmonix was asked to comment on the news, with the developer telling Eurogamer: "We're excited by how enthusiastic our fans have been in regards to our most recent DLC releases, and we think it's awesome that people are speculating about the future of the franchise!" The developer continued: "While we don't have anything to announce, hundreds of thousands of unique users are still actively playing Rock Band games each month. This passion our fans have shown for Rock Band over the years suggests that rock truly hasn't died, and we've always been clear that we'd love to return to the franchise when the time is right".

Considering the last Rock Band game was released in 2012 as Rock Band Blitz, it's about damn time we see another Rock Band game, especially with the new consoles now here!

Early last month, 'District 9' and 'Elysium' director Neil Blomkamp posted some interesting concept art for a potential fifth 'Alien' film to his Instagram account, along with the caption "Was working on this. Don't think I am anymore. Love it though. #alien #xenomorph" But whilst on the publicity trail for his latest picture 'Chappie', Director Neil Blomkamp has confirmed he has signed on to direct the film after all, tweeting out a piece of H.R. Giger artwork with the caption "Um... So I think it's officially my next film. #alien"

Whilst studio Twentieth Century Fox has not yet made an official announcement, Deadline Hollywood has revealed that Ridley Scott, who directed the first 'Alien' picture in 1979 will produce and assist with the script, which interestingly will be set after the forthcoming sequel to 'Prometheus'.

Blomkamp's 'Chappie', which is released next month, stars Sigourney Weaver who allegedly sparked his interest in the 'Alien' project, so its seems a safe bet that the next film will finally give her the character the closure that's been sorely needed since 1997's 'Alien: Resurrection'.

With Sony pulling out of most of its markets and concentrating on mostly camera sensors and its PlayStation console, it should come as no surprise that the company is set to focus on its PS4-based VR headset, Project Morpheus, at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2015.

Sony will be giving hands-on demos of its system, as well as more details on its plans for its VR headset. We don't know what Sony will be showing off exactly, as the company could surprise the world with an updated version of Project Morpheus, which is what I want to see. Almost like the DK2 to the DK1 from Oculus VR, as Oculus has even passed that with the latest Crescent Bay prototype.

We will be reporting about all things GDC 2015 as the event kicks off early next month in San Francisco.

Tim Sweeney, the founder of Epic Games and the brain behind the Unreal Engine, has said that there are some insane things going on with VR right now, but a lot of them aren't being shown to the public.

Sweeney was interviewed recently, where he said that he expects VR hardware and headsets to double in quality every few years for the next decade. He added that it will reach a point in around 10 years from now, that it will be hard to tell the difference between the VR world, and the real-world that surrounds you right now.

Oculus VR is expected to launch its first consumer-ready version of the Oculus Rift sometime this year, which I'm sure we're going to hear more about at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) which kicks off in just a couple of weeks time.

It's kind of an end of an era for Sony, with the Japanese giant falling on its sword in multiple of its failing divisions. We've seen the company sell of its VAIO laptop business, which is now making a comeback, but there's some more news that many will be sad over.

Sony wants to make a 25-fold increase in its profits, by concentrating on products that actually make the company money. Considering the company has just recorded its sixth net loss in seven years, many can see why. Sony's stock on the other hand has actually grown by 80% in the last 12 months, as its CEO, Kaz Hirai, has been restructuring the core of Sony's business.

Hirai has been able to do this by focusing on making less products, to ensure they're making the right products, that sell well. This effort of restructuring will continue, but now the company has announced it will be pulling out of more markets. In the end, Sony will be making the PlayStation its near sole purpose, as well as making Sony camera sensors for companies like Apple. The company has thought of pulling out of the TV market with its Bravia brand, as LG and Samsung have been making serious inroads in the TV business over the years.

Just days after we reported that the NSA had backdoor access to the firmware level of major HDD manufacturers in Seagate and Western Digital, Edward Snowden is back with new information that the National Security Agency (NSA) and its British partner GCHQ hacked into Gemalto. Gemalto, is a Netherlands SIM card manufacturer, the largest in the world.

Gemalto makes two billion SIM cards each year, with the NSA hacking into the company and stealing its encryption keys, giving them access to secretly monitor both voice calls and data. The Intercept reported on the news, which has reportedly provided spy agencies with the ability of secretly monitoring gigantic portions of the world's cellular communications, which experts have said is a major violation of international laws. Considering Gemalto makes SIM cards for companies like AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon, you can begin to see the scope of this hack by the US government agency. Gemalto itself operates in some 85 countries around the world, providing SIM cards to over 450 wireless network providers.

With the NSA having these encryption keys in its hands, it has the power to monitor mobile communications "without the approval of telecom companies and foreign governments", reports The Guardian. This is something I talked about in my last OpEd, where the Obama administration needs to address it, and as I said "The NSA needs to be ripped apart, and its powers neutered". Most people think that 3G and 4G mobile networks have their calls encrypted, and while they might be, but with the keys that the NSA and GCHQ have, it's like they are living "in the phone".

Set inside the 15,000-seat stadium called Lanxess Arena, the second largest multifunction arena in Europe, ESL has announced they will be running the "world's largest CS:GO event" on August 22 and 23, 2015.

This tournament marks the fourth time ESL has offered $250,000 on the table in only two years, however this event has been reported by HLTV to be financed and conducted directly by ESL - with no skin or sticker monetary support from the community.

The team qualification details have not yet been released, however we are told that there will be 16 teams in total fighting it out for the top spot. We also know that live spectator tickets will be available for purchase on February 23 through Eventim and various other ticketing agencies.

Following news of which films are up for Oscars, online piracy of nominated movies increased 385 percent since January 15, according to the Irdeto piracy monitoring firm.

Irdeto uses a crawler to monitor torrent downloads, and saw increased interest following the Oscar nominations - largely due to increased media coverage - with screener films sometimes leaked online.

"Hollywood screeners specifically accounted for a substantial 31 percent of the total illegal downloads tracked between January 15 and February 14," according to Irdeto, as published by TorrentFreak. "Six nominated movies currently unavailable for retail purchase on Blu-ray, DVD, VOD or legal streaming/download sites saw the majority of piracy coming directly from these screeners: American Sniper, The Imitation Game, Wild, Selma, Whiplash and Still Alice."

Computer manufacturer Lenovo will no longer pre-install the controversial Superfish adware on PCs and laptops, due to growing public backlash from customers. Cybersecurity experts warned Superfish potentially left them vulnerable, after injecting advertisements to browsers.

"The way the Superfish functionality appears to work means that they must be intercepting traffic in order to insert ads," said Eric Rand, researcher for Brown Hat Security, in a statement to Reuters. "This amounts to a wiretap."

Lenovo must now answer questions regarding its use of Superfish, including how long it was pre-installed, and how much data was collected by the software. Superfish was installed on consumer PCs and notebooks only.

Swedish citizen Alex Yucel, 24, has pleaded guilty for his role in being co-creator of the BlackShades malware, which infected more than 500,000 PCs across the world. Yucel pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of malicious software, and faces a maximum sentence of 10 years.

In exchange for his guilty plea, there is a stipulated agreement that will see Yucel receive a sentence ranging from 70 to 87 months. "I do actually want to plead guilty," Yucel said in his court appearance. "I knew that the program would be used to cause damage."

Yucel was arrested in November 2013 while in Moldova, and was extradited to the United States. As the operator of the criminal organization, Yucel hired administrators, marketing and customer support staff to interact with customers - generating upwards of $350,000 in revenue.

The gaming market is alive and well, with PC and console gamers both enjoying hardware and software titles available to them. Sony and Microsoft have a lot to be thankful for, as the PlayStation 4 and Xbox are enjoying appealing titles able to keep gamers interested.

Both saw strong year one shipments - and the global install base for both consoles has been extremely successful.

"Despite reports to the contrary, the game console market is not dead," said Eric Smith, senior analyst for connected home devices at Strategy Analytics, in a statement published by Venture Beat. "Core gamers have moved faster to this current generation than in any previous generation. The main difference in this generation is that casual gamers who bought a Wii are remaining largely on the sidelines as free-to-play casual games and mid-core games on tablets and smartphones have captured this segment of consumers."

With the total eSports revenues of 2014 said to equal $194 million, Newzoo's latest report claims that this figure will climb to a massive $465 million in 2017.

This report was conducted in conjunction with Repucom, a sports market research company. Their findings also state that the number of eSports enthusiasts is likely to climb from 89 million as seen in 2014 to 145 million in 2017 - with another 190 million said to be included as casual viewers. Relating this to the general (public) sporting field, this means that eSports will generate a similar fan base to the traditional sports of Volleyball, American Football and Ice Hockey.

ESL is one of the largest names in the eSports world, conducting numerous tournaments spanning many different titles each year - seeing tens of thousands of live spectators and hundreds of thousands of online fans watching their every move. Their global managing director, Heinrich Zetlmayer, is excited by this news, stating "Reading through the first, most extensive and comprehensive report that puts some realistic numbers on the esports industry was a pleasure. Especially the comparison to traditional sports is a valuable insight that will help everyone understand better what this business is about and the potential it has."

The Sony PlayStation 4 will see its sales dominance over the Microsoft Xbox One continue, with the Japanese console outselling its American counterpart 40 percent by 2019, according to Strategy Analytics.

Through the first 14 months, the PS4 has sold 18.5 million units - and is on track to mimic the same success the PlayStation 2 had years ago. Strategy Analytics believes the PS4 will sell 80 million consoles by 2019, a dominant lead over the estimated 57 million units for the Xbox One.

The PS4 dominated the Xbox One for most of 2014, and has recaptured its lead in 2015 - and predicting extended dominance wouldn't be overly surprising. Even if Microsoft is unable to catch up to the PS4, there is still plenty of room for both consoles to rack up impressive sales figures.

Project Cars has been delayed again, with Slightly Mad Studios announcing that it will be missing its March 17 release for an April 2 release on Steam for the PC, and April 7 on the PS4 and Xbox One. In Europe however, it will release on all three platforms on April 2.

The simulation racer was meant to launch last November, but it was pushed out to March 17, and now to April 2. The latest delay to the game has come from "final adjustments in the game that are required to provide fans with the best gaming experience they can have" according to publisher Bandai Namco.

Slightly Mad Studios' boss, Ian Bell, explains: "Moving the release date was not an easy decision to make, as we know our fans are eager to get their hands-on on Project Cars. But we know that these extra days will allow us to provide the best game experience that our fans deserve. We assure you the wait will be worth it when the game does arrive early April".

We know to expect some big things from DirectX 12, but the more we hear about it, the more we want it now, now, now. AnandTech has completed a deep-dive into the upcoming API from Microsoft, noticing some huge improvements across a range of hardware.

We've written about Brad Wardell, the CEO of Stardock and his impressions of DX12, but he has said that using an "unreleased GPU" he was able to see a huge 100FPS difference between cards. He tweeted that he "did a test of DirectX 11 vs. DirectX 12 on an unreleased GPU with an 8core CPU. DX11: 13fps, DX12: 120fps. Lighting and lens effects".

When pressed, Wardell said he was using a Crossfire system, with an Intel Core i7 CPU. Since he's using an "unreleased GPU" we can gather he might be using the new Radeon R9 390X, which is another nice nugget of information, it means that they're out in the wild. Better yet, Wardell said that "one thing it does make it easy to treat multiple GPUs as a single identity". This is something we reported on not too long ago, where we reported that the VRAM on multi-GPU systems would be seen as one.

Well, my 100/40Mbps fiber connection has just become quite slow compared to what researchers over at the University of Oxford have been playing around with. These researchers have reached a new milestone in networking technology by reaching bi-directional speeds of 224 gigabits per second (Gbps) using light fidelity (Li-Fi).

Considering 100Gbps fiber optic core networks have only just come into play, achieving 224Gbps over an LED light bulb is simply amazing. This connection would be capable of downloading a gigantic 27GB/sec, capable of blowing through terabytes of data in seconds. This new technology is being worked on as a possible alternative to Wi-Fi, as Li-Fi uses the visible light spectrum to transfer data. When mixed with a high-speed fiber Internet connection, researchers believe that we could see speeds far higher than anything Wi-Fi has on offer.

This means that the future of Internet connectivity could be delivered through light, which doesn't pass through walls, to most areas. We could have light bulbs providing super-fast Internet connectivity, with one of the pioneers behind Li-Fi, Harold Haas, stating that the future of every LED lightbulb could be used as an ultra-fast alternative to Wi-Fi. During a TED Talk, Haas said about Li-Fi: "We have the infrastructure there. We can use them for communications. All we need to do is fit a small microchip to every potential illumination device and this would then combine two basic functionalities: illumination and wireless data transmission. In the future we will not only have 14 billion light bulbs, we may have 14 billion Li-Fi's deployed worldwide for a cleaner, greener and even a brighter future".