Latest News - Page 2739

We've been reporting on pretty much every GPU rumor we can, as they're all exciting, but the next-gen TITAN X is shaping up into something more real with each passing day. Now we have some unconfirmed news that the GeForce GTX TITAN X will have an MSRP of $1350.

The stock card will be arriving with 6GB of VRAM, with 12GB of VRAM to arrive at a later date, or through various AIBs if they choose to splash the GPU with a titanic amount of VRAM. The TITAN X will be powered by the GM200 chip, which is the full chip that we've all been waiting for. The GM204 powers the GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 cards while the GM206 reportedly powers the GTX 960 which is said to be imminent.

NVIDIA could slightly cut down the die to start with, but the fully unleashed GM200 core should arrive on a 384-bit memory bus, feature 12GB of VRAM and a huge 3072 CUDA cores. A cut down version of this could feature between 2560 and 2816 CUDA cores, but it would still perform like a champion. The price however, is what has people talking, and with the current GTX TITAN Black Edition still commanding a price of around $1000 on Amazon, the $1350 price isn't too bad. "Isn't too bad" is something worth talking about, because for around $350 more we should see a nice 30-50% performance increase given the specs. The 12GB of RAM is going to come in handy for future titles and super massive multi-monitor setups, which is something I will be getting into in March with these cards if they do materialize.

Coming up on the heels of their first thermal camera we reviewed earlier last month, Seek Thermal is releasing their brand new Seek XR which features manual zoom capabilities. The new camera weights only half an ounce but can capture long-wave radiation from as far as 2000 feet.

Seek's patented sensor features a resolution of 206x156 for a total of over 32,000 thermal pixels, which is very high compared to other cameras in the sub $1000 range. Like the first Seek thermal camera, the Seek XR will come in a magnesium case, but feature a custom made chalcogenide lens.

Seek is looking to market their new camera to a more diversified range of users, many of which we depend on every day. Seek Thermal founder Bill Parrish on the Seek XR, "Last year we introduced the first consumer thermal camera, and this new, extended-range camera is based in part on the specific feedback we received from gun experts, law enforcement, boaters and other people excited about thermal imaging." The new Seek XR will come in at only $299 and will be available directly from Seek as well as from Amazon starting this month. The Seek XR will be available for both Android and iOS devices.

Minh Nguyen, 38, co-founded the social networking platform Plaxo with his partner Sean Parker. Recently finding himself in jail, Nguyen has been charged with allegedly shooting his ex-wife's new husband, Corey Mattison, in their home.

Two children were in the Ashburn, Virginia residence on the night of January 15 when Nguyen allegedly visited and murdered Mattison. Shortly after Nguyen's arrival, his ex-wife Denise Mattison and another child returned home while an incident was unfolding, no other injuries have taken place. Neighbors of the deceased believe that this altercation came about due to months of conflict over child custody and visitation issues.

Mrs. Mattison took to Facebook in order to spread her story around the world, creating the In Memory of Corey Mattison, My Hero public page, in which she states that "I watched my husband lure a gunman out of the house ... he sacrificed his life to save me and to put an end to the emotional turmoil my children and I endured."

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has just announced that their cloud provider service will be powered by a wind farm in the future. Looking to produce 150 megawatts total of power, this is part of AWS' bid to move toward fully renewable energy supplies.

This farm is aiming to generate half a million megawatt hours by January 2016, seeing the 150 megawatt value being reached at a later date.

Named Amazon Web Services Wind Farm (Fowler Ridge), this project is being developed with help from AWS partners Pattern Energy Group. This announcement is further said to be due to Greenpeace attacking Amazon for refusing to provide details on how it planned to make the more to renewable energy. Amazon also claims that cloud computing is more environmentally friendly than traditional options due to sever capacity usage and less power consumption is needed to power their infrastructure.

Aimed at educators, retailers, healthcare workers and other professional industries, Hewlett-Packard has today announced a grand total of eight new tablets to be released in the market. This wide variety is apparently to combat the 'one device suits all' approach that is seen with tablet manufacturers of today, HP is fighting this stigma by releasing a wide variety of options.

Two of these tablets are aimed towards school and education, seeing HP produce a model that is claimed to resist dust, moisture and "the rigors of an education environment," producing something a little more robust than others.

With pricing ranging from $199 to $1,599, this is apparently a massive move by HP to take some market share from the tablet scene, with reports stating that this large-scale technology company has been struggling to catch up with the growing consumer preference for tablet design. According to Jack Gold, a tech analyst, "this is a logical extension of their current strategy, which is to stay competitive in the business market. They have an opportunity to become more than just a commodity supplier of tablets, which is where the market is headed. Many companies won't invest in tablets until they find a compelling reason to do so. And HP offering specialized devices geared to specific markets could be the catalyst for those companies eyeing tablets but still cautious about the expense and management risks, as well as the less-than-optimum designs in general-purpose devices."

The blockbuster sequel/reboot 'Jurassic World' got an injection of enthusiasm following the strong reaction to the debut of the film's teaser trailer late last year, but many fans wanted to see something they hadn't before; namely the much hyped new dinosaur Diabolus Rex or 'D-Rex', who was only barely glimpsed.

While an earlier image from an upcoming Lego set gave a hint to the animals design, the leak of what looks to be 'Jurassic World' promotional party accessories has now confirmed the D-Rex design, along with an updated T-Rex.

Starring Chris Pratt from last years sci-fi mega-hit 'Guardians of the Galaxy', 'Jurassic World' hits 3D, 2D and IMAX screens worldwide in June 2015.

Microsoft had to grind its way to the top of the sales chart, with the Xbox One outselling the PlayStation 4 game console in November and December last year.

"Most important thing was Xbox fans sticking with us, they kept believing," said Phil Spencer, Microsoft's top Xbox overlord, in a statement on Twitter. "More work to do but it was a good holiday."

Spencer also responded to a fan via Twitter pointing out the PS4 still outsold the Xbox One: "PS4 is also doing very well. Console and game sales are strong, which is a good thing for the industry."

The Internet of Things (IoT) may yield great potential to simplify lives, but there is growing concern that these connected devices could eventually begin to take over our lives. The use of artificial intelligence to help simply - and enhance - new products opens the door to human-like capabilities, but that has increased concern.

"When we're not being tracked, we're more free to experiment, to be our authentic selves, to read new things, to be different kinds of people," said Neil Richards, law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, in a statement published by the San Jose Mercury News. However, connected monitoring opens the door to "menaces our society's foundational commitments to intellectual diversity and eccentric individuality."

IoT-based technologies will continue to increase in popularity, as companies expand research and development efforts - but there are numerous concerns that must also be addressed.

Government agencies in the United States and UK increasingly rely on wide-scale surveillance programs, in their efforts to collect intelligence. It's not uncommon for politicians and department heads to claim efforts are designed to prevent terrorism, which is the line being used by a former high-level spy from the UK.

"There needs to be some new compact between the technology companies and those who are responsible for security if we're not to see events like we saw in Paris last week... becoming more and more features of our lives," said John Sawers, former head of the Secret Intelligence Service, in a statement published by BBC.

British elections take place in May, and national security is expected to be a major political talking point.

SplashData has published its list of the most common passwords used on the Internet, compiling data mainly from Internet users in North America and Western Europe. The top 10 worst passwords, per the SplashData list: 123456, password, 12345, 12345678, 1234, baseball, dragon, football.

Simple numerical passwords remain common, with nine of the top 25 passwords consisting of numbers only. However, passwords such as "iloveyou" have disappeared, which was prevalent on the 2013 list, has dropped from the top 25 list for 2014.

"The bad news from my research is that this year's most commonly used passwords are pretty consistent with prior years," said Mark Burnett, an online security expert. "The good news is that it appears that more people are moving away from using these passwords. In 2014, the top 25 passwords represented about 2.2 percent of passwords exposed. While still frightening, that's the lowest percentage of people using the most common passwords I have seen in recent studies."

The Apple iPhone has strong internal security that is hard to bypass, and iOS 8 encrypts data by default. Google has also followed suit with stronger protections for Android, much to the chagrin of government agencies, which are unable to hack into the phones directly to retrieve information. Apple and Google are also refusing to decrypt the data for anyone, so phone security is locked up pretty tight.

Where there is a will there is a way. According to Der Spiegel, the publication with access to Edward Snowdens documents, the British Secret Service had figured out how to track iPhone users when they connect their phone to a computer. Once the phone is connected to an infected computer the agency analyzes the downloaded data. This eliminates the need to directly hack the phone, thus proving to be a working model for circumventing encryption and security features on the phone itself.

The British Secret Service also tracked internet usage on the device through a vulnerability in Safari and Google's Admob advertising service. The UDID, a device identifier number, is exposed through the tactic, and then the user can be tracked online. These methods were used by the agency in 2010, and likely the loophole has since been closed. However, variants of the same method may still be in use that are successful.

Troubling news is coming to light. Under a cloak of secrecy over 50 U.S. law enforcement have deployed radars that allow them to see through walls. These agencies include the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service, and the project began over two years ago. These radars run afoul of a Supreme Court ruling that bans the use of high-tech sensors probing the inside of someone's home without a warrant, which helps to explain the total silence on the new radars.

The sensors are effective out to 50 feet and can detect human movement via radio waves. They are so sensitive they can even pick up human breathing. The new technology came to light during a December federal appeals trial of a parole absconder in Denver. During the trial officials revealed they used the device to locate the man, and the presiding judges sounded off that "the government's warrantless use of such a powerful tool to search inside homes poses grave Fourth Amendment questions."

The devices are manufactured by L-3 Communications under the Range-R product family. Each device costs $6,000 and over 200 devices have been sold to US law enforcement agencies. The radar displays if there is movement on the other side of the wall, and displays how far away the movement is. The Range-R doesn't actually show the inside of the building, but there are other models that do. There are similar radar devices that feature 3-D displays of the location of people in a building, and the Justice Department is already funding development systems that can map entire buildings and locate people, so they surely have no qualms with deploying these devices.

Steam for Linux has a nasty bug, one that can wipe entire drives of all information in a matter of moments. The problem stems from users that have moved their installation directory from the default location. Steam for Linux features a command, 'rm -rf "$STEAMROOT/" that is used to refresh the Steam directory, which is usually required if there are installation problems with a game.

Unfortunately, many users move their game directories to SSDs, or to other locations on the computer. This removes the part of the code that specifies the correct directory, instead issuing a 'rm -rf "/"' command. Users opening the app trigger a deletion of the entire contents of their drives, including external devices. Valve has confirmed the issue affected a "handful of users". Valve also states they are unable to replicate the issue internally, and are still attempting to do so.

Steam for Linux users are best to stay with the default Steam installation directory until Valve has either ruled out the bug, or corrected it.

Google is wanting to get back into space, where it is teaming up with SpaceX to join its Internet satellite venture. The Mountain View-based search giant has agreed to value SpaceX at over $10 billion, before it invests large sums of money into Elon Musk's space transportation business.

The total round of funding on SpaceX is said to be even bigger, with some very big names throwing their checks into the company. SpaceX wants to launch countless micro-satellites that would operate in low-orbit around Earth, with the company already in the early stages of development. Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and real-life Tony Stark has said that this venture will end up providing cheap Internet for the entire world.

This project would eventually see wireless networks installed around Mars, when humans get to the point of colonizing the red planet. While satellite Internet is usually considered worse than most wired and fiber methods, it will bring Internet connectivity to parts of the world that wouldn't otherwise receive Internet connections.

BioWare has taken to a new blog post, stating that the third patch for the PC version of Dragon Age: Inquisition is nearly ready, and that it is "close" to release. Mark Darrah, an Executive Producer with BioWare spread the news on Twitter over the weekend.

The upcoming patch will fix up some of the issues with the multiplayer problems, balance issues, and adds fan-requested features like key binding that will allow walking on PC, armor upgrade menus and a new push-to-talk option in the multiplayer end-of-match summary. BioWare wrote on its blog post: "Based on feedback from our players, we tweaked the banter system to be less random in order to prevent extra-long periods of silence".

The studio continued: "We fixed quest blockers in the personal quests of Dorian and Sera as well as a spawning issue in Solas's personal quest (I won't elaborate to avoid light spoilers). [...] We continue to listen to feedback from our players, and we thank everyone for working with us to create an even better Dragon Age experience".

Timotheus Höttges claimed at the Digital Life Design conference in Munich that companies like Facebook and Google are increasingly turning into communications services, without being regulated as such. During this conference, the Deutsche Telekom stated that "Facebook is a communications service but it's not investing in telco infrastructure; this is unfair. Why does it escape regulation, yet it gathers data freely?"

Höttges went on to mention that Facebook offers a call and messaging service, however they do not have to register with German or U.K regulators, where as telecom companies, like is own do - "There isn't a level playing field."

Deutsche Telekom is further upset as they are investing €23 billion ($26 billion US) over the next 5 years into the German infrastructure, whereas companies like Google and Facebook "are not participating at all." Höttges mentioned that he isn't blaming the Silicon Valley companies directly for negligence, rather pointing towards the regulatory authorities, telling them to do their part and make it easier for traditional telecom companies to compete, adding "what we need is one single legislation for Europe."

Project CARS isn't too far away from its March release window, so the developer has just unveiled a delicious new trailer for their upcoming highly detailed racing title.

As you can see, Slightly Mad Studios has been doing some great things to the game, showing off some damn impressive technology. The game looks incredibly detailed, with some truly detailed vehicles, slow motion drifting and much more. Slightly Mad Studios is teasing that Project Cars is "the most technically-advanced, beautiful, intense and authentic racing game on the planet that's been tested, guided, and approved every step of the way by both gamers and real-life pro drivers alike".

Project Cars slides onto the Xbox One, PS4, and PC on March 20. The Nintendo Wii U will also see a release, but no firm date has been announced Will you be picking this up in March? I know I will.

There seems to be no question that the Internet of Things (IoT) will continue to be a major business, as more smart products enter the household. However, without industry cooperation from software designers and hardware makers, it could end up being a massive headache for everyone involved.

The number of IoT-related announcements at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this month should indicate where the market is quickly moving. If companies don't begin to work together on new standards, such as an open platform that is evenly distributed is necessary, then things may just become a nightmare.

"Companies may not care as much about overarching standards so long as the application will meet the needs they have today," said Andy Peebler, managing director of ecommerce and digital marketing at Acquity Group, in a statement to NBC News.

PC Modders is helping some of their friends work on a real-life racing simulator cockpit for the V8 Super Car series, which is run out of Australia - showcasing V8 muscle racing around iconic local Aussie tracks. Set to model that of Garth Tander's Holden racing vehicle, this project is utilizing a real car shell as the exterior to help you get the full feel.

Featuring what looks like the complete write-off wreck of a VZ series Holden Commodore sedan, this project will involve all the bells and whistles including a ButtKicker for realism, a full set of racing-grade pedals and head-tracking technology.

With building only being newly underway, there isn't too much to look at just yet - we will cover it more as the build develops. As according to PC Modders, it should see completion within three weeks.

As usual, we can't confirm this as it's a rumor, but it looks like the upcoming next-gen GPU release from AMD could arrive as the Radeon R9 380X, and not the R9 390X like most would have expected. Sweclockers are behind the rumor this time, giving it a little more credit.

The Radeon R9 380X would feature 4096 cores, 4GB of the new, next-gen HBM (high bandwidth memory) and a Q2 2015 release window. The new card is known as the Fiji XT and will directly replace most of AMD's current high-end R9 200 series lineup. We should expect this card to be around 40-50% faster than the R9 290X, mostly thanks to architectural changes and the new, super-fast HBM RAM.

NVIDIA will be fighting back with another rumored product, the Titan II or Titan X. They could also battle it out with a refreshed GM200-based GeForce card in the form of the GeForce GTX 980 Ti, or if I had my way, the GeForce GTX 980 Ultra.