Latest News - Page 2748

Virtual reality products were on full display at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last week, and while VR continues to go mainstream, there are a lot of questions that still must be answered.

VR adoption should increase in 2015, as companies tweak their hardware and software offerings, though should remain most common in the gaming sector. However, VR will still be a niche technology, until several major roadblocks are accurately addressed.

"It will stay relatively niche because it still has several technological hurdles to overcome," said Piers Harding-Rolls, HIS analyst, in a statement to BBC. "A lot of people that have tested the current headsets, a good proportion of them have not enjoyed the experience. It can make them feel woozy and sick, and the manufacturers really have to overcome that."

The Russian FSB intelligence security service reportedly tried to recruit former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, approaching him while he was stranded in the Sheremetyevo International Airport in 2013. The American fugitive declined the offer.

Snowden was reportedly approached only once and he "didn't give anything to the Russians at all," according to WikiLeaks staffer Sarah Harrison, a close friend to the stranded American.

Snowden was granted temporary asylum to stay in Russia in August 2013, and he remains inside of Russian borders.

A couple of screenshots for the PC version of Grand Theft Auto V have surfaced, showing the difference between low and high settings. The screenshots are coming from NfoHump user 'Neon' who is surely going to have most of the Internet talking with these GTA V screenshots.

The two shots are in-game shots from the PC version of GTA V, but it was only a few days ago that the same user posted some shots of the Settings menu of GTA V on the PC (above), as well as a few other screenshots of the game. Now we have a a low quality, and high quality screenshot to see if we can spot a big difference in quality.

Above, we have the low quality and high quality screenshots (low is the top one, high the one below it). Both of these screenshots were reportedly taken on a GeForce GTX 970 with 4GB of RAM. As you can see, there is quite a large difference between the low and high quality settings in the game, such as draw distance, shadowing, reflections on the car, and much more.

United Airlines says it wasn't breached as several MileagePlus members have discovered fraudulent activity on their accounts. It appears usernames and passwords were compromised from a third-party, and the unauthorized purchases began sometime in December 2014, the airline has confirmed. The California Office of the Attorney General was notified about the incident last week.

United is still trying to determine how the information was compromised, as criminals have increasingly targeted loyalty programs for airlines, hotels and other travel industry businesses. The accrued points are easy to cash out for restaurants, rental cars, air travel, hotels, and other perks.

Cybercriminals are finding new methods to find usernames and password credentials to steal - and the fraudulent activity suffered by MileagePlus members is an indication that trend will continue.

CES 2015 - Diamond Multimedia is well known for their line of AMD GPUs, but recently they have started to focus more on peripherals of all sorts from 4K streaming devices to Wireless AC peripherals. To start off they are launching a powerful router, the WLR1200AC, which features dual-band (5GHz/2.4GHz) wireless 802.11AC.

Here we have the WR750AC Dual Band Range Extender and WL600AC USB network adapter, which both support the new 802.11AC wireless standard. They also support dual band 5GHz/2.4GHz. The USB adapter comes in two versions, one with the antenna and one without.

On the left we have the BVU5500 USB 3.0 4K display adapter which is a simple device that will allow you to stream to a 4K monitor from your laptop. Then on the right we have the WPCTV3000 4K video streaming device, which utilizes the latest wireless display technologies to wirelessly stream content to a 4K display. It also allows for multiple users to connect to it, which makes it great for wireless presentations where more than one user needs to display content.

CES 2015 - We were invited up to MSI's suite to take a closer look at some of their new products. When we entered, we were welcomed by the X99A Gaming 9 ACK, one of MSI's new boards sporting the latest USB 3.1 technology. It won the CES 2015 Innovation award and rightfully so with USB 3.1, which we saw reach 650MB/s read and write speeds. The board isn't using the new type-c USB 3.1 connector, but instead relies on the traditional USB connector.

However, MSI did have a board with the new c-type connector in the works, the Z97X Gaming 6. We were able to catch a glimpse of this new technology. It felt very sturdy and yes, we were able to flip it upside down and insert it into the port.

On display in the next room was MSI's lineup of newer X99 and Z97 boards. To my surprise there were a good number of white themed motherboards under the Krait name.

Video game retailer GameStop has teamed up with Microsoft to use the Azure cloud platform to stream video game and promotional content to user mobile devices while they are in-store. Customers will be able to view video game catalogs, trailers, promotional materials, and other data.

"Microsoft has always been a fantastic and innovative company for GameStop to collaborate with, both in the technology space as well with their video game consoles and titles," said Jeff Donaldson, SVP of GameStop Technology Institute. "We are continuing to work closely with them to discover and aggressively elevate ways to enhance the retail experience for our customers today and in the future."

GameStop has become more creative in how it approaches gamers, as streaming and digital downloads continue to alter the PC and console gaming markets.

Smartphone maker Xiaomi reportedly met with No. 1 social networking site Facebook about potential investment opportunities in late 2014. It appears a deal between Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun didn't happen, but reveals how serious Xiaomi is to expand into the United States and other lucrative western markets.

Xiaomi, the No. 3 smartphone manufacturer in the world, and Facebook showed initial interest - but political and commercial roadblocks would have occurred, as Facebook is banned inside of China. Since the deal couldn't be put together, Xiaomi collected $1.1 billion from Chinese investors - and the company's valuation is now estimated at $45 billion.

"Facebook wants to get into China, and Xiaomi is keen to expand outside, so they both recognize the importance of working together," an unnamed source told Reuters.

It appears the US Central Command Twitter and YouTube accounts were hacked by the Islamic State, corresponding with President Obama preparing to deliver a speech regarding cybersecurity. Both accounts have been temporarily suspended, as threatening messages were posted aimed at US soldiers.

One of the messages posted on the US Central Command Twitter page included: American soldiers, we are coming, watch your back. ISIS. #CyberCaliphate" and included a link to a Pastebin link.

This effort was designed to be an annoyance to the US government and US Central Command systems remain secure from attack. Meanwhile, US officials are looking into the breach, including extent of the incident and any messages that may have been sent from the hijacked accounts.

Research into artificial intelligence (AI) continues to evolve, and there is growing concern that uncontrolled AI could have a significant impact on mankind. To prevent this from happening, the Future of Life Institute (FLI) wants AI researchers to sign an open letter to protect humans from intelligent machines.

"We recommend expanded research aimed at ensuring that increasingly capable AI systems are robost and beneficial: our AI systems must do what we want them to do," the letter reads. "The attached research priorities document gives many examples of such research directions that can help maximize the societal benefit of AI. This research is by necessity interdisciplinary, because it involves both society and AI. It ranges from economics, law and philosophy to computer security, formal methods and, of course, various branches of AI itself."

AI is being used in autonomous weapons systems, robots and humanoids, and in autonomous vehicles - raising serious ethical questions that must be answered.

We've reached back to the past for this one. Ryan Hooper from KARMA IT teamed up with ASUS Australia to produce a pretty kick-ass modded system where the chassis was the promotional poster for the actual motherboard itself.

Completed back in 2012, the system components included were the top of the time - however now they're obviously a little dated. Featuring an Intel i7-2600k processor and paired with an ASUS Maxtrix GTX 580 video card all running through an ASUS ROG Maximus IV Extreme, we haven't seen a build like this one before.

The full specification list is as follows:

The virtual reality market is growing, and seems to have drawn the most attention by the gaming community, but still isn't ready for mainstream adoption. However, it's possible that the movie industry has the most to gain from virtual reality, with consumers interested in embracing the unique viewing experience.

"We've said from the beginning we're big gamers, and we started Oculus to deliver consumer VR and revolutionize games," said Nate Mitchell, VP for product at Oculus, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. "But it may well end up being that VR is more about film than games - [but] it's possible. We don't know what the killer app is."

Oculus is working with developers in the video game and movie industries, and it's possible Oculus VR headsets could also find their way into military simulation trainings. There is a tremendous amount of opportunities for virtual reality in the future, but consumers appear more interested in what can be done sooner rather than later.

To celebrate this week's release of 'The Boxtrolls' on 3D Blu-ray, Blu-ray, DVD and digital we have ten copies of the 3D Blu-ray combo pack to give away to readers, thanks to our friends at Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Beneath the charming cobblestone streets of Cheesebridge live the Boxtrolls; quirky, mischievous and cardboard box wearing creatures who crawl above ground at night to scavenge for bits of human junk. The Boxtrolls love nothing more than cheese and an orphaned baby boy named Eggs (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) whom they have warmly raised since his infancy as one of their dumpster-diving, junk collecting own. Despite their timid, good-hearted nature, the Boxtrolls are feared by the people of Cheesebridge, who believe they will steal their children and beloved cheese. Eager to win over the town's affection, evil pest exterminator Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley) and his crew of Red Hat exterminators develop a plan to eradicate the kindhearted band of tinkerers. It's up to Eggs and his feisty new friend Winnie (Elle Fanning) to bring the two world's together amidst the winds of change - and cheese.

To go into the running to take a Blu-ray home, simply answer the following question:

Apple added 9,000 new jobs in 2014 alone, but says it has directly and indirectly led to more than 1 million jobs being "created or supported" by the company. In addition to its Apple headquarters and stores throughout the country, Apple also has generated great interest among app developers within the community.

"This year is off to a tremendous start after a record-breaking year for the App Store and our developer community," said Eddy Cue, senior VP of Internet software and services at Apple. "We're so proud of the creativity and innovation developers bring to the apps they create for iOS users and that the developer community has now earned over $25 billion."

Apple is off to another tremendous start with its App Store, racking up almost half a billion dollars on mobile apps and in-app purchases during the first week of January - and New Year's Day was the highest-grossing day of all-time for the App Store.

Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham is known worldwide for his character Achmed the Dead Terrorist, but what happens when a nation becomes sensitive and expressly prohibits him from performing with the character? Well, Dunham gives him a beret, an accent and a new name and continues the performance regardless!

Dunham said that Malaysia's Ministry of Culture and Arts requested that his act be changed for local sensitivities, including his name, likeness, references to virgins or Muslims. Now released on DVD, the footage from the performance from last May can now be enjoyed. During the setup, Dunham notes:

The performance can be purchased on Amazon here.

The FBI continues to say North Korea is responsible for a crippling cyberattack and data breach of Sony Pictures, and the Obama Administration vowed revenge, but Washington didn't drop the North Korean Internet, sources claim. However, those responsible for hitting North Korea likely didn't need to work very hard, and future attacks could be imminent.

"It looks more like the result of an infrastructure attack than an infrastructure failure," said James Cowie, chief scientist of Dynamic Network Services, in a statement to the AP. "There's nothing you can point to that says it has all the hallmarks of an attack by a nation state. It could have been anybody."

The entire country of North Korea only has four principal access point to the Internet, and while the US government has the capabilities to impact them, so do multiple other nation states - and smaller hacker groups.

Before Sony Pictures had its data released to the Internet, the Guardians of Peace offered to simply disappear if they were paid a ransom - an extortion attempt that Sony promptly denied. However, this type of criminal activity is overshadowed by the new forms of malware customized to encrypt files and demand payment from compromised victims.

Ransomware attacks tend to get the most attention when a new piece of malware hits the Web, infecting end-users and corporations. The ransoms range from as low as $200 up to thousands of dollars, with a short deadline before the files are permanently encrypted.

Cybersecurity experts warn these types of attacks will continue to increase in popularity, as many victims provide payment to the criminals.

A few years ago, it was unlikely you could find a top of the range PC build in your local computer store, likely having to purchase and install your AGP video cards and Athlon processors yourself - either the store wouldn't support the option or you didn't trust them to complete the task.

Looking at brick-and-mortar and online retail shops as of late, you'll begin to notice a massive trend toward 'gamer' PC's and overclocked systems. There are large retailers now who fully specialize in these kinds of builds, seeing companies like CyberPowerPC and iBuyPower reach massive popularity in the wider gaming market.

But what about the 'general' PC store retailer, or those looking to do a little more than just build and ship gaming products. Australian retailer MWave claims to the be biggest in the business and after a quick search around their website, I stumbled across their beast system simply titled as the "Mwave Intel OverClocked 10.1 Gaming PC."

Eight years is a really long time in the technology world, because around this time in 2007, Steve Jobs was unveiling Apple's first addition to the smartphone market and little did we know what it would amount to today.

With Samsung and BlackBerry running rampant in the smartphone community and with many users still using their trusty flip phones, Apple came in with a bang, instantly winning over millions of devout fanatics and birthing Apple fanboys - but at the same time providing a decent product at a respectable price point.

On January the 9th at MacWorld 2007, the late Jobs unveiled his first addition to the smartphone community - aiming to steal the thunder from CES 2007, he certainly did a good job. Teasing the release by claiming that Apple had produced a "widescreen iPod with touch controls" and a "breakthrough Internet communication device," Jobs produced a 3.5-inch touch-screen offering - set to rock the technology world.

Following our report on Daniel Woods and his amazingly simplistic Arctic Gold Parvum case build, we've stumbled across another beauty in the form of Max NB's Project Orange Horizon. This project was spotted on the Watercooled PC Facebook group.

Also utilizing a Parvum case, this modded system has set him back around $3,700 in total and must be seen in its entirety to be appreciated properly. Including SLI-GTX 780 Ti Superclocked video cards, an Intel Core i5 4690K Unlocked Quad Core and a handy 500GB Samsung 840 Evo series SSD, Max has made sure his stunning system also packs a powerful punch for any gaming he may want to take place.

What's even more impressive is the list of water cooling components on display, exceeding $800 in retail value. We understand that not all of our readers are watercooling experts (nor am I), but the sheer length of this list should at least impress you - even if you have no idea what's going on. Let's just say that he's put many hours and a lot of elbow grease into building and maintaining this beast.