Latest News - Page 2749

Twitter is planning to roll out their native video feature in just a few short weeks, reports claim. This service is said to not be a competitor to YouTube, but to help promote a positive experience for users and keep them coming back to the social media platform - don't forget that Twitter own Vine, so this is certainly possible.

Rumors claim that 20 seconds is the possible video length to be available, which is a vast improvement on Vine's six seconds or the fact that every other Twitter-linked video would have to have been from an alternative source. However this 20-second limit isn't set in stone, Twitter are reportedly going to be 'testing the waters' over the next few weeks, months or years.

This feature will be coming to the browser and the app versions, seeing users gain the ability to record their video through the app itself or upload any pre-existing clip.

General Motors teased us in late 2014 with a 200-mile range electric car, with media outlets reporting that it was going to be something similar to the Chevrolet Sonic - a car which saw its debut in 2011.

The Wall Street Journal has unleashed information on GM's new market offering - the Chevrolet Bolt, pinned for a 2017 release. The report outlines that this car is styled to look like a crossover and the concept will be featured this coming Monday at the Detroit Auto Show.

Claimed to be released to the public for only $30,000, it's not clear if this price is inclusive or excluding the $7,500 federal tax credit. Comparing the Spark to the Bolt, its older brother only costs $26,820 excluding the tax, meaning that if GM are releasing their Bolt for $30,000 including tax - you're getting double the range for only $3,000 more.

On the publicity trail for 'Taken 3', Liam Neeson, who played the lead role in 1999's 'Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace' says he'd be keen to reprise his role as venerable Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn, despite the character dying in the film's final battle with the evil Darth Maul.

When asked by Yahoo! News if he would like to return to the role he answered "Yeah, I'd say so. Yeah, that would be terrific." before continuing "I certainly loved shooting the prequel but that was many years ago now". However, Neeson famously (and briefly) quit acting in 1999, with many attributing his outburst to the process of filming predominantly against green screens.

Despite his death, Qui-Gon became the first Jedi to return from the "netherworld of the Force" and teaches the Jedi how to retain one's consciousness after death, which Obi-Wan uses to train Luke Skywalker in 'A New Hope' - so his return wouldn't be without precedent.

Instead of rushing Battlefield Hardline out as scheduled on October 21, Electronic Arts and Visceral Games decided to take their time and ensure a pleasant gamer experience at launch. The new cops-and-robbers style video game will be released on March 17, providing even more details and features to be added to the game.

"We got some pretty pointed feedback after our early beta that you wanted more," said Steve Papoutsis, executive producer and GM of Visceral Games, in a statement to fans. "And we listened. There's no doubt moving the game back was the right call."

When the game is released, there will be 51 weapons, 27 new vehicles, 28 gadgets, nine maps and seven modes immediately available - and EA is preparing to release new game details and in-play trailers every Wednesday.

There's been a bit of talk over the past couple of years that people are getting annoyed with the advertising and intrusive spying that Facebook has been reported on by various news outlets, with many user claiming to ditch this social media platform for good - looking to utilize other media entities or simply put down their smartphone.

In a recent data analysis released by Pew Internet, 58 percent of American adults are still on board with Facebook - with their closest competitor, Linked In, sitting at 23 percent and Pintrest bringing up third place at 22 percent.

Even more surprising is the fact that both Twitter and Instagram don't make the top three placements. With Instagram ranking fourth at 21 percent and Twitter straggling in fifth place, with 19 percent. All of these results are, once again, only of the adult population - meaning 18 years and older.

It looks like Elite: Dangerous is doing quite well, with Frontier Developments making some nice revenue on the just-released space game. While it's doing well, their expectations for 2016 and beyond see the developer making some serious dosh.

The company made an announcement last week outlining the success of the game, with $26.1 million in revenue from 300,000 sales. The developer had a few possible scenarios for its sales, but they could be revised, the developer explains "Since late 2013 the Group has been using three scenarios to model performance of the game, created based on the growth of other non-subscription online games in their first three years, a "base" scenario, a "mid" scenario, and a "bull" scenario ... In terms of revenue Elite: Dangerous is tracking above the "bull" scenario; and on units sold, between the "mid" and "bull" scenarios."

Elite: Dangerous is coming to OS X, but it could arrive on Linux too - and hopefully Steam OS. As for profits, we can see that the developer is hoping to sell 30 million units in 2017, securing itself a huge $453 million.

The Anonymous hacker collective has publicly launched a campaign against Islamic extremists tied to the attacks on Charlie Hebdo, which has killed 12 people. The group plans to target al-Qaeda, ISIS and other terrorists, with a focus on bringing down their social media accounts and websites used to spread propaganda.

"We, Anonymous around the world, have decided to declare war on you the terrorists," the group declared in a YouTube video. "We intend to take revenge in their name, we are going to survey your activities on the net, we are going to shut down your accounts on all social networks."

#OpCharlieHebdo has already claimed one victim, though the victimized website returned to service after an hour or two of downtime. However, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and other cyberattacks are expected to target the terrorist groups operating in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere in the Middle East.

CES 2015 - Steiger Dynamics has just taken off the wraps of its impressive new LEET Studio and LEET Pro PCs, both of which are workstation versions of their award-winning LEET Living Room PC.

The two new PCs can be configured with the full range of Intel's Core processors, right up to the Xeon processor with up to 18 cores. There can be triple workstation-class AMD FirePro or NVIDIA Quadro GPUs installed, super-fast SSDs, and ECC memory. This brings Steiger Dynamics machines up to the quality, specifications and style of Apple's popular Mac Pro range.

Steiger Dynamics are pricing their LEET Studio and LEET Pro Pcs from $1999 and $2999 respectively, and are available starting January 6.

CES 2015 - Steiger Dynamics has announced its latest Era home theater PC lineup, with the latest addition joining its growing line of custom-made HTPCs. Inside of the new Era SFF PC we have some serious power, something that includes a Blu-ray player in its small footprint.

The new Era PC features Intel's latest processors, an SSD, DDR3 RAM, and more. We have up to 6TB of storage inside of the Era PC, 4K support, Blu-ray playback in Dolby TrueHD, and more. We also have support for the use of wired controls through the use of your smartphone, tablet, touchpad, mouse and keyboard, or even an Xbox controllers.

Steiger Dynamics' new Era PC starts from $899 and is available right now.

The North Korean Bureau 121 cyber warfare unit has continued to recruit new computer experts to its unit, with potential long-term plans of conducting wide-scale cyberespionage operations. Despite additional sanctions levied against Pyongyang, it hasn't slowed momentum of the secretive cyber unit.

"North Korea is currently running its 6,000 (-member) workforce for cyber warfare and performing cyberattacks for physical and psychological paralysis inside South Korea such as causing troubles for military operations and national infrastructures," said the South Korean Defense Ministry, in a statement published by Reuters.

The North Korean government has denied it was involved in breaching Sony Pictures Entertainment - but details of its hacker group continue to be published. Bureau 121 has been blamed for several notable breaches targeting South Korean banks and other infrastructure, with the unit's skills reportedly developing.

CES 2015 - IN WIN is a company that has been impressing us more and more, but it hit a peak when we saw their S-Frame chassis at Computex 2014 back in June.

The IN WIN S-Frame is made fro ma single 4mm thick sheet of aluminum that is bent very specifically, and very beautifully into its final form. IN WIN were showing the chassis off at Computex, as well as the new S-Box.

The new IN WIN S-Box is a full-tower chassis, which features support for up to E-ATX motherboards, big CPU heat sinks and water cooling setups, and so much more.

Car maker Nissan and the NASA space agency have signed a five-year research and develop partnership, which will boost autonomous vehicle research. Nissan has already tested its autonomous vehicles in urban environments, with the car designed to deal with other vehicles, construction, pedestrians, cyclists, and other common scenarios.

Specifically, there is interest in developing software algorithms, concepts and integrated prototypes of self-driving autonomous vehicles - giving Nissan a much-needed boost in the surging market, while NASA hopes to implement breakthroughs into its space research.

"All of our potential topics of research collaboration with Nissan are areas in which Ames has strongly contributed to major NASA programs," said Pete Worden, director of AMES. "Ames developed Mars rover planning software, robots onboard the International Space Station (ISS) and next-generation air traffic management systems to name a few. We look forward to applying knowledge developed during this partnership toward future space and aeronautics endeavors."

Based on its success during cybersecurity-based competitions, the University of Central Florida (UCF) has won the 2014 Collegiate Cybersecurity Championship Cup.

"The Cybersecurity Championship Cup program is designed to encourage collegiate participation in all cybersecurity-based competitions - not just specific events," said Dr. Gregory White, Director of the Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security. "The program is similar to the FedEx or Sprint Cups - teams gain points for participation in placement in disparate cybersecurity competitions."

The cup competition is supported by a grant from the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Director Cyber Security Division, and is managed by the Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security at the University of Texas at San Antonio. There is a growing need for cybersecurity specialists - both by the private sector and the federal government - as foreign cyberattacks continute to warrant great concern.

Apple iPhone users separated from their smartphone can suffer from "physiological anxiety" and "poor cognitive performance," according to "The Extended iSelf: The Impact of iPhone Separation on Cognition, Emotion, and Physiology" study, published by the University of Missouri.

The researchers first tasked survey participants to sit down and complete a puzzle while near their smartphone, and then had to take a second survey with their phone in a different part of the room. However, researchers called the phone, with participants able to see their iPhone and could hear it ring - but couldn't answer the phone.

Participants had increased heart rate and blood pressure while trying to complete the puzzle in the second scenario. Researchers recommend iPhone users keep their smartphones nearby when completely tasks that involve significant attention, so no anxiety occurs.

The Red Star operating system made in North Korea, a sloppy clone of Apple Mac OS X, was leaked online - and it didn't take long before vulnerabilities were discovered in the modified Linux operating system. The North Korean-made OS allows backdoors for remote command injection into both the PC and server OS editions, along with weak file permissions.

It's possible the North Korean government aimed towards spying on its users - or the OS coders are just inexperienced - but western security experts are analyzing methods to compromise Red Star-based PCs.

"The security of the Red Star OS inherits advantages from using peer-reviewed Linux platforms as a base but everything added or extended by North Korea that I looked at shows a low security proficiency and a lack of good programming practices," said Matthew Hickey, a cybersecurity researcher in the UK, in an interview with Forbes. "They use insecure functions as opposed to secure ones and often make mistakes that could result in security vulnerabilities."

Sony Pictures is still dealing with the aftermath of its data breach originally suffered seven weeks ago, and it has been a major headache. However, the incident will be covered by SPE's insurance, and likely won't require the company to endure additional cost-cutting measures, according to SPE CEO Michael Lynton.

"I would say the cost is far less than anything anybody is imaging and certainly shouldn't be anything that is disruptive to our budget," Lynton recently told Reuters.

The financial cost related to post-breach cleanup may be covered, but Sony Pictures must now work on its public relations image. Employee morale is reportedly high, and payroll has been managed, but leaked email conversations between SPE executives embarrassed the company. It will take time and effort, but Lynton acknowledge rebuilding trust with company employees and Hollywood partners already is being worked on.

RZA started working with Boombotix back in mid-2014, announcing to the public that he wanted to make something a little more special than most, stating "I just had a bigger idea than sticking my logo on something. I thought we could make this great product a little greater" in an interview with Gizmodo. His idea is apparently to feature exclusive music along with the device.

RZA has already released a collaboration item with Boombotix, which was received to high critic acclaim. The next product to come out will be the gold hexagon and it's currently in a prototype form. said to work as a music player alongside a speaker platform - Boombotix claim that you can load music of your own onto the device.

RZA and Boombotix look to do more than the general old advertising campaigns as seen through most celebrity collaborations in this day and age. Imagine if you could get an exclusive sneak peak into Wu-Tang's new album just by purchasing their speaker? That would certainly be different and pretty cool.

For over ten years, Microsoft has run an advance notification service (ANS), notifying customers what is to be expected of their monthly security update, allowing for IT teams to prepare their systems and prioritize what needs to be installed in which order.

In a recent announcement by Microsoft's Chris Betz from their security response center (MSRC), this company is focusing on 'optimizing' the notices for their biggest customers only, no longer providing them for free to all.

Betz commented in the MSRC blog that "moving forward, we will provide ANS information directly to Premier customers and current organizations involved in our security programs, and will no longer make this information broadly available through a blog post and web page." He went on to mention that "more and more customers today are seeking to cut through the clutter and obtain security information tailored to their organizations. Rather than using ANS to help plan security update deployments, customers are increasingly turning to Microsoft Update and security update management tools such as Windows Server Update Service to help organize and prioritize deployment. Customers are also moving to cloud-based systems, which provide continuous updating."

Ministry of Gaming (MoG) are running yet another massive 'Pubstomp' located at the famous Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia.

This craze started off with StarCraft II's massive popularity in 2011 - hundreds of nerds would pack out various pubs and bars to huddle around TV's and projectors and watch their favorite players go at it in tournament grand finals for massive wads of cash. Here in little old Australia we saw the biggest live viewing events as seen globally - with Silicon Sports in Melbourne often capping 300+ attendee's and the Sydney crews having to hire out two whole bars just to fit their 600+ spectators inside.

Now that Dota 2 has become a massive success globally, we've seen a transition to massive Pubstomp events being held at world-class establishments become the norm. During The International 2014 global finals, MoG ran a 450+ person pubstomp in Crown's Largerfield room, which is generally reserved for 'real life' sporting viewership and finals.

As you may well be aware, we're starting to cover more modded PC's here at TweakTown - so please, if you have something cool you want to share, feel free to send us a message or email me directly at chrissmith@tweaktown.com.

Dan Woods is a well-known Australian Modder and PC builder, he's worked with Stuart Tonks from GGF LAN in the past on things like PAX Australia 2014 builds and more. But we're going to now shine the spotlight on him, by showing off his awesome 'ARCTIC GOLD' fully-custom PC build.

Featuring his own spray painting techniques, this Parvum case includes full rigid tubing for his water cooling loops, an ASUS Radeon R9 290 DirectCU II video card and 100 percent custom sleeving on the cables - making for a totally beautiful white and gold color scheme.