Latest News - Page 2767

Samsung has confirmed that its upcoming Galaxy S6 will have 4GB of RAM, which should make it the first Android smartphone released to feature as much RAM as some PCs come with.

It makes sense, as the company only just announced that it is working on 8Gb LPDDR4 mobile DRAM, which is perfect for flagship handsets like the Galaxy S6. The upcoming RAM in the Galaxy S6 will be capable of supporting continuous shooting of 20-megapixel or higher images, as well as 4K video recording and playback. The new RAM is expected to have twice the bandwidth than its predecessor did.

LPDDR4 is also incredibly power efficient, as it only draws 1.1V which is considerably lower than current low-power memory in smartphones and tablets. We should expect battery life to go up with LPDDR4-powered devices.

It looks like we're seeing the beginnings of SAPPHIRE's new GPU, which is going under the guise of 'Project NFC.' What is Project NFC? Well, NFC stands for Not From Concentrate, which is a term used in the food industry for when water hasn't been extracted from the juice of a fruit. In SAPPHIRE's tease, it is more of a pure and unaltered version, which could be a liquid cooled video card - exciting.

The company hasn't coming out and said that Project NFC is an actual liquid cooled AMD card, but SAPPHIRE did hint at it on its video on YouTube. We have possible drawings of a GPU block, and water vapor as you can see below.

The next question is, is this the Radeon R9 380X? Or would SAPPHIRE liquid cool one of its existing cards? Whatever happens, it's SAPPHIRE: which means we know it's going to be good, very good.

Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton has received a letter from Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat of the US House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, asking the besieged company to turn over information regarding its catastrophic data breach. There has been an increased number of cyberattacks targeting US government infrastructure, and it has been difficult to collectively learn from these incidents.

The US government, which is learning valuable lessons regarding proper cybersecurity efforts, wants to use Sony's "knowledge, information and experience" to determine what types of new cybersecurity laws - and general practice steps - that can be used to help better defend consumer and government data.

"The increasing number and sophistication of cyberattacks on both public and private entities pose a clear and present danger to our national security and highlight the urgent need for greater collaboration to improve data security," Cummins wrote in his letter.

DARPA wants companies to submit plans for military unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that can be used as part of the Fast Lightweight Autonomy (FLA) program. The FLA program wants to make it possible for small UAVs to be agile and navigate urban warfare environments, such as rooms, corridors, stairways, and other tight areas before ground troops begin their operation.

The drones should be able to travel up to 45 m.p.h., and be nimble enough to fit through an open window, without the need of GPS waypoints. DARPA hopes the algorithms will allow for UAV enhancements so troops can conduct unmanned surveillance to identify ambush points, traps, and other potential threats while out in the field.

"Birds of prey and flying insects exhibit the kinds of capabilities we want for small UAVs," said Mark Micire, DARPA program manager, in a statement published by Phys.org. "Goshawks, for example, can fly very fast through a dense forest without smacking into a tree. Many insects, too, can dart and hover with incredible speed and precision. The goal of the FLA program is to explore non-traditional perception and autonomy methods that would give small UAVs the capacity to perform in a similar way, including an ability to easily navigate tight spaces at high speed and quickly recognize if it had already been in a room before."

Sony Pictures will release "The Interview" in any theater willing to show it, starting on Christmas Day, reversing its decision to pull the movie. The company also plans to release the movie digitally, but Sony hasn't offered additional details on how interested viewers will be able to watch the film.

"We have never given up on releasing 'The Interview' and we're excited our movie will be in a number of theaters on Christmas Day," said Michael Lynton, Sony Pictures CEO, in a press statement. "At the same time, we are continuing our efforts to secure more platforms and more theaters so that this movie reaches the largest possible audience."

Here is what Seth Rogen said (via Twitter): "The people have spoken! Freedom has prevailed! Sony didn't give up! The Interview will be shown at theaters willing to play it on Xmas day!"

The market for wearable police body cameras is rising because of national interest, and investors expect Taser International to benefit from an "outperform" rating - as the company known for nonlethal weapons will benefit from interest in body cameras. Half of the US domestic police force currently use Taser's stun guns, and analysts believe wearable body cameras could outperform that number in the next few years.

"In a time where even the most minute news stories of excessive police force have the ability to instantly go viral, pressure will mount on police departments to provide video evidence that qualifies actions," noted an Oppenheimer report. "TASR shares surged 30 percent following the shooting in August of unarmed teen Michael Brown, and the lack of crime scene documentation."

The company's shares closed at $23.98 on Friday, and are currently trading at $25.96 - closing in on the Oppenheimer target price of $28.

The North Korean internet failures have generated a massive amount of international press coverage. One would expect this to be the work of a sophisticated group of hackers, possibly even with the funding of the United States, or other governments wishing to stem the tide of North Korean hackers. Turns out, a 12 year old kid can likely do it. North Korea only has 1,024 IP addresses for the entire country, compared to the 1.5 Billion IP addresses in the United States.

There are potentially thousands of computers behind each IP address, but the odds of that are very unlikely. Sanctions and embargoes have severely limited access to computers. Researchers monitoring the North Korean internet have detected a few PlayStations and Xboxes on the network, and one solitary MacBook has been detected....in the entire country. The North Korean agency responsible for hacking is likely contained behind only a few IP addresses, so isolating and monitoring them shouldn't be too taxing for a heavyweight like the NSA. North Korean citizens have very limited access to the internet, which is reserved for government officials, foreign ambassadors, and relief agencies.

North Korean internet connections are routed through China and have the bandwidth equivalent of roughly 1,000 U.S. households with high-speed internet. There is access to a heavily censored and government controlled public internet called the Kwangmyong, but considering the economic malaise there can't be many accessing it, and censoring can't be a very big task. North Korea has one of the smallest internet presences in the world, and there are only roughly 5,500 websites with virtually no outside access for the general public. The recent blackouts could have even been the work of the North Korean government to block retaliatory attacks, but like just about anything that happens in the shadowy regime, we will never know.

Back in March we heard about a fanless, thinner MacBook Air and then again in September we heard about a new Retina MacBook Air that would be fanless, and thinner.

Now, we're hearing about a new 12-inch MacBook Air that is expected to shift into mass production in 2015, and should launch toward the middle of the year. According to DigiTimes' supply chain sources, the new 12-inch MBA will feature Intel's new Broadwell processor, with units of the new MacBook Air to be in extremely limited supply with yield issues being a problem.

Apple has been rumored to adopt a new form factor that would sport a buttonless trackpad, and passively cooled internals. Intel's new Core M processor will help that along, as they just launched last month. We should see Apple launch a new Silver, Gold and Space Gray MacBook Air in the New Year.

In the mood for something heavy? Well the new debut record by Teenage Time Killer is set to feature legends of music including current and former members of large-name bands such as Black Flag, Minor Threat, Lamb of God, Queens of the Stone Age and more.

This super-group was put together by the members of Corrosion of Conformity and they've just secured a deal with Rise Records. This hot release has been confirmed to further feature a plethora of heavy-hitting names including Corey Taylor from Slipknot and Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters.

They'll be joined by various members from other big bands, chiming in to help out by picking up some drumsticks or a lead-guitarist pick or two. The first leak for this album was seen on Facebook in October, seeing a minute-long video posted depicting Teenage Time Killer recording a song featuring the guitarist from Bad Religion, Dag Nasty and Minor Threat fame among other big names.

Most people might have forgotten about STALKER, as it was one of the most interesting and different games of its time, long before Skyrim came in and scooped up the title of 'most awesome RPG ever' title. Well, GSC Gameworld, the original developers of STALKER, are back and teasing their latest secret project.

Valentine Yeltyshev who was part of the original GSC Gameworld crew and now the "spokesperson for the studio's return" has said "The market we're in is quite old fashioned. They're not 16 year olds, they're 25-40 years old. We don't think free-to-play is the right model for the game we want to make. So we're making an old-fashioned, full price game, we think our audience will be happy about that. We're expecting a lot of our old audience!"

He talked with Gamesindustry.biz, spilling the beans on GSC Gameworld's closure back in 2011, to the fact that West Games is trying to fund a successor to STALKER through Kickstarter. Talking about West Games' title, he said "I don't really know enough about them, but the story is quite funny. These guys were basically promoting themselves as being the STALKER team, that they were working on STALKER, but that's not true. When we were working on STALKER 2, we were also planning on releasing a browser game based on STALKER so we could keep the audience engaged until released." He continued, saying "That project was never finished. There were mistakes. But the guys at West Games, that was the STALKER project they were working on - a Flash game. So when they promoted themselves as having worked on STALKER, I was quite surprised."

On Monday morning, another clue was posted on Pottermore, which allowed users to unlock new writing from the famous Harry Potter Author J.K. Rowling - the subject of this writing was one of Harry Potters biggest pains, the infamous Dracco Malfoy.

This new piece of writing was a scene in which depicted Dumbledore's death, with a separate focus now on Malfoy himself. This story involves a look into Malfoy's childhood and his marriage to the pureblood Astoria Greengrass from Slytherin. Greengrass was explained as a disappointment to the seniors of the Malfoy family as she chose not to despise 'Muggles' and raised her children with this in mind.

The story touches on cruelty conducted by Draco's father alongside painting the picture for some extraordinary inhumane tasks completed by other Death Eaters. Rowling herself explained that she's surprised of many people's love for Draco, she set out to explain to these devout fans exactly how cruel and dark he really is. There was even rumors that Draco would end up as a close friend of Harry - given this new story development, that possibility has now been thrown straight out the window.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas over at Google, with the Mountain View-based search giant unveiling its first real build of its upcoming self-driving car, which will hit the roads of California next year.

The company has shown off previous builds of its self-driving car, but they weren't exactly production models. They were early mockups at best, with no real headlights - stickers in their place - and a huge exposed sensor on the roof. There are many more prototypes now, each testing out various functions of the self-driving car, with a more refined, real, and functional feel.

Google has said that it plans to put the car through various tests during the holiday season, and have it on the roads of Northern California in the New Year. This isn't the final product yet, as the company will continue to tinker and tinker until it gets it right.

We recently reported on the Skyrim mod that basically adds a whole new world to the already-expansive game - it's basically a game within a game. Well in further news for the title that never stops growing, modders have taken, 'cleaned' and re-added just about everything that's in Skyrim to make a massive fan-made update.

Featuring improved lighting, bug fixes, updated models and new characters, this update gives you an incredible list of 4K textures and brand-new missions added to the ageing game. Now, we call it ageing due to it's release date (can you believe this thing came out in 2011!) however the never-ending mods, updates and add-ons being thrown into the mix by various fans will seemingly make Skyrim last forever.

This update was designed by ENBSeries members, showcasing screenshots of their latest addition featuring their impressive new high-resolution textures. This combined with ENBSeries Configs have seen Skyrim with a whole new lease on life. This isn't some dodgy back-alley botox job, it's a full blown makeover.

Whilst the internet is fixated on pouring over all the leaks and behind the scenes snippets from production of 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens', a fascinating, previously unreleased nugget from the production of the original 'Star Wars', later re-titled 'A New Hope' has just been put online.

The 6 minute, silent video features series creator and director George Lucas giving direction to stars Mark Hamill and Garrick Hagon for a scene set on on the desert planet Tatooine which was ultimately deleted from the final cut and which was officially released on the 1998 'Behind the Magic' CD-ROM and later again on the 2011 Blu-ray edition.

It's fascinating that despite being filmed 38 years ago and with scant behind the scenes video shot, that gems like this can still be unearthed.

LG are looking to show off a full new series of gear at the upcoming world-class technology exhibition, CES 2015. Their new range of Wi-Fi units will be out in force - including products such as speakers, Sound Bars and Blu-ray players.

Their first foray into the battery-powered Wi-Fi speaker market will be displayed, seeing their Model H4 Portable speaker being showcased, alongside their HS7 and HS9 Sound Bars and an interesting wireless Blu-ray player called the BP550. All of the speakers on display have been announced as compatible with both Android and iOS devices.

These new LG units will be able to connect to one another wireless or work independently, meaning you can setup a wide network of speakers across your house, room or establishment without the need for wiring. As their H4 potable is battery powered, this is great for setups in public areas and small gatherings of friends as you can simply pick them up when you leave.

Bungie has released some end of the year numbers for Destiny, showing off just how many gamers have pumped countless hours into the console exclusive. The developer has said "Staggering statistics aside. Destiny is more than a game of numbers. it's a world made of people... It's the human stories that lodge in our void-stained memories."

Over the course of its launch, nearly 13 million players have played Destiny, for a total of 22.9 million guardians. When it comes to in-game time, Destiny gamers have spent an insane 875 million hours playing the game, a number that translates to 99,523 years. The developer has released some other bullet-pointed numbers, too:

As according to their newly issued press release, Samsung announced today that mass production has begun for the industry's first 8 gigabit low power double data rate 4 (LPDDR4) mobile DRAM.

This technology is claimed to be based on their 20-nm process technology, stating that LPDDR memory is generally used as 'working memory' for mobile devices around the globe.

Samsung's Executive Vice President of Memory Sales and Marketing is excited given this news, comenting that "by initiating production of 20nm 8Gb LPDDR4, which is even faster than the DRAM for PCs and servers and consumes much less energy, we are contributing to the timely launch of UHD, large-screen flagship mobile devices," further adding "as this major advancement in mobile memory demonstrates, we will continue to closely collaborate with global mobile device manufacturers to optimize DRAM solutions, making them suitable for next-generation mobile OS environments."

Seagate has teased that it is working on a 10TB HDD for release next year, revealing the news that it will be using shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology to get the 10TB HDD into the market in 2015.

The company also hopes to use heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology going into the future, after it uses SMR for its 10TB HDD. The storage giant revealed the massive news with Akiba PC Hotline during its latest interview, stating that it's possible to hide some of SMR's drawbacks by installing large DRAM caches on the HDD. Unfortunately, the upcoming 10TB HDD is not going to break speed records, with the SMR technology - and other factors - holding it back.

We can expect Seagate's upcoming 10TB drive will feature six 1.66TB SMR platters when it launches sometime next year.

As CES Las Vegas draws ever closer, we're receiving more and more news of companies making the trek over to the party capital to show off their fancy new technology to all.

Located in the South hall 4, Super Talent will be showcasing their new next generation of DDR4 DRAM, SSD's and USB 3.0 flash drives at this massive event. Their booth will be fitted out with technology experts aiming to provide the best information possible to all who attend.

Have you been caught up in the DDR4 hype-train yet? Offering higher data rates with lower power consumption, alonside the potential for increased mobile density they're certainly the tech of the future. Whether you check out Super Talent or not, we suggest you take a look at DDR4 either way.

Often seen sitting in the headlines due to their amazingly priced self-branded offerings, Kogan hits the market hard yet again with a crazy-priced 24" 144hz gaming monitor coming in at only $199 AU.

According to some user reviews, Kogan's self-branded products can be a little hit and miss. There are reports of some products being a little too cheap in design and feel, but I'm sure that's exactly what you'd expect from a monitor that's around half the price in Australia from competitors BenQ and ASUS.

Featuring a 144hz refresh rate and a 2ms response time, this 1080p HD monitor is also pre-installed with Kogan's Pro-Eye technology. This feature claims to help you play for extended periods by adjusting the screen brightness depending on the intensity of lighting within your room, helping minimize eye strain and fatigue and maintain focus.