Latest News - Page 2771

There have been a few videos floating around the Internet comparing Techland's upcoming zombie survival shooter, with claims that Dying Light has been graphically downgraded. We've seen it before with Ubisoft's titles, such as Watch Dogs and The Division, but now the claims of Dying Light have PC gamers in a fit, and rightly so.

Techland's Paul Milewski spoke with GamingBolt, where he said "If you compare the 2103 footage to any of the material released lately, you can clearly see major improvements. Downgraded? Not a chance. Just look at the latest interactive footage released by us a couple of days ago." Milewski added "Also, consider that most of the recent media and YouTuber gameplay that's out there is all on PCs that we have no idea what's in them. And yet they all look better compared to the 2013 promo material which was recorded on a high-end PC at the time."

Dying Light hits the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC next month.

An undercover BBC investigation revealed ongoing poor working conditions of employees inside of factories manufacturing Apple products. At a Pegatron factory manufacturing iPhone 6 smartphones, there were routinely broken guidelines, with workers' hours, dormitories, work meetings, juvenile workers and ID cars being breached in day-to-day operations.

Not surprisingly, Apple "strongly disagreed" with conclusions from the investigations - despite video showing employees falling asleep during 12-hour shifts. One employee worked 18 consecutive days, despite previously asking for a day off. A different worker had to work a 16-hour shift and said that he or she wouldn't want to move, and just wanted to lie down and rest: "I was unable to sleep at night because of the stress."

Here is what Apple noted in a statement: "Worker safety and well-being are our top priorities. We set very high standards, conduct rigorous training for managers and workers, and have external auditors regularly visiting our facilities to find areas for improvement."

Alert Logic has recently informed the public of a "grinch" Linux vulnerability, but according to Red Hat - it's a perfectly normal thing.

The official reply noted that "this report incorrectly classifies expected behavior as a security issue," through a Red Hat Bulletin released on Wednesday just one day after the report being made public. This was in response to Alert Logic claiming that this Grinch issue may be as large as the previously seen Heartbleed bug, noting that they believe it is a serious design flaw in how Linux handles user permissions.

The flaw is said to enable hackers the ability to gain root access to machines, with Alert Logic further claiming that this Grinch can be exploited through third-party Linux software framework such as Policy Kit. This Red Hat self-made software is listed as an open-source program, and set in place to allow users to install software easily - something that requires root access. If the hackers can take this program over for their own use, that's where much if the problem lies. However Linux doesn't think this is an issue, claiming that root access is how these programs are designed to work.

Poor economy got you down? Well, you can always just cook up some crystal meth. Reality is stranger than fiction, and that trend continues with the news that North Korea is manufacturing crystal meth in industrial facilities. This isn't your garden variety crystal meth either, according to the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. US officials have verified that the meth, which landed in the US cities of New York and Boston, tests at 96-98% purity. That's a benchmark even the characters on Breaking Bad would consider impressive.

North Korea is no stranger to resorting to illegal activities to cover budgetary shortfalls. Kim Jong-un inherited this illicit lineage from his forefathers, who began dabbling in international crime in the 1970's. During the 1990's a famine engulfed the reclusive country, and over a million people died. During the famine North Korea turned their attention to growing opium, instead of the staples that might have saved innumerable lives. The rationale was that opium could generate far more money for the beleaguered regime, which at the time had just began a round of tough sanctions.

The transition to crystal meth began as the popularity of the drug increased in the international market in the 2000's. North Korean crystal meth has been found in China, Japan, and the US. The drugs are distributed through organized crime syndicates, but apparently North Korean officials have no issue with delivering the goods themselves. Several of their ambassadors have been expelled from host countries due to smuggling activities.

PMC-Sierra has joined the OpenPOWER Foundation, which is dedicated to developing advanced server, networking, storage and acceleration technology, along with open source software. The open source movement is radically altering the design of hyperscale and cloud data centers by providing more efficiency at lower cost.

The OpenPOWER group makes POWER hardware and software available to open development for the first time, as well as making POWER intellectual property licensable to others, greatly expanding the ecosystem of innovators on the platform. PMC will leverage their deep knowledge of SAS and NVMe controllers to help develop new I/O interfaces by sponsoring a new I/O workgroup, along with IBM, Emulex, QLogic and Mellanox.

"Participating in the I/O workgroup with IBM and integrating our products into the OpenPOWER platform ensures that our customers have access to the latest cloud and big data storage technology," said Kurt Chan, vice president of storage technology and strategy for PMC's Enterprise Storage Division. "As a market leader in SAS and NVMe controllers, working with the industry to define new I/O interfaces and being at the forefront of new developments enables PMC to deliver the most advanced products for open architectures."

Valve has just kickstarted its annual Steam Holiday Sale, which will run all the way through to January 2, 2015. There are countless games on sale, all of which will change every 12 hours.

Right now, the current sales include:

There are many more games on sale, so go and check them all out!

Crossbar has recently made some encouraging gains in the path to commercializing 3D RRAM by 2016. 3D Resistive RAM (RRAM) promises to break the barriers associated with the reduced endurance of NAND as the lithography shrinks. While the best-in-class SLC NAND can pull off 100,000 write-erase cycles, 3D RRAM can deliver an exponential gain to a mind-boggling 100 million write cycles. 3D RRAM is also denser, up to 10X per chip compared to NAND, and provides speeds up to 20 times that of flash. As an added bonus, it draws less power. Seems to be too good to be true, right? Basically unlimited endurance, faster performance, lower power consumption, and it's all wrapped up in one amazingly dense 1TB chip the size of a postage stamp? Providing a product with the performance of RAM, but the persistence of NAND, is the Holy Grail. But is it feasible?

Crossbar believes they are on the cusp of delivering this almost too good to be true product. Crossbar outlined some of the latest advancements at the 2014 International Electron Devices Meeting. Crossbar has patented their Field Assisted Superlinear Threshold Selector, which overcomes the limitations of a sneak path current issue. Sneak path current disrupts the reading of data from RRAM's cells. By eliminating the problem Crossbar has made a huge breakthrough that will see wearable products entering the market in 2016, at least by their estimates, and SSDs roughly 18 months after. We would assume they mean late 2016.

Bringing a new memory technology to market is fraught with obstacles. Reliability comes first, but then there has to be a method of producing the product with decent yields on a cost-effective basis. Even the most promising of storage products isn't going to be successful if it cannot be productized at a reasonable cost. SSDs still fall to the venerable HDD in terms of cost-per-GB, even as prices continue to decline. Competing with NAND is going to be tough as RRAM comes out of the gate. NAND is a proven, mature, and refined technology that can deliver cost-competitive products. One positive aspect is that RRAM is completely compatible with standard manufacturing techniques employed in NAND fabrication, which should speed manufacturing and reduce initial product investments.

Toshiba has announced the release of their latest datacenter HDD, the 6TB MG04 series. The MG04 comes in SAS and SATA flavors and also touts a 30% increase in the sustained data rate. The models also feature Toshiba's persistent write cache technology. This technology persists data to the storage medium by utilizing the rotation of the disk platters during a power loss event to generate enough power to flush the data. This power loss protection technique lends another layer of protection for key business-critical storage systems.

The MG04 spins at 7,200 RPM to deliver nearline-class seek performance, and the increased storage density delivers 50% better power efficiency, on a watts-per-TB basis, than previous 4TB models. The drives use 4K native and 512e sector lengths, and models are available with ISE (Instant Secure Erase) functionality. The SAS drives also sport a 12Gb/s connection for compatibility with the latest hardware. The competition in the HDD arena is heating up as we move to denser HDD storage solutions, and the continued advances in HDD technology compliment Toshiba's vast flash-based product portfolio.

Toshiba currently had topped out at 5TB with the MG04 series, and the inclusion of the 6TB model places them on equal footing with their main competitors. The new drives will begin sampling to OEM customers in Q1 2015. For the latest competitive performance analysis of the datacenter HDD segment head to our HDD category in the IT/Datacenter section.

Intel may have been late to the smartphone game, but is quickly picking up allies to promote its mobile hardware. The company is working with Lenovo, a top-five ranked smartphone manufacturer, and the companies will have two new devices announced by the end of February 2015.

Intel will reportedly offer its 64-bit Atom CPU and LTE-Advanced modem chips for the devices, with one phone aimed for China - and the other mobile device will be available in emerging markets.

Even if these devices aren't going to be high-priced models available in the US, it's an important step forward for Intel. The company still isn't in the same neighborhood as Qualcomm when it comes to smartphones and tablets, but shows Intel is ready to fight for everything it can gain in 2015. The 4G system-on-a-chip platform from Intel, being promoted as SoFIA, indicates Intel's seriousness in providng a processor and modem together.

Due to gaps in the deployment policies produced by engineers, Microsoft's Azure cloud service was taken offline during a period of time throughout November 2014. This information has been discovered thanks to a detailed mea culpa analysis by Microsoft themselves.

Jason Zander, Azure team member, conducted a final root cause analysis (RCA) and published it recently, claiming that the engineers intended to push software changes to improve performance and reduce processor load of the services' front-end system. However an outage was caused, meaning customers being unable to connect to Azure's storage, virtual machine, website, Active Directory or management portal functions.

The coding succeeded well in improving performance in the testing phases, however the full roll-out was discovered to encounter two main issues. Usually Microsoft deploys these updates in waves, slowly increasing the updated infrastructures bit by bit rather than a full roll-out. However an engineer saw this update as a low risk exercise after a small testing phase and pushed it to everyone in one hit. Thanks to this blunder and subsequent outage, Microsoft are heavily enforcing staged deployments from now on.

ICANN employees have fallen victim to a suspected spear phishing cyberattack that began in late November 2014, the group confirmed in a blog post. The social engineering attack mimicked emails that closely resembled communications from its own domain and targeted ICANN employees. Unfortunately, the attack was successful and several ICANN staff members had their credentials compromised.

The compromised credentials were used to access ICANN's Centralized Zone Data System, providing criminals with access to names, postal addresses, email addresses, fax and phone numbers, usernames and passwords. The breach also hits the ICANN GAC Wiki, with only public information accessible to the cybercriminals.

Earlier in the year, ICANN boosted its cybersecurity, which the group said likely helped keep unauthorized access to a minimum from this attack.

Chinese mobile manufacturer Coolpad is building backdoors into high-end Google Android-powered smartphones, according to Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42. The "CoolReaper" backdoor has been found on a variety of ROMs that were downloaded by security researchers. Coolpad is the No. 6 largest smartphone manufacture in the world, No. 3 inside of China, so this is an extremely troubling development.

CoolReaper is able to download, install, or activate Android applications without needing owner consent or notification. It can also clear user data, uninstall applications, and disable system applications. Researchers also found that it can dial arbitrary phone numbers and send SMS or MMS messages from the phone.

"CoolReaper is the first malware we have seen that was built and operated by an Android manufacturer," according to the Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 blog. "The changes Coolpad made to the Android OS to hide the backdoor from users and anti-virus programs are unique and should make people think twice about the integrity of their mobile devices."

Major retailers, banks and start-ups are reportedly jumping on the Apple Pay mobile payment bandwagon, according to recent media reports. TD Bank, USAA, Commerce Bank, Barclaycard and SunTrust are financial institutions willing to test Apple Pay, while Staples, Albertsons and Winn-Dixie are retailers also interested.

"Retailers and payment companies see Apple Pay as the implementation that has the best chance at mass consumer adoption, which has eluded prior attempts," said Patrick Moorhead, president f Moor Insights & Strategies, in a statement to the New York Times. "They believe it will solve many of the problems they had before with electronic payments."

Apple keeps its numbers confidential, but it appears there is growing adoption among iPhone owners - Whole Foods says there have been more than 150,000 Apple Pay transactions in the past three months. Meanwhile, Apple Pay has accounted for 50 percent of McDonald's mobile payment transactions last month.

According to "AMD_Chris" on various forums, AMD is working on an impressive new feature dubbed "Dynamic Frame Rate Control". DFRC would allow gamers to put a lock on the total frame rate their video card can render, which can result in a huge amount of power savings.

The feature would most likely see AMD variably adjusting the clock speeds of the cards in order to hit the desired frame rate, such as 60FPS. It might sound like V-Sync, but it's nothing like it as DFRC stops your GPU from cranking things up internally to render 100FPS, when you're only receiving as much as your monitor can put out, which is 60Hz, or 60FPS most of the time.

DFRC will underclock your GPU once you hit 60FPS (or whatever frame rate you choose), allowing the card to not pull as much power from the wall. AMD_Chris says that "the power savings were mind blowing" and we would agree, if your card is rendering 120FPS+ in a more basic game and you've got DFRC set to 60FPS, the power savings would be fairly large. We can't wait to test this new feature, that's for sure - what about you?

Purch, a "leading content and commerce company" has announced it has acquired AnandTech for an undisclosed sum of money. Purch is the company that acquired Tom's Hardware all those years ago. AnandTech will reportedly remain "editorially independent" from the deal.

AnandTech's current editor-in-chief, Ryan Smith, said "AnandTech has grown by leaps and bounds over the past several years, but we were nearing what's possible as an independent company. The challenge has always been that there are very few players in the publishing space these days who value deep, high-quality content. We wanted a partner that understood our values, had a sound business model to ensure AnandTech's legacy would continue for years to come, and would allow us to grow and expand our readership without compromising the quality that made us who were are today. Purch provides all of these things. I am beyond excited about what we'll be able to do with their support."

Anand Shimpi, who now works for Apple and was the founder of AnandTech in 1997 when he was just 14 years old, said "AnandTech represents much of my life's work over the past 18 years. I am happy to see it end up with a partner committed to taking good care of the brand and its readers. I wouldn't have had it any other way."

Love it or hate it, the Call of Duty series still pulls massive numbers. According to a recently issued release, the latest game in this long-standing series has been named the top-selling console game of the year in America.

Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing announced that "to date, 2014 has been a series of number ones for Activision Publishing: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is the #1 top-selling game of the year, Skylanders is the #1 kids video game franchise of the year, and Destiny is the #1 top-selling new video game franchise of the year", with Hirshberg further commenting that "we are excited about how fans have responded to Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Destiny and Skylanders Trap Team, and have even more great new content in store in 2015."

According to NPD, Activision has won big throughout the 2014 calendar year - pulling numerous title wins and achievements including:

According to the latest rumors from various sources, Rockstar is working on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 2. The sequel to the popular GTA: San Andreas will be dropping on the PS4 and Xbox One sometime in 2015.

Rockstar reportedly "confirmed" that it was working on Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 2 at the PlayStation Experience event recently. According to the rumors, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 2 will take place in 1999, some seven years after the events in the original game. CJ will return as the protagonist, which will be voiced by Young Maylay once again.

Many have claimed the news is fake, which is why we're putting a very big 'rumor' stamp on this one. With the news of Online Heists coming to GTA V next year, and GTA V reaching the #pcmasterrace on January 27, 2015, the world of Grand Theft Auto seems to be truly opening up for 2015.

The Sony hacking scandal continues, with most US theaters pulling the Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy from screening when it launches next week. Now, US officials are reportedly set to blame North Korea for the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack, after identifying the rogue country as the point of origin.

The US government has said that North Korea was "centrally involved" even though the attack may have been launched from another origin. There's no exact word on what we should expect the US government to add here, but it's going to get very interesting. One thought: if North Korea is a backwards as the world thinks it is, this is a damn huge job for them to pull off on their own. Hacking one of the biggest companies in the world, leaving various three-letter authorities completely baffled on who did it for a while there.

All of this just makes me want to see the movie more, what about you?

NVIDIA has released a new beta driver in the form of the GeForce 347.09, with the company releasing it as a "Game Ready" driver for two big releases this week: Elite: Dangerous and Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes.

The former, Elite: Dangerous, is worth noting as it's the first time the company has released a new driver the concentrates on a crowdfunded game like this. Elite: Dangerous isn't some massive AAA title like Call of Duty or Battlefield, but to the fans, it is. It's great to see NVIDIA releasing a driver ready for Elite: Dangerous. MGS V: Ground Zeroes on the other hand, we have full support for it with NVIDIA explaining "ensures you'll have the best possible gaming experience for Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and Elite: Dangerous."

NVIDIA has also provided an application profile for Project CARS, as well as some new 3D Vision and 3D Compatibility Modes for various games, including Alien: Isolation, Far Cry 4 and Elite: Dangerous. If you want to download the new NVIDIA GeForce 347.09 Beta drivers, grab them right here.

Sony Pictures has blinked in the battle waged against the release of 'The Interview' and the company itself, announcing that the planned Christmas release of the film has been cancelled. In an official statement released just moments ago, Sony Pictures said:

No word yet on what this means for international markets, but its assumed that these will suffer the same fate.