Latest News - Page 2784

Just nine years ago Intel was sitting at 65nm CPUs, reaching 22nm just three years ago now. We've been enjoying 14nm CPUs since last year, but now it's time to move onto 10nm, 7nm and beyond.

Broadwell arrived as the Core M processor, but for the 14nm desktop CPUs, we will be waiting until sometime in 2015. After the 14nm-based desktop Broadwell processors arrive, we have to look forward to 10nm sometime late next year or possibly 2016, while 7nm is planned for 2017 or so. The 10nm node is going to be an interesting transition, as the semiconductor industry will have to upgrade to EUVL technology.

While Intel edges closer to 14nm on the desktop, with 10nm now in its sights, what about AMD? AMD are currently using the 28nm process, which will be used throughout most of 2015, as they rely on fabrication plants like GlobalFoundries and TSMC do to their bidding. Intel could Tick-Tock ahead a few notches in that time, that's for sure.

To celebrate this week's release of Luc Besson's 'Lucy' on Blu-ray HD and DVD, we have ten copies of the Blu-ray to give away to readers.

Opening in atmospheric and bustling Taipei, Scarlett Johansson stars as Lucy, a clueless young American student with a shady boyfriend (Pilou Asbæk). Reluctantly tricked into delivering a briefcase to an inner-city hotel, she is kidnapped by Taiwanese gangsters and forced to serve as a drug mule in a global narcotics ring. When the bag of drugs in her stomach ruptures, Lucy is exposed to a new synthetic substance which changes her biological composition and gives her superhuman abilities. On the run from the cartel in Paris, she teams up with a French police officer (Amr Waked) and seeks out a distinguished professor (Freeman) in order to fully comprehend her newfound capabilities and share her knowledge with the rest of society.

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

Four different movies from Sony Pictures Entertainment, including Annie, Fury, Mr. Turner and Still Alice, have leaked online via peer-to-peer file sharing networks. The company suffered a major cyberattack last week, which is now being investigated by law enforcement, Sony confirmed. The digital copies are watermarked and were likely caused by the SPE network intrusion, sources have confirmed.

"The theft of Sony Pictures Entertainment content is a criminal matter, and we are working closely with law enforcement to address it," a Sony spokeswoman recently said.

Fury made its appearance on file sharing networks on Nov. 27, and has been downloaded at least 888,000 times. This is the largest leak since July, after the Expendables 3 movie was released online almost one month before release in theaters.

It seems more people are suffering from "Text Neck," a medical condition when people suffer from pain and damage due to the head and neck position of people texting on smartphones and using tablets. A mix of the angle - and gravity - is the equivalent of carrying 60 pounds, and with more people looking down, the problem only seems to be escalating.

"Everyone is heads down," said Kenneth Hansraj, chief of spine surgery at the New York Spine Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine. "It's in every mall and in every city. It's my opinion that this kind of heads down position is the cause of pain and suffering on the planet and a contributor to spinal surgery."

Previous reports recommend users take breaks, let their eyes adjust on their natural environment, and stretch before continuing to use PCs, smartphones or tablets.

It appears the Microsoft Xbox One carried its recent momentum into Black Friday, outselling the Sony PlayStation 4 in the United States, according to a report from InfoScout. Sixty-six percent of consumers purchased a console for their children, with 92 percent of Nintendo Wii U buyers reporting a purchase for their kids - while 66 percent of Xbox One and 50 percent of PS4 buyers making a purchase for someone else.

Microsoft sold several appealing game console bundles, including its Assassin's Creed Unity Xbox One bundle - and a recent price drop - also seemed to help Microsoft.

Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo prepared for what they hoped would be a busy 2014 holiday shopping season, and it seems to be off to a great start.

Microsoft is ready to help consumers forget about Windows 8 and 8.1, and is rumored to begin promoting its upcoming Windows 10 operating system starting next January. The company took the wraps off Windows 10 during a relatively low-key event that was hosted in September.

Windows 10 for Business preview was released earlier in the year, as testers continue to provide feedback, Microsoft wanted to wait until later to begin discussing "significant" new features to the successor to Windows 8/8.1.

Even with the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) happening in early January, Microsoft will host a dedicated a press event in late January to discuss Windows 10. The company previously said consumer features would be unveiled in "early 2015," as the company wants to move ahead with the latest Windows OS.

Just yesterday, Google has published their brand new 'Best Apps of 2014' list which features some old favorites alongside new big hits.

If you're looking for old favorites; Shazam, Swiftkey Keyboard and TED made the list. These are displayed proudly next to newer offerings such as Over or Strive. It's interesting to see a distinct lack of music service providers missing out of this list, with no Pandora or Spotify listed - however if you're on the path for love, OkCupid has made an appearance quite near to the top of the page.

There is a rather large range of applications on offer in this list as expected, with applications being spread over utilities, music, gaming and social culture.

We've been told not to read early reviews of The Crew, as Ubisoft couldn't provide game reviewers with the right situation to play in. But now the Lead Game Designer of The Crew, Serkan Hasan, has said that the upcoming game should have no problems at launch.

Hasan talked with The Metropolist, where he said that the Xbox One, PS4 and PC versions of The Crew will be working at 1080p at 30FPS at launch. He also said that he had faith in the game's online functionality, explaining that he has confidence in The Crew, as it has "reaped the benefits of a long term beta program, designed specifically to push our infrastructure as far as possible in real-world situations, with thousands of players from all over the world playing the game at the same time".

This news is coming after Ubisoft stated that copies of The Crew were not sent out to the press in advance, like they normally are. The reason behind this is that the press couldn't review a driving game that is primarily an online, social title, without ripping apart these functions in their review. The Crew requires "thousands and thousands and thousands of players - something that can't be simulated with a handful of devs playing alongside the press".

Nokia's new champion phone has been leaked to the public, thanks to Engadget we were able to have a sneak peak into the exterior design and possible features.

There have been rumors spread that Microsoft had begun development on a 'McLaren Windows Phone' - set to be the next installment of the Lumia series and most notably the Lumia 1020 product. The specialties that were most looked into most included the 1020's enlarged camera and "3D touch" features, with further rumors claiming that this project was eventually canned.

According to a recent listing for a prototype on a Chinese auction site named Taobao, it seems like the cancellation did not take place.

Sony Pictures Entertainment has tasked cybersecurity firm Mandiant with helping it clean up after a vicious cyberattack that knocked its computer networks offline last week. The "Guardians of Peace" claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they stole terabytes of data from SPE, with SPE's IT team unable to defend against the attack.

The SPE email system is expected to be restored by end of business tomorrow, while Sony executives remain relatively quiet about the incident.

It is a lucrative time to be in cybersecurity, as companies are turning to private sector companies for additional consultations - as cyberattacks are on the rise, with criminals able to steal internal data, disrupt daily work activities, and compromise customers.

There are more Google Android mobile users running around the United States, but Apple iOS users enjoyed shopping and spending more on Black Friday. One-fifth of all sales on Thanksgiving Day and one-fourth of all sales on Black Friday were accounted to iOS - and Android snagged 5.6 percent on Thanksgiving Day and 6.9 percent on Black Friday, according to IBM's Digital Analytics Benchmark.

Specifically, iOS users spent an average of $121.86 per order while Android shoppers spent $98.07 per order - and iOS traffic was 34.2 percent of total online traffic during Black Friday.

Apple might only have 12 percent of the global smartphone market captured, but its users are fanatical about their devices.

AMD is hoping for some serious improvements in the energy efficiency of its APUs by 2020, where the chipmaker is aiming for a massive 25x improvement. In order to reach this goal, AMD will have to outpace historical energy efficiency by over 70%, but the company is optimistic that it can do this.

The company has goals in terms of energy efficiency, where it wants to have "more performance with less power", as well as "long battery life, sleek light weight form factors, cool and quiet computation" mixed with "lower energy consumption and utility bills, lower Total Cost of Ownership" and a "reduced environmental impact".

Using a comparison of a 35W notebook processor released this year, versus a 35W processor from two years ago, the new notebook processor is twice as fast. You can say that the energy efficiency has improved by 200% as well, but the older 35W processors no longer fit into notebooks. AMD needs to find a way to reduce power consumption, as well as increasing the performance of the processor. Up until now, we've seen Intel and AMD do one or the other, but not both to the extent of 200% leaps each time.

Rocksteady Studios is back in the driving seat of the Batman series, with Batman: Arkham Knight being revealed during their recent AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit (with some spoilers for Batman: Arkham City, so if you haven't played that, turn your eyes off).

The studio revealed that Arkham Knight will continue right after the Joker's death, with the studio adding that the Joker's death is the point we jump off, asking "what happens when Joker is removed from Gotham" and then looking at the fallout from this event. Batman's suit also mirrors the Batmobile in many ways, with Rocksteady adding that the new suit "impacts gameplay as well, as it enhances some of Batman's abilities, particularly in the way the Batman and the car work together".

When it comes to the Batmobile, this is the biggest addition to the Arkham Knight, with Rocksteady teasing that there will be some missions that require the Batmobile in order to complete them. Rocksteady said: "When we added the Batmobile to the game, we wanted to make sure it's a fun, meaningful addition to every part of the game. Batman wouldn't use it if he didn't need it. So there will be points in the main story where you will need to use the Batmobile to progress, and if you're anything like me, there will be points where you can't use the Batmobile and wish it was there!".

Forget China and Russia - Sony Pictures Entertainment is investigating a major cyberattack that could have originated from North Korea. The attack crippled SPE's email and computer systems since Monday, interrupting employee operations throughout the short holiday week. Several movies being promoted by SPE were also impacted, as Twitter feeds were disrupted by the cyberattack.

The "Guardians of Peace" group claimed responsibility for the attack, and said it has a large amount of internal Sony data that it has taken. GOP is reportedly preparing a "volume of the data" to the Internet in the immediate future.

SPE is the studio behind "The Interview," a geopolitical satire that features James Franco and Seth Rogen as a talk show host and producer turned American operatives tasked with killing Kim Jong Un.

A California company has a novel approach to solve problems with delivering fast internet to remote and rural locations. The system can even deliver speeds faster than fiber in locations where laying fiber isn't a financially viable option. Lasers can beam signals up to 10km per jump by utilizing a technology called COR (Composite Optical RF). Each 10km span will merely end up with another repeater, and series of these can deliver up to 2 gigabits per second over amazing distances.

This isn't the first time lasers have been envisioned for backhaul internet applications, but the differentiator is the hybrid nature of the system. Inclement weather, such as rain, dust storms, and other factors, can disrupt laser transmissions. Fog can disrupt millimeter radio as well. The AOptix system also employs millimeter-wave radio in tandem with laser optics. Complex algorithms merge the laser and millimeter wave radio into one cohesive system that essentially provides fault-tolerance in inclement weather.

AOptix also envisions use in the financial sector because the system is actually faster than point-to-point fiber. Anove Technologies has also gotten involved in the project to help tailor it for use in the High Frequency Trading market. Other uses include easy-to-deploy emergency kits, which would come in very handy during disaster relief operations. Militaries will also likely find the technology very attractive. AOptix solutions include mobile backhaul, last mile access, fiber diversity, fiber extension, financial markets, and ad hoc networks.

Those looking for the ultimate in NAS performance have long yearned for SSD specific NAS models. 2.5" NAS models offer a slim design and impressive density, but adding in SSDs can actually provide a big capacity bump along with increased performance. Due to popular demand QNAP has released the TS-451S Turbo NAS, the first consumer NAS unit designed for SSDs.

The four-bay TS-451S Turbo NAS features a quad-core Celeron 2.41Ghz processor and comes with 4GB of DDR3L, which can be easily increased to 8GB. The Turbo has a low price point that is similar to HDD NAS models, so users do not have to pay a premium for the 4,000+ IOPS performance, at least for the NAS. SSDs are selling as low as 35 cents a GB, so users can find plenty of economical SSDs on the market. SSDs are well-suited for NAS environments due to lower power consumption and totally silent operation. The new TS-451S Turbo will be available within a month.

QNAP has also renamed the SS-x53 (an SMB model designed for SSDs) to the TS-453S PRO for the 4-bay option, and the TS-853S PRO for the eight-bay unit.

Mushkin announced the release of the Reactor SSD. The drive only has one listed capacity of 1TB, but we would expect it to be available in numerous capacity points. The Reactor sports the Silicon Motion SM2246EN controller, but no word on the type of NAND employed. The SSD only features a three-year warranty, which is a bit light in the era of 10-year warranties we see with several MLC SSDs. The NAND is likely MLC, as that version of Silicon Motion's controller doesn't support TLC, at least to our knowledge.

The Reactor comes in a 2.5" 7mm form factor, which is perfect for mobile applications. The SMI controller also supports DevSlp, a key function that idles the SSD to save power in mobile applications. The Reactor features speed of 74,000/76,000 IOPS random read/write and 560/460 MB/s sequential read/write speed. The Reactor wades into an extremely competitive market, and low-cost MLC and TLC SSDs are lowering the bar on pricing. The fab-enabled SSD manufacturers are in the midst of a cost-cutting cycle, and current prices are as low as 34 cents per GB.

Fab-enabled manufacturers are also deploying extensive value-added features, such as free caching software, cloning software, and robust toolbox features. The Reactor will have a hard time competing with the low price and extensive value-adds, especially with a 3-year warranty, when other manufacturers are moving to ten-year warranty periods.

Panda Security collected 20 million new malware samples created worldwide, with an average of 227,747 new samples per day during Q3. The global infection rate increased from 36.87 percent up to 37.93 percent year-over-year, and Trojans are the most common type of malware. Trojans accounted for 78.08 percent of malware types, with viruses (8.89 percent) and worms (3.92 percent) also making an appearance.

Internet users face a cybersecurity threat from hackers, state-sponsored cybercriminals, and national government spy agencies - and trying to stay secure is rather difficult. China (49.83 percent), Peru (42.38 percent) and Bolivia (42.12 percent) are the three countries most targeted by cyberattacks, with nine European countries in the top ten most secure nations: Norway (23.07 percent), Sweden (23.44 percent), and Japan (24.02 percent) are the top three most secure.

"Over recent months cybercrime has continued growing," said Luis Corrons, PandaLabs Technical Director at Panda Security. "Cyber-crooks are still creating malware in order to infect as many computers as possible and access confidential data - but corporate environments have also come under attack. For example, over the last three months large companies have been the subjects of some scandals, such as the infamous 'Celebgate,' in which photos of actresses and models hosted on Apple's iCloud service were leaked, or the theft of Gmail and Dropbox passwords."

CES 2015 is just around the corner, and we're already being teased about what to expect from the Las Vegas based electronics extravaganza. LG is expected to unveil the successor to one of the more unique smartphones of 2013, the G Flex.

LG is expected to unveil the new G Flex 2 at CES Las Vegas in January 2015, and according to Android Authority's sources, it will be a "major upgrade" over its predecessor. We should expect a Full HD, or possibly QHD plastic-based OLED screen, and the self-healing coating on the back of it, both of which I'm sure will be an improvement over the original G Flex.

The G Flex didn't really offer anything super special outside of its slightly flexible design, curved screen and self-healing coating on the back, so let's hope LG can push the boundaries with the G Flex 2.

Audi is developing an electric vehicle that will be able to hold five passengers and travel up to 280 miles on a single charge, as the automaker takes aim at Tesla. It's unknown if the new EV will be based on current Audi models, or be a unique model designed specifically for the unique engine and battery. The vehicle is scheduled for release in 2017.

"Such a car is under development," confirmed Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg, Audi head of technical development. "I was able to engineer the R8 e-tron project and technology with the team and we are on the way to a range of 450 kilometers. Let's say that technology will also be carried over and is a trailer for another car with long range."

The Tesla S has a range up to 300 miles, easily outpacing other current electric vehicles, but Audi's efforts will give the San Francisco Bay Area automaker a true rival.