Latest News - Page 2785

We still live in a world controlled by mostly 28nm technology, but 20nm is popping its head over the horizon, and 16nm is floating in over that same mountain. Samsung has reportedly moved into volume production of its 14nm FinFET technology, which is a big deal.

Samsung will be building its next-gen Exynos processor on its own 14nm process, but both Apple and AMD will be benefiting from Samsung's super-small process. Intel is moving toward the mass production of 14nm 3D transistor technology, with its Broadwell-based Core M processors already shipping, but Samsung is right behind them ready to go for AMD, Apple and of course, itself.

Comparing 14nm against 20nm, we can expect the core area to be reduced by 15%, reduced power consumption by up to 35%, or an increase in processor frequency of 20%. Samsung will be the first to use its 14nm process, but I'm sure Apple will be right behind it with its upcoming A9 processor, which Samsung will build for its arch rival. So we can expect Apple's next-gen iPhone to have Samsung's technology at the heart of it, again.

ASUS has been doing some good things with its smaller video cards, but the latest one could be one of the hot-sellers during the holiday season. The new ASUS GeForce GTX 970 DirectCU Mini is based off of NVIDIA's second-generation Maxwell architecture, with the GTX 970 at the center of it.

On top of that, we have a 17cm long video card with the DirectCU II cooling from ASUS, using a single fan. It uses hot plate technology to improve thermal efficiency, which provides 20% more cooling than traditional, reference coolers. We also have Core Clocks of 1088MHz, while Boost Clocks are set at 1228MHz. We also have 4GB of RAM at its stock frequency of 7010MHz.

Connectivity wise we have one dual-link DVI port, a DVI-I port, HDMI 2.0, and DisplayPort 1.2. The ASUS GeForce GTX 970 DirectCU Mini requires just a single 8-pin PCIe power connector, which will be a perfect fit to Mini-ITX gaming systems. When it comes to pricing, we should expect similar pricing to GIGABYTE's GeForce GTX 970 ITX, which is on Amazon right now for $339.

AMD's Radeon R9 295X2 is still a champion of a GPU, even up against the likes of the single-GPU card from NVIDIA in the form of the GeForce GTX 980. Better yet, the R9 295X2 can now be found on Amazon for as low as $679, down from its introductory price of $1499.

The XFX Radeon R9 295X2 is currently $679 on Amazon, down from $1039 - a saving of $360. This is not too bad at all, especially when you consider you're getting two GPUs here. This card is still a great card for high-res gaming, especially 4K and beyond, and perfect for smaller systems where you can only install the single card.

Rumored to be due to either Black Friday sales, a DDoS attack succession or a combination of the two - Blizzard's Battle.net servers are reportedly experiencing major lag issues in several different forms.

You may have noticed that by trying to log in to the Battle.net client will you experience a wait of up to 25 minutes. Once you have finally managed to connect to their service, you'll likely see that not only are you unable to connect to view or chat to your friends, but you're unable to launch any games within.

Talking to some of my most loyal Blizzard friends, they have reported the ability to play games such as World of Warcraft as close as twenty minutes prior to the publishing of this article - however some reports claim up to 5 seconds of in-game delay (ping) among other technical glitches.

Toyota will begin testing its autonomous vehicles on open roads starting in December, using a system compromised of six laser radar devices mixed with higher-accuracy map data. The vehicle is able pass through electronic toll collection gates and main roads, while safely maintain its lane location.

"We will actively continue the development of autonomous driving technologies, but we are considering commercializing autonomous driving technologies that do not change the sovereignty of the driver," said Moritaka Yoshida, Toyota Chief Safety Technology Officer. "For Toyota, advanced driving assist technologies are for safety and realizing zero traffic deaths."

Last year, Toyota publicly showed its automated highway driving assist (AHDA) technology, with the ability for the car to automatically control gas and steering.

Robotics research has focused on factory automation, greeting customers in malls and shopping centers, but could one day soon have a new purpose: flying your meals and drinks to you while you dine at restaurants in Singapore. Infinium-Serve is the new fleet of autonomous flying robotic waiters that will be able to serve as waiters - and help reduce burden on labor problems in Singapore.

The robotic waiters could be deployed by the end of 2015, with Infinium Robotics currently trying to receive government grants to help pay for the project. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong saw an in-person test of the Infinium-Serve earlier this year, however, it remains unknown where he stands on the research.

"Introducing this technology into restaurants would take away mundane tasks of serving food and drinks," said Woon Junyang, Infinium Robotics CEO, in a statement. "It will allow human waiters to focus on higher-value tasks such as getting feedback from customers. This will result in an enhanced dining experience, which will eventually lead to increased sales and revenue for the restaurants."

Popular coffee shop chain Starbucks is rolling out wireless charging stations in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the effort is set to expand even further later on. Using Powermat Technologies, it would appear Starbucks could help bring wireless charging solutions to the mainstream - and it begins with its customers becoming more comfortable with wireless charging technology built directly into tables and bar tops.

Powermat Technologies CEO Daniel Schreiber says the charging speed at Starbucks locations rivals cabled connections - and while there has been a large amount of criticism regarding speed - it seems faster than many people give it credit for. However, there are only a small number of phones that support Powermat directly out of the box, so Starbucks provides Power Rings for charging - a loan or $10 to purchase them - along with Duracell-Powermat providing them online.

"You've got to have a complete system," said Matthew Guiste, Starbucks VP of in-store digital services. "No one has taken the plunge, [but] we want to start giving manufacturers a reason to put it in their phones."

Following a massive data breach that left 56 million debit and credit card details stolen, along with 53 million email addresses, the company spent $43 million during Q3 to deal with the aftermath. The company expects to receive $15 million reimbursement as part of a $100 million network liability insurance policy - and must now work to ensure the problem doesn't occur again.

Meanwhile, the company faces multiple lawsuits and will "incur significant legal and other professional services expenses" due to the incident. The company's payment card data network was complaint in fall 2013, and was undergoing 2014 certification when the breach occurred, according to an independent auditor.

"The forensic investigator working on behalf of the payment card networks may claim the company was not in compliance with those standards at the time of the data breach," Home Depot noted.

The Internet of Things market is growing rapidly, and is attracting more attention from US technology and telecoms buyers, according to the Hampleton Partners' report. More than $9.4 billion has been spent since 2011 to help acquire IoT suppliers, with a whopping $5 billion of that spent during 2014 so far.

Expect to see Intel, Texas Instruments, Juniper Networks, Johnson Controls and AT&T become more active in acquiring - and creating partnerships - that will help bolster their IoT product lines. There will be an estimated 28 billion Internet-connected devices by 2020, and a global market valued at more than $7.1 trillion - and that figure will only grow as reliable Internet continues to be expanded worldwide.

Meanwhile, IoT will be one of the fastest growing market segments, and spending to support the blossoming market is expected to be $59 billion by 2020. Such wide market growth presents excellent opportunities for manufacturers, especially by releasing consumer technology solutions.

Former GCHQ boss Sir John Adye believes current generation biometrics need more control, as he has concerns related to fingerprint scanners used by the Apple iPhone 6 and other devices. Despite believing the use of biometrics is a positive step toward device security, Sir John also is concerned about what happens to people's data when using these devices.

Sir John called out Apple specifically, with Apple Pay now allowing users to make payments simply with their fingerprint.

"I think Apple has done some good things. They appear to have a good system at the moment for protecting their operating system so it's difficult for anyone outside to penetrate it and retrieve data from it. But how long will that last, because the criminals... are very inventive at finding ways in, and although you can protect it in that way on the device itself, what happens if the device is lost or stolen?"

BitTorrent has successfully appealed to musicians willing to share their music using the company's "Bundles" feature, and has stepped up with the announcement of its first original programming. Children of the Machine features human survivors in the year 2031, trying to survive in an android machine-controlled world.

Children of the Machine will launch in late 2015, and will feature an eight-episode mini-series that will be free with advertising. The series will cost $4.95 without advertisements and $9.95 for a special edition version that includes extra features.

"This is a science fiction show catered to the typical tech-savvy, male-dominated audience," said Marco Weber, the show's producer. "We're not trying to launch a romantic comedy, so the concept of this show moved us toward BitTorrent."

Telltale Games' upcoming Game of Thrones game is nearly here, with the first episode arriving on December 2 for PC, Mac, and the PS4. The next day, on December 3, it will arrive for the Xbox One and Xbox 360, while on December 4 it will arrive on iOS. PlayStation 3 owners will have to wait until December 9.

The game itself takes place toward the end of season three in the HBO show, and before the start of season five. Gamers will be propelled into House Forrester, a noble house from the Wolfswood in the north of Westeros. Players will be able to play through five different perspectives in the game, from servants to House members.

Some of the talent from the show are coming back to reprise their roles for Telltale's game, including Tyrion Lannister performed by Peter Dinklage, Cersei Lannister performed by Lena Headey, Margaery Tyrell performed by Natalie Dormer, and Ramsay Snow performed by Iwan Rheon.

Star Citizen is edging close to $64 million in crowdfunding, with the CryEngine-powered title sitting at just under $63.5 million at the time of writing. Roberts Space Industries has now announced that there will be a pet system introduced once the game hits $64 million.

RSI explains it as: "Pets - We have repair bots, we have fish... but we haven't implemented a traditional pet system in Star Citizen yet. At $64 million, that changes. From Jones the Cat in Alien to the Battlestar Galactica's Daggit, pets have a place onboard starships... and we want to give you that option in Star Citizen. Expect traditional terrestrial options, plus anything exotic we can dream up in the Star Citizen universe! (Those Torshu Grey crabs that keep escaping are just the start.) This stretch goal is in honor of Paddington, Strike Dog of the UEES Paul Steed. In one of our first videos Paddington helped us get to $4 million back in the initial campaign, and sadly passed away recently".

The FBI stepped over its boundaries with this particular case, where the US agency wanted to gain entry into a particular hotel guest's room, all without a warrant. When they couldn't secure one, they did the next best thing: posed as Internet technicians, gaining access to the hotel room, all without a warrant.

From the motion to suppress, we find out: "The next time you call for assistance because the internet service in your home is not working, the "technician" who comes to your door may actually be an undercover government agent. He will have secretly disconnected the service, knowing that you will naturally call for help and -- when he shows up at your door, impersonating a technician -- let him in. He will walk through each room of your house, claiming to diagnose the problem. Actually, he will be videotaping everything (and everyone) inside. He will have no reason to suspect you have broken the law, much less probable cause to obtain a search warrant. But that makes no difference, because by letting him in, you will have "consented" to an intrusive search of your home".

The FBI agents secured evidence from the hotel room, and submitted it to a magistrate to get a warrant. Kind of the reverse of what should happen, but they obviously wouldn't have told the judge that they posed as the Internet technicians in order to get into the room to secure the evidence they required to obtain the warrant in the first place.

Nintendo have just had a patent go public in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that has been discovered by a NeoGAF named "Rösti".

This patent refers to Gameboy emulation being allowed on other hardware - including mobile phones. This patent also covers emulation on in-flight entertainment models for aircraft, trains and PDA devices.

I have seen Gameboy Advance Emulator's around since the mid-2000s, with one of the most popular between my friends being Visual Boy Advance. However, these aren't only illegal, but do not draw any profit for Nintendo themselves as they are downloaded off various internet sites dedicated to the cause. Alongside computer emulation programs, emulators have seen light on PDA's in the mid-2000s such as the Palm Treo.

We've just received confirmation that Razer's new smartband, the Nabu, is finally confirmed for release - coming next week, first to the North American market, followed by the rest of the world soon after.

We've covered the Nabu's specifications and features before. As quoted by Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan, the Razer Nabu is designed to work as "a cross between a smartwatch and a fitness band. It's a wearable device focused on helping you live smarter."

According to email contact between Razer's Australian promoters, Surprise Attack, the Razer Nabu release will begin next week. Coming at a price of $99.99, this new technology offering has been tested by "500 of Razer's most loyal fans" whom were given the ability "to buy the bands earlier in the year for a single dollar".

Sony is reportedly working on a new watch that utilizes e-paper, and could be released as early as 2015, as the Japanese electronics company restructures and shuffles focus on select technologies. The watch face and wrist band will be made of e-paper and the surface area will be able to display time and its appearance can be modified.

Instead of being a next-generation smartwatch, Sony hopes that the watch will include style alongside functionality.

"The innovation program is very important, but it will take time and require some risk taking," said Sado Nagaoaka, Hitotsubashi University professor. "It's not that Sony ran out of new ideas, but rather, it's taking too long to restructure, and gigantic losses have starved new businesses of funds."

The Southern District of Texas offered a misdemeanor plea deal to hacker Fidel Salinas, 28, just a few months after the hacker was charged with 44 felony counts of computer fraud and cyberstalking. Each count had a maximum 10-year prison sentence, totaling a potential 440 years in prison.

Instead, the suspected Anonymous-linked hacker plead guilty to one misdemeanor count of computer fraud and abuse - and must also pay $10,000. He faces up to one year in prison when sentenced on February 2, 2015, and his attorney will argue the monetary restitution is enough.

Salinas reportedly tried to access the Hidalgo County administrative website, using a script that racked up more than 14,000 access attempts. The brute force attack led county IT administrators to be locked out of the system themselves.

The Sony PlayStation 4 has enjoyed a significant sales lead over the Microsoft Xbox One throughout 2014, but after a price cut, Microsoft is reportedly closing the gap. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday just around the corner, now is the perfect opportunity for Microsoft to make the next-generation console market even more competitive.

The Xbox One has some major exclusive titles: Forza Motorsport 5, Forza Horizon, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and Sunset Overdrive. Game titles such as Titanfall are available for the PC, but not on the PS4 - and only boost the Xbox One's catalog even further.

It will be telling to see how each company does after the holidays, with consumers expected to open up their wallets to spend on gaming hardware and software this year, analysts predict.

Last year it was revealed that Microsoft spent some $100 million designing the Xbox One controller, but it's only now that we're finding out that the company went through 200 prototypes before landing on the final design.

During an interview with MCV, Design Lead Carl Ledbetter talked about the work that went into the final Xbox One and controller design, which took over three years. He said that Microsoft spent over 500 hours testing the controller, with over 1,100 different consumers. He said: "Nobody says anything about the little things on the hardware. If somebody is using the controller and after 30 minutes is saying 'my hands are starting to hurt.' then that's a fail. But if after 30 minutes all they're thinking about is the game, then we're doing OK".

Ledbetter compared the work on the controller and console itself, to the design of an expensive sports car "and then you opened the door and the handle felt a little strange". He continued, adding that Microsoft had learned from previous mistakes, adding "An example of something we got wrong was the first Xbox controller. It worked, but it wasn't the right size for people".