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China is on the short list of countries that have the ability to launch a cyberattack that would be able to shut down the US power grid along with other critical infrastructure, US government officials believe. It would appear these countries already launch reconnaissance probes that have found gaping security holes they can exploit in cyber defenses.

"We see them attempting to steal information on how our systems are configured, the very schematics of most of our control systems, down to engineering level of detail so they can look at where are the vulnerabilities, how are they constructed, how could I get in and defeat them," said Admiral Michael Rogers, NSA head and US Cyber Command head. "We're seeing multiple nation-states invest in those kinds of capabilities."

Beyond China, Admiral Rogers didn't publicly disclose other nation states believed to be sponsoring cyberattacks, though Russia almost certainly is on the list.

Lockheed Martin is promoting its helicopter drone, the K-MAX, as a potential asset to help fight wildfires, helping protect firefighters and pilots. The K-MAX can fly in tandem with the four-pound Indago drone that is used as a fire scout, while the firefighting drone dropped 12 tons of water in one hour.

The K-MAX has the ability to lift and transport up to 6,000 lbs. of cargo while at sea level, or more than 4,000 lbs. while flying at 15,000 ft. density altitude. The helicopter has more than 750 hours of autonomous flight since live testing began in 2007, Lockheed Martin reported.

"The FAA would designate the airspace in the vicinity of the fire area as restricted airspace," said Keith Little, Lockheed spokesman. "We would coordinate with the FAA prior to any actual usage regarding obtaining COA (Certificates of Waiver or Authorization) approval for K-MAX that would allow a quick approval for use of K-Max in support of firefighting operations in the designated restricted area."

Valve has made the 'PC Master Race' proud, sending out an updated set of Early Access rules and guidelines to supported developers earlier this week. This is said to ensure that they 'set proper expectations' of their game when customers decide to utilize this offering.

This announcement has reportedly come around due to users being generally unhappy with Early Access protocols and offerings. It's been claimed that developers have been releasing Early Access games before fans felt they were properly complete or have stopped development on the game all together - meaning Valve had to remove them from their Steam platform. Giant bomb originally released this information to the public which follows an interesting report that claims most Early Access games still function in BETA even after 20 months have passed, alongside this only 25% of games have been fully released.

This seems like not only a way for Valve to ensure customers are happy with the games that they are playing, but for developers to actually carry out the purpose of Steam Early Access which is quoted as by Wikipedia: "Early access, alpha funding, or paid-alpha is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can pay for a game in the early stages of development and obtain access to playable but unfinished versions of the game, while the developer is able to use those funds to continue work on the game."

Dell has launched their latest 4K monitor offerings to the global market, coming in the form of a 23.8-inch P2415Q and a 27-inch P2715Q supported by IPS and TN panels and priced at $599.99 and $699.99 respectively.

As reports claim, besides these two monitors being of different measurements, they're practically the same units. Alongside them both including 99% of the sRGB wide color gamut, they're apparently not using true 10-bit panel technology. Dell have gotten around this by enhancing 8-bit panels instead, enabling them to reach 10.7 billion colors of display.

Both monitors support 60Hz functionality, as opposed to previous dell offerings at a 'cinematic' 30Hz. They also feature a large viewing angle of 178-degrees and a 1000: 1 dynamic ratio supported by a 'fast' 6ms response time. Slight differences come with the 24-inch model providing an 8ms response, on average, alongside its big brother giving the user a 9ms response time most of the time. There's no doubting that these monitors look gorgeous and it's interesting that they don't have true 10-bit displays integrated. One question we have to ask is, when will we be seeing 120Hz and 144Hz integrated into the massive 4K resolution as a standard practice with these high profile releases?

US soldiers in the field could be able to one day generate power using wearable technologies that also reduce the weight of their gear. The Maneuver Fires Integration Experiment (MFIX) project was conducted at Fort Benning earlier in the year, with researchers testing prototypes of energy-harvesting products.

The Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) is leading the effort, with a focus on smaller, lightweight, and energy efficient batteries. Small amounts of energy can be harvested, and would have otherwise would have been wasted as heat, sound, vibration, movement or light, according to researchers.

"MFIX is looking at new concepts with energy-harvesting devices and how they fit in a tactical environment," said Noel Soto, NSRDEC Warfighter Directories' project engineer on the Power and Data Management Team.

"Snap" is a directional sound system, utilizing ultrasonic sound to carry waves in a straight path toward the listener meaning that any others not standing in the exact direction of this speaker will not be affected.

Regular speakers distribute sound in a cone shape and alongside bouncing off objects in a room, allowing multiple users to listen to the same sounds in unison - you know, like a party. What we've got here is a parametric speaker, which through the methods displayed above, allow just one user to easily listen to sounds without disturbing others.

Think about it this way. Forget your headphones on the bus, plane trip or library study visit? Not to worry, set up your parametric speaker (or laptop with them already installed) and blast your hardstlye or death-metal away without getting in trouble from those around you. Developers have claimed that Snap is not their first directional speaker, saying that other models have been developed coming in at around $275 US retail price. Also due to Snap coming as a bunch of accessories, the users must assemble their own device.

Dota 2 is one of the big-hitters in the global eSports scene, seeing millions of dollars in prize money distributed each year in a massive once-off event named "The International", which is viewed live by hundreds of thousands of screaming fans around the globe.

As amazing as this sounds, you can't forget the small things that make a game worth playing. Dota 2 is well known for keeping in constant contact with its community members, providing support through community generated tournaments being published in their in-game client and even giving model developers the ability to sell their products officially through Valve services.

In comes the latest installment in Dota's lifespan - Snoop Dogg. If you're interested in a little variety in-game play, Dota2 allows players to change up their 'announcer' voice pack, meaning that all in-game announcements will come through a different voice than the official standard one supplied. Thanks to Snoop Dogg's popular involvement in meme culture, some savvy Dota 2 players decided to create a partition to get the Dogg in on this project, linking it back to Reddit.com's Dota2 section. Guess what, Snoop Dogg replied.

Just this week, iiNet's chief executive David Buckingham accused Telstra of failing to maintain its copper line networks, resulting in many customers experiencing connectivity and speed issues across Australia.

I know what you're thinking straight away - "copper, what the hell?". Unfortunately for Australians, Telstra owns almost all of the phone and internet infrastructure - so when another company like iiNet wants to provide these services to consumers, they must do so through Telstra's existing lines. The claim here is that iiNet is not to fault for their poor performance as of late, but it's Telstra's issue - basically 'passing the blame' onto the older brother.

Theories have emerged that Telstra are refusing to maintain their copper network because it is set to be sold to the government as plans ramp up for the 'National Broadband Network' (NBN) to be implemented - this is developed into either 'Fiber To The Node' (FTTN) or 'Fiber To The Home' (FTTH) depending on where you are located.

A post on the DOTA2 subreddit has shown the world that Valve has just sneaked in some form of in-game ad for DOTA2, which popped up onto a Redditor's game asking them if they'd like to buy a Charm of the Defender's Vision.

You can click 'No Thanks!' but this still doesn't take away from the fact that Valve just slipped in-game ads into their games. The title of the post in the DOTA2 subreddit is pretty harsh, and rightly so: "Valve has now introduced IN-GAME ADS, I hope nobody is ok with this."

What do you think about Valve introducing in-game ads to DOTA2?

In a comment made on an essay written by 'virtual godfather' Jaron Lanier, titled "The Myth of A.I." on Edge.org last week, SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk the threats of AI might become real, and that he is worried that "the risk of something seriously dangerous happening is in the five year time frame. 10 years at most" according to CNET.

Musk posted his comments on the Edge.org, but they were quickly removed; not quick enough for some media outlets to pick it up, though. Musk talked about his involvement as an early investor in the British artificial intelligence company, DeepMind, which is now a cog in Google's ever-growing machine. He wrote: "The pace of progress in artificial intelligence (I'm not referring to narrow AI) is incredibly fast. Unless you have direct exposure to groups like DeepMind, you have no idea how fast-it is growing at a pace close to exponential".

The founder of SpaceX continued, saying that AI companies "recognize the danger" and are working toward controlling the "bad" superintelligences "from escaping the Internet". Well, that sounds safe enough.

The Nintendo Wii U game console has been available for two years, but with the upcoming launch of Super Smash Bros., Nintendo hopes to see a higher sales boost. Since launching Mario Kart 8 in May, there have been more than 1.1 million Wii U consoles sold - and as consumers have extra cash to spend ahead of Christmas, Nintendo wants shoppers to spend.

Nintendo has taken a few different public shots against Microsoft and Sony in recent weeks, trying to remind shoppers the company has products for them to consider. Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime shrugged off the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 game consoles, saying the two platforms have too much overlapping shared content.

He also said the Wii U provides a better value than both consoles, despite recent price cuts that have made the console gaming market extremely competitive.

Activision has announced that Call of Duty has generated over $10 billion in sales worldwide, with the company saying that Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is the "biggest entertainment launch of the year".

It had been previously reported by analysts that the Call of Duty franchise was in decline, but Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg has said that "Preorders are a good barometer for day one, but I don't think they reflect the overall demand for the product". During the announcement earlier today, Hirshberg said: "Sales and engagement are up through the first week compared to last year. Season Pass sales are up, as well. The game has been very positively reviewed and the response from fans has been tremendous".

Activision also added that the new Call of Duty is the highest-selling digital launch in console history, too.

SpotCam has just announced its first home monitoring Wi-Fi video solution, with the cloud-based video startup offering 24-hour cloud-based HD playback, for free.

The camera itself captures 720p, or 1280x720, in low bandwidth, with clear night vision thanks to its 12 IR LEDs. It has a 110-degree wide angle view, motion/audio/disconnection event detection, 256-bit SSL encryption, can have its video playback done over the web, or through it's mobile app, and has two-way communication. The SpotCam camera sells for $149, with 24-hour recording for free. As for 3-day, 7-day, and 30-day recording, the following prices apply:

You can grab the SpotCam from Amazon, or Newegg right now.

It looks like Apple has requested Foxconn, which is the largest device manufacturer in the world, to build a new $2.6 billion facility just for the production of displays for its various iDevices.

Apple reportedly wants to have its hands-on an Innolux factory, the display portion of Foxconn, to only make displays for its iPhone, iPad and other popular-selling products. Innolux has been a company that Apple has reportedly been tapping to make the 4.7-inch displays for the iPhone 6. Sophia Cheng, a Public Relations representative for Foxconn's Display Unit, Innolux Corp., said: "Equipment installation will commence next month with mass production of panels to start by the end of 2015 after an urgent request for exclusive capacity".

Cheng wasn't aware if the deal had been signed or not, and Apple is keeping its mouth firmly shut about the deal. Considering Foxconn already has a couple of Apple-dedicated facilities in China, this would still be a first for the company; to have a factory making components exclusively for products for a single company.

In an earnings call today for investors, Robert Crooke, VP and GM NVM Solutions Group, publicly announced Intel's 3D NAND. The new 3D structure will use lithography larger than 20nm but Intel didn't disclose anything further. The new 3D NAND will be produced in Utah, a IMFT factory, Intel's joint venture with Micron Technology.

Robert Crooke holding an Intel 3D NAND package.

Intel stressed the disruptive nature of the new 3D structure. The company plans to release products in the second half of 2015 with the new flash and plans to use the technology to disrupt SSD prices.

During the 2015 IEEE international Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in February 2015, Intel will reveal more technical details about its upcoming Haswell-EX processor. This processor will be the most complex CPU the company has ever made.

Intel's Xeon E7 v3 "Haswell-EX" processor will work in motherboards with up to eight sockets, packing 18 cores (and 18 Hyper-Threaded cores) for a total of 36 threads per CPU. We will also have 45MB of last-level cache (LLC), quad-channel DDR4 support, PCI Express 3.0 and much more. The new Intel Xeon E7 platform will usher in new reliability, availability, scalability (RAS) capabilities, something that will bring Intel closer to the older Itanium-based servers.

The Haswell-EX processor will be using Intel's 22nm Tri-Gate technology, packing in an insane 5.56 billion transistors, making it one of the most complex x86-based processors ever made.

Amazon is rolling out a fleet of robots that will help the company boost productivity and ensure timely deliveries ahead of what should be an extremely busy 2014 Christmas holiday shopping season. The robots can help locate and pick items, which are verified by a human picker before being boxed up and sent from the facility - the company will be able to save upwards of $900 million each year, with robotic assistance able to help save 20 percent to 40 percent per shipped order.

To help ensure it would have a robotics inventory it could call upon, Amazon purchased Robots maker Kiva Systems for $775 million in 2012 - and there have been more than 1,400 Kiva robots already working in Amazon's logistics chain.

Amazon tends to have successful shopping seasons, but as the US economy has recovered - and consumers have extra money to spend this Christmas - Amazon wants to ensure everything runs smoothly and customers will be happy.

Black Friday is only one week away, and Sony is cranking up the marketing machine to win over potential PlayStation 4 customers. The company's new video promo states the PS4 is the "best place to play," a claim Microsoft previously said of its Xbox One game console.

The video shows game footage from Far Cry 4, Grand Theft Auto V and Destiny, along with promoting the PS4's sports games, including Madden NFL 15, NBA 2K15, FLB 14: The Show, and FIFA 15.

The PS4 has easily outsold the Xbox One since both consoles launched late last year - but a recent Xbox One price cut has indicated Microsoft hasn't lost all hope - and the 2014 Christmas shopping season will present a fierce battle.

Supercomputing 2014: The quest to understand the building blocks of the universe requires intense computing power, which in turn requires some of the fastest storage solutions available. CERN's Large Hadron Collider, which discovered the Higgs boson in 2012, will begin colliding elements with the most energy ever achieved in a particle accelerator in 2015. This requires transmitting 170 petabytes datasets to far-flung research centers around the world. The University of Michigan and University of Victoria are utilizing Sandisk's Fusion ioMemory solutions to handle the influx of data at their multi-site supercomputing project.

The universities need to create a data transfer architecture with the capability to transfer figures across 100 computing centers at 100Gb/s speeds. This isn't typically a huge problem if there is a distributed architecture, but this particular deployment needs to provide that capability from a single server. Sandisk Fusion ioMemory products are stepping in to fulfil the extreme performance requirements, and they are demonstrating a data transfer from the University of Victoria campus to the WAN in the University of Michigan booth (#3569) at the Supercomputing 2014 conference.

OCZ Storage Solutions is leveraging their homegrown Barefoot 3 controller and firmware in tandem with Toshiba A19nm NAND for the new Sabre 1000 SSD Series. OCZ's move to their own proprietary SSD controller is a big step that provides them with tremendous flexibility to tailor their products for different segments. The OCZ Sabre 1000 is geared for read-intensive workloads in high-volume hyperscale deployments.

The Sabre 1000 comes in capacities of 240, 480, and 960GB, and provides an economical alternative for administrators with light and mixed workloads. The SSD features PFM+ (Power Failure Management Plus) that protects data in the event of host power loss. Another key feature is the value-added StoragePeak 1000 SSD management system. This friendly and easy-to-use GUI allows central monitoring and management of the SSD.

Performance varies based upon capacity, with top random read/write speeds weighing in at 98,000/23,000 IOPS. Sequential speed is also impressive at 550/515 MB/s read/write. The Sabre 1000 is geared for read-intensive applications such as read cache and indexing, VOD (Video On Demand), VDI, media streaming, and cloud infrastructures. We recently put the latest OCZ enterprise SSD through the paces in our OCZ Intrepid 3600 Enterprise SSD Review. Head to our IT/Datacenter section to view our library of competitive performance analysis of other leading enterprise SSDs.