Latest News - Page 2802

Taylor Swift has decided to pull her music catalog from popular online music service Spotify, and never allowed her latest album, 1989, to be available online. Spotify has created a new playlist dubbed "What to Play While Taylor's Away," featuring music from Katy Perry, One Direction, Ed Sheeran, and Leagues.

More than 16 million Spotify listeners have played Swift's tracks in the past month, with Swift appearing in more than 19 million playlists. Here is what Spotify said in a blog post: "We hope she'll change her mind and join us in building a new music economy that works for everyone."

Earlier in the year, Swift said "music should not be free," while also stating "piracy, file sharing and streaming have shrunk the numbers of paid album sales drastically," in an op-ed published on the Wall Street Journal.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will be publicly released tomorrow, Tuesday, November 4, and runs at 1080p and 60 fps on the Sony PlayStation 4. However, the Microsoft Xbox One version runs at 1360x1080 and 60 fps, as some gamers have been frustrated that video game titles are capped to a certain frames per second.

Here is what Sledgehammer Games co-founder Michael Condrey confirmed: "Minimum Xbox One resolution is 1360x1080, and dynamically scales from there to full 1080p. That's over 50 percent increase from last year. Advanced Warfare runs native 1080p on PS4."

Gamers that can't wait to get their hands-on Advanced Warfare can purchase a Zero Day edition, though some Xbox One gamers complained of download problems.

OCZ has seen their fair share of changes over the last few years, but have finally landed in calm waters at Toshiba with access to a mountain of flash and a wealth of engineering talent. They also recently launched the new OCZ Shop, an online portal that provides their customers direct access to great SSD deals.

In celebration of the new site OCZ is offering free shipping to the US on any order, a free T-Shirt, and Triple VIP reward points until 11/30/2014. There are sections for SATA, PCIe and consumer SSDs. Some of the SSD deals include free power packs and backpacks as well, but there is no clear indication if this is a limited time offer or not. There is also a clearance section which will likely host some great deals in the future.

SSDs are becoming cheaper every day, and a direct outlet might provide a portal for even lower prices. It will be interesting to see if other fab-enabled SSD manufactures follow suit. In the cut-throat SSD industry every competitive advantage is quickly addressed, but usually ends up being great for us consumers in the end. Head to our Storage section for the latest testing and performance analysis of OCZ products.

Space tourism is still a growing industry that was recently rocked when the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo exploded after suffering a "serious anomaly" during a test flight last week. Despite the incident, which left one pilot dead, Virgin Galactic confirmed it will move forward to finish a second SpaceShipTwo aircraft before the end of the year.

The high risk, high reward nature of the commercial space industry - where flight accidents sometimes seen unavoidable - with Virgin Galactic competing with XCOR Aerospace and others in the commercial space race. Meanwhile, SpaceX, Boeing, Orbital Sciences and other companies hope to win NASA and US federal government contracts worth billions of dollars.

"We've always known that the road to space is extremely difficult - and that every new transportation system as to deal with bad days early in their industry," said Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson.

In many ways modern vehicles are much like rolling computers. Navigation and infotainment applications, such as 3D mapping, environmental reporting (e.g., infrastructure, traffic, meteorological) car radio, multimedia, satellite radio, E-call and voice recognition, and interaction with the drivers phone, are all handled via on-board computer systems. Just like any other computer these require storage, and much like typical computers the majority of these systems still rely upon HDDs. When the driver starts the vehicle a boot up process begins, and this can take a few moments as the drive spins up and delivers data to the on-board computer. There is a huge market for automotive-class HDDs that have enhanced vibration resistance and other features, such as expanded operating temperatures and humidity ranges, to tailor them for the mobile environment.

Micron aims to bring the same SSD benefits to vehicles with their new M500IT line. SSDs will bring nearly instantaneous boot up times to the vehicle, increase the response, and perhaps even enable other features that weren't previously possible with increasingly complex vehicle computer systems. SSDs also tolerate much more vibration and shock, and environmental factors aren't nearly as much of a concern.

It seems to be a no-brainer to bring SSDs into vehicles, and by utilizing AEX-Q100-compliant eMMC 5.0 memory in 60GB to 240GB capacities, Micron can keep costs low enough to attract auto manufacturers. The M500IT also includes several features we are accustomed to seeing on Micron's enterprise-class SSDs, such as hardware-based encryption, data-at-rest protection from power loss, and an adaptive thermal monitoring system to expand the thermal operating envelope. Microns Micron's eMMC products are fully managed NAND solutions with built-in controllers and industry-standard interfaces, simplifying hardware and software integration and streamlining the development and qualification process for designers.

Over 11 years from the principal photography wrap of the last 'Star Wars' film 'Revenge of the Sith', filming is now complete on the as-yet untitled 'Episode VII', with director JJ Abrams and Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy presenting cast and crew with a cap and a heartfelt thank you note.

According to MTV News Lucasfilm held a well attended wrap party with key cast including veteran leads Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and franchise newcomers JJ Abrams, Daisy Ridley, Andy Serkis and John Boyega all in attendance.

Episode VII now enters the post production editing phase, including the creation of mind blowing visual effects from the now Disney owned entity Industrial Light and Magic, along with music from veteran composer John Williams. The release date of December 18th 2015 is now a little over a year away, and we're counting down with equal parts glee and trepidation.

The public launch of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare didn't go as well as some would have hoped, with an unknown number of Microsoft Xbox One gamers reporting problems with the digital download.

Here is what Microsoft said: "We've received reports that some users are having issues getting their pre-ordered copy of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. We're happy to say that our team has fixed the problem, but if you are still experiencing any issues, delete the game and re-download it. Thanks for your patience while we got this issue worked out. Have fun!"

Interested gamers can download the Day Zero edition of Advanced Warfare for the Xbox One today, even if it wasn't pre-ordered. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare officially launches on November 4 for the PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4.

Samsung has formally announced their purchase of Proximal Data for their innovative server-side caching software. As enterprise SSD manufacturers continue to mature we have witnessed a string of acquisitions of various caching companies. Caching technology provides HDD capacity and the speed of flash, and also provide companies with a clear differentiator for their products. Samsung originally purchased NVELO in 2012, and their caching solution was quickly merged into Samsung's client offerings as RAPID caching technology.

Proximal Data is geared for virtualized environments. Their award-winning AutoCache software embeds I/O intelligence inside the hypervisor to cache hot I/O onto server-side flash. It's intelligent and selective caching removes the I/O bottleneck and improves VM density and efficiency. As with all caching software your mileage may vary, but typical AutoCache implementations sport 2x to 3x performance improvements.

Pairing easy-to-deploy software with leading hardware is key to attracting many of today's datacenter customers. Many administrators struggle with the best method to deploy cache, and value-added software offerings are becoming the deciding factor for many. Pairing AutoCache software with Samsung's high-performance SSD offerings, such as the XS1715 we tested recently, can provide transparent acceleration for virtualized environments. As always, jump over to our IT/Datacenter section to take a look at our recent competitive performance analysis of Samsung enterprise SSD products against their competitors.

Engineers in China successfully created a new laser weapon system capable of shooting down low-altitude light drones, able to lock on and engage a target within five seconds. The machine can engage "various small aircraft" and has a two-kilometer range against targets flying up to 112 mph.

The US Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) recently made flying drones near large sports stadiums and race tracks illegal, but trying to enforce the airspace restriction could be problematic. However, this new laser technology will allow the Chinese to better protect large venues.

"Intercepting such drones is usually the work of snipers and helicopters, but their success rate is not as high and mistakes with accuracy can result in unwanted damage," said Yi Jinsong, China Jiuyuan Hi-Tech Equipment manager.

The Amazon Fire smartphone was launched in July, and while it received a tremendous amount of hype, the phone fell completely flat. Amazon suffered a $170 million hit, mainly due to the Fire phone and associated supplier hardware costs, with the company also holding on to a whopping $83 million in unsold Fire units.

The 32GB model launched at $199, while the 64GB model originally cost $299 - typical pricing for new smartphone launches - but the company, which is well known for offering consumers cost-friendly prices, decided not to undercut Samsung, Apple, and other smartphone rivals.

Here is what David Limp, Amazon SVP of devices, recently noted in an interview: "I think people come to expect a great value, and we sort of mismatched expectations. We thought we had it right. But we're also willing to say, 'we missed.' And so we corrected."

Thanks to our friends at Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Australia, we have copies of this weeks Blu-ray release of the hilarious comedy sequel '22 Jump Street' to give away to ten lucky readers.

Having survived high school, twice, big changes are in store for undercover police officers Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) when they infiltrate a local college on a drug bust. Tasked with finding the dealer of new drug, Whyphy, Schmidt and Jenko must pose as fresh faced college students to get in with the right crowd. The hilarious duo soon find themselves pulled in different directions when Jenko meets a kindred spirit on the football team and Schmidt falls into the bohemian art major scene. As they make new friends and explore new interests, the duo starts to question the future of their friendship. Not only do they have to crack the case and discover who the Whyphy dealer is before more students get hurt, they must also decide if their partnership has a future.

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

Companies operating in the European Union (EU) recently held another round of cyberattack simulations, designed to help test cyberattack response ability. The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) used white hat hackers to mock attack 200 companies located in 25 EU nations for a 24-hour period.

The Cyber Europe 2014 drill focused on financial institutions, security companies, government ministries, energy providers and Internet service providers (ISPs), with distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, data exfiltration, and Web defacement attacks.

"The outcome of today's exercise will tell us where we stand and identify the next steps to take in order to keep improving," said Udo Helmbrecht, ENISA executive director.

Apple and other mobile payment providers are preparing for a long-term battle in the mobile payments sector, but it will ultimately be up to consumers to determine a winner. As additional retailers begin to embrace NFC-enabled mobile payments, their competitors will watch closely - and likely follow suit - offering the same type of payment services.

Mobile payments aren't new, but it appears Apple Pay and the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) CurrentC appear to be the two most serious competitors at the moment. As Apple Pay is available to a large number of US consumers, CurrentC - supported by Walmart, CVS, Rite Aid, and a collective group of more than 50 major retailers - will have to take a more creative marketing approach to win over consumers.

"This skirmish will go on for a while, but ultimately it seems shortsighted to tell customers that you can't use their competitor's alternative," said Creditcards.com analyst Matt Schulz. "The baseline really is the credit card. The process of using one is still very easy, so everything compares to that."

Microsoft Windows 8.1 is finally beginning to pick up market share, increasing from 6.7 percent in September up to 10.9 percent market, according to Net Applications. The company has continued to try to convince users to leave behind older versions of Windows and upgrade to 8/8.1, but has struggled to entice users.

Due to the failure of Windows 8/8.1, Microsoft is fast tracking Windows 10 to be released in 2015 - listening to user feedback - as consumers were unhappy with 8/8.1. Windows 7 currently has 53.05 percent market share, as Vista continued its slide, down to 2.82 percent - and the unsupported Windows XP has dropped 6.69 percent down to 17.18 percent.

It seems many consumers are interested in waiting to see how Windows 10 operates before upgrading - and could be waiting to purchase new PCs and laptops.

PAX AU 2014 - Last night, Roberts Space Industries took the stage of the Forum Theatre in Melbourne to show off the FPS mode of Star Citizen. We found out that developer Illfonic has been tirelessly working on the first-person module of the game for quite a while now. We were at the event itself, watching the entire thing in awe. Check out the footage below.

What the video doesn't show you, is the little details that RSI and Illfonic have put into the game. Because you're in space, and on various spaceships, in the game you're wearing a suit. When you breathe, your breathe is hitting the visor and creating a fog. As you run, you will breathe faster, and more often, which results in the visor getting foggier and foggier - immersing you into the world of Star Citizen. From there, Chris Roberts explained that they've created "correctly simulated eyes, head & body", which allows a much more realistic portrayal of the game world to be achieved.

From there, it allows the first- and third-person animations to be unified. The team explained this by showing off switching between first- and third-person modes, which was seamless, as the eyes were being rendered in the same place. So instead of the eyes being a camera or window into the game world, and then the third-person view being a wider, but more far away look into the world, it's completely unified. It provides a much more realistic sense of being there, as your eyes and where they're fixated, becoming your focal point.

Sony confirmed there are worsening problems with the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Network, following the "Masamune 2.0" system update, according to reports. Formerly known as Standby Mode, the new "Rest Mode" is plagued by a bug that doesn't allow the console to power back on - and the PlayStation community forums have been flooded by angry gamers.

In addition to the Rest Mode problem, others have complained that YouTube functionality has struggled, with video uploads no longer working properly. Sony is reportedly working to address these problems, but didn't offer a time table for the fix.

"We are aware of issues reported by some PS4 users following the release of PS4's latest system software update, v2.00," Sony recently told GameSpot. "We are investigating these issues and will provide an update as soon as we have more information."

Nine Inch Nails singer Trent Reznor is working on a special project for Apple, as he was reportedly the chief creative officer with Beats Music. It's unknown if Reznor is currently working on hardware or software technology, but said he's "designing some products" for Apple - and with Apple's reputation of being secretive - it's unknown if consumers will know what exactly he is currently up to.

Here is what Reznor recently said: "It's related to that. Beats was bought by Apple, and they expressed direct interest in me designing some products with them. I can't go into details, but I feel like I'm in a unique position where I could be of benefit to them. That does mean some compromises in terms of how much brain power goes toward music and creating. This is very creative work that's not directly making music, but it's around music."

It seems most likely that Reznor is contributing to a project related to music delivery technology, but his work will probably debut with iTunes sometime in 2015.

SweOverclockers is reporting that three of AMD's partners are preparing Radeon R9 290X cards with 8GB of RAM, something that will arrive in November. The new Radeon R9 290X cards with 8GB of RAM will be released by PowerColor, Sapphire and Club3D, but an MSI R9 290X with 8GB of RAM has also been spotted.

The new cards are expected to directly compete with the second-generation Maxwell-based GeForce GTX 980 from NVIDIA, but with AMD owning the 4K market right now, the 8GB of RAM should really help, especially in upcoming games like Star Citizen with its 4K and 8K textures, and built for the PC only. The new cards should arrive with a 10% price hike on them, which isn't too bad considering the crazy amount of VRAM included.

PAX AU 2014 - After the 'A Chat With Chris Roberts, The Original Wing Commander' at PAX Australia 2014, we cornered the man himself, Chris Roberts, to ask him a few questions. During this chat, Roberts said that he "doesn't care about consoles", as he thinks the future of gaming is PC. Star Citizen is a massively popular game, all without being released, entering the Guinness Book of World Records for the most crowdfunded thing, ever.

The game is currently sitting on $59,126,683 (at the time of writing), just shy of $60 million. I asked Chris if he thinks the game will reach, and go over $100 million in funding, something he said he thinks will happen before the game launches. Roberts said that the $100 million haul should happen as the game hits version 1.0 "based on the trajectory" of the never-ending stream of funds.

I asked Chris what he expected when he first unveiled Star Citizen on Kickstarter, where he was hoping to see $4 million toward development. He didn't expect to reach $10 million, and now pushing on the edges of $60 million, the game's scope has expanded beyond Roberts' initial goals. The massive injection of fuding allows Roberts Space Industries to hire more staff, call in more contractors, and get much more of the game done not only quicker, but more polished during every patch thanks to community feedback.

Gaming company Nintendo announced a new health and fatigue technology from its health care division, manufactured with the assistance of the ResMed medical equipment company, to help better treat sleep disorders. The QOL Sensor will roughly be the size of an average human hand, and should be available on the consumer market before April 2016.

Here is what Nintendo head Satoru Iwata said regarding the new technology: "All you have to do is place the QOL Sensor on your bedside. Inside the QOL Sensor is a non-contact radio frequency sensor, which measures such things as the movements of your body, breathing and heartbeat, all without physically touching your body. This automatically gathered data will be transmitted to the QOL cloud servers, which will then analyze the data measured by the sensor and visually represent sleep and fatigue results."

Iwata hopes the new Nintendo division will be profitable within the next two years, but didn't say what else Nintendo has in the pipeline. It isn't a secret that Nintendo wants to ensure its customers are as healthy as possible, hoping to visualize sleep and fatigue things.