Latest News - Page 2808

Reports pointed out that AMD is strengthening its partnership with Asustek Computer, one of the tier 1 manufacturer of many components. In this case, AMD is apparently pairing itself with Asustek to boost the sales of its AMD-based products.

In exchange, Asustek gets an exclusive price cut of AMD products. According to sources, AMD's desktop processor currently holds 30% of the desktop processor market. While by theory it looks favourable for AMD, the amount of success from this partnership is something that only time will prove. It is also pointed out that AMD will be using the word 'Zen' to name its next-generation desktop APU that will be coming out in 2016. Of course, the popularity of these hardware components can only stand out if the performance justifies the price against its competition. AMD doesn't have any new architecture for their FX series lineup at the moment, but have been concentrating on APUs.

Of course, that would also mean that it might create issues with other motherboard manufacturers. It's not clear the amount of 'special discount' or what special services that Asustek gets from AMD, or how this would benefit AMD once their upcoming APU is released. That will simply create a friction between AMD and motherboard manufacturers, while other manufacturers may even start to reduce AMD-based projects, which defeats the purpose of having a special alignment with a single tier-1 motherboard manufacturer.

Apple held its second media event in the space of a month today, unveiling the new iPad Air 2, iOS 8.1, OS X Yosemite, and the new 27-inch iMac with Retina display.

Apple's latest desktop PC is something the company was excited about, as it features the Retina 5K display, boasting a resolution of 5120x2880. At 5120x2880, we have 14.7 million pixels, or 7x the resolution of 1080p, and even a big 67% more pixels than 4K. Apple now claims this is "the world's highest resolution display". Remember though, Dell has a 5K monitor it unveiled last month, too.

The company has said that it had to create new technologies in order to drive the display, which included a custom made timing controller, and specifically engineered oxide-based TFT. Apple is also pushing some of its tech from the Retina iPad, such as organic passivation to allow the sheer amount of pixels blasting onto the screen. Even though we have a 5K display, it uses 30% less energy than previous models thanks to high efficiency LEDs. Even at 5120x2880, it is just 5mm at the thinnest edge, which is the same as the previous generation iMac.

MSI refreshed its 27" All-in-One gaming PCs so they now utilize the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M and GTX 980M video cards, powered by the Intel Core i7 processor, up to 16GB DDR3L RAM, MSI Super RAID technology, and the Killer E2200 Game Networking.

"Gamers crave performance and our new lineup of 27-inch gaming AIOs will leave them breathless," said Andy Tung, MSI Pan America CEO, in a press statement. "The outstanding combination of state-of-the-art components, including NVIDIA's latest GPU, deliver the most immersive gaming experience available and is guaranteed to outperform any other unit on the market."

The NVIDIA GeForce 900M series has received a large amount of attention from consumers, as OEMs roll out a new generation of mobile gaming products.

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick had to pay a $10,000 fine for wearing his Beats headphones, but found a way to avoid another fine: just put tape over the Beats logo. Bose is the official audio partner of the NFL, and athletes are not allowed to wear non-Bose audio products during broadcasts - and that makes Beats founder Jimmy Iovine feel "lucky."

"We didn't do anything, and now the players are going out and putting black tape on our logo," Iovine recently said. "It's like, I can't believe I am this lucky. I feel like sending them the tape."

Iovine also added: "What happened there, you have a tech company that's culturally inept. There's no one at the company that said, 'If you ban these guys, you're going to look bad to the young people, and they're going to look like superheroes even though they're just pure capitalists - well they're not pure capitalists, but they're real capitalists and [they] sold that company to Apple - but you're going to make them look like the underdog."

Google announced Android 5.0 Lollipop yesterday, which launched alongside the soon-to-be released Nexus 6 smartphone, Nexus 9 tablet, and the Nexus Player.

NVIDIA has taken to its Facebook page to announce that its Shield Tablet is "Ready for Android 5.0 Lollipop" and that "Android 5.0 Lollipop and more is coming to NVIDIA SHIELD tablet". I'm sure we'll hear more about it soon, but it's great to see NVIDIA jumping out right away pledging support for Google's latest mobile OS.

Tesla showed us all the D last week, unveiling their dual-motor AWD Model S vehicle, but now its founder is talking about the future of autonomous vehicles, where he says that a full autonomous vehicle isn't that far away.

Elon Musk, the Tony Stark of the real-world, has said "That will be the case at some point in the future. Like maybe five or six years from now I think we'll be able to achieve true autonomous driving where you could literally get in the car, go to sleep and wake up at your destination". He did add that it would be a few more years after that before regulators, governments and red tape can be cut before these things will be driving us around autonomously.

When it comes to a self-driving car, Musk reiterated that Tesla's autopilot system is not the same as a fully self-driving car. Tesla's autopilot system uses radar, ultrasonic sensing and cameras, where it creates a kind of super-smart cruise control, obstacle avoidance and lane-keeping system - but, it's not a self-driving car, not yet. Musk continued "Autopilot is what we have in airplanes. For example we use the same term that is in airplanes where there is still an expectation that there will be a pilot. So the onus is on the pilot to make sure that the autopilot is doing the right thing".

While the headlines are always about Samsung, Google and Apple, there is a much bigger part of the pie that is currently being eyed at: China. Lenovo and Xiaomi are the two most recognizable brands in the region, but Lenovo is hungry for more.

The company is about to create an entire new smartphone brand for the Chinese market, something that will be much more official in April 2015. The new brand will focus on branded applications, consumer engagement, and selling devices online - making it easier for Chinese customers to get online, and after a few clicks, have a device shipped out to them. Lenovo will still sell Lenovo-branded smartphones through local carriers and retailers, but this new brand will compliment its main brand in the country.

Google has announced the first device to be based on its new Android TV platform: Nexus Player. Google's new Nexus Player is a set-top streaming box that had the company working with ASUS on, and will be Google's first take on getting into your lounge room, properly.

The Nexus Player looks like a puck, and is around 4.7 inches in diameter, with a tiny remote that has just a few buttons on it. The remote will feature a microphone, so you can do voice searches through the Nexus Player, which is a nice touch. Inside of the Nexus Player is 8GB of internal flash storage, 802.11ac Wi-Fi for streaming content, and there's also a game controller that is sold separately.

Google is selling the Nexus Player at $99, with its game controller to be made available for $39. The company will be selling the Nexus Player exclusively through its Play Store, with pre-orders starting on Friday.

Another highly rumored, and now finally here device, is the new Nexus 9. Google had some massive announcements today, including Android 5.0 Lollipop, the new Nexus 6 smartphone, the Nexus Player, and now the Nexus 9 tablet.

Google's new Nexus 9 tablet is made by HTC, and powered by NVIDIA's super-impressive Tegra K1 processor. It features an 8.9-inch QVGA, or 2048x1536 display, with a ratio of 4:3, which is an interesting turn, as we usually see 16:9 displays. HTC has provided its BoomSound speaker technology into the Nexus 9, which is joined by NVIDIA's 64-bit, Tegra K1 processor. We also have 2GB of RAM, and three different models to choose from.

Starting with the 16GB Nexus 9, priced at $399, moving up to the 32GB for $479 and if you want to walk around with an 8.9-inch tablet in your bag with LTE abilities, the 32GB LTE model will cost $599. Google will be launching the Nexus 9 in 29 countries over the next couple of weeks, and when talking about the new 4:3 form factor, Google said that the Nexus 9 is "small enough to easily carry around in one hand, yet big enough to work on".

After months of teasing, the Nexus 6 is now official. The Nexus 6 is the beginning of a new line of devices that is ready to showcase Android 5.0, which was also just announced. The biggest news here is that Google did indeed go for the large 6-inch screen size, but we're going to talk about that a little later.

The 6-inch display features a QHD resolution, so we have 2560x1440, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 805 processor, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera with OIS, a 2-megapixel selfie-snapper, 3220mAh battery that should ensure all-day battery life (especially with that QHD panel), two-front facing speakers and it comes in two sizes: 32GB and 64GB. Two colors are on offer for the Nexus 6: blue, or white.

One of the key parts of the new Nexus 6, if not the biggest, would be that it arrives with stock Android 5.0 Lollipop. Lollipop introduces some nice new technologies and features, such as a battery saving feature that will extend a Lollipop-powered device's battery by up to 90 minutes. Also, thanks to Motorola building the new Nexus 6, the smartphone includes Motorola's Turbo Chargers, which will charge the phone up with six hours worth of use, in just 15 minutes.

Yesterday, Warner Bros head honcho Kevin Tsujihara fully unveiled the full list of DC Comics properties that are coming to cinemas over the next six years - and its an ambitious plan indeed, elaborating on rumours from last month.

The plan starts with 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice' and 'Suicide Squad' in 2016, 'Wonder Woman', 'Justice League Part One' in 2017, 'The Flash' and 'Aquaman' in 2018, 'Shazam' and 'Justice League Part Two' in 2019, and finally 'Cyborg' and a reboot of 'Green Lantern' in 2020.

Coupled with the huge expansion of Marvel films coming from Disney, 'Spider-Man' features from Sony and 'X-Men', 'Fantastic Four' and 'Deadpool' movies from Fox, it seems the next few years isn't going to have any shortage of superhero features. Perhaps TOO many.

HBO announced that a standalone, online streaming of its service would launch sometime in 2015, giving cord-cutters one more reason to consider ditching their cable or satellite service. The service will be designed more for the 10 million potential customers in the U.S. that don't currently have cable or TV service, as content providers look for new ways to expand.

The company will work with "current partners" and could expand to new content partners, but HBO CEO Richard Plepler didn't disclose additional details about what customers can expect.

This is a significant step forward for HBO, which traditionally was happy to work with pay-TV providers, but HBO and other providers have been under pressure to innovate.

Around 100 cybercriminal kingpins help wreak havoc on the world, according to Troels Oerting, the head of the Europol Cybercrime Center. Trying to crack down on cybercriminals can be a daunting task, especially trying to bring them to justice, as Web-based attack activity largely remains a borderless bureaucratic nightmare.

"We roughly know who they are," Oerting recently said. "If we can take them out of the equation then the rest will fall down. This is not a static number, it will increase unfortunately. We can still cope but the criminals have more resources and they do not have obstacles. They are driven by greed and profit and they produce malware at a speed that we have difficulties catching up with."

Not surprisingly, many of the leading cybercriminal bosses are in Russian-speaking countries - though cybersecurity experts also warned of growing threats from China. Trying to bring these criminals to justice is near impossible, with Russia and other Eastern European nations ignoring the western world when it comes to apprehending these criminals, Europol noted.

4K is barely here and getting into the market, but we already have some great monitors in the Acer XB280HK, which is powered by NVIDIA's G-SYNC technology. Forget all that, though, as news is coming out about 8K, and that both NVIDIA and AMD are looking at ways to make this insanely high-res technology happen.

PCGamesn.com talked with AMD's Chief Gaming Scientist, Richard Huddy, who said: "If we get to a display resolution of about 8k horizontally and about 6k vertically then, for a player with 20/20 vision, they will have something that is close to perfect for their visual system". After that, the human eye finds it hard to see any more detail on screen, which means we probably won't see a huge rush for 16K or 32K (can you even believe we're talking about resolutions this high?). Huddy continued: "That's about 48 million pixels to fill the field of view".

NVIDIA also had something to say about 8K, with the Head of GeForce GTX, Scott Herkelman saying: "8K, or anything above 4K is going to require multiple GPUs. 4K for most GPUs is pretty tough, the 980 handles it well but it's still one of those things that the more GPUs you have the better it looks". GPU horsepower isn't the only thing that needs to power the resolution, but imagine what kind of refresh rate is going to be there, and how much bandwidth DisplayPort, or whatever display connectivity is being used, is going to require.

The return of Killer Instinct has been well received, with Killer Instinct Season 2 nearly here. Iron Galaxy has teased the new lineup of Season 2, showing off a series of silhouettes.

Xbox Wire is reporting that Microsoft will introduce the new characters, where we can expect an "ancient Babylonian sorcerer, an avenging ghost, a battle-hardened war golem" and more. The entire cast from Season 1 is also being rebalanced, will learn new moves and some characters will also receive enhanced aerial combos.

Iron Galaxy will also be making some bigger changes to the game itself, something that will include a radical rehaul of the UI, progression system, and graphics. Killer Instinct Season 1 was running at 720p, but Season 2 will be running at 900p. Season 2 kicks off tomorrow, with two new playable characters: TJ Combo and Maya.

The CCG Magic: The Gathering has had a long shelf life following its release in 1993, which continues to bring in new fans for the traditional game. Recording an unboxing style YouTube video for a vintage set of cards from 1993, the auction house/ fan site VintageMagic was taken aback when the set unveiled a rare card called 'The Black Lotus'. Another copy of the card sold recently for nearly $28,000 USD.

Just over 1100 copies of this card were originally printed, with most in the hands of cashed-up collectors. I wonder how many continue to be tied up in sealed sets around the world?

Google is laying out plans to invest $500 million into Magic Leap, and its "cinematic reality" technology. The $500 million investment hopes to see Magic Leap reach its goal, building the next big VR device.

Re/code is reporting that Magic Leap's technology can "deliver a more realistic 3-D experience than the kind offered by current technologies, including Oculus Rift, the 3-D headset". Earlier in the year, Magic Leap raised $50 million, but an injection of a half a billion dollars will surely boost things up considerably.

Rony Abovitz, the founder of Magic Leap, explains his idea of "cinematic reality", where he said: "Those are old terms - virtual reality, augmented reality. They have legacy behind them. They are associated with things that didn't necessarily deliver on a promise or live up to expectations. We have the term cinematic reality because we are disassociated with those things. When you see this, you will see that this is computing for the next 30 or 40 years. To go farther and deeper than we're going, you would be changing what it means to be human".

TDK was teasing its new heads for HDDs that support heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology last week, at the Ceatec trade show in Japan. These new heads could see the introduction of massive next-generation HDDs, that could see up to 15TB of storage on a single drive.

At the moment, current HDDs are held back by the physical size of "pitches" on the HDDs media that are required to store a single bit of information. HAMR on the other hand, records data on high-stability media, or iron platinum alloy, using laser thermal assistance to first heat up the material, which then paves the way to reduce the sizes of the required "pitches" without negative effects on readability, writability, and stability.

This means that HAMR-powered HDDs will be capable of storing massive amounts of data, multitudes more than even the biggest HDDs we can buy today. Futurezone spoke with TDK, with a TDK rep saying that the first commercial HAMR-powered drives could arrive by late 2015, or early 2016. We should expect the first HAMR drives to provide us with around 15TB of HDD space, which will truly be crazy. The first wave of HAMR drives will be setting their sights on near-line storage applications that require HDDs with maximum capacity, with consumer drives to eventually receive the HAMR tech, and massive 15TB+ capacities.

In ZAGG's Device Damage Study for June 2014, the company held a seven-minute online survey with 768 US residents who currently own, and use a smartphone or tablet. The data secured from this adventure showed some very interesting statistics, with 23% of people worried about losing, or having their smartphone stolen.

Cracked screens came in second with 16%, while breaking it or damaging it in general came in third with 15%. Out of the smartphone users who had their handset damaged, 38% of those said the damage happened from a drop or fall, with 26% saying they had some form of water damage. The water damage is interesting, as this splits into four categories: fell in water, got wet, spilled drink/fell in drink, and fell in toilet. 6% of those who participated in the study said they dropped their smartphone in the toilet.

ZAGG's study showed that from the 768 people who took part in this research, 49% of those with damaged phones either replaced the handset completely, or had it fixed. Another scary number is that 48% of those in the study were still using a damaged smartphone, which is close to the same number as those who actually have a protective case on their phone.

Ubisoft had a few of its staff visit a school to explain their work, with some truly interesting things revealed about the company who thinks 60FPS 'looks weird'. Someone asked the Ubisoft employees "what the hell happened with Watch Dogs", to which the Ubisoft employee, who was the 'Online Programmer' said that just before they release a game, they have to send a copy to console manufacturers, who tell them what to keep in the game, and what to take out.

But it gets better: the Game Architect said that they always try to aim for 60FPS, but due to "limitations", they have been settling at 30FPS for their latest games. He continued, saying that console makers are pressuring them into doing the same thing on PC. The Game Architect continued, saying that Ubisoft reuses as much code as possible, which could explain the similarities between a few of their games.

Someone else asked if the company was "aware of the negative responses of the recent decision to lock your games into 30FPS. If so, what do you think about that?". The Game Architect said that on consoles, and especially for something like Assassin's Creed: Unity, they have to choose between graphic fidelity and smoothness. 'timois', who made the thread on Reddit, said that "he implied that MS is making them lock the framerate on PC too".