Latest News - Page 2821

Home Depot is now working with banks and law enforcement to investigate a data breach that led cybercriminals to steal customer payment information, including debit and credit card data. The Home Depot breach could have started in April or May, and reportedly affected a large number of customers. The data made its way to an underground forum and was called "American Sanctions," reportedly in response to further U.S. and European sanctions against Russia.

"Protecting our customers' information is something we take extremely seriously, and we are aggressively gathering facts at this point while working to protect customers," said Paula Drake, Home Depot spokesperson.

Consumers are urged to use cash or credit card payments in retail stores - debit card payments can be risky, forcing shoppers to closely track their bank statements. Hackers taking a political stance, trying to retaliate against the U.S. for further sanctions in a tense situation between Russia and the Ukraine, adds another layer of chaos to data breaches.

The FBI is now investigating the celebrity hacker that posted numerous photos of celebrities on the Internet over the weekend. Many of the images, originally posted on 4chan and later shared on Reddit, Twitter and Imgur, featured celebrities such as Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, Jenny McCarthy, and Mary Winstead.

Here is what the FBI noted: "The FBI is aware of the allegations concerning computer intrusions and the unlawful release of material involving high profile individuals, and is addressing the matter," said Laura Eimiller, FBI spokesperson, in a statement. "Any further comment would be inappropriate at this time."

Apple also is investigating the incident, as many of the images were reportedly stored online using its iCloud service.

ASRock has unveiled its new X99-based motherboards, with one of the top-end boards being the new X99 Extreme 11 motherboard which features an insane 18 SATA ports.

The ASRock X99 Extreme 11 motherboard is built on the same Super Alloy design that has been deployed on the rest of ASRock's X99 motherboards, with the PCB being built on a high-quality design and components, with the XXL aluminum alloy heat sinks being placed across the board. In order to cool down the extra storage and PCI-e controllers near the PCH, ASRock has provided an active fan cooling solution, bringing back memories of yesteryear.

Up to 128GB of DDR4 memory can be installed onto the X99 Extreme 11, at up to 3300MHz for the overclockers out there. Power requirements sit at the usual 8-pin EPS and 24-pin ATX connectors, but let's get to the 18 SATA ports. 10 of the SATA ports are powered through the PCH, while the remaining 8 are powered through a separate SAS controller, but each and every SATA port is of the SATA 6Gbps variety. We also have two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 headers at the bottom of the board, too.

Disney studios and the Australian Government have come to an financial agreement, which will see the fortchoming sequel in the 'Pirates of the Carribbean' franchise, 'Dead Men Tell No Tales' filmed in Australia.

The Federal Arts Minister Senator the Hon George Brandis QC has agreed to provide Disney with a $21 million tax break to lure the production away from the United States to the Gold Coast, which will stimulate the Australian film production sector which has been relatively quiet with international productions due to the high dollar.

Notable productions to film at the studio in the past include 'Peter Pan', 'Scooby Doo' and 'The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of The Dawn Treader'.

Watch maker Swatch looks forward to launch its own smartwatches next year, with the aim of competing for a multi-billion-dollar industry that analysts expect Samsung, Apple, and other companies to dominate in the coming years. Swatch is the largest watchmaker in the world, and hopes its new Swatch Touch - scheduled for release in 2015 - will help shake up the smartwatch market even further.

"Our first message for customers is the watch," said Nick Hayek, Swatch CEO, in a recent interview posted on Reuters. "If they like it, they might also be interested in the extra functions. It is a problem if you only define a product by its technology. Technology alone doesn't sell, not in watches."

Analysts believe Swatch could take a two percent revenue and earnings hit from potential Apple iWatch growth with each 10 market share the iWatch can capture. Swatch and Apple would be able to offer a lucrative product, but Swatch wants to continue selling fashionable watches - and not just focus on technology.

A hacker is claiming to have completed a massive hack, where he has said that he has leaked out photos of some of the biggest female celebrities in the world, including Jennifer Lawrence, Kim Kardashian, and many more. Lawrence's reps have confirmed that the nude photos of her are indeed real, allegedly stolen from her Apple iCloud account.

A spokesperson told HuffPost: "This is a flagrant violation of privacy. The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence." The hacker claims to have videos of celebrities too, and not just nude photos, as he is offering to release more of his treasure trove in exchange for money.

Representatives for many of the celebrities are coming out claiming that the photos are "completely fake," but there are some that are real, and in this instance, Jennifer Lawrence's reps coming out and confirming the images, proves that this hack has happened and at least some of the pictures are real.

Thanks to our friends at Universal Sony Home Entertainment, we have copies of this week's Blu-ray release of Seth MacFarlane's 'A Million Ways to Die in The West' up for grabs for ten lucky readers!

In Arizona 1882 nothing comes easy in the bitterly unforgiving Old West except dying. Albert (Seth MacFarlane), is a soft man in hard times who really doesn't fit in. Adding to Albert's distress and feelings of inadequacy, his girlfriend (Amanda Seyfried) leaves him for the towns moustache groomer (Neil Patrick-Harris). When a mysterious and beautiful woman (Charlize Theron) rides into town she helps him find his courage. However, when her husband (Liam Neeson), a notorious outlaw, arrives seeking revenge, the farmer must put his new found courage to the test.

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

LG has already unveiled its new curved ultrawide monitor, but now it is Dell's turn with the new 34-inch Ultrasharp U3415W. Like LG's curved panel, Dell's new ultrawide monitor is also curved, with a 21:9 aspect ratio and 3440x1440 resolution.

Dell says that the wide field of view on its Ultrasharp U3415W, matches with its curves will help gamers play better when compared to flat monitors, with less eye movement required to soak in all of the player's peripheral vision. Dell will be shipping its new curved ultrawide monitors in December, so you'll be able to check that claim out in just a few months time - we will get one in the TweakTown labs to test, as I'd like to see how it goes against the likes of a 4K monitor, or G-SYNC powered display.

It looks like NVIDIA is preparing the GeForce GTX 900 series, with the company to reportedly skip the 800 series, according to VideoCards.com. The site is reporting that NVIDIA will launch the new second-generation Maxwell-based GPUs on September 9-10 at a press event, with the NDA lifting on the GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 on September 19.

There's not much known on the new GeForce GTX 980 (if that's what it arrives as) other than the fact that it should arrive with a 256-bit memory bus, and 4GB of RAM by default - up from the 3GB on the current GTX 780. With AMD only just announcing its Radeon R9 285 and R9 285X last week, the new GTX 970 could fight it in the mid-range, or NVIDIA could drop the price of its current GTX 770 and GTX 760 to better fight Red Team off.

Then we have the fact of AMD sitting on the unannounced Radeon R9 295X, something that the company should announce or unveil as soon as NVIDIA is done pulling the curtain off of its new Maxwell-based video cards.

Alienware has just unveiled its new Area 51 gaming PC, something that is making a comeback. The original design rewinds back to 2006, but there's now a new design, and it looks quite slick.

From top to bottom, the new Area 51 chassis has been redesigned, featuring a unique body which Alienware calls its "triad case." It's not just for good looks, but it's designed to better vent warm air upwards, and out of the case, when it's backed right up against a wall. When the Area 51 system is sitting flat, the sloped front bezel makes getting to the USB ports much easier.

There's also some LEDs to help you find the rear panel in the dark, which is good to see from Alienware - an actual useful reason for having LEDs instead of just vanity. There are built-in handles on each corner that make taking the Area 51 gaming PC a great case for lugging around to LANs, especially with its 45 pounds of heft to tote around - and while that's heavy, handles will at least make it easier. What about specs? We have Intel's latest Haswell-E CPUs, DDR4 support, 1500W PSU, and much more.

Cyanogen is definitely doing alright for themselves at the moment, with the company meeting with some of the biggest companies in the world recently. Microsoft, Samsung, Amazon, Yahoo and more have met with the company "to see whether it becomes a potential partner or acquisition target."

Microsoft's CEO, Satya Nadella, recently sat down with Cyanogen, which could be interesting for the company. Given that Cyanogen is a modified version of Android, which is owned by Google, Microsoft acquiring the guys and girls at Cyanogen could be something interesting for the future of Windows Phone.

Cyanogen is currently in search for a "big" Series C funding round, and with recent staff movements from EA and Facebook, it could get quite serious, quite quick for Cyanogen.

Memory manufacturer G.SKILL has announced it reached 4004MHz frequency using its Ripjaws 4 Series DDR4 RAM on an ASUS ROG X99 Rampage V Extreme motherboard powered with the Intel Core i7-5930K CPU. The speed was verified by CPU-Z freeware system and hardware benchmarking software.

G.SKILL officially announced Ripjaws 4 just a week ago, with 32GB RAM kits available running at 2133, 2400, 2800, 3000MHz - 64GB kits include 2133, 2400, 2666 and 2800MHz. A separate 3200MHz kit will be available in 16GB only.

The launch of Intel X99 paired with DDR4 memory has excited PC enthusiasts and hardware manufacturers - as several gaming companies announced new PCs pushing impressive benchmarks. Expect RAM manufacturers to continue pushing DDR4 speeds even higher moving forward, while hardware will remain rather pricey in the foreseeable future.

Hardware companies Corsair and ASUS have teamed up to create the fastest production DDR4 memory kit for use with the Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition CPUs. The new Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 memory kits are available in 3000MHz, 3200MHz and 3300MhZ speeds. The new RAM kits work especially well using the ASUS X99 Deluxe and Rampage V Extreme motherboards for Intel Core i7 CPU fans.

This is a significant collaboration, as DDR3 speeds increased from 800MHz up to 1600-1866MHz, but the DDR4 modules introduced by Corsair should immediately provide impressive benchmarks. The Corsair DDR4 memory kits are available now for the Vengeance LPX and Dominator Platinum lines - and the ASUS X99-Deluxe and Rampage and V Extreme motherboards are available now.

"Our rigorous validation with ASUS has enabled us to make Dominator Platinum 3300MHz the fastest desktop DDR4 memory available at launch," said Thi La, Corsair COO, in a press statement. "Our OC team and engineers are excited to see such performance headroom the new Intel platform and are looking forward to releasing even faster kits in the near future."

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is being pressured by the U.S. Department of Commerce Office of Inspector General to fix several vulnerabilities currently found in the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). There are at least a few different high-risk vulnerabilities found in the JPSS ground stations that could be exploited by clever cyberattacks.

Some of the issues would only require software updates or new security patches, but the NOAA is taking 11 to 14 months in some cases to fix the problems - the JPSS system requirements have 30 days to fix security problems, with the inspector general saying it shouldn't take more than three months to resolve problems.

"The remediation of high-risk vulnerabilities is critical to the continued success of the JPSS mission and should have a high priority," according to the report. "The more high-risk vulnerabilities that exist in the system, the higher the probability is that an attacker could compromise it. This could lead to a disruption of NOAA's ability to command and control the Suomi NPP satellite and to provide data that is used in numerical weather models that support weather predictions and climate monitoring."

We've been expecting this update for the Xbox One for a while now, but it's finally rolling out to users across the world, and will continue to do so over the coming days.

The new update for the Xbox One includes a new media player app, which will bring file support for MKV (which is a very big deal), animated GIFs, and DNLA support by the end of the year. We will also have new party features, new SmartGlass features, an option to boot directly to the TV, and much more. The full list of updates can be found in the full story.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is suing Half-Life and Counter-Strike developer Valve, claiming that the company is breaching Australian Consumer Law. The reason? Valve doesn't offer refunds of any kind, and now the ACCC is putting its foot down as these actions are against Australian consumer law.

ACCC Chairman Rod Sims explains: "The Australian Consumer Law applies to any business providing goods or services within Australia. Valve may be an American based company with no physical presence in Australia, but it is carrying on business in Australia by selling to Australian consumers, who are protected by the Australian Consumer Law." "It is a breach of the Australian Consumer Law for businesses to state that they do not give refunds under any circumstances, including for gifts and during sales. Under the Australian Consumer Law, consumers can insist on a refund or replacement at their option if a product has a major fault," Sims continued. "The consumer guarantees provided under the Australian Consumer Law cannot be excluded, restricted or modified."

Valve has since responded, with Doug Lombardi saying: "We are making every effort to cooperate with the Australian officials on this matter, while continuing to provide Steam services to our customers across the world, including Australian gamers."

Intel will be launching its new Haswell-E based Core processors tomorrow, but some leaked benchmarks are already surfacing over at Videocardz and WCCFTech. When it comes to games, the new Core i7-5960X is around 14% faster than its predecessor, the Core i7-4960X.

The new Core i7-5960X is Intel's first 8-core processor for the consumer market, with a stock frequency of 3GHz, and Boost frequency of 3.5GHz. We have 20MB of L3 cache, 140W TDP and support for DDR4 memory. We should expect a price of $999, which isn't too bad for a processor of this calibre.

When it comes to 4K video editing the new Core i7-5960X is around 20% faster than the 4960X, and around 32% faster in 3D rending. 'Thayn3' in the coolaler forums was able to overclock the Core i7-5960X to 4GHz using just 1.2V, but there has been an insane overclock found online, with the new 16-thread CPU clocked up to 6.2GHz on LN2.

The Sims 4 is only a few days away from being launched, with Electronic Arts making the PC requirements made available through the games FAQ page. Most will be surprised that you don't need a powerhouse gaming system to run it, with some pretty relaxed requirements. An Internet connection is only required for activation, so it's not an always-online mess like SimCity was.

You'll only need a "1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, AMD Athlon 64 Dual-Core 4000+ or equivalent (For computers using built-in graphics chipsets, the game requires 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.0 GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-62 or equivalent)" for the CPU side of things, and 2GB of RAM minimum. 9GB of HDD space is required, with 1GB additional space needed for custom content and saved games.

A video card with at least 128MB of RAM is required, with Pixel Shader 3.0 support required - so we have NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or better, an ATI Radeon X1300 or better, or Intel's GMA X4500 or better. As you can see, the minimum PC requirements are very relaxed. The recommended specifications aren't that much more, with an Intel Core i5/AMD Athlon X4 or higher, 4GB of RAM, the same 9GB of HDD space, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 or better and the 64-bit version of Windows 7, 8 or 8.1.

One very disgruntled gamer called in a bomb threat to a popular video game streamer, which resulted in a SWAT team bursting into the room with automatic weapons drawn, throwing Jordan "Kootra" Mathewson to the ground and handcuffing him.

Mathewson, part of The Creatures, was streaming a game of Counter-Strike in his hometown of Littleton, Colorado when the SWAT team came busting through the door, throwing him to the ground, handcuffing him, searching the room - and if you notice in the video, going through his phone. Last time I checked, this was against the law, as the police officer could be removing any evidence from the phone, but that's for another day.

The Littleton police were called to the address after a false report sent into 911 of an active shooter with multiple victims, this lead to the Littleton Public Schools having multiple schools in lockdown, according to KMGH-TV of Denver. This isn't the first time a SWAT team has been called into a gamer's house, as it is known as "SWATting" where someone will call in a bomb or shooting threat, which results in the other party (or gamer) having the SWAT team bust into their room or house.

Technology giant Hewlett-Packard is recalling 5.6 million power cords, model LS-15, which were shipped with HP and Compaq notebooks, along with mini-notebooks and docking stations. HP received almost 30 reports of overheating cords that melted or charred, with 13 claims of minor property damage and two minor burn claims, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The cords were sold to consumers from September 2010 to June 2012, and consumers using this type of AC adapters should immediately stop using the power cords and unplug it. HP is offering free replacements for customers impacted by the safety risk. If you have a model LS-15 power cord, call 877-219-6676 - or visit the HP "Recalls" portion of the website to learn more.

"HP believes that certain power cords shipped with notebook PC products and AC adapter accessories may pose a risk of a fire and burn hazard to customers," HP said on its website. "We are taking this action as part of our commitment to provide the highest quality of service to our notebook customers."