Latest News - Page 2828

Flash Memory Summit 2014 - Jim Handy from Objective Analysis stopped by our booth to talk about the latest and greatest in the storage market. Jim's 3D NAND series, which explores the rationale behind 3D NAND and delves into an in-depth breakdown of the architecture, has became a go-to source of information on 3D NAND. His informative series of articles can be found here on thememoryguy.com.

Jim also discusses the possibilities of future storage technology. Objective Analysis offers third-party independent market research and data for the semiconductor industry and investors in the semiconductor industry.

The Orion capsule is the spacecraft that will help American astronauts get back into space in the future. It's first flight is set for December, but preparations for other aspects of Orion operations are underway. One of those practice aspects is the recovery of the capsule after a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.

This week, US Navy dive teams aboard the USS Anchorage recovery vessel successfully recovered the Orion capsule during a practice test using a cradle and winch system. This test is the last time the Navy and NASA get to practice before the Orion is sent 3600 miles above the earth.

During that unmanned test flight, Orion will land in a splashdown in the ocean where it will be recovered and used again. NASA hasn't performed an at sea recovery of a spacecraft in a real mission since 1975.

We hear plenty about recalls of faulty cars for defects that can cause injury to owners, but we rarely hear about TVs being recalled. TV maker Vizio has done just that with a recall that has been expanded to cover 245,000 E-Series TVs that were sold between late 2013 and mid-2014.

The TVs covered in the recall are 39-inch and 42-inch units and the recall is due to faulty stands that cause an increased risk of tip over. This can be particularly problematic for homes with small children who are more likely to be injured if the TV tips over.

The TVs in the recall include model numbers E390-B0, E390i-B0, and E420i-B0 sold between December 2013 and June 2014. Vizio says that the defect that can lead to tip over isn't visible on the outside of the TV. No injuries have been reported, but 51 TVs in the recalled line have tipped over.

Microsoft has announced through its by the Numbers webpage that its Windows Phone Store is now home to over 300,000 apps. This doesn't begin to compare with Apple and Google, but it's a big milestone for Windows Phone, and Microsoft.

A Microsoft spokesperson spoke with The Next Web, where they said: "We have more than 300,000 Windows Phone apps today and the Windows Phone Store continues to grow. In the past year alone the Windows and Windows Phone app catalog has grown 94%, while the number of active developers has grown by 50%".

The company was asked when it reached the 300,000 app milestone, where TNW was told the data: "is as of end of June 2014". If we rewind to December 2013, Microsoft had 200,000 apps and rewinding further to June 2012, it had just 100,000 apps. So we're seeing many more apps uploaded to the Windows Phone Store as time goes on, with over 100,000 apps uploaded within the last six months alone.

We've already seen ADATA unveil its DDR4 kits, but they're only sitting at 2133MHz, and what fun is that? The company has now just unveiled its new enthusiast-focused DDR4 kits, named the XPG Z1 DDR4. These new kits are kicking up some speeds, and even though they don't match some of the insane speeds of DDR3, they're still faster than the original kits, at 2800MHz.

ADATA will maek its new XPG Z1 DDR4 kits available as 4GB and 8GB modules, with 1.2V of power required in both dual- and quad-channel kits. The new kits are rated to run at 2133MHz at CL 15 15-15, or CL 13 13-13 timings. Cranking it up to 2400MHz, we have CL 16 16-16, and then we have the 2800MHz setting which sees the timings relaxed more to CL17 17-17.

The new kits are based on an advanced 10-layer printed-circuit boards with 2oz copper, meaning they're designed for some serious overclocking. The new ADATA XPG Z1 DDR4 kits sport a new cooling system, which features a very nice looking jet wing-inspired design with carbon texture that is used on race cars, which gives off the impression of serious performance. ADATA will make its new XPG Z1 DDR4 kits available to consumers next month, with a lifetime warranty.

We're starting to hear more and more about Windows 9, but what big changes should we expect with Microsoft's new desktop OS? For starters, we should be treated with a new Start Menu, as well as windowed "Metro-style" apps.

Beyond that, it looks like Microsoft will be removing its Charms bar, which is an overlay from the right hand side of the OS that gives users quick access to search, share, the Start screen, devices and settings. This new information is being reported by The Verge, which has seen the changes in the latest builds of Windows Threshold, the codename for Microsoft's upcoming OS. Charms are useful for touch-based systems, something I often used to quickly search for something on my Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro Ultrabook, but outside of that, it's close to useless on traditional mouse and keyboard setups.

Another new addition to Windows 9 is the rumored virtual desktops feature, that will see power users and enterprise customers welcoming the new OS. Windows has supported virtual desktops before, but always through third-party software, but now Windows 9 users will be capable of creating their own separate active desktops, with the ability of switching between by clicking, or tapping a button on the taskbar. The addition of virtual desktops shows that Microsoft is getting serious about its focus on the desktop.

The social network for people who have to wear ties on a day to day basis, LinkedIn, has been forced by the US Department of Labor to pay out 6 million USD after being found guilty of breaking wage laws.

LinkedIn was found to have broken federal wage laws in California, Illinois, Nebraska and New York, and subsequently had to pay over 3 million in back wages, plus over 2.5 million in damages to 359 people, including former employees and those still at the firm. Although the company was caught out by the Department of Labor, it did praise LinkedIn for how it responded - agreeing to pay every cent and taking steps to ensure it didn't happen again.

"Talent is LinkedIn's number one priority, so of course, we were eager to work closely with the Dept. of Labor to quickly and equitably rectify this situation," a spokesperson for LinkedIn said to CNET. "This was a function of not having the right tools in place for a small subset of our sales force to track hours properly; prior to the DoL approaching us, we had already begun to remedy this."

Once Valve gets things into gear, it's going to be non-stop for them. We have Steam OS, Steam Controller, Steam Box, Steam Machines, Half-Life 3, and various other sequels to expect from the company. But, one of those main cogs is Source 2, the company's next generation graphics engine.

Well, according to some user reports, the company has just silently launched it. Reports are coming out that Source 2 has been spotted in DotA after the alpha launch of DotA 2's Workshop Tools last night, with the entire game reportedly being shifted over to Valve's next-gen Source 2 engine. A post within a thread of Reddit reads: "So, The Workshop tools isn't just a modding platform. It's Source 2. And it's running Dota 2".

The post continues: "Everything in this package is a new game. It's all the Dota assets and code ported over to Source 2. That's why Hammer is different. That's why the console is different. Guys. Valve just soft launched the entire Source 2 engine". This isn't a 100% confirmation that Source 2 has launched, but Gabe Newell did tease in a Reddit AMA back in March: "The biggest improvements [in Source 2] will be in increasing productivity of content creation. That focus is driven by the importance we see UGC having going forward. A professional developer at Valve will put up with a lot of pain that won't work if users themselves have to create content".

Douglas Ladore has submitted a complaint with the California Northern District federal court, where he is claiming that Sony promised 1080p single and multiplayer graphics in its advertisements and interviews for Killzone: Shadow Fall before the game was released in November 2013.

On Killzone: Shadow Fall's packaging, it clearly shows a "1080p HD video output" logo on the back. Killzone's multiplayer renders the game at 960x1080, which is half of the 1920x1080 that "1080p" or "Full HD" is. In order to output the full 1920x1080 resolution, this source image has something called "temporal upscale" applied to it, something that fills the gaps with a horizontal interlace containing pixels from the previous frame. The result is graphical performance that the lawsuit, and reviewers across the world claim call "blurry to the point of distraction".

Guerrilla Games, the developer behind Killzone, along with Sony, took to a blog post to address the concerns of this "temporal projection" method. The companies said that it provides "subjectively similar results" to rendering at the full 1080p resolution. Ladore's lawsuit wasn't happy with this, where he argues: "While this reconstruction technique might be novel, it is decidedly not the 'native 1080p' Sony promised". But was anyone hurt from the result of this resolution downgrade in Killzone? Not directly.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken to Twitter to thank the cast and crew of the new Terminator movie, getting fans to begin their excitement for its release on July 1, 2015.

Schwarzenegger posted a picture of himself sitting on his chair, with the official title of the movie on the back: Terminator Genisys. He posted the picture to his Instagram account, with the following caption: "Hasta la vista, baby. I want to thank the cast and crew of @TerminatorGenisys for a fantastic shoot. It was challenging, it was fun, and it was rewarding. From our director to the producers, from the camera team to catering, from visual effects to hair and makeup - we couldn't have done it without you. I can't wait to see our finished project and I know we'll remind the fans why they fell in love with the Terminator. On July 1, 2015, I'll be back".

This is where it gets interesting: instead of it being called Terminator 5, or Terminator Genesis, we have Terminator Genisys. Schwarzenegger is sitting in front of a screen with the word "Genisys" on it, so we might expect the operating system for the T-800 to possibly be called Genisys? I think that's what we should expect from this, and while I'm trying not to get too excited about the new Terminator movie, I still can't wait to check it out next year.

During its investor relations conference call yesterday, Activision Publishing boss Eric Hirshberg was asked about game pre-orders, and how they are going with the slew of games Activision has coming out this year. This includes some of the biggest titles coming, including Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Destiny.

Hirshberg said that pre-order numbers were down, but not just with his company, but across the entire industry. Hirshberg attributed this drop to increased digital consumption, especially on the Xbox One and PS4. Another reason is that games are made available widely when they are released, so there's not much of an incentive to pre-order. These two factors, along with the fact that a decline overall for the last generation of consoles means that pre-orders are down.

Activision is now looking at other ways it can determine how popular its upcoming games will be, as it used to judge this by pre-order numbers. new methods could include "purchase intent" and "awareness" of a title, with Hirshberg saying: "It's important to note that pre-orders are just one data point that we look at when determining the momentum of a franchise". When it comes to Destiny, Hirshberg says Destiny's awareness is "at an all-time high and climbing when compared to any other new game intellectual property this distance from launch. Purchase intent is also at an all-time high and rising compared to any other intellectual property. The hugely successful open beta, which saw 4.6m players, probably had something to do with that. So all of those add to our sense of momentum for the launch".

20th Century Fox has been working on a deal that would have seen it purchase time Warner. That purchase deal has now fallen through as Fox has withdrawn its plans to purchase Time Warner. The announcement was made Tuesday and has sent shares of Time Warner stock tumbling 11% in trading.

Word of the potential purchase surfaced in June and the expectation was that Fox would make a higher bid than the $85 per share that had been offered. News of the offer sent shares of Time Warner stock trading above that $85 per share offer at the time.

A source had said previously that Fox would not offer more than the $90 to $95 range. Fox did announce a $6 billion share buyback program to help sooth disappointed shareholders. The move has sent shares in Fox up by 7% in trading.

FMS 2014 - Flash Memory Summit 2014 is underway, with LSI teasing its SandForce 3700 controller and its new mixed 80/20 (read/write) workload performance, at up to a huge 1.3GB/sec on a native PCIe interface.

This achievement was made possible using the integrated SHIELD error correction with hard and soft LDPC and DSP technology, which works together to provide the associated endurance requirements. The SF3700 controller is built for, and optimized for bi-directional PCIe traffic, which drives the performance up much higher than competing flash controllers. This makes the SF3700 a great choice for enterprise storage.

LSI's Vice President of Marketing, Flash Components Division, Thad Omura, explains: "Flash storage solutions used for client computing, big data, and hyperscale enterprises are continuing to grow at unprecedented levels, driving the need for more advanced flash controllers to manage these data-intensive environments. The SF3700 is the ideal-building block for next-generation storage solutions with its full-duplex architecture. Both enterprise and client applications will benefit from our proprietary LDPC engine which enables customers to significantly extend NAND flash life by dynamically balancing performance and reliability with minimal latency".

With all of the hoopla going around right now with Star Citizen, people forget that it all started with Wing Commander for Chris Roberts. Well, EA and Origin are giving away Wing Commander III on Origin right now, one of the big games form the 90s.

Wing Commander III being free is part of Origin's "On The House" deals, where it randomly gives away PC games. Today, that game is Wing Commander III. For those who never played it, it stars Mark Hamill of Star Wars fame, Biff from Back to the Future and even Malcolm McDowell. You can grab Wing Commander III for free on Origin from here.

Capcom has officially announced that it will be re-releasing the original Resident Evil game next year, with Producers Tatsuya Kitabayashi and Yoshiaki Hirabyashi saying that they were trying their best to not mess anything up when rebuilding one of the survival horror games that started it all.

Hirabyashi said: "We have been very careful to preserve the original atmosphere of the game, and are ensuring that no unnecessary changes will be made. The tempo and flow of the original game are an inherent part of its scary atmosphere so we have made the decision not to disrupt this tempo". Most of the changes to Resident Evil will be in the graphics department, and not in gameplay. Kitabayashi chimed in with: "When it comes to graphics, we didn't just want them to look better, we have taken the game apart, polished up all the different elements and carefully reassembled them in such a way that its original atmosphere shines through".

Resident Evil will be launched once again next year for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4 and PC.

Sony has abandoned its e-reader business in Europe after being thoroughly trounced by products like Amazon's Kindle, it has emerged.

The Japanese company launched its e-book Reader devices to a largely tepid response from consumers in Europe. Its last model, the PRS-T3, will stay on sale in the continent but only until supplies run out, with the company confirming to the BBC that it has "no plans" to develop a successor. Existing customers have been pointed towards the Kobo e-reader device since February in North America and since May in Europe and Australia, according to a spokesperson. Sony's Readers will continue to be available in the company's native Japanese market, where the Sony Reader Store remains functional.

The overall e-reader market is totally dominated by Amazon and its kindle, although the sector is predicted to be on the wane in general as it is cannibalized by tablets and smartphones.

Over 17,000 Facebook users have rallied behind and joined in on an Austrian man's lawsuit against the social network, which alleges the service breaks data protection laws.

Max Schrems, 26, filed a lawsuit on 1 August and invited anyone else who so wished to join in. An app created specifically for the lawsuit helped interested users file the personal details of their Facebook account into the lawsuit, along with scans proving their identity and addresses - by Monday this week 5,000 had joined, and now the figure's approaching 20,000. The case is filed against Facebook Ireland. Schrems insists the division of the company has insisted in supporting the NSA's spying programme, as detailed by whistleblower Edward Snowden, and in doing so has broken European data protection laws. Each user's personal data is being set at 500 Euros - roughly 660 USD.

20 percent of any damages will be awarded to a litigation funding company backing the suit, Roland Prozessfinanz, with the rest going to the users. If the amount awarded is under five Euros, the balance will be donated to a charity. The app created for the complaints underlined that the strength of the lawsuit is in its numbers, and that if enough people join in it will present enough of a financial risk to Facebook for the company to take notice.

Samsung fans who are in the market for a new phone might want to check out the specs for the leaked Samsung Galaxy Alpha smartphone. The specifications have leaked online via a UK reseller. One retailer, called Mobilefun, is also taking pre-orders for the unlocked device already for the equivalent of $923 USD.

It's unclear what the release date will be for the device, but we know it has 32GB of storage and an octa-core Exynos processor. The smartphone will run Android 4.4.2 Kitkat and features a 12MP rear camera along with a fingerprint scanner.

The screen is tipped to be a 4.7-inch Super AMOLED with resolution of 1280 x 720 and 320 ppi pixel density. Other features include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and more. Rumors suggest that the phone will be announced officially on August 13.

Apple TV owners who also like NFL football games and content will get a new channel to enjoy this month. The NFL Now app is heading to the Apple TV according to an image that was leaked by a NFL employee during testing for the app. The app will offer personalized NFL content along with other content.

That other content includes on-demand highlights, extensive archives, and news broadcasts. The channel will also feature content produced by NFL teams with locker room interviews and player features. NFL Films content will also be included on the channel.

Live events and press conferences will be featured as well. The NFL Now app will hit Apple TV in time for fans to enjoy it during the 2014-2015 NFL season. NFL Now app will also be landing on other platforms includes iOS devices, Xbox, and Roku set top boxes.

The Ghost Edition of Destiny was announced last month, with a retail price of $150, but quickly sold out. Well, some people are now selling the Xbox One version of Destiny: Ghost Edition for a huge $1025 on eBay. Destiny: Ghost Edition includes a bunch of goodies for the increased price, with a huge list to gander over:

Bungie won't be making any more of these copies, with the company stating: "No promises. We wanted to release limited editions that were actually limited. When you play the game, you'll appreciate the appearance of exotic loot because not everyone will have it. The same goes for the editions of Destiny that have been designed for collectors. If you can find one, collect it."