Latest News - Page 2855

ASRock has just unveiled its new Ultra M.2 PCIe Gen3 x4 connection interface that is said to double its transfer speed bandwidth, and blow SATA 3 6GB/s out of the water. The new Ulra M.2 interface is much faster due to a direct connection to the CPU, whereas older M.2 interfaces passed through the chipset before being routed to the CPU. This means that the latency is much lower and faster transfer speeds are the result.

"The theoretical speed of Ultra M.2 is 32Gb/s, which is 6X faster than PCIe x1 M.2, and 3X faster than PCIe x2 M.2. As for Ultra M.2 vs. normal M.2 comparison, we tested the read speed of Samsung XP941 PCIe x4 M.2 SSD on Ultra M.2 socket and reached 1.16GB/s, 46% faster than PCIe x2 M.2 socket. We also tested a PCIe x2 M.2 SSD on Ultra M.2 socket. Benefited from the direct linkage between Ultra M.2 interface and CPU, the PCIe x2 M.2 SSD read speed on Ultra M.2 socket is 8.8% faster than on normal M.2 socket. As shown in Chart 3, the lower latency of Ultra M.2 design does matter," ASRock said in a release.

ASRock says that for now, the new Ultra M.2 interface will only be available on the new ASRock Z97 Extreme 6 motherboard which features other high-end features such as; ASRock Super Alloy technology, 12 Phase Power Design, Purity Sound 2, Dual LAN, SATA Express interface, and ASRock Cloud.

This morning Blizzard announced the console launch date of its Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - Ultimate Evil Edition title. The game will launch on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles later this year on August 19th, and is expected to retail in the $60 price range for next-gen consoles and $40 price range for the older consoles.

"The Ultimate Evil Edition brings Reaper of Souls to console gamers for the first time, and wraps all of the content, features, and updates we've released for Diablo III into one epic package," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "Whether you're a veteran of the crusade against the forces of evil on PC or are just stepping foot into Sanctuary for the first time, there's never been a better time to experience Diablo III from the comfort of your couch."

As stated previously, GameSpy will be shutting down its operations, leaving many games' multiplayer support in the dark. While some publishers have presented alternate solutions, EA has listed the games that will be affected by GameSpy, and may use it as a reason to retire certain popular games.

While EA did provide the list of games that will be affected, which includes 24 PC titles, it isn't clear whether it already has a plan for an alternate solution. "Since GameSpy's announcement, our teams have been working to evaluate options to keep services up and running," posted on the EA blog. "Unfortunately, due to technical challenges and concerns about the player experience, we do not have a solution at this time. Online services for EA games on the GameSpy platform will be closed down at the end of June."

Regardless, EA acknowledged that there is a concern that the old fan favourites game will not have multiplayer support. They said ,"We know some of these games are still fan favorites, including Battlefield 2, Battlefield 1942, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and Command & Conquer games. We are still investigating community-supported options to preserve online functionality for these titles, such as multiplayer. Significant technical hurdles remain, and at this time we don't have anything to announce."

LG has announced three new tablets that will be launching at a trade show in Europe that is happening May 13-16. The new tablets fall into the G Pad range and include the G Pad 7.0, G Pad 8.0, and G Pad 10.1. The G Pad 7.0 is designed to be held in one hand and is the smallest tablet in the line.

The G Pad 8.0 has an 8-inch screen and is a mid-size unit aimed at multimedia and multitasking. The last of the three tablets is the G Pad 10.1 and it promises long battery life for multimedia viewing. All of the tablets will include QPair 2.0 and Knock Code tech.

That QPair technology allows the tablets to be paired to Android smartphones via Bluetooth and to respond to calls and messages from the tablet. Knock Code allows the tablet to be unlocked by knocking on the screen.

A rumor is making the rounds that Microsoft is set to launch a new version of the Surface Pro tablet on May 20. While the rumor about a new tablet is making the rounds, the latest version of the Surface Pro 2 packing LTE connectivity has finally landed in the UK.

The Surface 2 with LTE isn't exactly cheap in the UK with a price of £539. It's unclear exactly what sort of specs the Surface Pro 3 might pack at this time. The device is expected to put some powerful hardware into a tablet likely with the latest Intel processors and 2K screen resolution.

The rumors also believe that there could be a new Surface mini tablet as well that will be offered as a more affordable alternative to the Pro and RT versions of the tablet that are already on the market. Cheaper tablets are where the big growth is in many parts of the world so this move would make sense for Microsoft.

There might be some of your reading this who might not even know who MacGyver is, but for those of you that do, you'll be surprised to hear that there's a MacGyver game coming out for iOS and Android.

MacGyver: Deadly Descent hits iOS and Android devices on May 21, developed by Fairplay Media. The game sees: "Mac return to his roots as a young problem solver". The game is set in a "modern environment" where a virus has infected a "top secret" laboratory. You're pitted as the hero that has to save the day using your smarts, most likely a paperclip and some chewing gum.

MacGyver's creator, Lee David Zlotoff was involved in development, where he said: "We're excited to be able to bring MacGyver up to date and into the mobile games market. Games are the perfect way for Mac to start new adventures with both the existing fans and an entirely new global audience as well. I'm looking forward to working with the team at Fairplay and seeing Mac back in action. What's more, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the game will go to support The MacGyver Foundation".

Cocaine, it's a helluva drug - a drug that is used so copiously in the UK that it has contaminated the drinking water supply. A new report has shown the dangers from pharmaceutical compounds appearing in drinking water, with scientists seeing trace amounts of cocaine in the UK water supply, even after it had gone through intensive purification treatments.

Experts from the Drinking Water Inspectorate found water supplies contained benzoylecgonine, which is the metabolized form of cocaine that appears once it has passed through the body. This is the same compound companies and authorities look for when running drug tests to detect cocaine use. What is worse, is the use of cocaine in Britain, according to Steve Rolles from the drug policy think tank, Transform.

Rolles said: "We have the near highest level of cocaine use in western Europe. It has also been getting cheaper and cheaper at the same time as its use has been going up". According to the charity DrugScope, there are around 180,000 addicted to crack cocaine in England, and close to 700,000 people aged between 16-59 that use the drug every year.

Back in 2011, the Islamic Republic took down one of the United States' Lockheed Martin Sentinel RQ-170 drones, but between that event and now, Iran has been working on making a copy of the US spy drone, something the country just started showing off.

Iran will be doing some test flights soon, according to officials at the IRGC's Aerospace Exhibition. Iran showcased its reverse-engineered drone next to the original US built on, with the exhibition seeing Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Khamenei, state that the Iranian model sports an advanced system of data collection, video and radar telecommunications.

During a broadcast on Iranian TV, an officer said: "Our engineers succeeded in breaking the drone's secrets and copying them. It will soon take a test flight". When Khamenei looked at the drone, he said: "This drone is very important for reconnaissance missions". The United States used its Sentinel RQ-170 UAV during covert operations in Afghanistan from 2005-2007. It was used as it is one UAV that is hard to detect with long range radar thanks to its special stealth coating - making it visible from a distance of around 40km.

During the last week we've seen a variety of motherboards launched using Intel's new Z97 chipset, all before Computex kicks off for another year in June. MSI broke out of the gate with some delicious motherboards, launching its new OC Series of motherboards.

MSI has snapped its Z97 Express-based motherboards into two lines of boards, the Gaming Series and OC Series. The new Gaming Series is priced between $100-$220, offering features that are aimed at gamers with decent overclocks. The OC Series however, is priced at $200-$400 and is geared toward professional and competitive overclockers.

MSI's new OC Series includes the Z97 MPower, Z97 MPower MAX AC, and the Z97 XPower AC. Starting with MSI's flagship motherboard, the Z97 XPower AC, which is made for seriously high-end builds. It features strong CPU and RAM overclocking capabilities, as well as 3- and 4-way GPU setups. We have the PEX8747 bridge chip from the folks at PLX, allowing you to drive four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, an an overriding single PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot. When this slot is used, it wires the add-on card directly to the CPU's root complex, bypassing the PLX chip.

We're beginning to hear more and more about upcoming 2560x1440 panels on smartphones, otherwise as QHD, something we should expect with LG's upcoming flagship smartphone, the G3. The G3 is said to feature a 5.5-inch 538ppi QHD panel.

Huawei, a Chinese manufacturer, doesn't see the point of these high resolution panels. Richard Yu, the Huawei CEO talked with TechRadar at the launch of its new Ascend P7 smartphone about the future of the company, and mobile technology itself. Yu said: "I don't think we need QHD displays on mobiles. Your eyes totally cannot identify between full HD and 2K on a smartphone. You can't distinguish the difference, so it's totally nonsense".

The Huawei executive continued: "We can [put a QHD display on a smartphone], but it's very bad for power consumption and it doesn't offer anything in return. You eyes cannot see the difference, so why should we do that? I think it's a stupid thing".

E3 is just weeks away, and with Microsoft seemingly lagging behind its competitor in the next-gen console wars, the Xbox maker wants to make a big splash at the biggest game expo, E3.

According to one blogger, Microsoft is set to make some huge announcements at its E3 press conference, which will include Ryse 2, Forza Horizon 2, Halo 5, an anniversary edition of Halo 2, and something most wouldn't expect - Battletoads and Perfect Dark reboots from Rare, Fallout 4, and more. The blogger, Robert MacRawley, says: "This info comes from the highest source and contains near full details of Microsoft E3 2014 conference".

When it comes to multi-platform games, Microsoft will not just be showing off Fallout 4, but the incredible looking The Division, the new Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, an unnamed EA game, and more. We will also reportedly see Epic Games showing off an Xbox One exclusive based off of its beautiful "Samaritan" demo from back in 2012. Not only that, but we should see Gears of War: Lazarus, Fable Legends, Quantum Break, Sunset Overdrive, and another surprise: a new Crackdown game.

Someone has given themselves quite the challenge, where a gamer has used nothing but a Logitech G25 steering wheel to play the first-person competitive shooter, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The video is below, but turn your speakers or headphones down before you click play.

He actually does quite well considering there's no mouse and keyboard, or even a gamepad being used. Nothing but an actual Logitech G25 steering wheel to turn, with the buttons on the wheel used for shooting. His gamer tag in the game is actually 'KILLED YOU WITH A WHEEL,' so you'd be pretty pissed if you actually got killed by someone using a steering wheel... in a first-person twitch shooter.

Just how many webpages does The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine include? Well, from late 1996, right up until just a few hours ago, over 400 billion indexed webpages sit on its servers. The Internet Archive has celebrated this milestone by providing a list of highlights for The Wayback Machine over the years:

Scott White from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has been working on something quite incredible: a plastic that is lined with something similar to an artificial vascular system, just like the veins and arteries that see the blood flow through your body, that can repair for larger breaks.

This new system features two different liquids, with the first containing long, thin molecules, and the other with three-sided molecules, in separate channels. Once these fluids mix, a reaction sees them joining together to create a scaffold, which forms a thick gel. Mixing in some other ingredients causes the gel to solidify over a few hours.

Once the plastic is fractured, the vascular system is damaged, with the two liquids pouring out. The liquids mix together, forming a restorative gel. This gel can fill a 4mm hole with 35mm of surrounding cracks within 20 minutes, hardening in a 3-hour span of time. The patch that is created is around 60% as strong as the original plastic, so we're not talking about a complete 100% strength, but this is an incredible feat nonetheless.

According to a summary of Watch Dogs on PlayStation.com, we can expect Ubisoft's open-world hacker game to run at 1080p and 60FPS on the PS4. This is a huge win for Sony's next-gen console, as Watch Dogs is set to be one of the biggest games of 2014.

The full text on PlayStation.com says: "The world of Watch_Dogs comes alive on PS4 with the best graphics on any console and exclusive missions found only on PlayStation. Hack everything as you make your way through Chicago's underground as you experience Watch_Dogs in a way that only PS4 can provide, at 60 Frames Per Second in 1080p".

This could be one of the reasons Ubisoft delayed the game for six months, getting its performance up. The last time we saw it was in Montreal last year for the NVIDIA Editors' Day, where we noticed some inconsistant performance. Watch Dogs launches on multiple platforms, including the PS4 and PC on May 27.

The current fastest train in the world is the Shanghai Maglev Train, which is capable of hitting speeds of 260 miles per hour (430 kmph), making it the world's fastest passenger-carrying train. But this could all change with the "Super-Maglev".

Chinese researchers at the Applied Superconductivity Laboratory of Southwest Jiaotong University claim that they have a new concept train that is based on magnetic levitation (Maglev) technology, which could transport passengers at three times the speed of a passenger airplane. The new "Super-Maglev" is a new concept train that is encased in a vacuum tube, which removes the speed limitations that air resistance puts on the regular Maglev trains.

If the project ends up being successful, a working prototype will be created as the new standard for the future evacuation tube transportation (ETT). Dr. Deng Zigang, who has been developing this technology for the last few years said: "ETT systems might allow HTS Maglev trains to attain speeds in a new order of magnitude, such as super-high 3,000 km (1,800 miles) per hour, which could be applied to some military or space launch systems". This new system could eventually link China with the United States, Canada and Russia - which would truly change the world.

To better compete with the Sony PlayStation 4, Microsoft might decide to unbundle the Kinect from its Xbox One game console, according to research firm IDC. The Xbox One is struggling to try and keep up with global PS4 sales, and has already cut prices on its game console.

"If Microsoft unbundles the Kinect sensor from the Xbox One console as we expect in 2015, this should lead to rough price parity with the PS4 and reset the sales dynamic at retail," said Lewis Ward, IDC Research Director of Gaming, in a press statement. "We project this change will lead to enough of a console sales bump that Xbox One will emerge with the largest installed base of any console in North America by the end of 2016."

Meanwhile, IDC believes the PS4 should still outpace the Xbox One worldwide, with continued popularity in Japan and Europe.

Four major UK based UK internet service providers have signed a deal with entertainment companies who deal with pirated downloads within the country. According to the report, BBC, BT, SKY, Virgin Media and TalkTalk will be sending educational letters to those who illegally download TV shows.

Under the country's voluntary copyright programme, the entertainment industry will monitor torrent and file-sharing websites to check for any copyright infringement. The entertainment industry will also record IP addresses of those who download illegal content. The ISPs will then send messages to its users on a monthly basis. The ISPs assured that it will not reveal its subscriber's information.

Vcap was setup as an alternative to 2010 Digital Economy Act which had a proposal to terminate internet connections of those who repeatedly download copyright contents via illegal channels.

Russia rated The Sims 4 for adults only due to the country's controversial law which prohibits the promotions of same-sex relationships to children. As a result, the law prohibits any retailer from selling this game to a minor.

The news broke out when the Russian Sims twitter account contained information about the game rating in the country. According to Google Translate, it said,"18 + has been assigned in accordance with the law number 436-FZ 'On the protection of children from information harmful to their health and development".

Russia's 435-FZ law effectively bans the promotion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights within the country. It is also known that the law encourages violence against the country's LGBT community, which also raised some concerns for some athletes who participated in Sochi Winter Olympics.

NVIDIA was supposed to officially launch its dual GK110 based GTX Titan Z video card on 8th May, but it turned out to be a no-show. The graphic chip maker neither made any official launch announcement, nor any retails stores are selling the video card.

It is now rumoured that NVIDIA may have delayed the launch of the card 'indefinitely'.

The GeForce Titan Z will have two GK110 GPU core, followed by 12GB GDDR5 memory, 5760 Cuda Cores with base clock of 705MHz and a price tag of a jaw dropping $3,000 without taxes. Originally, the card was supposed to be launched on 29th April, 2014, but it was then delayed to 8th of May. It was rumoured that the card will be the highest-performing video card with 8TFLOPS of computing power that may justify the price.