Latest News - Page 2862

Airwolf 3D has just announced the launch of its first hot-end for 3D printers that allows customers to print in engineering-grade materials such as polycarbonate, Bridge Nylon and Nylon 645. The new JRx Hot-End is patent pending and not only allows users to print in the hotter temperature range of Nylon and PC, but also retains printing capabilities in the ABS and PLA ranges as well.

"Printing polycarbonate is the holy grail for prosumer 3D printers," stated Erick Wolf, president and founder of Airwolf 3D. "Personally, however, I think printing nylon is going to explode because it is incredibly strong and has almost unlimited applications. You can even dye different layers to get multi-colored products. Bridge nylon, for example, has been reformulated to meet the growing demand for the material. At 270 degrees Celsius (518 degrees Fahrenheit) we find the layer-to-layer adhesion is superb and the prints stick uniformly to our heated bed. When dealing with nylon at lower temperatures there tends to be trial and error to achieve ideal layer strength. That won't happen with our new JRx hot end."

Airwolf 3D says that it utilizes Teflon and a proprietary thermal barrier to prevent thermal creep from happening between the heater element and the PTFE liner. This allows the hot-end to reach temperatures as high as 270C and printing of Nylon and Polycarbonate. Airwolf 3D says that the JRx hotend is featured in 2 models with compatibility for the AW3D Xl and 5.5 3D printers for $195, while the JRx for the AW3D HD will cost consumers $295.

It looks like TSMC is now facing an issue which would affect the supply of 20nm technology for video cards with AMD or NVIDIA chips. The Taiwan-based foundry is having difficulties to meet both the chipmaker's demand for the new process, therefore delaying the productions until December 2014.

NVIDIA wanted to release high-end 20nm based Maxwell GPUs, but because of this the graphics chipmaker is forced to re-engineer its GM204 and GM206 chipsets to work with the existing 28nm process.

Because of this delay, we shouldn't be expected any newer video cards until December 2014.

Today the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) and the MIPI Alliance announced the finalization and release of the new Display Stream Compression (DSC) Standard version 1.0. DSC is designed to be a low latency, and lossless performance compression standard for today's high-bandwidth video content. DEC has been adopted into VESA's embedded DisplayPort v1.4 and into MIPI Display Serial Interface (DSI) Specification v1.2 technologies.

"VESA recognized the need for display interface compression in mobile devices to extend battery life without compromising visual quality," said Dale Stolitzka, VESA Display Stream Compression Task Group Chairman and member of Samsung Display America Laboratory. "In addition, on-going development of DisplayPort standards, which includes 8K resolution support, foresaw the need for compression because of inherent limits in the existing display interface cables. VESA realized that compression was becoming a common need in the industry, and that a standard compression coding system could meet these common display interface needs."

"We are pleased to have contributed to the development of the DSC standard through our liaison agreement with VESA," said Joel Huloux, Chairman of the Board, MIPI Alliance. "We came to the same conclusion, regarding the need for a video interface compression standard, and realized that both organizations and the industry would benefit through this collaborative effort. DSC enables a single codec for system chips that have multiple interfaces."

Sanyo has pulled the wraps off its new 2014 line of HDTVs. The entire line supports 1080p resolution. Sanyo offers no 720p TVs or 4K TVs this year. All of the TVs in the line are LED backlit making them more power efficient than older CCFL TVs.

The new range includes sets that run from 24-inches up to 65-inches. Sanyo is selling the new line through Walmart and Sam's Club around the country. Features are shared across the entire range with the big difference being screen size. All of the TVs have three HDMI inputs.

All of the TVs also have analog and digital optical audio outputs. Most of the new TVs are fitted with a MHL port that makes the TVs Roku Ready. Rounding out the hardware features are a USB port for viewing images on the screen and a VGA input for PC connectivity. Pricing on the TVs is unannounced at this time.

A report is making the rounds that the police in Compton, California carried out a secret experiment in 2013 that involved the use of surveillance drones. The drone aircraft was equipped with a HD video camera and allows operators to zoom in on any point within the municipality. Compton spans about 10-square miles.

The demonstration was conducted by a company called Persistence Surveillance Systems and one of its workers named Ross McNutt says, "We literally watched all of Compton during the times that we were flying, so we could zoom in anywhere within the city of Compton and follow cars and see people."

The drone used can stay in the air for six hours. It produces feeds that are similar to Google Earth where the operators can zoom in on specific areas. The cameras are said to not have the resolution to identify faces.

Medical professionals have become victims of identity theft, with Social Security Numbers and other personal information used to help process fraudulent tax returns, according to recent reports. The victims, less than 1,000 total so far, didn't know about the breach until they tried to file their returns and found that someone else already had beaten them to the punch.

Victims were found in the following states: Colorado, Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts, Iowa, North Carolina, South Dakota, Maine, Indiana, and New Hampshire. The Indiana State Medical Association (ISMA) sent a memo to healthcare professionals in the state to be aware of the tax scam.

"The DOR is viewing this as a large problem and officials are very concerned," said Julie Reed, ISMA general council, during a recent conversation. "While their investigation has not yet identified the source of the presumed breach, they are tracking all the cases, looking for patterns, and actively investigating and pursuing leads."

NEC Hong Kong is currently developing a new facial recognition technology that can be used by stores, hotels, and other retail establishments to quickly identify customers. Retailers have tried to use smartphones to help monitor customer activity, especially if guests log onto free, open Wi-Fi hotspots, though customers found ways to disable such features.

When most people think of facial recognition, it's in regards to security and possible privacy issues - but NEC and companies have a more unique reasoning behind why stores, hotels, and other establishments might want to adopt the technology:

"Everyone loves to feel special. That's why any organization that can greet a customer by name and start helping them the minute they walk in to a shop, bank or hotel will have a tremendous advantage over one that relies on ID cards or other impersonal procedures," said Elsa Wong, NEC Hong Kong Managing Director, in a press statement.

Intel's Thunderbolt technology is amazing in its current state, but some newly leaked details show just how much more amazing Thunderbolt can get. A new leak has surfaced on a Chinese technology site that shows that Thunderbolt 3 will be two times as fast as the current Thunderbolt 2 standard.

If true, the leak states that Thunderbolt 2 will feature a bandwidth of 40Gb/s thanks to PCIe 3 support. Furthermore a 50-percent reduction in power consumption will be achieved by the new hardware as well. A new connector will be on board that will allow system charging up to 100 watts, and the entire PCB will measure in at just 3mm thick. It is important to note that this information should come as a grain of salt, and count on these numbers being lower in real-world practice.

Twenty-five years ago today, Nintendo released a handheld gaming unit that would change the world and drive AA battery sales through the roof. The Nintendo Game Boy first launched in Japan today back in 1989, and its dull green and grey display amazed gamers and techies of the day. Retailing for $89.99 the Game Boy required four AA batteries and provided more than 10-hours of game-play before needing to change batteries.

The Game Boy saw more than 300,000 sales in Japan in just two weeks after its launch, and more than 40,000 on the first day of sales in the US. Over the next decade and a half, the Nintendo Game Boy line of handheld gaming units sold more than 118.69 million units total. Today those numbers are still massive when compared to smartphone sales, and are a testament to how much love the Nintendo Game Boy received in the 90s and early 2000's.

AMD has refreshed its 'Never Settle Forever' game bundles which includes games for AMD Radeon R7 Series to even AMD Radeon R9 295 x2. At the same time, AMD will also be including entry-level GPUs for its game bundle programs: R7 250x, R7 250 and R7 240 GPUs.

The newer buyers of AMD Radeon cards can receive up to three free games that AMD provides via the card's AMD Radeon Reward Coupon. As they have done so in the past, the choices of games paired with the respective video cards are divided into Gold, Silver and Bronze.

One of the games that will be added is Square Enix's upcoming title 'Murdered: Soul Suspect'.

I wont attempt to cover up the fact that Game of Thrones has surpassed Loard of the Rings as my favorite book to film series. I enjoy it so much that I have no only read all of the books several times over, but have watched the HBO series a few times as well. One thing that has always confused me though, is where each location lies in relation to Kings Landing. A new Google Maps style map of Westeros and Essos not only shows us where things are but the paths each key character took during the series.

While this may not be the first Game of Thrones map that has popped up on the internet, it is by far the best looking and most interactive. A quick note should be tossed in that unless you are 100-percent current on the series or the book, checking out this map could spoil the entire story for you, so please click the source link below only if you dare see things you have not yet seen.

Ford is getting ready to launch the all-new 2015 Ford Mustang soon and this is one of the most significant redesign of the Pony car since it was introduced. For the first time, all models of the Mustang will have independent rear suspension. Ford is also giving the car some new tech on the inside as well.

We know that the Mustang GT will have launch control to help people launch the car without excess wheel spin. We also know that the car will have the first factory line lock in the industry. A line lock is a feature that locks the front brakes of the car so the driver can do a burnout.

Line locks have been around for a long time, but typically, you have to add them in the aftermarket. Ford's tool will let the driver step on the brake pedal and only lock the front brakes when activated. The driver can then use the right foot for the throttle and do a burnout until the tires roast off the car if they want. Ford says that this feature is for the racetrack only, but you can bet it will be used for parking lot or driveway burnouts around the world.

Information about ASUS motherboard with upcoming Intel Z97 Chipset was leaked in a China based website. According to the information, ASUS is preparing to release six new motherboards with LGA 1150 socket.

The motherboard models are Maximus VII Hero, Maximus VII Gene, Z97 Sabertooth Mark 1, Z97 Deluxe, Z97-WS and Maximus VII Ranger.

The information also provides the specifications and features that ASUS have implemented on the respected models of the motherboards. As one would expect, the enthusiast class motherboards will be with an array of overclocking features.

In just four days, one of the biggest names in mobile communication will cease to exist as we know it for ever. Today Nokia announced that it would be finalizing the acquisition deal with Microsoft on April 25th. This deal began back in September of 2013 when Microsoft announced that it had begun the acquisition of Nokia's Devices and Services division for $7.2 billion, and would take over Nokia's mobile phone business in 2014.

"The completion of this acquisition follows several months of planning and will mark a key step on the journey towards integration. This acquisition will help Microsoft accelerate innovation and market adoption for Windows Phones. In addition, we look forward to introducing the next billion customers to Microsoft services via Nokia mobile phones," Microsoft said in a statement.

Microsoft says that in the deal, it will acquire all of Nokia's Devices and Services division, the Nokia.com website, all of Nokia's social media assets, and Microsoft will take on all the employees in Nokia's Chief Technology Office as well as 21 employees in China. Microsoft will not take possession of Nokia's South Korean manufacturing facility though despite previous reporting that it would. The new Microsoft owned entity will most likely be called, Microsoft Mobile.

Last week, Quantenna Communications teased the world with something it is calling "10G Wi-Fi". This new Wi-Fi technology will have support for data transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps, and a much longer range than current Wi-Fi technology.

Stanford Professor of Electrical Engineering Andrea Goldsmith said of Quantenna's new tech: "Quantenna's 8x8 architecture with adaptive beamforming demonstrates that the 'massive MIMO' promise of significantly higher throughput, robustness, and reduced interference can be realized in practice. This architecture will also significantly enhance the capabilities of MU-MIMO, allowing it to support interference-free transmission to many more devices simultaneously. These technology advances will transform the landscape of applications and devices that Wi-Fi can support. As we move into an era of exponentially-growing video usage and the Internet of Things, the 8x8 architecture and MU-MIMO technologies will become essential in all high-performance Wi-Fi devices".

This is the kind of technology we need as 4K (and higher) starts penetrating into our homes, where we're streaming and blasting out super high-res videos and data everywhere, all at once.

Wireless power is something I simply can't live without, but I can only charge one or two devices at once. But, over in Daejeon, Republic of Korea, scientists have used something they call the Dipole Coil Resonant System to charge 40 smartphones simultaneously, even if the power source is up to 5m away.

We already know about MIT's Coupled Magnetic Resonance System (CMRS) which was unveiled in 2007, which used a magnetic field in order to charge devices - but it had an envelope of 2.1m. CMRS had some major technical limitations for commercialization, most of which haven't been solved: "a rather complicated coil structure (composed of four coils for input, transmission, reception, and load); bulky-size resonant coils; high frequency (in a range of 10 MHz) required to resonate the transmitter and receiver coils, which results in low transfer efficiency; and a high Q factor of 2,000 that makes the resonant coils very sensitive to surroundings such as temperature, humidity, and human proximity".

Chun T. Rim, a Professor of Nuclear & Quantum Engineering at KAIST, along with his team, developed the "Dipole Coil Resonant System" or DCRS. This system is for an extended range of inductive power transfer, at up to 5 meters between transmitter and receiver coils. Professor Rim's solution to CMRS' problems are all but solved with DCRS.

Sony Online Entertainment President, John Smedley, participated in a Reddit AMA, where he talked about the similarities between the upcoming MMO from the company H1Z1, and the already popular DayZ.

He said: "Not going to give some politically correct dodgy b.s. answer. H1Z1 is a survival in a Zombie Apocalypse game. So is DayZ. They have made a brilliant game (first I might add). So sure. We're another Zombie Apocalypse game. Call it what it is. But our goal is to make ours fun, accessible, hard core and super, super deep".

Smedley continued: "This is our take on the Zombie Apocalypse with a lot of friends and hopefully some great enemies both living and dead. We're proud to be up front and say we love DayZ and the job they've done and we hope they enjoy what we make, too". H1Z1 does have quite a big difference when held up against DayZ, where it will allow gamers to create "structures, forts and towns" to stop the zombies from coming in. H1Z1 will also feature "a deep in-game economy that is heavily dependent on crafting. Players will be able to become manufacturers ... sell bullets, arrows ... etc. The in-game economy will be entirely player driven".

Technology isn't just helping the NSA track every move you do online, but it is also helping criminals, too. In the UK, criminals are using heat-sensing drones to find weed farms, after which they'll go in and take it all in a heist.

Growing weed is obviously illegal, but you're not exactly going to report that your farm of weed is gone. This leads to violence, with a thug talking to Halesowen News, admitting that his crew steals from, and imposes a tax on their targets because "the people growing [weed] are not gangsters". Local members of Parliament are reportedly not in the know, but Tom Watson, who is the Chair of a Parliamentary group on drones had something to say about the weed-heisting using drones.

He said: "This ... story shows the proliferation of drone technology which can be used for both good and bad".

In a world dominated by the Galaxy S5 and iPhone, most other devices that aren't from the big players on the market don't really get a mention. Well, the OnePlus One smartphone might change all of that.

The company has said that the One smartphone would be "the most beautifully designed handset ever," which are some mighty big words. The OnePlus One packs some flagship hardware, starting with a 5.5-inch Full HD display, Qualcomm's brand new Snapdragon 801 SoC clocked at 2.5GHz, 3GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera thanks to the Sony Exmor camera sensor, a 5-megapixel snapper up front, LTE Category 4 modem with global LTE connectivity, a 3100mAh battery and 16-64GB of on-board flash storage.

In terms of specs, the OnePlus One smartphone sounds like a winner. On the software side of things we have CynanogenMod, which is a nice touch as it's not just the same old Android + UI skin like everyone else does. The OnePlus One will be released into 16 markets including: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and United States. Where it will customers over, is its price: $400.

The so-called Dark Web is one of the few places on the Internet that I rarely visit, which is mostly because I have no reason to visit the type of websites it caters too. With sites like Silk road and other illegal sites populating this seedy corner of the web, it is no surprise that someone has developed a search engine to make it easier to find the illegal stuff you might be searching for.

"I noticed on the forums and Reddit people were constantly asking 'where to get product X?' and 'which market had product X?' or 'who had the best product X and was reliable and not a scam?'" Grams' creator, Gramsadmin, said in an interview with Wired. "I wanted to make it easy for people to find things they wanted on the Dark Net and figure out who was a trustworthy vendor."

Grams has been online since last week, and appears to sever solely as a search engine that queries multiple drug and gun exchanges located on the Dark Web. The search engine is only accessible through the TOR browser and list search results with prices per product listed. Users can change the denomination to the currency of their choosing including Bitcoin, USD and more. It was only a matter of time before something like this popped up, and I am willing to bet that it will not be the last time it happens.