Latest News - Page 2866

Logitech has rolled out a new keyboard that is aimed squarely at the users out there who are watching video and playing games on the big screen in the living room. The new keyboard is called the Logitech Illuminated Living-Room Keyboard K830.

As the name suggests, the keyboard has backlit keys. An ambient light sensor on the keyboard automatically adjusts the backlight brightness to suit the conditions of the room and save power. Power comes from an internal rechargeable battery.

One of the biggest challenges with a HTPC is controlling the mouse, the K830 has an integrated track pad. Connectivity to the PC comes from a Logitech Unifying receiver that has 2.4GHz tech and a 33-foot range. Logitech says that the keyboard is good for ten days of use per charge.

AMD's Athlon and Sempron lines are back and now in APU form. This morning AMD announced the launch of its new quad-core and dual-core Kabini APUs, and the new Socket AM1 platform. Kabini brings back the legendary Athlon and Sempron brands and pairs them up with AMD's award-winning Graphics Core Next architecture and Jaguar CPU cores to form a flexible and powerful APU platform.

"AMD consistently builds on its industry leading technology by continuing to offer a diversified product stack which is proven today with the availability ofthe AM1 platform with "sockete" Sempron and Athlon APUs designed for the mainstream market," said Bernd Lienhard, corporate vice president and general manager, Client Business Unit, AMD. "With quad-core performance and AMD Radeon graphics the AM1 platform is an affordable solution that provides great flexibility due to an infrastructure built to deliver a multitude of options to our end users and system builders."

The new quad-core Athlon 5150 and 5350 APUs feature a 25W TDP and feature a 2.05GHz and 1.6GHz CPU clock respectively. Both Athlon APUs feature Radeon R3 graphics with 128 GCN cores each which is clocked at 600MHz with a 1600MHz memory clock. Each Athlon APU is capable of supporting two USB 3.0, 8 USB 2.0, and 2 SATA 6GB/s ports. MSRP on the Athlon 5350 is set at $59 while the 5150 will retail for $49.

Oculus VR is ramping up its Rift DK2 unit, which features a 1920x1080 display inside of the VR headset. GameFace Labs is a company you may not have heard of, but it has just announced that it is the first company to show off a prototype VR headset with a 2.5K display.

2.5K is just a fancy way of saying 2560x1440, where at this resolution, it is pushing out 78% more pixels than a 1080p-based display, such as the Oculus Rift DK2. Ed Mason, CEO of GameFace Labs explains: "The upgrade to 1280 x 1440 per eye is monumental. Individual pixels are hard to detect at first glance, making it a more immersive and comfortable experience in every single game and experience that we've tried. A lot of the 'presence' described by devs at the Valve [prototype VR headset] demonstration can be attributed to their use of higher resolution (and lower persistence) panels, which has a noticeable impact in suspending disbelief and tricking the brain".

Better yet, the company is just stopping at 2.5K, as it wants to get one of the most powerful mobile solutions into its VR headset, making mobile VR a reality. This is actually something I talked about Oculus VR doing, but it seems that GameFace Labs is the one we should be watching. The company is rubbing up against NVIDIA's very impressive Tegra K1 aka Jetson, which is a super powerful system-on-a-chip (SoC) solution that has a quad-core processor running at 2.3GHz with a 192-core GPU.

Microsoft has been talking about the upcoming Windows 8.1 Update 1 for months now, and today the Redmond, Washington-based giant has finally released the update to the public. Windows 8.1 users can head over to Windows Update and install Update 1 to their system now, or you can wait and let Windows run the update for you when your automatic updates are scheduled to run.

"Windows 8.1 Update and Windows RT 8.1 Update include improvements to make Windows more familiar and convenient for devices that use touch and mouse input and to make Windows available on a wider variety of devices, so you have more to choose from. Windows 8.1 Update and Windows RT 8.1 Update also include security and performance updates, and they must be installed for your PC to receive any future security updates for Windows 8.1 or Windows RT 8.1," Microsoft said in a release.

Below is a list of the changes Windows 8.1 Update 1 brings to the table.

Physics games are one of my favorite time killers on the internet, and the study of planetary systems is another small hobby I like to pursue when I have fleeting moments of free time. Today I learned of a new internet game that combines the two into a game more addicting than Flappy Bird, Angry Birds, or Gem Miner combined.

Super Planet Crash is a game designed by Stefano Meschiari, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas, Austin, that challenges players to create planetary systems using various stellar bodies such as Earth and super Earth-sized planets, ice giants, gas giants and even other stars such as brown dwarfs. The object is to design a solar system that is capable of making it to the 500-year milestone without having any planets or stars crash into each other or exit the solar system bounds.

The game is based on software package called Systemic Console, that is actually a tool used by scientist to discover actual planets from the massive data store generated by the Kepler space telescope project. "Systemic Console is open-source software that we've made available for other scientists to use. But we also wanted to create a portal for students and teachers so that anyone can use it," Greg Laughlin, an astronomy professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who led the development of the software, said in a statement. The game's server has been seeing massive traffic today thanks to it being featured on several large sites, so it may go down from time to time, but I was able to play it for a solid 15 minutes earlier.

DDR4 RAM is still in its infancy and at the moment it's use is relegated to the high-end enterprise server world, but that has not stopped silicon manufacturer, SK Hynix, from pushing the new standard to the next level. Today the company unveiled its latest DDR4 module that boast an impressive 128GB of RAM on a single DIMM sized stick.

"The development of the world's first 128GB DDR4 module has its significance in opening ultrahigh density server market" said Sung Joo Hong, the head of DRAM development at SK Hynix in s statement.. "The company will further strengthen its competitiveness in premium DRAM sphere with the development of high density, ultrahigh speed and low power consuming products."

The 128GB stick of DDR4 is based on Through Silicon Via technology and utilizes SK Hynix's 20nm 8GB chips packed in a single DIMM module as tightly as possible. SK Hynix says that the stick of DDR4 is capable of speeds up to 2133Mbp/s, with speeds reaching 17GB/s if passed through a 64-bit wide bus. The sticks operate on just 1.2V which is a significant energy savings over the common 1.5V DDR3 modules.

Today Netflix announced that it has began streaming its first pieces of 4K content to customers with 2014 model 4K TVs that support the H.265/HEVC decoder. House of Cards gets the title of the first TV series to get streamed in 4K, and a couple of nature documentaries are also being offered in 4K. Unfortunately, those who have 4K televisions that were manufactured or bought in 2013 will not be able to enjoy these offerings from Netflix due to codec incompatibilities.

Website HDTVTest is reporting that the 4K streams coming from Netflix are being delivered at 15.6Mbp/s and show obvious signs of compression, but does look better than Netflix's previous high-quality offering of the so-called "SuperHD" format. Unfortunately there are just not enough 4K TVs out there at the moment for widespread testing results to call back to, but I feel that Netflix will have a long journey ahead before any full-quality 4K content is passed on to customers.

With its previous flagship CPU cooler, the massive NH-D14, being widely recognized as one of the best CPU coolers ever made, Noctua has once again released a larger-than-life tower cooler to aid in your CPU cooling needs. The all new NH-D15 elite-class dial tower CPU cooler features several major improvements over its predecessor that not only improves performance, but continues Noctua's goal of creating the quietest CPU coolers in the world.

"Having convinced tens of thousands of quiet cooling enthusiasts around the globe, our NH-D14 has become a reference for top-tier dual tower heat sinks," explains Mag. Roland Mossig, Noctua CEO. "In the end, it took us more than three years of continuous development, countless thermal simulations and over hundred samples to come up with a substantial improvement in efficiency. Staying true to our policy of not releasing anything we're not 100% satisfied with, we had to accept some delays in order to squeeze out the last few percent of performance, but now we're proud to finally release the NH-D15 as a worthy successor to the venerable D14."

The new NH-D15's "fin-stack" has increased in size from 140mm to 150mm allowing the company to better space out the cooler's heat pipes. This wider spacing allows for a more uniform heat distribution over the entire finned surface. The NH-D15 features recessed lower fins that provides clearance for tall memory heat sinks while in single fan mode. Additionally, the NH-D15 ships with Noctua's NF-A15 premium fans and are PWM controllable for maximum system performance. The new flagship is expected to retail for $99 USD.

I will readily admit to having never watched any of the Netflix original shows. Most of them just don't sound like something that I am interested in. Take for instance a show with Ricky Gervais called Derek. It looks rather weird, but if you are a fan, you will be glad to hear this.

Netflix has announced that the second season of Derek will air on May 30. As Netflix typically does, all six of the 30-minute long episodes will be offered on May 30 so you can binge. The show will air everywhere Netflix is available except for the UK. In the UK, you will have to watch the show on Channel 4 where it was commissioned.

Derek is a comedy about a group described as living outside of society's margins. In the new season, Derek will make new friends and continues working at a retirement home he views as an extended family.

Just moments ago Samsung announced the companies has increased DDR4 production. This comes on the just before of Intel's E5-2600 V3 series announcement that we expect soon.

Upon launch, DDR4 will increase DRAM performance while at the same time lower power consumption.

Here we see the evolution of DRAM over time with both throughput and power.

One of the most exciting cars that GM has produced in recent years is the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. The 2015 Stingray will have a new automatic transmissions option that enthusiasts should like. It's not a dual-clutch transmission as you would find in other high-end cars; rather it is a more traditional automatic transmission with a torque converter.

More than a few enthusiasts, though that would mean it was a slow shifting slush box that wouldn't be up to track or performance driving. GM is talking a bit about the 8L90 8-speed transmission with paddle shifters and claims that this transmission can shift faster at wide-open throttle than the dual-clutch unit in a Porsche 911.

GM says that the transmission is eight-hundredths of a second faster in shifts than the 911 DCT is. The same auto transmission is able to be smooth around town thanks to the torque converter. This transmission will be offered in the standard Stingray and the Z06. The normal Stingray will get a different torque converter and gear ratios than the Z06 will get.

The US military has been working on directed energy weapons, which is a fancy way to say laser, for a long time. A successful test of a laser about a year ago showed that a weapon aboard a ship could be used to down a drone aircraft. The Navy has announced that its laser weapon will be deployed on a ship later this summer.

The prototype laser weapon will be installed on the USS Ponce for at sea testing in the Persian Gulf. Military leaders are touting the laser weapon for its ability to engage targets at the speed of light and for having an unlimited magazine.

Previous tests have shown that the laser weapon can be used against targets on the water as well. The targets in recent tests have been tracked with a Phalanx Close-in Weapon that can hand tracking data over to the laser. Sailors control the laser with a video game like controller and have the ability to stop a threat or destroy it.

Corsair has just announced the launch of the latest mechanical keyboard to be added to its already impressive arsenal. The new Vengeance K70 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard features a rugged black-anodized aluminum frame with red back-lit keys who's brightness can be adjusted as a whole or individually. Corsair says that the new K70 features authentic German-made Cherry MX switches for the best reliability, accuracy, and longevity of any other mechanical switch on the market.

The Vengeance K70 is designed with a 100-percent anti-ghosted matrix with full n-key rollover and a 1000Hz reporting rate, meaning that you never miss a keystroke, or a key combination while typing or gaming. The Keyboard also features multi-media controls, a built-in USB hub, and a "soft-touch" wrist wrest that helps reduce fatigue during those long gaming sessions. The K70 is available with Cherry MX Red, Cherry MX Blue, and Cherry MX Brown switches to suit each individual gamers needs. The Vengeance K70 will retail for $129.99.

The Xbox 360 is now the old Microsoft console and it's good to see that Microsoft is still supporting the console rather than trying to push everyone to the Xbox One. Earlier this year Microsoft mentioned that the Xbox 360 would be getting a new GoPro channel where people could enjoy action sports footage and other content recorded using the GoPro cameras.

The GoPro channel is now available via the GoPro app on the Xbox 360. Users will be able to stream and curate content on the channel to their TV. To celebrate the launch of the new Xbox 360 channel, GoPro is offering users on the game console exclusive videos.

GoPro has two videos that will be available to Xbox 360 users a week before the videos are available elsewhere. The videos include a basketball trick shot involving a car. The other is an extreme snowmobile jump. Those videos are only on the Xbox 360 and should be available to watch now.

Intel has just shown off an incredible new way of networking between PCs at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show currently going on in Las Vegas. The new technology is called Thunderbolt Networking, and will soon be made available to all PCs that feature Thunderbolt 2 controllers.

There will soon be an updated Windows driver released, that will "emulat[e] an Ethernet connection environment" which will provide a 10Gbps two-way link between computers that are connected through a Thunderbolt cable. Thunderbolt Networking will not be enabled for older PCs that feature the first-generation Thunderbolt controllers.

Windows PCs aren't the only things receiving Thunderbolt Networking, with two connected Thunderbolt-enabled Macs also capable of this new technology. It's not going to be as good as the PC version, but it will work nonetheless. We should see this new Thunderbolt Networking technology update for Windows pushed out soon.

There's a massive update coming to the Xbox One in the coming months that will reportedly offer up twice the performance of what the next-gen console is currently capable of delivering.

Stardock founder and CEO, Brad Wardell, took to Neowin, where he said that DirectX 12 is the driving force behind it, and that it will pave the way for multi-core processing on the Xbox One. It will also allow the console to provide Full HD video games, instead of just the 720p (or so) that Xbox One gamers are receiving now.

He wrote: "The results are spectacular. Not just in theory but in practice (full disclosure: I am involved with the Star Swarm demo which makes use of this kind of technology.) While each generation of video card struggles to gain substantial performance over the previous generation, here, the same hardware will suddenly see a doubling of performance. Xbox One is the biggest beneficiary; it effectively gives every Xbox One owner a new GPU that is twice as fast as the old one".

Qualcomm already power countless smart devices, but the competition is heating up with Intel, NVIDIA, Apple, Samsung and much more wanting to change the game with their own devices.

The company behind the Snapdragon range of system-on-chips (SoC) has already announced its 64-bit capable Snapdragon 810 and 808 processors, which are high performance hardware designed for the best of the best Android-powered devices. Both chips are baked on a 20nm process, meaning they will use less power, will be lighter and smaller, and deliver more performance.

The eight-core Snapdragon 810 is the star of the show, featuring four Cortex-A57 cores for power-hungry tasks, while four lower-power Cortex-A53 cores will be used for everything else. We will have LPDDR4 RAM show up for the party, as well as 4K display support. There'll also be voice activation and dual Image Signal Processors for better imaging.

This time last year, Apple's executives were worried that "consumers want what we don't have" when it comes to smartphones - more specifically, larger screens or much cheaper handsets - both of which are plentiful in the Android camp.

Apple execs had noticed a rapidly decelerating growth in its sales, even while the company was selling record numbers of iPhone's. Thanks to the Apple vs. Samsung trial, we're seeing much more information about the company, and its plans to release a bigger iPhone.

The one thing Apple is going to have against itself when (and not if) it releases a bigger iPhone, is that in its previous ads and sales pushes for the previous iPhone's, is that you could use it with one hand. Apple seemed content with the 3.5- and 4-inch screen sizes on the current and previous iPhone's, but when it comes to the next-gen iPhone, all of that talk of using it with one hand is going to be thrown out the window. So when Apple says it is scared its consumers want something it doesn't half - they are right - consumers do want something different.

A major global website was recently hit by cybercriminals, with the hacked website turning visitors into "zombies" that in turn launched distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. A Persistent XSS vulnerability gave cybercriminals the chance to embed malicious JavaScript code, according to enterprise security company Incapsula.

Each user that views a compromised profile image with the malicious code then ends up sending a GET request to targeted websites. The group responsible also posted comments on large quantities of other videos, to ensure the profile image was viewed as many times as possible.

"As a result, each time a legitimate visitor landed on that page, his browser automatically executed the injected JavaScript, which in turn injected a hidden according to Incapsula. "Obviously one request per second is not a lot. However, when dealing with video content of 10, 20 and 30 minutes in length, and with thousands views every minute, the attack can quickly become very large and extremely dangerous."

Microsoft is planning to release an update to the Xbox One tomorrow that will bring a feature to the console that many of its users have been asking for. The update will install the ability for Xbox One owners to upload captured in-game footage directly to their YouTube account without the need to download it first.

"Game DVR and Upload are among the most used apps on Xbox One. We know how important it is to be able to easily watch and share video clips, and starting tomorrow we're rolling out an update to the YouTube app on Xbox One that integrates Game DVR and Upload with YouTube**, making it easier than ever to capture and share game clips with the world," Microsoft said in a blog post. "Now, use Game DVR to capture epic gaming moments, edit them in Upload Studio, and, with the simple click of a button inside the YouTube app (look for My Uploads**), share them instantly to your YouTube channel. The updated YouTube experience also allows you to watch YouTube videos in Snap Mode, earn Media Achievements, and adds YouTube channels to OneGuide for instant access to YouTube videos right next to your favorite TV listings or App Channels."