Latest News - Page 2869

Two members of an international cybercrime, identity theft and credit card fraud ring pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud conspiracy and one count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud and identity theft, the Department of Justice announced.

Robert Dubuc, 40, from Massachusetts along with Oleg Pidtergerya, 49, of New York, used information stolen from more than 12 banks, payroll processing companies, brokerage firms and government agencies - in their effort, more than $15 million in funds have been reportedly stolen.

"Both Dubuc and Pidtergerya were asked by leaders of the conspiracy to participate in a scheme to 'cash out' bank accounts and pre-paid debit cards opened in the names of others," according to the DoJ press release.

If you are a fan of the Halo game franchise, you may be like me and get a little angry each time you think of the big screen movie based on the game that was cancelled years ago. The upside is that we have seen some cool live action in the Halo world with Forward Unto Dawn.

Not too long ago rumors were circulating that Microsoft was working on a Halo film that would be produced by Ridley Scott. Scott is the man behind films like Prometheus, Aliens, and Blade Runner. A Microsoft rep has now confirmed that the production the software giant denied was in the works not long ago is indeed happening.

Scott will be the executive producer on a new Halo digital production. The digital production is going to be directed by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan best known for direction Battlestar Galactica, Pillars of the Earth, and Heroes. Between these two they should certainly, be able to do a digital Halo production proud.

Casio has an interesting new projector that is a short throw until able to produce a big image from only a short distance away from the projection surface. That is a nice feature on its own, but the XJ-UT310WN projector has a cooler feature. This is one of the LampFree projectors that Casio makes and instead of using an expensive lamp to create the light that only last a few hundred hours, the light source in this projector is good for tens of thousands of hours.

Casio's LampFree tech combines a LED, laser, and a florescent lamp to create a light source that is good for about 20,000 hours. Often these alternate light source projectors are too dim for some uses, but this new projector has 3100 lumens of brightness making it work in just about any setting. the native resolution is 1280 x 800 and the contrast ratio is 1800:1.

The short throw tech allows the projector to throw a 67-inch image from only 23-inches from the surface. Other features include 2GB of integrated storage for giving presentation without a PC. Connectivity options include HDMI, D-sub, and composite inputs. An available mobile app lets a presenter annotate images in real-time and supports a real-time web browser. Casio will ship the projector in Q3 2014 for $1999.99.

If you are a motorcyclist, you can use a car GPS on your bike but it's not exactly ideal. Gamin makes a lien of GPS devices just for motorcycles and the latest in that line is the Zumo 590LM. The device is weather and fuel resistant so it should be able to survive attached to a motorcycle out in the weather.

The GPS device ships with a removable battery for power on the bike and comes with a car mount and a power cable for use in the car as well. The touchscreen is usable with a glove on and is designed for easy reading in direct sunlight. Bluetooth connectivity can send the driving directions and music to your Bluetooth earpiece or helmet.

The 590LM is also compatible with the iPhone or iPad for music playback control from the touchscreen. Weather and traffic details are offered on the GPS device screen thanks to an app that runs on the smartphone.

Nokia has rolled out a new Bluetooth speaker that is interesting in that it is able to improve the bass response using any flat surface. Nokia says that hard surfaces are particularly good for improving the bass, and all you need to do is set the speaker down or it to work. The MD-12 has a built-in vibration actuator that allows it to produce a surprising amount of bass for its size.

Power for the MD-12 comes from a rechargeable battery and it can run for 15 hours per charge. That should be plenty of time for you to play music on the go. The device also has an integrated microphone so it can be used as a speakerphone.

Bluetooth technology links the speaker to a mobile device and NFC tech is integrated too. NFC makes it easy to pair a device supporting NFC. The compact speaker weighs 180g and promises big bass and sound thanks to its vibration actuator. For devices that lack Bluetooth, a 3.5mm connector is available and the cable is included.

Today Thecus announced the expansion of its SMB and Enterprise NAS line with the unveiling of two new NAS solutions that feature 10Gb Ethernet. The new N7710 and N8810U are identical to Thecus' N7710-G and N8810U-G models except for the 10GbE support featured on the new devices. Both of the new NAS devices boast VMware ESXi V5.5 iSCSI certification, and come bundled with Acronis True Image and McAfee Antivirus.

The new N7710 and N880U are powered by an Intel Pentium G850 Dual Core processor running at 2.9GHz, and 4GB of DDR3 ECC RAM that can be expanded up to 32GB. Both models offer RAID options up to RAID 50 while the N8810U features RAID 60 support as well. HDMI, VGA, Two USB 3.0, six USB 2.0 ports handle connectivity. Network connectivity is taken care of by two single gigabit Ethernet ports. The N7710 and N8810U will be available in May and will retail for $1,099 and $1,899 respectively.

Product Highlights of the N7710 and N8810U

TomTom has launched its latest GPS watch aimed at the athlete and fitness buff. The new watch is called the Runner Cardio GPS watch and it has a built-in heart rate monitor. There are plenty of watches out there that can show you your heart rate, but those have to be paired with a chest strap.

TomTom's watch needs no chest strap for the monitor to work. Runners can look at the watch to be sure that their heart rate is in the ideal zone. Five different intensity zones can be chosen to match training goals with alerts to speed up or slow down given to keep the runner in the zone.

The Runner Cardio watch uses a Mio optical sensor to monitor the pulse rate by shining a light through the skin. The watch is available to order right now for $269. A multi-sport version of the watch is offered for $299.

Supermicro announced the first server, a 2U 2-Node UltraTwin featuring hot-swappable 1U nodes, to be released in the new Ultra Architecture SuperServer series. The new server is built on dual Intel Xeon E7-2880 v2 processors that now support NMVe SSD's.

With the ability to support a high number of cores, large memory capacity, and high performance storage techonology, Supermicro is targeting this server for virtualization applications, datacenters, cloud computing, and HPC. According to Shannon Poulin, vice president of Enterprise IT for Intel's Data Center Group, these servers are built "to handle increasingly complex data intensive workloads in mission critical, highly virtualized environments."

And according to Charles Liang, President and CEO of Supermicro, there will be several more additions to this Intel based series - "UltraTwin is the first in a line of upcoming servers to take full advantage of this groundbreaking architecture and expands our MP solution range with support for Intel Xeon E7 v2 series processors and peripheral technologies."

Supermicro announced their entry to the software defined network market at Interop Las Vegas 2014 this week by demonstrating its new SDN SuperSwitch and MicroBlade microserver solutions. The new 1U SDN switch platform is based on the Intel Open Network Platform using Intel switches and processors combined with Intel Open Network Software (ONS). The MicroBlade also incorporates Intel switch modules featuring SDN functionality and an Intel Atom C2000 control plane processor.

Leveraging Intel's technology, the new Supermicro SDN solutions offer flexibility, agility, security and dynamic manageability. According to Rose Schooler, vice president of Intel's Data Center Group and general manger of the Communications and Storage Infrastructure Group, "The new Supermicro SuperSwitch, developed from the Intel ONP Switch Reference Design, delivers a high performance, easy to deploy and cost effective network switch that offers management and control functionality."

While there are most likely cost benefits for enterprises that deploy SDN, it is this improved flexibility in management of the network that makes this technology so appealing. According to Charles Liang, President and CEO of Supermicro, the "new SDN enabled SuperSwitch and MicroBlade switches provides Data Center, Cloud and Enterprise environments the greatest flexibility to dynamically allocate networked resources as data demands shift." With datacenter workloads constantly shifting and blending, this ability to dynamically allocate network resources to hungry workloads is paramount.

Prior to former contractor Edward Snowden disclosing the NSA's mass surveillance efforts, many people turned to the Tor Web browser for anonymous Internet searching. However, the free and popular tool is no longer as secure, with law enforcement agencies also able to identify users they suspect of criminal activities.

"There's not a magic way to trace people [through Tor], so we typically capitalize on human error, looking for whatever clues people leave in their wake," said James Kilpatrick, Homeland Security Investigations agent, in a statement.

It was only a few years ago when law enforcement and federal agencies believed they couldn't crack Tor, but multi-agency efforts led to better data collection and social engineering patterns.

When Nokia chose not to unveil any new devices at Mobile World Congress 2014, it was unclear if the company would release any more new phones before its acquisition by Microsoft is finalized. Fortunately for Windows Phone fans, that was not the case. During today's Build Conference, Nokia launched several new Lumia Windows Phones including its new flagship the Lumia 930.

The Nokia Lumia 930 is of course the successor to the Lumia 920, and comes to the table with an entirely new setup that I am sure Lumia fans will love. The 930 features a 5-inch full HD screen which is protected by Corning's Gorilla Glass 3, along with new touch-screen technology that enables it to work with normal gloves.

A Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 is along for the ride and features a core clock of 2.2GHz, while 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage round out the core hardware. Windows 8.1 is on board and a new 20-megapixel rear camera handles all of your imaging duties. This camera is also capable of 1080p video at 30fps as well. Nokia says that the new Lumia 930 will cost consumers $599 off-contract, which puts it into the $199 rage on a 2-year contract.

When Microsoft first unveiled Windows 8, the entire tech world began complaining about the lack of a Start menu in the next-gen operating system. Microsoft's vision was that everyone would switch over to touch-screen based devices and Windows 8 would be the new standard that all other operating systems strive to reach. Unfortunately, as with Windows Vista, Windows 8 was for the most part a flop with anything other than casual PC users.

The enterprise and business world failed to adopt Windows 8 or its later 8.1 update, and many attribute that to the lack of a true desktop interface that featured the Start menu that everyone was familiar with. During this weeks Build Conference, Microsoft said that it will be bringing back the Start menu, but it will still feature a live tile interface off to the right. There is a major update to Windows 8.1 scheduled to drop this month, but the Start menu will not come with it. Microsoft says that it will issue an update later this year that will include the reborn Start menu.

A new clever cryptocurrency mining malware has been located on digital video recorders (DVRs), in a continuing evolution of connected devices being targeted by security threats.

The malware actively searches for vulnerable devices, and then the exploit comes later. Researchers are still unsure how the camera DVRs are being infected with the malware, though with many home users installing custom surveillance systems at home, this could be a growing concern.

"After accessing a couple of the DVRs, we noticed that the malware was running on the

Today Micron Storage announced that it is beginning to ramp up production of DDR4 memory modules in preparation of Intel's pending launch of the new Xeon E5-2600 V3 line of processors. Micron says that these DDR4 modules will offer a performance increase of up to 35-percent over previously utilized DDR3 RAM.

"Our JEDEC-compliant portfolio showcases the performance and power benefits that DDR4 products can provide for our customers," said Robert Feurle, Micron's vice president of marketing and program management. "As a result of Micron's close engagement with our key enabling partners, we are well positioned to bring this exciting new technology to market."

"We have been working with Micron since the early days of DDR4 memory definition and through DDR4 product launch," said Geof Findley, Intel DCG Memory Ecosystem Director. "We are very excited that our mutual customers will be able to reap the benefits of this new memory technology to improve performance and reduce power as part of future Intel(R) Xeon(TM) processor E5-2600 v3 product family based systems with production availability of these new processors in 2H'14."

There are plenty of insanely expensive supercars on the market today. Porsche, Ferrari, and McLaren all have cars only the richest of the 1% can afford. These cars have names like the McLaren P1, Ferrari LaFerrari, and the Porsche 918. An American company wants to build a car that it thinks can compete with these European exotics.

The company is called Trion Supercars and it wants to build its $1 million supercar in California. The company isn't giving up all the details on the car just yet, but we know a lot. It will be built using carbon fiber to save weight.

Power will come from a twin turbo V8 engine. Exactly what the source for that engine is, we don't know. If the company is to meet the 2000hp goal it has for the supercar, called the Nemesis, it had better be a stout V8. I'd wager we are talking a heavily modified Chevrolet V8.

The United States military is boosting its cyber capabilities as the Defense Department has almost 1,800 employees as part of its Cyber Mission Force. By the end of 2016, that staffing figure is expected to increase up to 6,000 before the end of 2016, while the US government continues to support in cyberattacks.

To try and increase the staffing level in such a short amount of time, military officials hope to recruit current military personnel - Silicon Valley cybersecurity specialists are unlikely to leave behind high-paying jobs to join the government's new programs.

"We spent a lot of time in the last two years in particular figuring out what the [recruiting] model would be,"a senior defense official recently told reporters. "Initially sometimes people will think about recruiting highly skilled people from the outside, and that is one option... but quite honestly, the way we're going to be most successful is using people within the force [including those with no cyber background] and giving them the training."

Rumors of an Amazon-built set-top have been floating around for the better part of the last year, and today those rumors proved to be true. This morning Amazon.com announced the release of its all new Fire TV set-top box, a media streaming device that fully incorporates the Amazon ecosystem. Amazon is pulling out all the stops as well, and has enlisted Gary Busey to even record a promotional video for the new device.

Measuring in at less than an inch thick, the new Fire TV set-top box is capable of streaming full HD content to your TV over a common HDMI connection, and includes a remote that allows you to voice your commands, search for movies, and a wealth of other things. Amazon is also offering a separate video game controller that retails for just $40. Fire TV is not just closed to Amazon content, but features apps that integrate Netflix, Hulu Plus and many more services right on the box.

Fire TV is powered by a dedicated quad-core CPU and features 2GB of RAM that allows the device to continue smooth operation even when under a load from watching a House of Cards marathon. 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi is on-board and 8GB of internal storage is present. Amazon is retailing Fire TV for just $99 and is available now on Amazon.com. Do you think that a $99 set-top box is a justifiable purchase since Google's $35 Chromecast and Roku's $50 Streaming Stick do almost all of the same task for much less money?

Sony has announced a new set of headphones called the MDR-HW700DS digital surround wireless headphones. The headphones use Virtualphones technology to reproduce the soundstage of a multichannel speaker system. A 9.1 channel system adds a pair of surround back speakers and a pair of front high speakers to the normal 5.1 set up.

The headphones don't actually have nine speakers inside. The wireless connectivity doesn't come at the detriment of sound quality. Sony uses HDMI connectivity for the headphones offering uncompressed audio transmission. Dual wireless bands are supported with 2.4GHz and 5 GHz.

Three different modes allow the user to choose the best mode for what they are doing. Those modes include Cinema, Game, and voice settings. Sony uses pressure-relieving luxury ear cushions for the headphones to make them more comfortable during extended use.

If you frequently order things from Amazon, you know that it can be a worrisome process if a package has to be left by the door of your house with no one there to get it. There are some products that you might not want to go to your house even if someone is there to receive them, gifts are a good example. Amazon started rolling out its Lockers delivery service a few years ago.

Early on, the lockers could be found in Staples and other locations. Staples has since cancelled the deal and no longer has Lockers in its locations. Originally, all you could do was pick up the items you ordered at the Lockers location, but Amazon is now taking returns at the same Lockers.

The lockers return service works much like the delivery service. Amazon will send the person making a return a code to unlock the locker. Boxes up to one square foot in size can be placed inside. By taking returns at the Lockers location, Amazon can presumably save money on shipping since the delivery driver will be there dropping off packages for delivery.

If you have a lot of people in your home that like to watch TV and record lots of shows to the DVR, you have undoubtedly run into issues before with not having enough tuners. Your options then are to watch something recorded or interrupt one of the other tuners. If you live in an area served by the Verizon Fios QuantumTV service you can get a new whole home DVR that has the most tuners out there.

The device is the new VMS1100 media server and it has six tuners on its own. It can be paired with another box allowing it to add up to six additional tuners for a total of 12. The VMS1100 on its own has 1TB of storage space when combined with other set top boxes with its own tuners it can have up to 2TB of storage.

As you might guess, the cost of a whole home DVR system this powerful isn't cheap. The main box is said to rent for $22 monthly for a single box, $32 monthly for the dual set up with 12 tuners, and each additional box for TVs is $10 monthly. You also have to pay the monthly cable bill.