Latest News - Page 2875

An online predator group targeting children as young as three years old utilizing Tor was recently busted by the US Department of Homeland Security. So far, 14 members accused of leading the child pornography website were arrested and face charges related to conspiracy to operate an organized child exploitation enterprise.

Operating from June 2012 to June 2013, the group had more than 27,000 members across the world, with access to at least 2,000 videos.

"These indictments represent a strong coordinated strike - by Homeland Security, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and several U.S. Attorney's Office around the country - against child pornography and those who allegedly seek to harm our most vulnerable citizens, our young children," said Kenneth Allen Polite, Jr., U.S. Attorney, in a press statement.

Back in December, the ISS had a significant problem with its cooling system. The issue required a couple spacewalks to repair. It appears that whatever the problem with the ISS coolant loop is, the issue has returned.

NASA has confirmed that a coolant loop problem has again reared its head aboard the orbiting space station. NASA says that on Wednesday one of the two coolant loops on the space station shut down. A NASA spokesperson said that at no time was the crew aboard the ISS in any danger.

As a result of the coolant issue, some non-essential equipment aboard ISS modules was shut down. Some of the equipment was also changed over to use the other coolant loop. NASA believes that the coolant issue is linked to a valve problem, which was the same sort of issue that caused the coolant problems late last year. Presumably, a space walk will be needed to fix the coolant system, but no announcement has been made at this time.

ABI Research is a research firm that keeps a close eye on various markets in the technology world. The company has released a new report looking at the tablet market around the world for 2014. ABI is estimating that 200 million tablets will ship this year.

If that proves to be true, it will represent a 20% gain compared to 2013. In 2013, there were 166 million tablets shipped. The research firm is also predicting that North America will account for less than 50% of all global tablet shipments in 2014 for the first time.

That change is because tablet makers have spent significant money expanding their shipments and marketing into other countries. Intel has a chance to become a big factor in the tablet realm in 2014 according to ABI. If Intel can pull off its goal of shipping 40 million tablets using its processor tech it will become a major force in the tablet market.

There are many people out there this winter who can attest that living in a climate that gets really cold and has lots of snow can be bad for your mood and productivity. Lot of folks have dealt with record setting winter storms and cold temperatures for months now. If you live in these cold areas and have an electric vehicle, the weather is doubly bad for you.

AAA has released the results of a study that looks at the driving range of an EV in winter temperatures compared to more moderate temperatures. According to the study, an EV that can drive 105 miles per charge in 75-degree weather will only be able to go 43 miles when it's below freezing.

AAA says that its study shows driving range with temperatures of around 20-degrees are 57% shorter than when its 75-degrees out. The study also found that hot weather affects driving range, but not as much as cold weather. With most EVs in the country sold in temperate Southern California, I guess many don't have to worry about this.

Following years of burying their heads in the sand, lawmakers in the United States are finally taking cybercrimes seriously. As noted in the "Gangs Beyond Borders: California and the Fight Against Transnational Organized Crime" report released by California Attorney General Kamala Harris.

The state of California led all states in organized attacks, with computer systems under threat from malware.

"With the rise of a global society connected by the Internet, criminal rings organized to commit hacking, fraud, pirating and other high-tech crimes across borders have rapidly profilerated," the report notes. "These rings operate frequently from Eastern Europe, but also from places as diverse as West Africa and China, and specifically target the citizens, computer networks, and companies of prosperous countries like the U.S."

The NSA wants to be engaged in the continued global discussion of security and secrecy in the digital age, forced to the table following countless complaints of violating user privacy, according to NSA deputy director Richard Ledgett.

The NSA continues to face pressure from Internet users, foreign citizens, political leaders and tech companies, forcing the intelligence agency to go on the defensive. To help try and appear more transparent, there is a current proposal for the NSA to release transparency reports helping give insight into NSA operations.

Ironically, Ledgett said the NSA wanted to share a public point of view during TED to help counter the "half-truths and distortions" made public by Snowden. Ledgett also said Snowden put lives at risk, showing "the bad guys" some of the NSA's cybersecurity and snooping methods.

GDC 2014 - Microsoft has announced DirectX 12 with some of its closest partners, NVIDIA, AMD, Intel and Qualcomm, showing off the new DirectX gaming API at the 2014 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco today.

DirectX 12 will deliver some major improvements for developers to all of Microsoft's platforms: Xbox One, Windows Mobile, and of course, PC. The new gaming API will enhance graphics efficiency for modern games as it allows developers to spread tasks across multi-core CPUs, all the while reducing CPU bottlenecks that usually reduce performance, even sucking performance away from what a powerful GPU would usually deliver.

We will see "closer to the metal" access to developers, something that AMD's Mantle technology does, and to showcase this, the Redmond-based software giant teamed up with Forza Motorsport 5 developer Turn 10 Studios to show off a version of the game running on DirectX 12. The demo used a PC powered by an NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Black, running at 1080p and a silky smooth locked 60FPS.

The so-called "Internet of Things" will disrupt the technology world, with 26 billion units supported by 2020, shaking up the data center, according to the Gartner research group.

IT services will help monetize the market further, with IoT product and service suppliers queuing up to join a quickly growing market.

"The enormous number of devices, coupled with the sheer volume, velocity and structure of IoT data, creates challenges, particularly in the areas of security, data, storage management, servers and the data center network, as real-time business processes are at stake," said Joe Skorupa, VP at Gartner, in a press statement. "Data center managers will need to deploy more forward-looking capacity management in these areas to be able to proactively meet the business priorities associated with IoT."

Convicted teenage hacker Jared James Abrahams has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison following two years of compromising online accounts of women he later blackmailed. The 19 year old pleaded guilty last November to one count of unauthorized access of a computer and three counts of extortion, and reportedly broke into around 150 online accounts.

Abrahams grabbed headlines after he compromised Miss Teen USA 2013 winner Cassidy Wolf, in which he accessed her computer and used their webcams to photograph them.

"As digital devices, email accounts, and social media accounts now contain the most intimate details of the public's daily lives, the impact of this type of hacking and extortion becomes more pronounced, troubling, and far-reaching," the U.S. Department of Justice noted. "In some cases, this type of criminal behavior can be life-changing for the victims - especially for vulnerable victims who may feel it is impossible to rebuild their tarnished reputations."

If you have been around since the 80's you may recall Dolly Parton. She was a country and western singer most known for large breasts and appearing in the occasional movie. One of those films is a comedy classic called 9 to 5 that also features Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.

Fonda and Tomlin are reuniting on a new comedy series for Netflix for the first time since 9 to 5. The new series is called Grace and Frankie. Netflix warns that this isn't a normal sitcom. The setting for the comedy is that Tomlin and Lily are rivals and their husbands tell them one day that they are in love and are getting married.

This leaves Grace, played by Fonda, and Frankie, played by Tomlin, thrown together to deal with the change in marital status. The comedy is going to be a 30-minute single camera series. Netflix has ordered 13 episodes of the show for the first season and they will be from Skydance Productions.

Toshiba has announced an interesting new adapter that can be used to turn external hard drives into network attached storage. The new product is called the Canvio Wireless Adapter. The adapter will work with any brand of traditional external hard drive, not Toshiba brands alone.

Once connected the adapter lets the user connect to the hard drive using a tablet or smartphone and upload images, video, and documents to the drive. The adapter supports up to eight deices at one time. Using the app, the data stored on the drive can also be accessed remotely from outside the home or office.

The wireless Adapter is easy to install and set up. It connects to the external hard drive and a USB power source. Apps for saving and accessing data are available for Android and iOS. The wireless adapter is available now for $79.99.

Porsche has been making some of the most desirable sports cars in the world for decades. The company has its slick two seat Boxster and Cayman cars on the low-end, and the venerable and long running 911 with other models thrown in as well. Porsche has announced a new version of the Boxster and Cayman with more power and style.

The new versions of the cars are the Cayman GTS and the Boxster GTS. Both of the cars get a bump in power compared to the standard versions of the car. Both cars get an extra 15hp bringing the output to 330hp for the Boxster and 340 for the Cayman. Each of the cars also gets a 7 lb-ft boost in torque.

Both GTS models get the Sport Chrono package standard and can be fitted with a 6-speed manual or a 7-speed PDK. When fitted with the PDK gearbox the Cayman GTS can reach 60 mph in 4.3 seconds with the Boxster GTS needing 4.4 seconds.

Sony will soon be pushing out a new update for the PlayStation 4 which will allow PS4 owners to save screenshots and videos to a USB drive, as well as supporting HDMI video capture by offering the option to disable HDCP.

Future updates to Sony's next-gen console will improve Twitch streaming, too. The company has promised an HDCP off option since the PS4 launched in November last year, as the PS4 only outputs to HDMI, the presence of HDCP means that PS4 users could only capture video using the share button on the PS4 controller, uploading it to social media, or streaming it through Twitch.

The PS4 update will also add a new video editor, which will allow gamers to personalize their clips. From there, you can save clips and screenshots to a USB device, as well as the Share button on the PS4 controller. There will be other features rolled out with the new update according to Sony, one of which will be the ability to archive Twitch broadcasts at a resolution of 720p.

GDC 2014 - Massive Entertainment, the developer behind The Division, has shown off a new trailer for the game's engine, Snowdrop, which you can check out below.

It looks absolutely beautiful, one of the first games that truly looks next-gen. The team talks about how versatile Snowdrop is, and how great it is to develop with. The video shows off some bits where you can see it is quite like connecting Lego together, in terms of ease. The last time we saw The Division we thought it looked great, but this video is a big step up on that.

Remember, the team has said that The Division won't just be a port on the PC, but it will "stand out" on PC. Hopefully Massive keep to its word, and we don't see the game being scaled down in terms of graphics and features when it gets closer to release.

According to a GameSpot article and Polygon's sources, EA has just landed the deal for the sequel to Titanfall 2 from Respawn Entertainment. Polygon's sources have said that Titanfall 2 will this time around, not be exclusive to Microsoft platforms.

Titanfall, which was only released a couple of weeks ago, was exclusive to Microsoft platforms: Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC. An EA representative told Polygon that it wouldn't talk about the rumor, saying: "We do not comment on rumor or speculation. Right now all our focus is on supporting all the fans worldwide enjoying Titanfall."

Rewinding back to October, Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella tweeted that his company would eventually make games for the PS4, implying that Titanfall's exclusivity to Microsoft platforms was limited to just the first Titanfall. Hopefully we see this materialize into Respawn making Titanfall 2 for the PS4.

Until now, developing with Unreal Engine was an expensive affair, easily costing hundreds of thousands of dollars for some developers. Well, Epic Games has announced that Unreal Engine 4 is taking a very different approach.

The maker of Unreal has introduced a new model that costs just $19 per month, and a 5% cut of any gross revenue made from a commercial product. What this means for most, is that anyone can get into working with Unreal Engine 4 because of the low costs, but if you make money with your game, you'll owe Epic Games a 5% cut of it.

Tim Sweeney, Epic Games' founder, when showing off a demo called Tappy Chicken, said: "It's not a shooter engine anymore, it's for whatever you want to build."

The Raspberry Pi is one of those micro-computer development boards that I often wonder how we ever lived without, and in recent months, the add-on board market for the Raspberry Pi has exploded with several high-quality boards that do everything from add Add Arduino Support, to increasing Audio capabilities.

Today I stumbled across a new add-on board for the Raspberry Pi that adds in HDMI input functionality that has the ability to let users stream HD video footage straight from their camcorder to the Pi and on to the Internet with very little effort. This new add-on board allows users to connect any HDMI video source and sent it straight to the Raspberry Pi. This could come in handy for those who use the Raspberry Pi as a media center and would allow Blu-ray playback or allow streaming directly to the internet.

This add-on board allows users to easily capture video from the following devices

Anyone who follows my articles here at TweakTown knows that I am a sucker for new Arduino-compatible development kits, and I especially like the micro-sized boards that are easily hidden inside projects. As such, a new Kickstarter campaign has caught my eyer and I just had to share it with everyone.

The MicroView is a "Chip-Sized" arduino-compatible that features a built-in OLED display, and is sized perfectly for bread boarding, or use in many different projects. Unlike many of the Arduino-compatibles that pop up on KickStarter every month, MicroView includes a purpose designed course that walks users through building 11 different circuits, making the MicroView an ideal development kit to use in a classroom environment.

A pledge of just $45 gets you a single Micro-View with OLED Display, while $55 lands you the MicroView plus USB Programmer. $95 lands you the MicroView, USB Programmer, Learning Kit, and a Cross-Platform Interactive Course. For educators, a pledge of $1350 will land you 15 of the Learning Kits and Teaching Materials. At just $55 for the MicroView and Programmer, I think I just might add one of these to my ever expanding collection of development boards.

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing was one of those games that gained massive popularity not only for its epic gameplay, but for its pricing point as well. When the game first released, NeoCore Games priced it at just $15 which was unheard of for a game of its caliber, and the company has done it again with the games sequel.

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II is based on the same RPG game play type as the first, but features more character classes, multiplayer modes, and an overall more complex story line. With more than 250 unique weapon models, and over 1000 item types to collect, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II is a no brainer purchase at just $15 on Steam. I played through the closed beta some today and the game is quite fun and I lost track of time and spent about an hour in-game.

Today Oculus unveiled the second generation of its Rift development kit, and it appears to be a major improvement over its predecessor. The Oculus Rift Devkit 2 is an upgraded, and refreshed version of the company's original virtual reality headset, and boast many new features and improvements over the original Oculus Rift.

The new Oculus Rift DevKit 2 features better latency, better frame rates, and a higher resolution (960x1080 per eye) that is said to greatly reduce the infamous screen-door effect experienced on the original Oculus Rift. Positional head tracking has been greatly improved and is now accurate down to less than a millimeter, and the new screen is a low persistence OLED display that virtually eliminates motion blur and judder.

"DK2 isn't identical to the consumer Rift, but the fundamental building blocks for great VR are there. All the content developed using DK2 will work with the consumer Rift. And while the overall experience still needs to improve before it's consumer-ready, we're getting closer everyday - DK2 is not the Holodeck yet, but it's a major step in the right direction," Oculus said in a press release.