Latest News - Page 2876

Intel unveiled its plans for its entire lineup of desktop processors and All-in-One PC systems as the company believes that desktop PC is getting stronger. The company started by pointing some facts observed during 2013 and 2014, which some people may not (or may) find it surprising.

According to The Vice President and General Manager for Desktop Client Platform Group Lisa Graff, Intel's desktop processor volume was up by 7% on a Year-on-Year basis as per Q4 2013's results. The following month, Intel observed that they've made an All-time record for its Core i5 and Core i7 unit shipments, as said by Brian Krzanich in January 2014.

This should explain why Intel accelerated its plans to release its Haswell-E lineups and Intel X99 lineups well before than previously expected. Since the company sees a certain upward growth in the DIY PC and enthusiast market, it only makes sense to offer the best they have as quick as possible, provided its all ready for retail.

G.SKILL has announced that it will be hosting the 2014 G.SKILL OC World Cup overclocking contest. Winner of the contest will receive $10,000 in cash, one of the largest single cash prizes in competitive overclocking History. The G.SKILL OC World Cup will take place during the 2014 Computex trade-show held in Taipei Taiwan.

To qualify for the event, online qualifiers will be held at HWBOT between March 24th and and April 27th which will include 3 Benchmarks including highest memory frequency, SuperPi 32M, and 3DMark Fire Strike. This will determine the top six online qualifiers to compete in the live finals at Computex 2014. "OC World Cup 2014 will be a great opportunity for extreme overclockers to showcase their skills to the world and a chance to take home the largest single cash prize in OC history, so overclockers better step up their game for a shot to win USD $10,000!" commented by Frank Hung - Product Marketing at G.SKILL

Prizes include:

phDetails have emerged this morning on what could be Nintendo's next-gen console. The new rumors come from a website Gaminrealm, and states that the an industry insider gave them exacting specs on Nintendo's successor to its mediocre Wii U console. Please remember that all rumors should be taken with a grain of salt, especially when the rumor originated with unamed sources.

Nintendo is reportedly referencing the whole project under the name fusion, with the console being titled Fusion Terminal and the controller / handheld getting the Fusion DS moniker. The reports do state that Nintendo's R&D department would like to keep these names as they are exciting a fresh which could breath new life into a stale company. Oddly enough, the system will be based off of an IBM processor and an AMD GPU while the controller / handheld will be based on ARM Cortex-A8 architecture. The full list of specs have been copied below, but keep in mind that these could change at any moment, or could be completely different as we speak.

Samsung has rolled out a new digital camera called the Samsung NX Mini with 20.5MP resolution. The camera is billed as the world's slimmest and lightest interchangeable lens camera. The camera also has Wi-Fi and NFC tech inside. The thickness of the camera is 22.5mm and the body only weighs in at 158g.

The camera is designed to let those that like to take selfies do so with better quality. The camera has a 3-inch flip up and touch display that flips 180-degrees allowing the user to frame themselves perfectly. The lens on the camera is 9mm wide and has a wide angle so you can get a group shot by holding the camera at arm's length.

Samsung made the camera able to shoot continuously at 6 fps and the camera has a 1/16000 second shutter speed to freeze fast action. The camera has a number of automatic and manual modes for photography and video.

The USB implementers Forum has made an announcement today in regards to Media Agnostic specification. The forum has finalized the MA-USB details and released its V.10 specification.

The USB-IF used WiGig Serial Extension v1.2 specification as its initial foundation for the MA-USB specification. It is also compliant with SuperSpeed USB (3.0 and 3.1) and Hi-Speed USB (USB 2.0). Devices that uses MA-USB will be branded as 'Powered by MA-USB', provided the product qualifies its certification program.

Edgar Figueroa, the president and CEO of Wi-Fi Alliance said,"We share a commitment with the USB-IF to enhance wireless connectivity. The completion of MA-USB supports our efforts to deliver wireless data, display and audio applications, all while providing the best user experience."

Edward Snowden has changed the world with his revelations of the NSA spying on virtually everyone, where Down Under, multiple Australian law enforcement agencies and the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) have submitted proposals asking the Australian Senate for more surveillance power.

State police have even gone as far as asking the government to log citizens' Web browsing history. After the Snowden leaks on the NSA's spying programs and Australia's cooperation in sharing information with other countries, the Australian Senate opened an inquiry on whether Australia's Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act of 1979 should be revised, in order to better protect Australian citizens' privacy.

Since then, ASIO as well as multiple state police, submitted commentary asking for even more data retention, but offering no added protection for citizens' data. ASIO added that the Snowden leaks will make it harder for the organization to gather meaningful data about a person, so it thinks it should have more power to perform its surveillance duties.

Edward Snowden's latest leak is quite interesting, with the NSA whistleblower talking about the US spy agency's MYSTIC voice interception program, which is capable of collecting the entire nation's "every single" phone call, storing the voice recordings for a month.

MYSTIC began back in 2009, with the NSA developing a RETRO tool that is capable of accessing any voice call from the selected nation, for a period of 30 days. The first nation to have their phone calls recorded by MYSTIC and RETRO started in 2011, with as many as six more countries possibly being spied upon. The Washington Post was asked by US officials to note reveal which countries MYSTIC was operating on.

The program was quite successful, with the NSA bringing in "high-stakes intelligence that would not have existed under traditional surveillance programs in which subjects were identified for targeting in advance," according to The Washington Post. "Unlike most of the government's public claims about the value of controversial programs, [highly classified] briefings supply names, dates, locations and fragments of intercepted calls in convincing detail."

One of Google's favorite hobbies is killing off services that the company no longer wishes to support. Last year we saw this happen when Google grew tired of supporting its Reader service, and this year it looks like one of its older services will be led to the chopping block. Several reports have popped up today that suggest that Google is looking to retire its Voice service and integrate some of its key features into Hangouts.

Google launched Voice back in 2009 when it decided to rebrand the aging GrandCentral internet calling service. One of the best features about Google Voice was the ability to have a second phone number that would ring straight through your Gmail account or your Android Device. Additionally many users loved the way Google Voice handled voice mails and many switched their Android devices over to Google Voice just for this voice mail feature. Unfortunately this feature for far fewer users than it glitched out for, and now it appears that Google will be putting an end to the service in an effort to further unify its Google+ and Google Hangouts services.

No word was given on when Google might kill Google Voice, but I for one can not wait to see it go. I use Google Hangouts almost exclusively now for my "At PC calling" and could never get Google Voice to function properly for more than a few days at the time. There is a part of me that is sad to see it go though as I was one of the original GrandCentral subscribers way back in the day. As with Reader going away, the death of Voice will benefit us more than we realize at the moment, and I can not wait to see how Google Hangouts improves because of this.

Laptops capable of playing the latest video games are quickly becoming the norm, and today GIGABYTE has added another high-performance gaming notebook to the mix. The new P34G V2 is a 14-inch Ultraforce gaming laptop that is just 20mm thick and weighs less than three-pounds. GIGABYTE says that the Ultraforce P34G V2 is the company's answer to the fast growing demand for ultra-powerful notebooks, and delivers heavy-weight performance in a light-weight package.

"This new breed of gaming laptop grants gamers superior mobility as well as uncompromised performance, readying users with full-throttle gaming on major titles and bringing a whole new definition to gaming on the go. The simple yet sleek style makes P34G v2 a great choice for business people that like to kick back and game on the side when not presenting or typing up reports on the P34G v2," GIGABYTE said in a release.

The Ultraforce P34G V2 features an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M and 4GB of VRAM alongside an Intel Core i7 Haswell processor. A single mSATA SSD up to 256GB in capacity and a single 1TB HDD are on board to handle all of your storage needs, while GIGABYTE's Supra-Cool technology ensures that everything runs cool and efficient. A 1080p AHVA display is present and boast an impressive 170-degree viewing angle. Topping things off, the keyboard is back-lit by a true electroluminescence panel that ensures even illumination accross the entire keypad.

Today GIGABYTE announced the launch of two new AMD Graphics Core Next (GCN) based video cards. The new GIGABYTE GV-R928WF3OC-3GD and GV-R7265WF2OC-2GD are based on AMD's Radeon R9 280 and R7 265 video cards and feature several upgrades that take them above and beyond AMD's reference designs.

The GV-R928WF3OC-3GD features 1792 GCN stream processor and 3GB of high-speed GDDR5 memory that runs on a 384-bit memory interface. Cooling is handled by a WINDFORCE 3X cooling system that ensures gamers get every ounce of performance out of this factory overclocked GPU. The GV-R7265WF2OC-2GD boast 1024 GCN stream processor, 2GB of GDDR5 memory and 256-bit memory interface. Cooling is again handled by GIGABYTE's WINDFORCE cooler, but features only 2 fans instead of the three seen on the R9 280 OC.

"The GV-R928WF3OC-3GD masters the balance of overclocking ability and video card stability to provide gamers with a reliable gaming environment. It is equipped with exclusive WINDFORCE 3X plus patented "Triangle Cool" technology," said GIGABYTE. "The powerful airflow and heat dissipation capability keeps the video card cool and quiet, and of course leads to the best performance. Even more, both GV-R928WF3OC-3GD and GV-R7265WF2OC-2GD are well overclocked. These two models are packed with groundbreaking features like DirectX 11.2, AMD PowerTune and CrossFire technology. Gamers should never settle for anything less."

GDC 2014 - After months upon months of teasing the world, Sony has just taken the wraps off of its VR headset for the PlayStation 4, known as Project Morpheus.

Project Morpheus is a VR headset designed for the PlayStation 4, which comes in two pieces: a closed display, and something that resembles the PlayStation Move sensor. The unit unveiled at GDC 2014 is the development kit for Sony VR games, with Shuhei Yoshida, President of Worldwide Studios for Sony saying: "We believe Morpheus will further enhance, with integration with PlayStation Camera and PS Move." Yoshida has said that the prototype of Project Morpheus is "by no means final," so we should expect a change in the final product.

PlayStation R&D Engineer Richard Marks talked about Morpheus, saying that it needed a high-resolution, high-quality screen, great sound, and control - all of which Sony seems to have under control. SCE is working on "binaural tech" for the audio side of things, with Marks making a point of the PS4 camera being "almost custom-built for VR."

Pixar have never been shy producing sequels for the most loved films including Toy Story and Monsters Inc., but today Disney head Bob Iger has announced that the studio will produce a sequel to Brad Bird's The Incredibles and a second sequel to the popular Cars franchise. These will join the previously announced Finding Nemo sequel Finding Dory due in 2016, alongside original titles The Good Dinosaur and Inside Out both of which are coming in 2015.

The studio's recent sequels Cars 2 and Monsters University were both critical disappointments, which also failed to light up the box office as expected. However, the former has gone on to become an incredibly lucrative money train for the company, mostly off the back of assorted merchandise which continues to sell in impressive figures.

Just a few hours previously, Pixar representatives at the 3D Creative Summit in London announced the studio are currently undertaking 3D conversions for both Ratatouille and the original The Incredibles which will likely be released directly to 3D Blu-ray. This leaves only two films in the Pixar stable to be without a 3D retrofit; Pixar's second feature film A Bugs Life and Wall-E both of which are expected to receive similar treatment in the coming years.

About a year ago, Electronic Arts launched SimCity to great fanfare, but just as quickly as the excitement grew, disappointment quickly took over as the game was plagued with weeks of issues surrounding its "always online" requirement. This method of DRM caused the game to crash frequently, and for some, made it impossible to play as firewall, network, and downstream issues prevented the game from authenticating. During this time, fan who paid more than $80 for the game begged EA to remove the online requirements, but the company never did.

Eventually the issues were resolved, but a call to remove the online requirement remained. Today EA has finally taken note of its customers cries and has issued an update that lets users play SimCity offline from any PC that it is installed on. Unfortunately, update 10 only allows the game to be played without an internet connection, users will still have to launch SimCity through Origin if they wish to play.

The new offline mode also allows players to create vast expanses of city's without worrying about neighbors ruining the cities they worked so hard to create. This also removes the threat of a bad server going down and destroying your city as well. EA has made no mention of user-created servers yet though, and that is likely a feature that will never see the light of day if recent EA titles are any indication.

Trading in video games is something most of us have done before, and until now, we have been limited to stores such as EB Games and Gamestop. Today that ends as Walmart has announced that it has began rolling out a new Video Game Trade-in program that will let customers trade in used video games and receive a Walmart gift-card in exchange. This means that customers can use the credit they received for the games on anything that Walmart sells, from food, to car tires and even clothing.

"Gaming continues to be an important business for us, and we're actively taking aim at the $2 billion preowned video game opportunity," said Duncan Mac Naughton, chief merchandising and marketing officer for Walmart U.S. Walmart says that the gift-cards will be normal Walmart gift-cards that can be used at any Walmart, Neighborhood Market, or Sam's Club in the US, and that the program will be handled by the same company that oversees its smartphone and tablet buyback program that launched last fall.

Much like the trade-in programs at EB Games or GameStop, the value of used games will vary, with older, less popular games receiving the lowest trade-in value, and newer popular games earning as much $35 or more depending on the title. No word was given on if Consoles apply to the trade-in program as well, but it would be nice to see Walmart allowing consoles, accessories, and even game guides to be traded in. Walmart says that the trade-in program will be available at all of its stores by this fall.

A year ago, when HTC announced its flagship, the HTC One, the tech world was set ablaze with some of the revolutionary and unique features that this next-gen Android phone had. Unfortunately the company took more than two months to actually bring the phone to market, and by then, most of the buzz that was generated, had already died down, and everyone had refocused onto Samsung's Galaxy S4. Despite rave reviews, and claims of the One being the best phone ever, HTC suffered greatly as a result of the delayed release.

Today one of the largest retailers of HTC devices, Carphone Warehouse, leaked PR documentation that showed that it would be offering the HTC One for sale immediately after the phone is officially launched on March 25th. It does appear that HTC will first focus its marketing efforts on the UK in an attempt to boost sales of its upcoming flagship in the UK, while Americans will have to wait until April to pick up the smartphone.

In case you missed the ten previous post we have on the new 2014 HTC One, here is a refresher. The phone will feature a 5-inch 1080P display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon quad-core processor clocked at 2.3GHz, and 2GB of RAM. Android 4.4.2 will be on board as well as Sense 6.0, and a new version of BlinkFeed. Dual cameras will be located in the rear to aid in special imaging effects, and a 5-megapixel front facing camera will be featured as well. This time around, HTC will include a microSD slot to expand storage too.

Just hours after Google announced its new operating system for smartwatches called Android Wear, Motorola had an announcement of its own to make. The Lenovo-owned smartphone giant has just announced that it is the first manufacturer to release a smartwatch design based around Android Wear.

Motorola's new Moto 360 is the first smartwatch to utilize the new Android Wear OS from Google, but that is no surprise as Motorola was owned by Google up until about 2 months ago. The Moto 360 utilizes the new round form factor design which is one of two supported shapes (the other is square) in Android Wear. The smartwatch features OK Google voice control, alerts and notifications, and can display information such as weather, and fitness metrics.

"Moto 360 keeps you on time and up to date without taking you out of the moment or distracting you, telling you what you need to know before you know you need it through subtle alerts and notifications. With just a twist of the wrist you can see who's emailing or calling, what time your next meeting is or a friend's latest social post," said Motorola in a blog post. "Most importantly, Moto 360's iconic design, featuring a round face and premium materials, feels comfortable and familiar on your wrist. It's everything you need, with a look that you want.Moto 360 will be available in a variety of styles globally in Summer 2014, starting in the US."

Reports of an LG-designed Google Nexus smartwatch were not that far off. Today Google announced that it has been working on a new Android-based operating system that has been designed exclusively for smartwatches. The new Android Wear operating system is a forked version of Android that is specifically for smartwatches of all shapes and sizes, and features built-in amenities for fitness, navigation, Google Now, OK Google voice commands, and full integration with Android smartphones.

Google says that it is working with major Android partners like Motorola, LG, ASUS, HTC, and Samsung on different wearable designs. One of the most exciting features is that it appears that round smartwatches are a reality and are coming soon. A few days ago I reported on a smartwatch concept that utilized a round face design that I said was the key to a successful smartwatch industry, and with today's announcement, I actually feel like the smartwatch craze may survive its trend period. Google says that boutique watch brands such as fossil will also offer smartwatches with the new Android Wear OS later this year as well.

Google will release a preview API later this week, and will unveil the full API later this year, most likely at its I/O conference. As of this writing, no 3rd party companies have came forward with information on wearables they might be offering that feature the new Android Wear OS, but we are sure that the rumor mill will be buzzing with leaks, rumors, and info very soon.

Today, Corsair announced the launch of three new chassis to its Carbide Series of PC gaming chassis. The new SPEC line of PC gaming cases feature a very aggressive design while still retaining an ultra-modern look. The new SPEC-01, SPEC-02, and SPEC-03 feature amenities for the hard-core air-cooling junkie as well as ample space for those who chose to take a walk down the path of liquid-cooling.

Corsair says that it has designed all three chassis with the extreme gamer in mind, and has stripped away all of the unnecessary clutter which has left the SPEC series lean, mean, and ready for even the most intense gaming PC setup. The chassis support today's extra-long video cards as well as specific mounting points for SSD's. "Entry-level cases are usually antiquated, old designs. Some still have room for floppy drives," said George Makris, Product Manager at Corsair. "With the addition of the Carbide Series SPEC to our line, gamers can now get a case with modern features and great styling combined with superior cooling and expandability at a fantastic price."

Priced at under $50, the SPEC-01 is capable of supporting Mini-ITX through ATX form-factor motherboards as well as 4 storage drives in either 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch sizes. Dual 5.25-inch drive bays also adorn the chassis, and the front I/O panel supports a single USB 3.0 port. The SPEC-01 ships with a single 120mm red LED fan, and the necessary connectors, mounting hardware, and a tool-less design that is sure to appease even the most frugal PC gamer.

The future is filled with technology, and especially robots and artificial intelligence, something that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates recently talked about. Gates spoke at the American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington, DC, where he said that both governments and businesses need to prepare for a world where people will be fighting for jobs with robots.

Gates said: "Software substitution, whether it's for drivers or waiters or nurses... it's progressing. Technology over time will reduce demand for jobs, particularly at the lower-end of skill set... 20 years from now, labor demand for lots of skill sets will be substantially lower. I don't think people have that in their mental model."

The Microsoft co-founder even talked about what governments would do to prevent social unrest because of the mass unemployment, where he said they should basically get on their knees and beg big businesses to keep employing human beings instead of robots. This could lead to a future without payroll tax and corporate income taxes, while keeping the minimum wage low enough that businesses continue to employ people cheaply, versus using an automated, never-sleeping, non-demanding robot.

Battlefield 4's upcoming expansion pack 'Dragon's Teeth' includes a two-handed ballistic shield, according to a GDC talk that was given by an EA DICE animator. The team was hoping to see gamers use the ballistic shield in the game, while shooting from behind it with various hand guns.

But, the team realized that the best way to deliver the bullet-stopping shield into the game was to make it two-handed, to provide teammates with a moveable piece of cover - something you can shoot with while using. The ballistic shield will be included with the Dragon's Teeth expansion that is expected to drop sometime in the summer.

There's not much known about the upcoming Dragon's Teeth, but it will be centered around urban warfare - and the awesome new ballistic shield. During the animation bootcamp talk "Using the Power of Layered Animation to Expand Premium Content in Battlefield 4," Senior Animator, Ryan Duffin, explained how the team tried different things with the shield, while using a hand gun. These approaches failed, as the team didn't have the time required to create needed for animation changes, or they were limited by the last generation consoles and their memory.