Latest News - Page 2891

Today, HGST announced that it has managed to ship more than 100 million Travelstar Z-series 7mm 2.5-inch hard drives this year and expects demand to rise to more than 140 million units by 2017. Seeing the demand for large storage capacities in ultra-thin mobile devices, HGST has launched a new 7mm 2.5-inch HDD with a capacity of 1TB.

The new Travelstar Z5K1000 drive is said to be the industry's fastest 7mm 5400 RPM HDD and features best-in-class shock robustness. The Z5K1000 is designed for use in ultra-thin laptops, ultrabooks, external storage and ultra-compact CE devices. Featuring 2 platters, the Travelstar Z5K1000 family features 1.6 watts (W) read/write power and 0.5W low-power idle, and delivers a nearly silent operation at 2.1 idle/2.2 seek bels.

"The 7.0 mm 2.5-inch mobile market continues to be a strategic space for HGST as evidenced by our record 100M shipments," said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing, HGST. "With the addition of our new 1TB Travelstar Z5K1000, HGST continues to offer the market's broadest 5,400 and 7,200 RPM 7.0 mm 2.5-inch hard drive portfolio to meet the needs of a diverse mobile computing and storage segment."

Today ASUSTOR announced that its line of NAS storage devices are now fully compatible with over 100 different Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) devices in the PowerWalker line from BlueWalker. ASUSTOR says that the integration of PowerWalker UPS' with its NAS systems allows SOHO and small business users greater flexibility and a larger variety of solutions when searching for a UPS.

"Due to both European big distribution channel strong request, PowerWalker UPS and ASUSTOR NAS cooperate together to offer end-user a reliable solution for their high value device & critical data" said Jörg Bous, Business Development Manager at BlueWalker GmbH. "After 6 months closely testing, we are happy to announce all the customers could have these solution available from now."

"In order to protect their critical electronic equipment against the damage that can potentially be caused by power outages and power surges, modern enterprises can choose to deploy uninterruptible power supply mechanisms," said Quote Lin, Director of Research and Development at ASUSTOR. "After passing our strict verification and testing process, we are happy to announce that PowerWalker UPS devices are now compatible with all ASUSTOR products. This provides our users with a wealth of options when choosing a UPS device to provide protection for their NAS."

It has been almost exactly two years since Battlefield 3 was released to the world, and today, EA and Dice have officially launched the next-generation of Battlefield. Battlefield 4 is built upon the revolutionary Frostbite 3 engine, and features an immersive single player mode, and a multiplayer mode that can only be described as "EPIC."

Since its announcement earlier this year, Battlefield 4 has managed to win more than 40 industry awards, and has received nothing but rave reviews in the past 24 hours. With revolutionary features such as "Levolution" where players are able to destroy key locations that change the layout of the entire map, Battlefield 4 is truly a look into the future of first-person shooters. An excerpt from the official press release can be found below.

Dammit. About a year ago I began writing an editorial saying that the future of smartphones isn't bigger and better - it'll be a world where you'll build your own. Now Motorola has somehow sucked this idea out of my head, used its billions of dollars backed behind it thanks to Google and unveiled something called Project Ara.

Project Ara is an open-source initiative for modular smartphones, with the glorious goal to "do for hardware what the Android platform has done for software." This would mean that Google wants to create an entire ecosystem which supports third-party hardware development for individual phone components.

This would result in a consumer being able to upgrade specific components, such as the display, processor and more by shopping at different vendors. Project Ara's design starts with the "endo" or the smartphones Terminator-type endoskeleton, which is its most basic, and pure structure. From there, modules "can be anything" according to Motorola, who gave examples ranging from a new keyboard, down to a new battery or pulse oximeter, for example.

If there's a company capable of making a tremendous return, stomping its foot down firmly into the ground to claim victory, it's AMD. The chipmaker has finally returned to profitability after numerous years of bad results.

AMD posted a Q3 revenue of $1.46 billion, representing a 15% year-over-year increase, and a net income of $48 million - or 4c per share. Moving onto the non-GAAP basis, AMD posted a net income of $31 million, with this figure including $22 million in restructuring charges. If AMD didn't have to take that restructuring charge, it would've enjoyed earnings of 6c per share.

The 'experts' over on Wall Street expected the company to report Q3 earnings of 2c per share on revenue of $1.41 billion. AMD CEO, Rory Read, said that the company's turnaround is part of its strategic transformation it talked about years ago: "We achieved 26 percent sequential revenue growth driven by our semi-custom business and remain committed to generating approximately 50 percent of revenue from high-growth markets over the next two years. Developing industry-leading technology remains at our core, and we are in the middle of a multi-year journey to redefine AMD as a leader across a more diverse set of growth markets."

Earlier this month we got our first look at NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 780 Ti GPU when Anthony Garreffa attended NVIDIA's press event in Montreal Canada, and earlier this morning we saw official pricing and availability numbers released from NVIDIA. Now just a few hours later, we are learning that the GTX 780 Ti may be faster than anyone ever expected.

A member of the XtremeSystems forums posted earlier today, what he claims to be benchmarking results of the GeForce GTX 780 Ti from the 3DMark 11 benchmark suite. If true, the results are shocking to say the least. The GTX 780 Ti appears to not only be faster than AMD's recently released R9 290X, but it is much faster than NVIDIA's own GTX TITAN. Making this more remarkable, the GTX 780 Ti is only priced at $649, which is $350 less than its bigger brother the TITAN.

Whether or not the leak is a fake, I will leave up to you, but I would like to recant my previous statement that the R9 290X is the Titan Killer, and change things to state that the GTX 780Ti is in fact the Titan Killer. We will see the new GTX 780 Ti edition release to the public on November 7th.

With the Xbox One launching in just a few short weeks, Microsoft is looking to generate as much hype around the next-gen console as possible. Today a new video surfaced online that takes us on a brief, but detailed walkthrough of the console's dashboard. Unfortunately Microsoft has chose to post it on the official Xbox One Website, fortunately, IGN seems to have a copy on their YouTube channel.

The video is only 1:23 long, but it does a very good job at showing us how fast one can navigate through the various screens, menus and features using a combination of voice commands and input from the controller. Microsoft will launch the Xbox One on November 22nd and is expected to hit record sales despite a very rough reception after its announcement earlier this year.

Google is having one heck of a time keeping its upcoming Nexus products from leaking via its own Google Play website, and today new leak has surfaced that is cluing us in on what the Nexus 10 is made of. Phone Arena received a screenshot of the devices specifications before Google managed to take the leak down earlier today.

As expected the refreshed Nexus 10 features all of the top-of-the-line hardware we have been expecting which includes a 2560x1600-pixel display with a pixel density of 300ppi. Gorilla Glass 3 is present to keep the Nexus 10 scratch free while also preventing shattering in the event of a minor drop. A Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 Processor, Adreno 330 GPU and 3GB of RAM are also present as is 32GB of internal storage and Android 4.4 KitKat.

An 8-megapixel rear camera is onboard to handle imaging, while a 2-megapixel front-facing camera handles selfies and video chatting. MIMO-enabled Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and a massive 9,500mAh battery round out the impressive specifications. It is widely believed that the new Nexus 5 will launch on November 1st and if so, we could see the Nexus 10 launched on the same day along with Android 4.4 KitKat.

While it may have had some hiccups on launch, Grand Theft Auto Online can be considered nothing but a smashing success at this point, and today Rockstar has announced the first DLC pack for the game. The all new Beach Bum pack will be released early November and will be available for download at the unbeatable price of Free!

The Beach Bum pack will add new weapons as well as beach-themed vehicles that will be available for use in both GTA Online as well as GTA V. The update will feature several new jobs including Survivals, parachutes, deathmatches, races, and much more. New Tattoos, hairstyles, and clothing will also be included as well. Additionally users will be able to create custom deathmatches and races with the included Content Creator which is free to download as well.

MultiTouch has just unveiled one of the largest portable touch-screen displays in existence. MultiTouch showed of off the new 4K resolution, 84-inch multitouch display prototype earlier this year at its company's developer conference in Helsinki Finland and now we are getting more information on the mammoth display.

The 84-inch display features all the benefits of the company's MultiTaction Cell technology which includes ultra-fast response times, simultaneous pen and touch support and the ability to precisely track multiple points of contact simultaneously from hands and fingers. The display is supported by the company's Cornerstone 2 SDK which allows developers to build stunning interactive applications, and greatly simplifies 4K Resolution scaling from single displays to walls featuring several displays up to 50-megapixels in resolution.

"Our 84" MultiTaction Cell prototype represents a giant leap not just in screen size but in resolution too," explains Hannu Anttila, VP of Business Development at MultiTouch. "Customers who take advantage of the pre-ordering programme will not only be among the first to benefit from this ground-breaking technology, but will also be able to purchase the complete package at a discount of more than 20%."

NVIDIA has just updated its "GeForce Experience" software to version 1.7 and with the update, has launched the all new ShadowPlay gameplay recording module. ShadowPlay enables gamers to easily record video of their most exciting moments and quickly share them with the world.

ShadowPlay is a hardware-based encoder that reduces the impact that recording has on in-game performance and limits the frame rate reduction drastically over other recording methods by encoding to H.264. This reduces the exorbitantly large multi-gigabyte file sizes we are use to seeing, which equates to more space for additional videos, as well as a less taxing experience on the computers storage medium.

ShadowPlay is compatible with GeForce GTX 650 or higher cards, has two different modes, Shadow Mode and Manual Mode. Shadow mode constantly records gameplay for up to 20 minutes in Windows 8 (10 minutes in Windows 7) at full 1080p resolution. This feature allows you to press a pre-defined hot-key when something epic happens and the footage will be saved to your hard drive. Manual mode is what many of us are use to, and will record 20 minutes of continuous footage to the hard drive.

Just over one week ago, Anthony Garreffa was at an event hosted by NVIDIA in Montreal Canada where he got the first look at NVIDIA's newest GPU, the GeForce GTX 780Ti. At the time, we did not know much about the new GPU other than it was based on the Kepler architecture, and that it would launch in the coming weeks.

Today NVIDIA announced that the new GeForce GTX 780Ti will release to the public on November 7th at an MSRP of just $699. This new GPU's aggressive pricing has caused the company's other mid to high-end GPUs to drop in pricing with the GTX 780 slipping to $499 and the GTX 770 set to lower to just $329 on October 29th. NVIDIA says that it has added the GTX 780Ti to its top-tier holiday bundle as well which includes a free copy of Batman: Arkham Origins, Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, plus $100 off a SHIELD purchase.

This morning, NVIDIA announced that it has launched a massive update for its Shield handheld gaming console. The update brings forth GeForce. NVIDIA says that the update allows Shield owners to take control of thousands of Android games that were only designed originally for touch-screen devices and remap their controls to be compatible with the Shields physical controls.

The other new and exciting feature is what NVIDIA is calling "Console Mode," which allows users to transform their portable shield into "full living room gaming and entertainment experience" for the big-screen TV. This new mode allows gamers to pair up a Bluetooth equipped gaming controller to the shield, and play the games on the big screen. NVIDIA says that its GameStream mode is compatible with Console Mode and will allow users to stream their PC Games directly to their TV.

Other Android 4.3 feature updates include restricted profiles, expandable notifications, and code and bug fixes that make everything operate much smoother and fluid than before. Additionally, Shield owners can now select game and app files which they want to move to the SD card. Before only .APK files could be moved, but now .OOB files can make their way over as well which will free up a lot of room on the Shield's internal storage.

Sandisk recently purchased SMART Storage Systems. With a busy year of acquisitions in the flash market, this certainly ranked among the best. The acquisition caught many by surprise, but in retrospect, we should have seen it coming. The core competencies of both companies mesh nicely. Both companies bring an ingredient for success to the table that the other was missing.

Sandisk brings the fab and a long, illustrious 25-year history in the NAND market, while SMART brings the award-winning Guardian Technology and the forthcoming UltraDIMM technology.

Guardian Technology brings endurance-enhancing technology to Sandisk, but Sandisk already holds 4,900 NAND patents in their coffers. The acquisition of SMART surely had to bring more than just endurance-enhancing technology to make them a suitable acquisition target for the industry heavyweight.

Finally! One of the worst kept secrets lately from LG is its G Flex smartphone, which has just officially been unveiled and boy does it look nice. We have a 6-inch curved OLED display that is unfortunately hampered by its sub-standard 1280x720 resolution.

For the rest of the G Flex, it's quite impressive: Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 SoC makes an appearance with a 2.26GHz clock speed, 2GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, 32GB of internal flash storage, Bluetooth 4.0, and of course: Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with LG's own software sprinkled over the top.

One of the stand-out specs of the G Flex is that the rear of the curved smartphone features a "self-healing coating" which LG says it designed to automatically fill small scratches in the finish.

One of the more interesting things to come from the weekend of news is that Google is building itself a gigantic floating data center, which is being constructed in the San Francisco bay.

It's a four-story tall building, which sits on some shipping containers. CNET donned its detective hat and took a look, snapping the picture above. Why would the search giant be building a data center on the water? Well, what do data centers require the most? Cooling. It needs to keep all of those servers cool, where the body of water around it being the perfect spot.

But, saltwater is a different ballgame, so Google would require a desalination or filtering plant to use the water appropriately - which I'm sure it has planned.

Apple broke some new ground with its iPhone 5S, with the included A7 processor being 64-bit capable. Samsung is the company who manufacturers the chip for the Cupertino-based giant, who is now preparing its own 64-bit SoC.

The new Exynos 5430 SoC is reportedly in an advanced stage of development, and will be 64-bit capable. This will help in more ways than one, and will push up the maximum memory supported by leaps and bounds, too. Samsung's new Exynos 5430 SoC is based on the ARM Cortex-A50 architecture, which is much more efficient and capable of processing more complex calculations, resulting in improved performance across the board.

The new chip will also support DDR4 memory, which should be very interesting when it hits mobile devices. Samsung will feature the new super-powered SoC in its upcoming Galaxy S5 smartphone.

I might be showing my age here, but Myst was one of the most amazing games I ever had the chance of playing when I was young. When I first got the chance to test out the Oculus Rift, one of the first games that I thought would be amazing to play in the VR world was, Myst.

Well, the award-winning creators of Myst and Riven are on Kickstarter right now trying to fund their latest title: Obduction. Obduction is an "all-new, real-time, first-person adventure that harkens back to the spirit of Cyan's earlier games Myst and Riven. Obduction resurrects that incredible feeling of suddenly finding yourself in the middle of a new world to explore, discover, solve, and become part of."

One of the most interesting parts of the Obduction Kickstarter page, is in its FAQ, where the question "What about Oculus Rift support" to which the answer is: "We are excited about Oculus Rift (we have a dev kit) and VR in general, and we'd love to have a stretch goal that heads that direction."

The US Army Resarch Office has coughed up $855,000 to researchers at three different universities: Harvard's School of Engineering & Applied Science, The University of Illinois, and The University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering with the goal of pushing next-gen 4D printing.

Yes, that's 4D. What does the US Army expect from this? Well, it would like to see them used for military advancements such as "an automobile coating that changes its structure to adapt to a humid environment or a salt-covered road, better protecting the car from corrosion. Or consider a soldier's uniform that could alter its own camouflage or more effectively protect against poisonous gas or shrapnel upon contact."

Now that would be some seriously slick technology, wouldn't it? It looks like the end goal would be to recreate the T-1000 from Terminator 2, with one of the principal researchers, Anna C. Balaz, stating in the press release: "Rather than construct a static material or one that simply changes its shape, we're proposing the development of adaptive, biomimetic composites that reprogram their shape, properties or functionality on demand, based upon external stimuli."

Update: We've had an e-mail from a Qualcomm representative who says that Anand is still with the company, serving as Senior Vice President where he is "exploring certain enterprise-related initiatives."

When Apple launched its iPhone 5S last month with the A7 processor rocking inside, most people rolled their eyes thinking "why?" Well, one of those people was Qualcomm representative Anand Chandrasekher, who called the A7 processor a "gimmick."

Chandrasekher is no longer with Qualcomm, with the company stating in a statement to CNET: "Anand Chandrasekher, is moving to a new role leading our exploration of certain enterprise related initiatives...Anand will continue to report to Steve Mollenkopf, COO and President of Qualcomm. This will be effective immediately."