Latest News - Page 2892

Odds are that many of the products that you buy spent some time on a ship crossing the ocean at one time. About 90% of the world's trade goods are shipped by boat. The shipping industry is gigantic and is worth about $375 billion annually.

Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc has announced a new plan for ships that it thinks could revolutionize shipping and save shippers lots of money while reducing pollution. The plan is to make drone ships that are controlled from a virtual bridge on dry land and have no human crew.

The ships would use redundant systems like aircraft and an array of sensors to see what is in the water in front of them. The crew is one of the highest cost centers for a shipping company with crew costs consuming about 44% of the entire operating expenses for a ship.

The move to 12Gb/s SAS is beginning in the datacenter, and as per usual the bleeding-edge devices lead the way. 12Gb/s SAS3 SSDs were first, with three industry heavyweights leading the 12Gb/s charge. We have evaluated the HGST SSD800MM, the Toshiba PX02SMF080, and the Seagate 1200. Surprisingly, a few of these SSDs actually beat compatible RAID adapters and HBA's to market, but we are finally seeing the right pieces of the architecture all fall into place.

Of course the next logical step is to begin applying the benefits of 12Gb/s technology to the platter realm. The fastest HDDs are the first to get the 12Gb/s treatment, and today HGST beat the competition with the announcement of their new C15K600 family.

This 15K RPM HDD also brings a few new features. HGST is utilizing their media caching technology to provide significantly enhanced write performance over solutions with limited NAND or flash-based non-volatile cache (NVC). The result is two times better random write performance than current generation 2.5-inch 15K drives, and two and a half times better performance than 3.5-inch 15K drives. We are reaching out for details from HGST on this new technology, which apparently leverages a much larger 128MB cache buffer to achieve this spectacular performance.

MWC 2014 - SlimPort is one of those technologies that change up the game in a very good way, and now Analogix has raised the bar even more. At the 2014 Mobile World Congress, Analogix demoed its new SlimPort 4K line of devices that lets you take a 4K enabled phone like the Google Nexus 7 and stream the display onto a 4K TV in real-time with no apparent latency at all. This makes for a seamless gaming experience, something no one else has been able to do until now.

Johannes Knapp was on hand today to take a first hand look at the new SlimPort 4K technology, and as you can tell from the video above, SlimPort 4K is no joke. Over the years, many have tried to bring a latency free smartphone gaming experience to the big screen, but no one has managed to nail it as perfectly as Analogix has.

This also allows users to stream 4K video from their phone or tablet directly to their 4K TV, a handy feature for someone without a 4K streaming device. This video marks the end of our on-site MWC 2014 coverage, but Johannes will be back in a few weeks with live coverage from CeBIT, so stay tuned to TweakTown for that!

If you are the sort that likes to create your own stuff, you may think that having your own 3D printer is something that would make your life much better. The problem is that many 3D printers cost thousands of dollars putting them out of reach. MakerBot has announced a new 3D printer that also happens to be the cheapest one it makes.

The printer is called the MakerBot Replicator Mini and it was unveiled during CES 2014 earlier this year. The printer is now up for pre-order and you can get one for $1375. That is about half the cost of the full size Replicator.

As you might guess with the word "mini" in the name, this printer is for making smaller items. It can produce items that measure up to 3.9" x 3.9" x 4.9". The printer is built for fast printing and uses a build plate that requires no leveling.

We know that South Park can be crude, but just how far will Trey Parker and Matt Stone push South Park: The Stick of Truth? The answer is pretty far, at least on consoles where it had to be censored in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with the PC version of the game completely uncut.

For those in the US, you'll receive the full frontal version including swearing, poop jokes, and much more. The censored scenes from the consoles include:

The reasoning behind this is from Ubisoft, which says it is simply a "market decision". The consoles' censored parts will be replaced with some words from Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

Just a day after releasing a fix for authenticating SSL certificates, there's another security flaw found in iOS that's equally dangerous. It was recently found that iOS allows a malicious apps to keep a track on your keystrokes.

This flaw was found by a security firm called FirmEye. To prove that this flaw exists, the security firm uploaded a dummy app in Apple's app store. The dummy app was able to record touch and keystrokes when changing wallpaper, pressing buttons like home, volume up/down and TouchID buttons. The app then sent the records to a remote server. According to the security company, attackers can use these information for reconstructing every character that the victim uses to access any types of accounts.

It was also pointed out via FireEye's blog post that this exploit works even with the latest apple devices with iOS 7.0.4 non-jailbroken. It was also being found that the same vulnerability was in 6.1.x, 7.0.5 and 7.0.6 versions.

AMD releases catalyst 14.2 BETA 1.3 for 32 and 64 bit version of Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. The BETA drivers provide performance improvements and updates. The updates are available for AMD Radeon with discrete and APU- desktop and notebooks.

The updates contain series of fixes and updates such as crossfire profile updates and performance improvements for GPU configuration with Thief and even fixing frame pacing for dual video card support and non-XDMA configuration for screen resolutions above 2560 x 1600 for Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4.

There are only couple of known issues found in this BETA driver, such as the inability to render the right eye with Crossfire and Stereo 3D enabled on Thief.

Let's face it, whenever you're shopping and using your credit card, you'll have your smartphone on you, too. Well, now MasterCard is working with network company Syniverse in order to reduce fraud when using your credit cards overseas.

The companies are working on tying your credit card to your smartphone, so that the card is only capable of working when your smartphone is near. Hany Fam, president of global strategic alliances at MasterCard explains: "There have been many attempts to help prevent credit card fraud, but this is the first solution that works globally and without the need for new devices or infrastructure".

If you end up using this new system, you won't feel it in everyday use. Your smartphone will just need to be turned on and kept with you. Syniverse acts on the phone operator's side of things, interconnecting between different networks reaching more than 5 billion mobile devices globally. The company is capable of locating users' phones on their signal alone, without mobile data being enabled, or used.

Nexenta has quietly accumulated a significant customer base of more than 5,000 users and nearly one exabyte of storage installed. Continuing upon that success, Nexenta announced today the upcoming release of NexentaStor 4.0 in Q2 2014 that will bring enhancements to failover time and overall reduced latencies. In addition to improved performance, Nexenta has put forth an effort into improving its out of box experience by simplifying installation and management with wizards and advanced monitoring tools.

While solutions around "software defined" networks, storage, and data centers are relatively nascent, Nexenta is staking its claim early on by partnering with industry leading system integrators. As an existing premier reseller partner for Nexenta, Eva Cherry, CEO and President of Silicon Mechanics says,

With these upcoming enhancements and the insatiable market demand for more and more storage, it is very conceivable that Nexenta will continue down the path of capturing increased market share as end users look to deploy highly scalable storage solutions with the best cost to performance & capacity ratios.

If you thought Max Payne 3 had a mammoth installation on PC, prepare yourself for Titanfall. Respawn Entertainment's mech-based first-person shooter will see an installation of 48GB.

Compared to Call of Duty: Ghosts which took up 40GB of HDD space, Titanfall really takes the cake here. Titanfall's minimum system requirements have also been released, which are pretty moderate:

OS: 64-bit Windows 7, 8, 8.1

Broadcom introduces BCM435 SOC which is the first 5G Wi-Fi (802.11ac) 2x2 Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) SOC for smartphones. This will allow manufacturers to provide twice the Wi-Fi performance of a single MIMO enabled devices while improving the power efficiency of up to 25% while using wireless applications.

This chip also supports Rezence wireless technology which is developed by the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP). This chip will work for Android, Windows and Chrome based systems. It was reported earlier that Dell recently joined the alliance to get the wireless charging technology for its devices.

"Smartphones have become the epicenter of today's digital life and consumers are demanding ever increasing levels of performance and sophistication," said Dino Bekis, Broadcom Vice President, Marketing, Wireless Connectivity Combos. "As a leader in wireless connectivity solutions, Broadcom continues to deliver unprecedented features and capabilities to this demanding and rapidly growing market."

The leaks just don't stop from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, with Glenn Greenwald reporting on his latest leak that US spy agencies manipulate and control online behavior in more ways than one.

The NSA even goes as far as making something the GCHQ calls "Honey Traps", which leads to some very suspect behavior. This includes changing a targeted users photos on social networking sites, writing a blog purporting to be one of their victims, and then contacting their colleagues, neighbors, friends and so forth. These tactics are being used by GCHQ's previously unknown and secret JTRIG (Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group).

This is something that the spy agencies call "false flag operations", to purposely deceive and set individuals up for the fall. Not only do the spy agencies discredit a target, but companies can be targeted, too. The work they do will leak confidential information to companies or the press through blogs and other means, post negative information on various forums, which will sometimes stop deals or even ruin business relationships.

Toshiba's storage products business unit announced the March 2014 availability of its latest generation of highly efficient SSDs. The HG6 is the newest addition to the HG family, which offers high performance and power efficiency, making it suitable for a range of applications from laptops to data center servers. The 6Gbit/s SATA drives are available in a variety of standard form factors including 2.5-inch, mSATA, and M.2, with capacities up to 512GB.

The HG6 SSD's incorporates Toshiba's error-correction technology known as QSBC, a highly efficient error correction code (ECC). This safeguards customer data from corruption caused by NAND wear, which improves drive reliability and extends the MTBF. It is also the first mainstream SSD product to use Toshiba's A19nm Toggle 2.0 MLC NAND media. These features make it a suitable solution for enterprise class servers.

Toshiba is capitalizing on its unique industry position of being both a NAND inventor and SSD solution provider to provide a highly optimized product. According to Don Jeanette, senior director of marketing at Toshiba Storage Products Business Unit, "As inventors of NAND technology, we leverage our NAND expertise to optimize the performance and data integrity of this series, and truly give customers the power of choice with a broad selection of capacities and form factors."

Razer has announced its partnership with Swedish supercar maker Koenigsegg for a series of 'not-for-sale' Koenigsegg branded limited edition Razer Blade gaming laptops.

As far as specification is concerned, its same as Razer Blade: Intel i7 4702HQ with 8GB memory, GTX 765M, 256GB SSD, Qualcomm NIC N1202, Razer's anti ghosting keyboard with adjustable backlight and 14 inch 1600 x 900 resolution panel. All of this in a ultra thin low profile thickness of 0.66 inch and casing made of aluminum.

Koenigsegg branded Razer Blade gaming notebooks will be unveiled at the Geneva International Motor Show in March 2014.

New reports have surfaced that indicated that Google is actively trying to stop states from enacting anti-Glass driving laws, and has its own lobbyist leading the charge in Delaware, Illinois, and Missouri. Google's stance on the matter is that the technology is still in its infancy and not in widespread use, and therefor does not garner special legislation restricting its use.

"I'm not against Google or Google Glass. It may have a place in society," said Delaware state representative Joseph Miro, primary sponsor of a bill banning texting while driving and Google Glass behind the wheel. "My issue is that while you are driving, you should have nothing that is going to impede the concentration of the driver."

While Google is certainly correct in that statement for the moment, Google Glass is becoming more poplar and more people are being invited to purchase the product every day. Before the end of the year, Google Glass will be in hundreds of thousands of users hands, and we will begin to hear stories of how the wearable technology distracted drivers and caused accidents, but how many of those claims will actually be true? How many of them will be falsely over-hyped by the mainstream media who has no clue how the devices even work? It's only a matter of time before anti-glass campaigns kick off similar to those against cellphone use in vehicles, and unfortunately the majority of the public will bite hook, line and sinker.

Google's Street View is one of the revolutionary products from the company that forever changed the way we navigate the world. With Google's recent expansion of Street View to locations beyond city streets, the service has become much more than a simple navigation too, and people are using it to take virtual vacations to remote places all over the world. Today Google rolled out more images for its Underwater Street View library, taking us to popular diving spots in Cancun, and Isla Mujeres.

These latest editions join a collection of underwater panoramic photos from hot spots such as the Great Barrier Reef, the Philippines, and Hawaii as well as spots from Bermuda Monoco, and the Galapagos Islands. Each photographic excursion takes place over a 2-3 kilometer area and is comprised of some 3000-4000 images that are later stitched together to form the breathtaking panoramic images seen in Street View.

For right now, Google seems to be focusing mainly on areas around North and South America, but the company says that in the future it will expand to the rest of the worlds underwater treasures, and that it expects to have a much larger uncatalogued within the next two years. Projects like this are one of the most important things Google does in my opinion as we know more about outer space than we do about the Earths Oceans. Personally, I hope Google teams up with someone like NOAA or Odyssey to do more panoramic images of deep water sunken ships and other ruins that lay below the waters surface.

Today Buffalo announced the launch of three new high-speed AirStation wireless routers based on the open source DD-WRT firmware. The new AirStation AC 1750 WZR-1750DHPD, AirStation N600 WZR-600DHP2D, and the AirStation N300 WHR-300HP2D all feature DD-WRT Linux-based firmware that provides a high-performance and stable networking stack that is highly customization and community driven.

Buffalo says that the new generation of AirStation Wireless Routers provide high-performance networking, advanced features, and low-level device management while unlocking extensive capabilities with increased network stability. The company's decision to continue offering DD-WRT firmware in its routers offers consumers powerful features not found on other closed-source firmware-based routers of similar pricing points. DD-WRT provides the stability and configuration options needed for high-end home networking or the small business networking environment.

"Consumers and business professionals are demanding increased access and control of their wireless network configurations," said Matt Dargis, COO at Buffalo Americas (USA), Inc. "We launched new open source DD-WRT models of the AirStation router to address this rising demand, giving users the ability to unlock advanced capabilities of their wireless routers at a cost effective price. These features, such as PPTP, OpenVPN and VLAN, allow network administrators and programmers to enable advanced features typically unavailable in consumer-grade wireless routers."

Apple quietly provided iOS 7.0.6 update to fix a vulnerability issue in an SSL connection verification. Many security experts concluded that there's a major security flaw found in the OS.

End users should update their Apple devices with the latest iOS patch. Such users who do not do so could be to open to attacks or or have data being viewed, altered or downloaded via the SSL. The security patch document specified that iOS Secure Transport 'failed to validate the authenticity of the connection'.

It was also reported that banks have contacted their customers and advised them to update to iOS 7.0.6 immediately.

Since his first day on the job, BlackBerry's new CEO, John Chen, has been focused on rebuilding the company from the ashes left over from his predecessors tenure with the company. That does not mean that he would not sell off key components of the company if the right offer was made. During an interview with CNBC, Chen told reporters that he would sell off BlackBerry Messenger, the company's widely popular messaging service, if the price was right.

"If somebody comes to me with $19 billion I would definitely sell it," Chen said. "I mean, I would recommend to the board to take it." He was of course referring to the total selling price that Facebook acquired WhatsApp for earlier this week. Unfortunately it seems that the greatly inflated acquisition of WhatsApp has set a false precedence or "bar" if you will at what companies value their messaging services at.

Unfortunately what I feel is happening is that another .com bubble is inflating, and eventually the market will not be able to sustain all of these $1 billion, $3 billion, and $19 billion valuations, causing the bubble to burst the same way it did in the late 90s. It feels like every tech company, start-up, and company fork is being valued at $1 billion plus these days, and that trend does not seem to be slowing at all. Eventually something will have to give, and the aftermath will not be pretty if history is any indication.

MWC 2014 - AMD has partnered with Bluestacks to unveil a new dual-OS Android solution that has been optimized for AMD APUs at this weeks Mobile World Congress. The new dual OS solution brings a virtualized Android experience to new Microsoft Windows 8-based AMD-based tablets, 2-in-1s, notebooks and desktops and can be found on devices at select retailers across the US now.

"The ability to span two OS ecosystems gives end-users access to both Windows and Android apps, but the key is providing for the seamless integration of entertainment and productivity across those ecosystems," said Steve Belt, corporate vice president, Product Management, at AMD. "Introducing our solution in retail puts AMD and BlueStacks in a unique position to offer in-store customers the option to include access to this great experience at the time of purchase of their new systems."

The retail version of BlueStacks running on a Windows PC powered by select AMD APUs offers: