Oh gosh - I don't believe I'm actually reporting on this, but here we go: a fake Apple ad has been making its way around on social networks, pushing people to "update to iOS 7 to become waterproof."

The ad tries to 'sell' iOS 7 to you, in a salesman type of way, by stating: "In an emergency, a smart-switch will shut off the phone's power supply and corresponding components to prevent any damage to your iPhone's delicate circuitry." Countless people fell for it, destroying their iPhones in the process. I can't help but laugh (please don't take offense if you're on of these people), but one angry person who thought a software update would make their iPhone waterproof said: "Ok whoever said IOS7 is waterproof GO F*** YOURSELF."

I do have a question for these iDiots: if you thought a software update would magically make your iPhone waterproof, can I have the same update for my car? Maybe I can firmware flash my car and have it 10x better on mileage. Maybe I could firmware flash myself and have the ability to fly? Apple fans, officially reaching a new low.

The AMD event is well and truly underway in Hawaii, but one of the more interesting things to arrive from the event is AMD's new TrueAudio technology. There's not many technical details on TrueAudio at the moment, but the way AMD describes it, TrueAudio would be an audio DSP built into its coming GPUs.

For as long as I can remember, PC game audio has shifted to software away from hardware, but now we're seeing a change in the opposite direction. It comes at a great time, since Windows Vista ushered in the big changes to Windows' audio stack, but moving to software isn't the best solution. We saw the hardware audio scene mostly die, with DirectSound 3D all but disappear.

New consoles (with AMD APUs) and Windows 8 is thankfully changing this, and AMD hopes to capatilize on this. AMD wants to offload audio processing to its DSP in order to take advantage of the better capabilities of task-dedicated hardware. This isn't something that is new, but it is something we haven't seen much investment in over the last decade.

This week, MSI launched two new mobile workstations, the GT70 20K and the GT60 20J. Both workstations feature NVIDIA Quadro graphics processors and Intel Core i7 processors for adequate power even when on the go. MSI says that the GT70 and GT60 have both been certified by Adobe, Autodesk, and Solidworks.

The GT70 features an NVIDIA Quadro K3100M graphics processor and the GT60 sports a K2100M GPU, which have both been designed to tackle the most intensive software out there, including AutoCad Design Suite, Avid Media Composer, Pinnacle Studio 16, AutoDesk Smoke, Siemens NX, PTC Creo Parametric 2.0, and more. Both units possess NVIDIA Optimus technology, which enables designers and engineers to perform simultaneous rendering or structural/fluid analysis on the same system.

"MSI has long been praised for the performance of our gaming laptops, and the new workstations leverage that expertise to deliver the same quality and effectiveness for professionals," said Andy Tung, Vice President of Sales for MSI Pan America Region. "We've successfully combined the power and design of our acclaimed GT70 and GT60 laptops with the performance needed to tackle professional applications.

AMD GPU14 - AMD kicked off its GPU14 Conference in Hawaii by announcing five new video cards that span the gamut of pricing and performance. AMD's Matt Skinner took the stage to announce the new AMD R9 and R7 series of enthusiast level graphics cards and lead off by saying that AMD's new GPUs are built using the same technology that is featured in all the upcoming next-gen consoles.

Up first is AMD's Radeon R7-250, a budget friendly GPU that packs in 1GB of RAM and scores >2000 in 3DMark FireStrike. The R7-250 will retail for $89 or less. Next up the chain is the all new Radeon R7-260X, a GPU that hits the midrange market with 2GB of GDDR5 memory and scores >3700 in 3DMark FireStorm all for just $139.

Up next is the first card in the R9 series, the Radeon R9-270X, an upper level $199 GPU that features 2GB of GDDR5 and scores >5500 in 3DMark FireStorm. The R9-280X is the first high-end GPU that AMD announced and features 3GB of GDDR5 RAM. The R9-280X scored more than 6800 in 3DMark FireStorm and will retail for $299.

Following Google's lead, Mozilla has decided to deactivate most of the browser plug-ins used in Firefox. In the latest version of Firefox Aurora, almost all of the plug-ins have been disabled with the exception of Adobe Flash. Unlike Chrome's plan to ban plug-ins all together, FireFox will let its users choose which plug-ins they would like to activate.

Firefox says that the decision to disable most plug-ins would not only help speed up the browser, but it will provide a safer environment and remove many of the security vulnerabilities that modern browsers face. At one time, plug-ins were an important tool for development as well as implementing cutting-edge features such as video and animation, but over time web technologies advanced and everything can now be done using new technologies such as WebGL, WebSockets, WebRTC, and asm.js.

The move to disable plug-ins is also driven by the fact that most mobile devices no longer support many of them. Disabling plug-ins by default will help push development into a more mobile-friendly workflow and will allow developers to take the Internet to the next level.

"Entertainment is not a one-size-fits-all world!" That is the opening line to Steams second big announcement this week. Today valve announced "Steam Hardware", something we were all expecting in some form or another. The company says that it wants customers go to choose the hardware that makes sense for them, and that they are working with multiple partners to bring a variety of Steam game machines to the market in 2014.

All of the machines will run SteamOS, and will be tailored to fit an individual's personal needs, such as powerful hardware, or a quiet gaming experience. Valve did not say who its hardware partners were, but did say that there will be several devices launched in 2014. The biggest announcement however is about will be building its own prototype in which it will give to 300 lucky Steam users free of charge for testing.

Apple's Maps app has been plagued with issues since its release, and has often been unfairly compared to Google Maps, which has a development head start of over a decade. Unfortunately, many of the errors Apple Maps has been experiencing are quite fundamental and not simply a misnamed road or missing imagery.

A recent error has popped up that involves the Fairbanks International Airport located in Fairbanks, Alaska. The airport has reported several incidents where iPhone users were using Apple Maps to navigate around the airport and wound up driving on a taxiway and then across an active runway.

"We asked them to disable the map for Fairbanks until they could correct it, thinking it would be better to have nothing show up than to take the chance that one more person would do this," said Melissa Osborn, chief of operations at the airport.

Micron Technology has just announced that it has began shipping the first engineering samples of its new 2GB Hybrid Memory Cube DRAM modules. The company says that the new Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC) represents a dramatic step forward in memory technology and has been designed for applications that require high-bandwidth access to memory.

HMC utilizes what Micron calls advanced through-silicon vias, which are basically tiny conduits that transfer electricity through a stack of individual chips. Micron's HMC is a 2GB memory cube that is composed of a stack of four 4Gb DRAM die, which provides an amazing 160GB/s of memory bandwidth while consuming 70 percent less energy per bit than current technologies.

"The Hybrid Memory Cube is a smart fix that breaks with the industry's past approaches and opens up new possibilities," said Jim Handy, a memory analyst at Objective Analysis. "Although DRAM internal bandwidth has been increasing exponentially, along with logic's thirst for data, current options offer limited processor-to-memory bandwidth and consume significant power. HMC is an exciting alternative."

Our own Shawn Baker is in Hawaii right now probably enjoying a cocktail and Luau or two for the AMD event that it set to take place in the following hours, but ahead of the unveiling, AMD is promising to fix some of its issues.

We should see the chipmaker improve CrossFire, Eyefinity and Linux support, on top of unveiling a bunch of next generation GPUs. We should expect the R9-290X "Hawaii" GPU unveiled tomorrow, which should retake the performance crown from NVIDIA. Ahead of this, AMD's Corporate VP of Visual Computing, Raja Koduri, walked up to the banks of Hawaii's Diamond Head mountain to provide a quick tease of what's coming in the software side of things.

AMD is going to be working on its support for CrossFire and Eyefinity (finally), with the aim set on improving the various frame pacing issues that should allow for a more consistent frame rate, and should put an arrow in the leg of stuttering. We should also see an improvement made to Linux support, where AMD seems to constantly lag behind NVIDIA in.

iMessage Chat for Android has arrived, but is it as good as what it sounds like? Well, yes and no. iMessage Chat allows Android users to chat between Android and iOS devices, but there should be caution used.

9to5Mac reports that iMessage Chat is definitely not an Apple app - which should be obvious - and was created by a third-party developed named Daniel Zweigart. iMessage Chat disguises the Android device you're using as a Mac mini, after which it pushes your messages to the Apple iMessage server. This means you'll require an Apple ID to gain access, but this isn't where the problems stop.

The creator of Cydia, Jay Freeman, noticed that iMessage Chat redirects to a server in China, before it forwards the information to Apple. This means that the server acts like a middle man, where it handles the transferring and processing of information between your smartphone and the iMessage server. The scary thing is, we don't know what the Chinese server is doing with your information - where it could be, and probably is storing your Apple IDs and chat logs.

Samsung used its event today to show off the Galaxy Gear and Galaxy Note 3, but took some time away from the event to tease the world by saying that the South Korean giant plans to "introduce a curved display smartphone in October."

There's no more information apart from those handful of words, no price, release date, or what OS it would arrive in. We could see Samsung unleash its Tizen handset tease with the curved display, or the Galaxy S5. We could even expect a totally new handset, or new range of smartphones from Samsung, too.

We have seen Samsung show off a flexible OLED screen, all the way back in January at CES 2013. Could this new curved display smartphone be the fruits of Samsung's labor? We don't have long to wait, folks.

I wanted to say "here we go again" but I've already used that line up in a previous GTA V on PC story, but the rumors persist, and we're here yet again. But, this time, we have more details on the technical side of GTA V.

The latest talk of Grand Theft Auto V on the PC leads us to believe that we should expect GTA V on the PC to feature DirectX 11 support, 64-bit support, 2K textures and Advanced Effects> These advanced effects would arrive as Bloom, which should make the world of GTA V more lush when you look at the horizon. The 64-bit support will see support for more than 4GB of RAM, which is definitely something we're going to need with a world as big as GTA V.

The code that the evidence is coming from is below:

We are used to the usual teardowns, that usually involve ripping a physical device apart, but iFixit has torn down the actual A7 silicon that we find in the Apple iPhone 5S. iFixit used an Ion Beam Etcher, which takes layers off of a semiconductor, analyzing just how it is made. iFixit worked with Chipworks on the A7 teardown, discovering quite a bit:

Earlier this afternoon, Google announced that it has began rolling out a newly refreshed "new tabs page" that greatly speeds up searching from within the Chrome browser. The new tab page still features little windows to your most visited sites, but now features the Google search bar front and center.

Google says that at the moment only those who use the "stable channel of Chrome" will have access to the new tab page, and those users must additionally have Google set as the default search engine. Google is not limiting this new tab page to just Google search, and has opened the API to allow any search engine to be integrated into the new tab page.

A statement on Google's Chrome blog said:

Yesterday was not a good day for Google's usually reliable Gmail service. Google says that due to a dual network failure, some users experienced partial service interruptions, slow performance, or total outages for up to 11 hours.

The company says that almost one-third of all emails routed through it servers were affected and that about 1.5 percent of all emails sent or received through the service were delayed by as much as two hours. Google has apologized via an official statement, and says that it will be implementing steps over the next few weeks to make sure these issues do not happen again.

Google plans to beef up its network and its backup capacity for Gmail, and says that it will make email delivery more resilient even in the event of a dual network failure. For many of us who use Gmail as our exclusive email provider, yesterday's issues were a little more serious. However, I am sure that the service will not see a loss of users over the recent issues. Google's complete statement can be found below.

Dropbox has jumped onto the transparency bandwagon with fellow tech giants such as Google, Microsoft, Twitter, and Facebook. Today, Dropbox announced that it has filed an amicus brief with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

The brief requests that the court give permission to all Internet companies to disclose all requests for information regarding their users when it comes to matters of national security. This would allow Dropbox to publish a list of every information request it has received regarding its users from governments both foreign and domestic.

Dropbox says that "the Court should not permit the government to invoke the mere label of 'national security' to justify the speech restraints it seeks." Currently tech companies can publish how many requests they received, but only on non-gag law enforcement requests, and can only disclose a vague number range when dealing with national security requests.

When Microsoft first announced it was acquiring smartphone manufacturer Nokia, I knew there was something fishy about the deal. When ex-Microsoft exec and current Nokia CEO Stephen Elop was announced as the new head of Microsoft's Devices and Services division, things began to make sense.

Fast-forward to the announcement that Elop would receive over $25 million as part of a payout in which Microsoft would cover more than half of the cost to see the wheels really start turning in my head. Today, a new report from Forbes says that Nokia has admitted to providing misleading information regarding Elop's compensation.

The original statement issued by Nokia said that Elop's contract and compensation package was "essentially the same" as the company's previous CEO, but after some digging through SEC filings, it was made clear that the board had made fundamental changes in Elop's contract.

Today, more rumors have surfaced regarding Samsung moving to a metal unibody design for its upcoming flagship, the Galaxy S5. The phone is set to debut during the second quarter of 2014 and if reports are true, it will ditch the flimsy plastic exterior in favor for a more elegant and sturdy metal chassis.

While arguably one of the best smartphones ever made, Samsung has received a lot of criticism regarding the plastic body construction of its Galaxy S4. HTC, on the other hand, has received nothing but praise for its aluminum unibodied HTC One, even though it features a slower processor and an older revision of Android.

Additionally, Samsung has undoubtedly taken note to the following Apple has with its metal unibody iPhone 5 and 5S. According to a new report from the Taipei Times, a Taiwan-based parts supplier will be receiving orders very soon for a metal casing that is set to house the new Galaxy S5. These supply chain rumors are often true, and with similar rumors been released earlier in the year, we agree that Samsung will most likely release a unibody Galaxy S5 next year.

Today, Phobya unveiled its new top-of-the-line Black Owl PC case that was designed with the extreme water cooling enthusiast in mind. The Black Owl is actually the end-result of a design contest held earlier this year on the popular modding website Bit-Tech.

The case is constructed completely out of aluminum and features support for up to three radiators. Weighing in at less than 7kg, the Phobia is spacious enough to feature today's latest hardware, including eATX motherboards and extra long graphic cards.

The Phobya Black Owl features a concave front panel that features enough room to mount three 5.25-inch and three 3.5-inch drives. Additionally, space is available for up to four 2.5-inch drives. The case is definitely built to be modder friendly as it does not feature pre-installed power and reset buttons, allowing the customer to choose something like Phobya's vandalism-proof push buttons.

OCC has just released a revised version of its popular Deneva 2 series of enterprise-grade SSDs. The new Deneva 2 SSDs are based on MLC 19nm NAND flash and feature a SATA III 6Gb/s interface.

OCZ says that the drives also feature a "completely new power architecture that was designed from the ground up to optimize server backplane functionality, provide enhanced management of in-rush current and power fluctuation." The company says that the resulting product delivers an SSD that delivers superior performance, endurance, and reliability.

"Our Deneva 2 has been a popular SSD series among IT professionals not only as an HDD replacement but to dramatically accelerate I/O access of such popular enterprise applications as OnLine Transaction Processing, database warehousing, read intensive data caching and server boot-ups," said Daryl Lang, SVP of Product Management for OCZ Technology. "By implementing new features and the latest NAND flash process geometry we are able to deliver an optimal balance of I/O performance and cost-efficiency to our customers."