Latest News - Page 2903

We have been expecting to see NVIDIA's successor to its Kepler GPU for some time now, and this morning images were leaked on VideoCards.com that are said to be the first Maxwell architecture GPUs off the line. Although a but blurry, the GPU's are clearly visible, but something unexpected lies below the surface.

The GM107-400 and GM107-300 pictured above both feature the same CUDA cores found in the GK106 chip but utilize the memory bus of the GK107 which shrinks the die by about 30-percent. This also allows the cards to consume significantly less power, so much so that the GeForce GTX 750 cards featuring the GM107-300 will not require any power connector on the board.

The GM107-300 is built on a 28nm process with a die size of 156mm square. It features 768 CUDA cores with a 128-bit memory bus. The GM107-400 is also built on a 28nm process and has a die size of 156mm square, but differs with 960 CUDA cores. Both chips feature a TDP of about 75 watts with the GM107-300 variant being a little cooler. The GM107-300 is slated to be featured in the GeForce GTX 750 while the GM107-400 will find its way into the Ti variant of the same card.

Newly appointed Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella plans to focus on mobile solutions and cloud computing during the early part of his reign as leader.

Nadella takes over for former CEO Steve Ballmer, as Ballmer leaves behind a 14-year-reign that has left many consumers and analysts disappointed. Nadella has served as the executive vice president behind Microsoft's cloud efforts, which doubled its growth last quarter.

The software giant has embraced cloud computing with success, as its Office 365 service is popular among businesses, non-profits, and educational institutions. However, disappointment with Windows 8/8.1 on the desktop and Windows RT and Windows Phone on mobile devices continues to frustrate users.

I still remember watching The Terminator, where they needed to smash the chip inside of the Terminator's head in order to fully destroy it. Well, DARPA on its path for ultimate robotic takeover of the world, is working with IBM on a self-destructing chip - something out of a sci-fi movie.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded a contract to IBM that will see the company develop a CMOS chip that will self-destruct on command. The project is called Vanishing Programmable Resources (VAPR), that will prevent expensive, next-gen, classified military systems - such as a Terminator - from being captured, and reverse engineered by the enemy.

DARPA states on the webpage for VAPR: "It is nearly impossible to track and recover every [electronic] device [on the battlefield], resulting in unintended accumulation in the environment and potential unauthorized use and compromise of intellectual property and technological advantage".

Twitter has just posted its first earnings statement as a public company, with the social network posting a net loss of $511 million for Q4 2013, but ended the year with a total net loss of a staggering $645 million.

The company did double its revenue last year compared to 2012, hitting $664 million. Unfortunately, Twitter's stock price took a huge 16% hit after the news broke. CEO of Twitter, Dick Costolo, said: "Twitter finished a great year with our strongest financial quarter to date. We are the only platform that is public, real-time, conversational, and widely distributed, and I'm excited by the number of initiatives we have underway to further build upon the Twitter experience".

Twitter attributed the $645 million loss to "$521 million of stock-based compensation expense, of which $406 million was for restricted stock units previously granted to employees, for which no expense had been recognized, until the effective date of our initial public offering in accordance with [Generally Agreed Accounting Principles]".

Annual revenues from mobile augmented reality technology will eclipse $1.2 billion by 2015, according to Juniper Research, as the market continues to evolve at a rapid pace.

The mobile AR market reached just $180 million in 2013, as consumers and businesses become more familiar with mobile applications and services available. Specifically, video games, which accounted for 40 percent of AR downloads last year will help drive the industry in 2014 and 2015, respectively, though entertainment, lifestyle, and enterprise AR also is slated to increase.

As more companies appreciate the importance of mobile technologies, brands such as Nestle, Heinz, Uniliver, and other major corporations want to use AR to engage customers.

Today, ATP announced the release of the all new Velocity SI-LITE, an industrial-grade SATA II SLC SSD that is designed for use in rugged environments where flash storage is needed. The SI-LITE SSD utilizes the latest generation SLC Flash with industrial grade performance, endurance and wide temperature ranges to meet the unique requirements of the industrial market space.

ATP says that the Velocity SI-LITE features data-integrity-calibrated firmware technologies that protect the data storage device against various power-down and intensive read/write scenarios, which would damage lower-grade solid state storage. The drive offers sequential read speed of up to 181 MB/s and sequential write of up to 133 MB/s, and features up to 2,700 4KB Random Read IOPS.

Today, Linksys announced a new network attached storage system that is aimed at small to medium businesses that have a need for network video recording. The new LNR0208C is a standalone NVR system and is based on a Marvell 2GHz processor and a custom OS based on Linux. The device supports Linksys' full line of IP cameras as well as third-party cameras that utilize the ONVIF profile S standard.

The LNR0208C is capable of recording up to eight video streams at once and features remote live-view and playback capabilities. Additionally the device is capable of being linked up with any other NVR on the network to provide additional storage capacity. The LNR0208C features two hot-swappable bays for up to 8TB of storage capacity, with additional connectivity via dual eSATA ports, three USB 2.0 ports, and Gigabit Ethernet. The device also features four digital in and two digital out ports for connecting sensors and alarms that would trigger video recording.

By now most of you know that I live, eat, breath and sleep 3D printing, and its a hobby that I have enjoyed for the better part of a decade now. A few months ago during an interview with Sixense CEO, Amir Rubin, I was let in on a little project they were working on called MakeVR. Then just a few weeks ago at CES 2014 I had the chance to take a private demo of this software, and it turned my idea of 3D modeling for 3D printing upside down. Today Sixense launched the crowdfunding campaign for MakeVR on Kickstarter.

If Sixense's STEM system revolutionized the way we play games in Virtual Reality, then MakeVR will forever change the way we model 3D objects using VR. MakeVR is being billed as the worlds first immersive 3D modeling application that makes content creation for 3D printing natural, intuitive, and most importantly, fun! Over my years in the hobby, I have used or tried to use just about every 3D modeling program out there, and what I found is that many programs require a degree from a university just to be able to create anything more complex than a cube or sphere. With MakeVR things are so simple and natural that a kid can use the program to create very complex objects with little instruction.

With traditional 3D modeling programs, users have to deal with a mouse and keyboard interface. While this is OK for typical computing and gaming, when it comes to manipulating designs in 3 dimensional space a mouse and keyboard become a hindrance on fluid and dynamic creation. When talking to people about MakeVR I like to compare it to the way Tony Stark manipulates his designs and models in the Iron Man movies. You really do get to just grab the model out of thin air, and mold it into anything you imagination can come up with. In the image below, you will see a sort of cartoonish fire hydrant. In a normal modeling program this would take hours to build, but I watched the model for that hydrant built-in literally less than 20 minutes.

Lockheed Martin has fired the highest powered laser ever tested, with its new 30-kilowatt electric fiber laser. The record-breaking power output was reached by combining many fiber lasers into a single, near-perfect quality beam of light.

This is called Spectrum Beam Combining, which sends beams from multiple fiber laser modules, which each have their own unique wavelength. Combining them all into one super-powerful, high-quality beam. Dr. Ray O. Johnson, Senior VP and CTO of Lockheed Martin says: "Lockheed Martin has opened the aperture for high power, electrically driven laser systems suitable for military applications. Advancements in available laser components, along with the maturity and quality of our innovative beam-combining technology, support our goal of providing lightweight and rugged laser weapon systems for use on military platforms such as aircraft, helicopters, ships and trucks".

The company is aiming for a portable laser solution, with this being a step in that direction. Lockheed Martin received funding from the US Army, which is also working on laser mounted weapons with Boeing.

During an interview with USA Today, John Carmack said that before he joined virtual reality outfit Oculus, he proposed a deal to both Oculus and ZeniMax Media - the parent company of id Software.

Carmack said that he would've joined the worlds of of ZeniMax's games, like the upcoming Wolfenstein: The New Order and Doom 4 to the Oculus Rift. Carmack said: "It would have been a huge win. It seemed like a sensible plan for me". The companies couldn't make an agreement though, which left Carmack "really sad," to which he added: "When it became clear that I wasn't going to have the opportunity to do any work on VR while at id Software, I decided to not renew my contract".

Since November last year Carmack has been working full-time at Oculus VR, where he developing games for the Rift.

Sapphire Technology has announced the R7 250 Ultimate video card, a passively cooled video card based on the AMD Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. No mechanical moving parts and a passive heat pipe and heat sink cooler that is quiet and fanless creates a great possibility of new video card designs, as demonstrated by Sapphire.

The video card has a core speed of 800MHz with 1GB of DDR5 memory, with Sapphire claiming it's the fastest passively cooled 1280bit GPU currently available. AMD included support for up to three monitors, 4K ultra-high-definition, an HDMI 1.4a port, dual-link DVI port, and DisplayPort 1.2 port.

DirectX 11.1 support is provided and the card is Microsoft Windows 8-compatible, as AMD and Sapphire wanted to ensure latest software is supported.

Rumors have been swirling about a red Nexus 5 for months now, and today those rumors came true. This afternoon, Google and LG announced that they have officially released a red version of the Nexus 5 through the Google Play Store. The Nexus 5 is of course the flagship phone for Android and is equipped with Android 4.4, a 5-inch 1080p IPS display, and a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor.

"The Nexus line has always been about doing things differently and consumers who share this philosophy have been our most loyal fans," said Dr. Jong-seok Park, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. "We're carrying this thinking over to the red Nexus 5, which we think will catch the eye of consumers who want to make an even bolder statement."

The red Nexus 5 will be available on Google Playâ„¢ starting this month in the United States, Canada, U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan and Korea with wider availability across Europe by the end of the month. Customers will also be able to purchase a red Nexus 5 in retail stores in select markets. The red Nexus 5 retails for $349 for the 16GB version and $399 for the 32GB version on the Google Play Store.

After returning from its mission to the sun (satire), North Korea appears to have kicked its development of Red Star Linux into high gear. New screen shots have surfaced of the OS and they tell two very big tales. First off, the screen shots are square, so North Korea has yet to adopt widescreen technology. Secondly, Kim Jong Un must be a huge fan of Apple's OS X operating system.

Former iterations of the Linux-based OS took on a more Windows 7 desktop appearance, but these new screen captures are clearly a direct rip-off of Apple's OS X. Red Star Linux has been in development in the isolated country for more than a decade now, and this new OS X style version marks the third revision in the OS' history. The screen captures came from, Will Scott, a university professor who spent a semester teaching in Pyongyang at its University of Science.

The operating system does include a Mozilla-based web browser even though Internet access is restricted to most North Korean citizens. The browser is used to access a country-wide intranet that serves up websites for North Korean educational institutions, and government propaganda sites. The OS also features a copy of Wine so that some programs coded for Windows can be run. With such a blatant rip-off of OS X's theme, one is left wondering when we will see the first North Korean knock off iPhone or iPad arrive.

Last week I reported that Microsoft was very close to choosing Steve Ballmer's replacement, and that the search may have went no further than inside the company itself. This morning Microsoft confirmed that Satya Nadella, head of the company's Enterprise and Cloud business as the new CEO.

"Microsoft is one of those rare companies to have truly revolutionized the world through technology, and I couldn't be more honored to have been chosen to lead the company," Nadella said in a statement this morning. "The opportunity ahead for Microsoft is vast, but to seize it, we must focus clearly, move faster and continue to transform. A big part of my job is to accelerate our ability to bring innovative products to our customers more quickly."

This announcement shows that Microsoft thinks that cloud services as well as the enterprise market will continue to play a major role in the future. One of the major reasons Nadella was chosen is his long past with Microsoft as he has held many jobs at the company, and is quite familiar with how things operate around Redmond. Additionally, along with the new CEO announcement, Microsoft says that Bill Gates will be stepping down as Chairman of the Board and will take on a new Technology Adviser role. John Thompson will fill Gates seat.

ASUS has just announced the Chromebox, a small NUC-like compact PC that features Chrome OS. ASUS' Chromebox features deeply integrated Google services thanks to Google's OS, as well as access the popular services such as YouTube, Netflix and Hulu.

The company has used Intel's fourth-generation Core or "Haswell" processors, the latest 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi tech, four USB 3.0 ports, Bluetooth 4.0 and SD card reader. As for display outputs, we have HDMI and DisplayPort, which will drive 4K or Ultra HD displays. A nice touch for something that starts off at just $179.

There will be three CPUs on offer depending on the market you're based in, the Celeron 2955U, Core i3-4010U, or Core i7-4600U. It'll come with 2GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM, but can be optioned with 4GB of RAM. For storage, we have 16GB of built-in M.2 NGFF storage, backed up by 100GB of free Google Drive storage (which is for a limited time).

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, or WARF, has launched a lawsuit against Apple. WARF's lawsuit alleges that the iPhone maker infringes on a patent held by the University of Wisconsin - Madison, US Patent No. 5,781,752.

The patent in question was granted on July 14, 1998 to four university researchers specializing in microprocessor architecture. The patent is dubbed "Table Based Data Speculation Circuit for Parallel Processing Computer". The scientists' circuit, is a predictor which streamlines microprocessor performance by accurately forecasting dependencies of current instructions on previous instructions.

In non-scientist speak, it speeds up the processor, while lowing required system resources by accurately guessing which earlier instructions will match the new input, and start the desired action before the user has finished entering in the command. This is known as brand prediction in other circles. WARF is now alleging that the A7 chip uses this same specific technology that was developed in Madison.

Those who were excited to see HTC launch its successor to the HTC One at the 2014 Mobile World Congress are in for some disappointment today. A new report our from @evleaks, a very reliable source when it comes to smartphone information, has informed us that HTC will not be launching the M8 (aka HTC One 2) at MWC 2014.

On Twitter, @evleaks said "Starting to look like a late Match, NYC launch for HTC M8." which means that we should still see the HTC One's successor arrive next month, and in a grander fashion than would be possible at MWC 2014 which is held in Barcelona. Rumors speculate that the HTC M8 will feature a 5-inch 1080p screen, and will be powered by a quad-core 2.26GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800. 3GB of RAM could be possible as well, and HTC will most definitely drop the Beats Audio hype this time around.

Less than one year after the public launch of its Chromecast HDTV dongle, Google has finally opened up the software development kit for developers trying to get in on the fun. The Cast SDK was previously available, but was in a restricted form as Google worked with exclusive partners to give them earlier access to create Chromecast apps.

"With the Chromecast, we're resetting consumer applications," noted Rishi Chandra, Google Chromecast director of product management.

App developers now have the ability to integrate Chromecast apps with Google Android, Apple iOS, or Web-based apps - and Google developers believe the potential for Cast-enabled apps is huge - joining Netflix, YouTube, Chrome, and a small number of apps Google immediately included support for from launch.

For many years now, Malwarebytes has been a staple in many Windows users anti-virus / anti-malware toolbox. It gained this position not only because it works so well, but because it was a powerful solution that was completely free. Today the company announced that Malwarebytes 2.0 will be moving away from its free to download model be moving away from a lifetime licence model, and will instead move to an annual subscription licensing model.

The company says that Malwarebytes 2.0 will cost users $24.95 per year with a licensing covering three separate PCs, a fee that is much cheaper than many of the big-name anti-virus programs on the market. "As more and more people have come to rely on us for malware protection and cleanup, our costs in bandwidth, hosting fees, infrastructure, salaries of our researchers, QA department, and more have grown immensely," explained Kleczynski, CEO of Malwarebytes. "Though our company is about more than just making money, we are a company and we do have to make money to pay our staff to continue doing what they love, which is fighting malware. The subscription model will help us to be sustainable for the future while staying true to our roots that we will always make malware cleanup free for everyone"

Malwarebytes says that its customers who have already purchased lifetime licenses will not need to pay the annual subscription fee, and the company will continue to offer lifetime licenses for a short period to ease the transition for those users who have wanted to take the lifetime plunge, but have yet to do so. What do you think about Malwarebytes moving to a paid version only model to a annual subscription over lifetime license model, and will you be jumping in to grab one of the few lifetime licenses left?

During an AMA (Ask Me Anything) post on Reddit, President of Sony Online Entertainment, John Smedley, all but confirmed the existence of a Sony-made virtual reality headset. During the AMA, Smedley was asked about possible future support for the Oculus Rift pertaining to the upcoming Everquest Next game, and his reply more than hinted at the existence of a Sony-branded VR Headset competitor to the Rift.

"Hearing good things about 2 competitors... one of which actually comes from Sony. So I'm thinking this is real and we may have our Snowcrash (a book about a VR based internet by Neal Stephenson) after all." was Smedley's reply. While rumors of a Sony VR Headset have been circling for months now, this is the first word on the matter from someone high up in Sony's management. Since Smedley runs SOE, he would be the person to know if such a headset exist, and exactly how much he could divulge on the matter.

With Oculus making huge leaps forward with its Rift headset, Sony has some tough shoes to fill in making a VR headset that people will actually use. Lets hope they listen to the wealth of feedback available online about the Oculus Rift Developers Kit, and include at minimum; 1440P resolution, and wireless operation. If Sony is going to enter this market, then they need to step out of the dugout with their best foot forward and swing for the fences on the first pitch, otherwise, a VR Headset from Sony will not survive the game Oculus is already dominating.