Latest News - Page 2932

Sony's flagship smartphone, the Xperia Z1 is highly regarded as one of the best smartphones on the market today. Looking to build off of that momentum, Sony has announced the launch of a smaller version of the phone. The new Sony Xperia Z1F is a shrunken down version of the of the Z1 and sports a 4.3-inch screen.

The smaller display retains the 1080p resolution of its larger counterpart, and a Qualcomm quad-core 2.3GHz processor is present. 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage is also featured. Sony did opt to keep the same 20.1-megapixel camera on the rear of the device, which should make many small screen loving users very happy people. The device is expected to launch in Japan in December with a world wide launch still uncertain.

This has been the week of AMD R-Series GPU launches, and Sapphire Technology does not want to be left out of the party. Today the company announced the launch of its first two lines of AMD R-Series video cards. Sapphire is introducing two lines with three models each today which include the R9 280X TOXIC Edition, R9 280X Vapor-X edition, R9 280X Dual-X edition and the R9 270X TOXIC, R9 270X Vapor-X, R9 270 Dual-X edition.

The R9 280X TOXIC Edition features Sapphire's new Tri-X Cooler design which utilizes three airfoil section fans in conjunction with 10mm heat pipes to deliver unmatched cooling performance. The GPU features 3GB of GDDR5 memory and supports Direct X 11.2. Resolutions up to 2560x1440 are supported and 4K displays can be utilized via a built-in HDMI 1.4a port.

Sapphire's R9 280X Vapor-X edition is a slightly toned down version of the R9 280X TOXIC, and features vapor-chamber cooling. This cooling solution provides a more quiet but efficient method thermal dissipation that allows you to game at max while keeping the ambient noise low. Additionally a 280X Dual-X cooler edition has been announced that features the two Aerofoil fans, and heat pipe technology.

AMD might not be friends with ORIGIN PC anymore, but it sure is BFFs with Maingear, who has just announced it will be fitting AMD's latest R9-290X GPU inside some of its upcoming systems.

While the rest of the new R7 and R9 GPUs are simple HD 7000 Series rebadges - which is unfortunate - the R9-290X is not. It's a true Hawaii core, and should pack quite a serious punch in the performance department. The R9-290X will ship with a glorious amount of RAM, 4GBs of GDDR5 to be exact, and it will also tow TrueAudio and 4K support, too.

Maingear will throw the R9-290X GPU in its Shift and F131 systems, where you'll also receive a copy of Battlefield 4, with Battlefield 4 themed cases and hardware, too. These Maingear systems will be "limited edition" builds, so you'll have to be quick to snap them up. Maingear's Shift setup will feature two R9-290Xs in CrossFire, and it will support up to three cards in CF with either the FX 9370 or 9590 CPU and a starting price of $3,789.

Grand Theft Auto V is breaking all sorts of records, but it's also breaking gamers' hearts by being problematic in GTA Online unfortunately. But it looks like those days could be behind Rockstar, with the latest patch hopefully fixing GTA Online's various issues.

A new update is being pushed out to GTA V that will address issues related to "game progress loss in GTA Online" and other various technical issues. The update is available for the PS3 version right now, with a title update being pushed onto the Xbox 360 version of the game tomorrow "at the latest" according to Rockstar.

The update should fix the issues we reported on a few days ago now, but Rockstar says with the exception of "some specific instances where players purchase a vehicle and the save does not occur due to a cloud save failure." A separate patch will be pushed out to fix those issues. The patch hitting GTA V will fix the following issues:

Today Foursquare released an update to its app for iOS that introduces a completely new UI design. The new design was first released on Android back in August, and has finally began rolling out to iPhone users. Unfortunately, in the beginning only a few thousand users will receive the update while Foursquare works out any bugs that may pop up.

The update features a new recommendation system that that runs continuously in the background, and monitors a user's location to recommend establishments nearby. The system will also recommend popular food and beverage choices once the user checks into the location. These recommendations are made based on previous user's comments and advertising partners.

Foursquare had the following to say in a statement:

We first saw Lian Li's new brushed aluminum PC-D600 double-wide PC chassis earlier this year at Computex 2013. The PC-D600 is truly a behemoth of a PC case and for people like me with expansive watercooling systems, you need all the extra space you can get. Today Lian Li officially launched the PC-D600 in the US.

Constructed of 2mm thick aluminum panels, the PC-D600 boast two separate compartments with expansive mounting points for cooling fans and extreme radiators. The first compartment is the size of a regular full-tower PC case and is accented by a large side panel window. This provides the perfect canvas to display an extreme gaming setup while being able to hide the wires in the second compartment which is hidden from view.

Lian Li has provided room for a 240mm radiator to be placed over the motherboard even with a push/pull fan setup while the right side of the case boast enough room to fit a 420mm radiator without any modifications. Those who like to cut metal will find even more room for large radiators on this side of the case. For those who need extra room, the entire set of three HDD cages in the right side compartment are removable to allow room for extensive setups.

Today Samsung announced that Dr. Steven Chu, the former US Secretary of Energy, CGO of Cisco Wim Elfrink and author Guy Kawasaki will each head up keynote addresses at the 2013 Samsung Memory Solutions Forum. The event will be held on October 22nd, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.

Recently Slashdot announced the websites third redesign in its thirteen year lifespan, and TweakTown was invited over to take a look at the new diggs. This morning I was given a personal walkthrough with Slashdot's Senior Editor, Tim Lord, who emphasized that Slashdot's goal with the redesign is to help better deliver content to its readers across all devices.

The first thing that really caught my eye is the website's new modern theme. The old sites rounded corners and "Web 2.0" gradients are no more, and the new layout is very appealing to the eye. Lord told me that they really focused hard on simplifying the overall layout, and wanted to make things easy to navigate. The removal of the sites old left-hand navigation bar has greatly cleaned up the overall appearance as well.

Lord said that while Slashdot has always been more heavily weighted towards text, the new layout allows Slashdot to display a single eye catching image atop some of the frontpage post. While some users prefer an image along with their teaser, so do not, and Slashdot has kept those users in mind. A new widget has been placed at the top of the news feed that allows users to switch between three viewing modes. The Standard View will appear as default and will display a single image along with the content teaser. Additionally users can select Headline and Classic views that will set the site to display just the post headlines or the classic view which displays the full post.

We all knew that Grand Theft Auto was destined to be huge, just how huge was anyones guess. Today Guinness World Records announced that GTA V has managed to break not one, but six world records in less than one month since its launch. This brings the total number of world records held by the franchise to seven.

Rockstar has reported that Grand Theft Auto V sold more than 11.21 million copies in just the first 24 hours alone and then broke $1 billion in sales in just 3 days, making it the fastest selling video game of all time.

Guinness World Records Editor-in-Chief, Craig Glenday, said: "GTA totally deserves to be recognized as an icon of modern British culture, and we're thrilled to be able to feature the game in the record books. Gaming is no longer a niche hobby, as GTA 5 has proved, and how exciting that it's taken on the might of Hollywood and won! I'm also doubly proud as a Dundonian to welcome this home-grown series back into the Guinness World Records book."

Today Transcend unveiled a new line of memory modules aimed at the high-end enterprise server market. The new DDR3-1866 modules come in 4GB capacities and are featured in both Registered DIMM and Unbuffered ECC DIMM profiles. Transcend says the new DRAM modules are ideal for servers running Intel's Xeon E5-2600 v2 processors for optimal performance.

The company says that each module is constructed with the highest quality DDR3-1866 DRAM chips and have a latency of 13-13-13 with an operating voltage of 1.5V. The modules are said to fully comply with JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) standards, which ensure the best performance, compatibility, and stability. Each of the new 4GB DDR3-1866 modules are backed by a lifetime warranty. SKUs are listed below.

Fujitsu has just unveiled its latest notebook, the Lifebook U904, which features a 14-inch IGZO panel and a super-high resolution of 3200x1800. There are two models, one with a glossy panel and touch input, and the second is an anti-glare panel without touch capabilities.

The Lifebook U904 is powered by Intel's Haswell range of processors with Intel HD Graphics 4400 powering the graphics side of things. We have it weighing in at 3.06 lbs and a thickness of 0.61 inches. Fujitsu claims that its Lifebook U904 is the "world's thinnest 14-inch ultrabook." There's a choice of an SSHD or SSD for storage, USB 3.0 and HDMI connectivity are featured, as well as optional LTE wireless which is a nice touch.

You can grab the Lifebook U904 from Fujitsu's online store starting from $1,999 which comes with a glossy touchscreen and 320GB SSHD. Windows 8.1 is featured, so you shouldn't expect to receive the Lifebook U904 until after October 17.

Sony's third-generation personal 3D viewing headset, the HMZ-T3W, is now available for pre-order. If you want to grab the Sony HMZ-T3W, you'll need to pre-order it directly from Sony's website, or in retail Sony stores.

The HMZ-T3W features wireless connectivity this time around, instead of wrapping yourself in cords, and some nifty dual OLED monitors that Sony state simulate the feeling of sitting 65 feet away from a gigantic 750-inch display. The HMZ-T3W is capable of streaming content from up to 7 meters away from the source.

The third-generation model no longer requires an AC power socket, as you can take a portable battery pack around with you which will share power with connected smartphones and tablets. The portable battery should be good for around three hours of wireless use, or up to 7 hours if you use it over HDMI. If you are looking at picking one of these up, you'll be hit up for $999.

We knew this was coming, but we didn't want it to happen: rumor has it Panasonic will end its plasma TV production earlier than anticipated, in March of next year. This is less than six months away, and we'll lose the best plasma TV maker in the world.

Sales will continue after March 2014, but only until inventory of the plasma TVs runs out. Panasonic has been bleeding money through fiscal 2012, and is now in talks to sell its plasma TV rights, or it will completely sell off its remaining plasma factory. When this news was presented to me, our own Chris Ramseyer - a huge Panasonic plasma TV fan - simply replied with "NOOOOOOOOOO."

Are you disappointed to hear that Panasonic will no longer be making plasma TVs? Or have you moved onto the world of LEDs, or even OLED TVs?

Love it or hate it, you still have to admit that HTC's Sense 5 Android overlay is a pretty decent skin as far as Android UIs go, and today we got a look at what the next-generation of Sense might look like. Website Android Revolution HD managed to take possession of some leaked screenshots of what is said to be HTC's Sense 5.5.

At the moment the images only clue us in on two new feature updates, with most of the UI looking like its predecessor, Sense 5. The first thing one might notice off the bat is that BlinkFeed is now easily turned off via a new toggle button. Turning off BlinkFeed was previously a headache, and required digging through your phones settings. Now a simple single tap on a button and BlinkFeed disappears.

Secondly we notice that the camera is getting a new Panorama+ mode as well as Dual Capture that will allow the user to capture from both cameras at the same time. Being the owner of an HTC one, the Panorama+ mode is very exciting to me and I hope that we see Sense 5.5 released sometime soon. It also appears that the task switcher is more refined and features larger icons than before. No release date was mentioned, but maybe we will see Sense 5.5 released beside the HTC One MAX on October 15th.

ADATA has just released a new addition to its DashDrive line of external hard drives. The new Choice HC630 is a USB 3.0 compatible external storage device that is wrapped in a beautiful mystic blue metallic finish. ADATA has bundled its HDDtoGo encryption and synchronization software with the drive to help keep customer data safe and secure.

The new DashDrive Choice HC630 weighs in at just 5.6 ounces and has a footprint of barely 4.5x3x0.6-inches. A raised lip around the perimeter helps prevent surface scratches from occurring, and a LED indicator light is present to inform the user of the HDD status. The external HDD is available in capacities of 500GB, 750GB and 1TB with a three-year warranty backing things up.

Today VisionTek announced the launch of five new AMD Radeon R Series graphic cards that are designed to provide extreme performance at almost any budget level. The new cards are built on the AMD Radeon R7 and R9 series GPUs and feature some very powerful features with prices starting at just $69.

The newly introduced video cards are comprised of three R7 series and two R9 series GPUs. These two new lines of GPUs from AMD are the first to offer support for DirectX 11.2 and the stunning 3D visual effects, life like visuals and realistic lighting this new standard brings forth. The cards also offer AMD's PowerTune, ZeroCore and App Acceleration technologies that greatly enhance not only the performance, but the entire user experience.

"We're very pleased to announce a new line of high performance graphics cards utilizing AMD's incredible new R7 and R9 Series GPUs," said Mark Bilson, Executive Vice President of VisionTek. "Our cards will redefine the gaming experience due to their visual, audio, and compute capabilities. And because they're priced attractively, these cards should be among the best-selling tech products in the fourth quarter. To coin a phrase from AMD, 'Radeon Is Gaming' truly defines our new line."

QLogic announced today that its FlexSuite technology will be providing the converged interface for Dot Hill's ninth-generation storage architecture. QLogic says that this technology will provide Dot Hill's OEM customers and channel partners with the industry's first mid-range 16Gb Gen 5 Fibre Channel/10Gb iSCSI converged networking storage solution.

"Customers want higher bandwidth and greater flexibility in their storage solutions, and we've responded with the launch of our

ninth-generation architecture," said Ken Day, chief technology officer, Dot Hill. "This platform takes advantage of the revolutionary QLogic(R)FlexSuite dual-personality adapter technology to provide our customers with the fastest Fibre Channel and iSCSI connectivity available today, all from the same hardware. Our converged interface architecture

Today, Lulzbot announced the launch of its fifth generation 3D Printer, the TAZ 2. The new printer is quite similar to the original TAZ, but now features an LCD display and SD card reader that allows users to print their objects without the need to connect the printer to a PC.

The TAZ 2 features the largest build volume of any other desktop 3D printer in its class, and can handle prints with a footprint of 12-inches x 11-inches x 10-inches. The TAZ 2 has already raised over $228,000 in crowdfunding on Fundable.com and represents Lulzbot's move into a more mass-production mindset. The TAZ features more laser cut parts than its predecessor and now the electronics are shielded by a metal enclosure. Additionally the electronics cooling fan is much quieter than the previous model, which is a direct result of customer feedback.

"At Aleph Objects, we're continually evolving our LulzBot 3D printers to not only meet marketplace needs in real-time but to raise industry standards for 3D printing as a whole," said Jeff Moe, President and Founder. "Our latest printer, the TAZ 2, represents our community-driven approach by capturing the best-of-class in ideas from engineers and innovators around the world."

Over the last year, Yahoo's Marissa Meyer has been working hard at revitalizing the stale company with new looks, new services, and changing the companys image to something more modern and hip. Today the company has unveiled a complete redesign for its Mail service that brings forth a more refined and elegant email experience.

The new Yahoo Mail is being rolled out today across all platforms and features a new compose screen as well as a new Flickr-generated theme that gives the service a transparent UI. Users now also have a data cap of 1TB, which is much larger than Gmail, but still not unlimited like previously given. Yahoo does say that 1TB of email storage is enough room for 6,000 years of email though.

Yahoo chose to roll out the new design today, on what is the service's 16th birthday, and personally I love the look and feel of the new Yahoo Mail. As an avid Gmail user I really hope that Google takes a long and hard look at this new UI from Yahoo and implements some changes of its own to Gmail. What do you think about the new layout? Are you a fan of Gmail or Yahoo? Let me know in the comments.

Apple is losing its war in multiple fronts at the moment, all while money is filling its coffers. It looks like MacBook shipments will decrease this year, even with the company increasing its orders to the upstream supply chain for new MacBook models.

The news comes from DigiTimes' sources in the upstream supply chain who also said that their shipments for the new MacBook devices have been increasing since June, with volumes in Q3 increasing by 10-20%. This growth is expected to continue going into this month. But, Apple is seeing issues with its shipment numbers in relation to a suspension of component shipments for a three-month period in the first half of the year, which will hurt overall MacBook shipments across 2013.

Last year, Apple shipped 13.03 million MacBooks, but only 5.3 million units were shipped in the first half of this year. This means that Apple needs to ship over 7.73 million units in the last six months of this year to just be equal to 2012's performance. I think this comes down to Apple not giving the world anything exciting in its Mac line, if it pushed touchscreen models into the mix, we might see a turn around.