Intel have just taken the wraps off of the new naming on their integrated graphics found in the fourth-generation Core processors, otherwise known as "Haswell". Welcome to the Intel Iris and Iris Pro Graphics. Iris Pro will be available on select CPUs denoted by an R at the end, such as the i7-4770R.

Iris is a huge leap over the previous third-generation Core processors, with nearly twice the graphics performance and over three times the graphics performance of the second-generation Core processors.

When Intel compare their fourth-generation Ultrabook part, the Core i7-4558U (a 28W part) gets pitted against the Core i7-4650U (a 15W part) and the third-generation Core i7-3687U (a 17W part) it is a decent distance from them in terms of performance. Compared to the previous-generation part, the new i7-4558U is over twice as fast in 3DMark 11, and around 1.5x the performance in both 3DMark 06 and 3DMark Vantage.

Nintendo has issued a statement regarding the story we ran yesterday about the Wii U being hacked so possibly pirated games could be played. According to Nintendo, they haven't seen any unauthorized applications running on a Wii U while in Wii U mode.

Not to be outdone, the makers of the Wiikey have posted a response to Nintendo's statement on their site. The response consists of four cryptic lines of what appears to be hexadecimal code:

Everybody's favorite little rover, Curiosity, is back in contact with its handlers on Earth, now that Mars and Earth are in an alignment where communication is possible. Curiosity had previously been sitting mostly idle for the last four weeks while the sun blocked communications between Earth and Mars.

The first step NASA has to complete is to update Curiosity's software. After Curiosity is brought up to speed, its handlers will instruct the rover to continue analysis on Yellowknife Bay. Yellowknife Bay is the location that Curiosity has already found the basic building blocks of life.

We have recently reviewed Shadow Defender, a light-virtualization program with a difference. SD (as it is known among fans) sandboxes whole disks/partitions and protects them against unwanted changes. All changes (including most malware infections and their effects) actually happen within the SD buffer, a virtual environment which resides in an area isolated from the real system. Upon reboot, the virtualization buffer is emptied by default and all volume changes are immediately discarded. The real volume remains untouched and Windows boots back to its normal clean state.

SD is essentially a final safety net for Windows systems. It also features a handy RAM cache, which means that you can now have a superfast virtual Windows environment running directly from RAM. When using such a RAM cache setup, your disks take no write hits, something that is very beneficial for devices like SSDs and flash sticks.

SD is a great piece of code, but threats keep evolving constantly. It is essential for SD to also keep evolving in order for it to continue to be relevant. Since October last year, I had the pleasure of exchanging ideas with Tony, the Shadow Defender developer. Some of my ideas have now already been implemented in current SD versions, e.g. the user-configurable RAM buffer for the virtual system, plus cache encryption.

Today Amazon announced that it had updated its Kindle for iOS app to incorporate more accessibility features for users who are visually impaired.

The biggest of the updates is the integration with Apple's VoiceOver technology, which is now capable of reading aloud more than 1.8 million Kindle Store offerings.

Also included in the update are improvements to UI navigation, Search Tools, and other features like X-Ray, End Actions, sharing, highlighting and bookmarking. Amazon said, "Accessibility features make it easier for blind and visually impaired customers to navigate their Kindle libraries, read & interact with books, and more. Enable VoiceOver in your device settings to begin."

This year's "Who Has Your Back" report published by the Electronic Frontier Foundation has just been released and Twitter is sitting pretty in the number one spot. In contrast, Facebook, Apple and Amazon all ranked very low on the list.

The report is based on how far the world's biggest tech companies go to protect your data from government demands. Each company is evaluated on six different criteria and given a star if they fit the requirements. Of the 18 companies tested, only two met every criteria with an excellent rating.

Twitter and Sonic.net both scored a full six stars, while on the other end of the scale, Myspace was awarded nothing. Facebook was middle of the road with three stars while Google, Dropbox, and Spideroak all tied for second best with five stars each.

Researchers at Cern in Switzerland have some interesting things to play with, and have now proved the merits of a way to test antimatter as a source of the thing we all want to see in our futures: "anti-gravity".

Antimatter particles are the "mirror image" of normal matter, but have an opposite electric charge. Antimatter and its relationship with gravity is still a mystery, but it may just simple "fall up" rather than down. Researchers reporting in Nature Communications have made a few steps toward solving this notion.

Antimatter continues to be one of the biggest question marks in physics, where equal amounts of matter and antimatter should have been created at the Universe's beginning. But, if the two were to shake hands, they destroy each other in what is called annihilation, turning into pure light. Cern's Alpha experiment is here to help the researchers hopefully solve this.

Today, Digg disclosed the results of a survey it ran last week. The survey contained questions trying to gauge user interest in various features that Digg might implement in a replacement for Google Reader. The survey also asked if a respondent would be willing to pay for the service.

As you can see above, 40 percent of respondents said they would be willing to pay for a Google Reader replacement. This then makes me ask, why doesn't Google charge and continue their own reader? As seen in the graph below, many users use E-mail, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ to share links. Digg plans to include "seemless sharing" to all of the services seen below.

AT&T has announced a new program in which you can receive a credit for trading in one of your old smartphones when you upgrade. The program officially starts tomorrow, May 1 and AT&T says that this is a limited time promotion, so you might want to take advantage of it early on.

To read more and find out all of the details--the devil is always in the details!--you can visit AT&T's announcement page here. You might be better off selling your device on Ebay or through other services, but none come with the simplicity of this AT&T promotion.

Social traffic and mapping app Waze is looking for beta testers ahead of its launch on the Windows Phone platform. For those who don't know what Waze is, let me explain. Waze is a social traffic app that allows users all over the country and world to report accidents, police, and hazards so others can avoid them.

Waze is one of the major apps that is available on Android and iOS and by working on a version for Windows Phone, it signals some belief in the Windows Phone platform. In order to apply for the program, you'll need to head over to waze.centercode.com. Note that applying does not guarantee a spot in the beta.

In order for Windows Phone to be successful, it needs to have some of these killer apps that are available on the competing platform. Waze is certainly one of them, but there are plenty more that Microsoft needs to bring over.

With Intel increasing the speed of its Thunderbolt interconnect to 20Gbps, and unveiling the new Falcon Ridge controller that will hit production by the end of the year, it didn't take long for the USB-IF to respond.

At the latest Intel Developers Forum that took place in Beijing recently, the USB-IF announced that development is underway to double the throughput of SuperSpeed USB from 5Gbps to 10Gbps. The speed enhancement will come with new cables, but retain backwards compatibility with existing connectors.

The USB-IF also unveiled the latest power delivery specification, providing a single cable for data and power delivery for devices up to 100 watts.

Sony are working on something with the codename of "Honami", which is said to be part of the company's "One Sony" branding initiative, which will see all of Sony's top technology to a single, superphone.

Chinese site, ePrice, have said that this new superphone from Sony would feature a 5-inch 1080p display, with a 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor and a huge 20-megapixel rear-facing camera with a Cybershot CMOS sensor and Carl Zeiss lens. We should also expect 2GB of RAM, a non-removable battery, as well as it being dust- and water-proof.

We should expect Sony to unveil this monster at the IFA trade show in September. If it's anything like their impressive Xperia Z, we should begin to get excited.

This morning AMD announced the next big advancement concerning their APU technology. AMD heterogeneous Uniform Memory Access (hUMA) is an intelligent computing architecture that enables the CPU, GPU, and other processors to work in harmony from a single piece of silicon in a single pool of memory and seamlessly move task to the best suited processing unit.

This means that in a single application, some calculations will run on the CPU while others run on the GPU accessing the same memory though the same addresses without worrying about which software touched the data last. AMD has been able to achieve this by moving the GPU and CPU onto a single die and then AMD enabled the GPU to have direct access to the CPU memory from the same address space. Finally AMD was able to simplify the data sharing by updating the GPU memory set so that it can follow pointers and complex data structures in the same way that the CPU does. These advancements allowed for better efficiency and lower power consumption.

AMD is touting hUMA as restoring the GPU to the world of Uniform Memory Access. As it sits now the GPU utilizes non-uniform memory access and creates a mass of coding headaches for developers. With hUMA application coding can be simplified, and made more efficient throughout the code base. hUMA will also allow discrete GPU's to access other discrete GPU or APU memory space.

Samsung have just announced their latest addition to the constantly growing Galaxy range of devices, the Galaxy Tab 3. Samsung's new Galaxy Tab 3 features a 7-inch display running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

The previous-generation Galaxy Tab 2 featured a 1GHz dual-core chip, with the Tab 3 receiving a slight upgrade to a 1.2GHz processor. 16GB of internal flash storage is on offer, up from the 8GB maximum on the Tab 2. We also have a 3-megapixel rear-facing camera and 1.3-megapixel front facer on offer.

The resolution of the 7-inch display hasn't changed from the Tab 2, with the Tab 3 offering a 1024x600-pixel display, not even matching the 1280x800 display on the Nexus 7. There's no details on price at the moment, but Samsung have said that the Wi-Fi-only Tab 3 will be made available at the beginning of May, and will be followed by a 3G-capable model in June.

Twitter has issued a memo to news organizations around the world warning them that they believe the recent attacks on high-profile news accounts will continue. "We believe that these attacks will continue, and that news and media organizations will continue to be high value targets to hackers."

Twitter pleads with the companies to help them keep their accounts safe. They encourage companies to designate one computer to use for Twitter...and not use them for general web surfing or checking e-mail. Rumors of Twitter's two-factor authentication system are still floating around. We imagine it's a bit more difficult for them to develop a system for an account that is often used by multiple people.

The full memo, as obtained by BuzzFeed:

Things aren't looking so bright for Facebook ahead of their first-quarter earnings announcement. According to several different groups tracking Facebook usage, numbers are down in some of the most lucrative markets. SocialBakers estimates that Facebook has lost around 6m US-based users in the past month alone.

Further losses have been incurred around the world, with SocialBakers estimating Facebook has lost 1.4m UK users in the past month. Over the past six months, they estimate Facebook has lost around nine million monthly visitors in the US and two million in the UK.

New media specialist Ian Maude at Enders Analysis:

Trond Werner Hansen, a former Opera employee, has been sued by the company who alleges that he took trade secrets and gave them to Mozilla. Opera is looking to receive damages of 20 million kroner, or about $3.4 million US. Of course, Hansen denies that allegations, saying he has been "wrongly accused."

Opera's lawyer Ole E. Tokvam:

According to a Joystiq report, Ubisoft's much-anticipated game Watch Dogs will be releasing in mid-November. The report says that North America will be getting the game on November 19 and the United Kingdom will be getting it on November 22.

Watch Dogs will be released on all current gaming systems, including the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii U, as well as PC, the PlayStation 4, and next-generation consoles, such as the Xbox 720.

The UK version will reportedly be available in four different editions: Dedsec, Vigilante, Uplay, and Special Edition. Dedsec will come with a 23cm figurine, while the Vigilante will come with Aiden Pearce's cap and mask. Uplay, available through Ubisoft's digital distributioin network will reportedly come with a steelbook and the Special Edition will reportedly come with an extra single player mission. North American bundles are not currently known.

Our readers seem to have quite an interest in space, and who wouldn't? As part of the commercialization of space and space travel, Virgin Galactic has successfully completed the first test flight of its space plane, which will eventually be used to take ordinary citizens into space.

Don't start packing your bags quite yet, though, as Virgin Galactic didn't even make it into space on this first test flight. The plane behaved as expected and flew for around 10 minutes before returning to the ground. It was shuttled to an altitude of 47,000 feet before being released to fly on its own.

After being released, the plane flew up to 55,000 feet and broke the sound barrier. Virgin Galactic expect to test the plane in space by the end of the year and plan to have real flights for everyone available starting in 2015.

Corsair has just communicated information to us that states that Corsair is not being bought out by Francisco Partners (as previously reported), a private equity (PE) company based in the San Francisco Bay Area, which specializes in tech companies.

Corsair, however, has confirmed that it is in active talks with Francisco Partners for an injection of funds to the tune of $75 million to settle in a few weeks. Corsair explains that it won't change the management of the company or its direction that targets the gaming and enthusiast market, one which Corsair says is "growing and shows no signs of stopping".

It's little secret now that Corsair had plans to go public last year, but it was around the time that Facebook launched and saw less than stellar results. This caused Corsair to re-think its plans and come up with something new. The result, it seems, is working with Francisco Partners.