Newsletter IconFacebook IconX IconThreads IconInstagram IconYouTube IconPinterest Icon
Giveaway: Win an ASRock B850 Riptide WiFi and Phantom Gaming PG-850G PSU

Latest News - Page 2990

Popular Now: GTA Technical Director comments on GTA 6 running at 60 FPS on consoles

Learn about how TweakTown tests and reviews hardware. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. TweakTown may also earn commissions from other affiliate partners at no extra cost to you.

Stay Updated

Follow TweakTown for breaking tech news, reviews, and daily updates.

Add TweakTown as a preferred source on GoogleFind TweakTown on Apple News

Barnes & Noble reportedly looking for an exit out of the hardware market

Anthony Garreffa | Mobile Devices | Feb 24, 2013 8:26 PM CST

It looks like the Barnes & Noble e-readers and tablets might not be around too much longer if a New York Times report is correct. The Times' report is from an unnamed source familiar with Barnes & Noble's corporate strategy, who said while "they are not completely getting out of the hardware business", executives can see that they need to shift the company's focus from low-margin hardware to licensing its "crown jewel" content to other platforms.

Barnes & Noble are reporting their third-quarter results this Thursday, which they're already downplaying in their Nook department. Could we see them leave the hardware game? I think so. I guess we'll find out more later this week.

Update: We've heard from a Barnes & Noble spokesperson who has said that "we have no plans to discontinue our award-winning line of NOOK products".

0:00 / --:--

Continue reading: Barnes & Noble reportedly looking for an exit out of the hardware market (full post)

Lenovo offering new 7- and 10-inch Android-powered tablets

Anthony Garreffa | Mobile Devices | Feb 24, 2013 5:32 PM CST

MWC 2013 - It's that time of the year again folks, we're seeing mobile devices being unveiled quicker than Taylor Swift writes songs about her ex-boyfriends, and now we have Lenovo's turn at unveiling some new products you might be interested in.

The company have released two new slates, the 7-inch A1000 and A3000 tablets, backing it up with a 10-inch S6000 tablet. The first tablet, Lenovo's A1000 is the entry-level device, featuring a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 16GB of on-board storage which expandable by up to 32GB with microSD - finally, it runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

The bigger brother of this is the 7-inch A3000, which is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core MTK processor, and features up to 64GB of expandable storage through microSD. It also runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, but has an underwhelming 1024x600 IPS display. Also included in the A3000 series is another family member that will sport HSPA+ abilities.

0:00 / --:--

Continue reading: Lenovo offering new 7- and 10-inch Android-powered tablets (full post)

Samsung unveils HomeSync at MWC, an Android-powered TV-connected device

Anthony Garreffa | Mobile Devices | Feb 24, 2013 2:54 PM CST

MWC 2013 - Samsung have used Mobile World Congress to let the skinny slip on their latest device, HomeSync. It's not a smartphone, it's not a tablet, but rather a TV-connected device running the same type of specs that we see in our mobile devices.

This means we're greeted with a 1.7GHz dual-core processor, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of flash, a 1TB HDD for storage, Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11n 2.4 and 5GHz Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet, optical audio and finally, HDMI 1.4. Samsung's HomeSync even supports up to eight individual password-protected and encrypted user accounts, which can each individually sync content from other devices, and share it through various accounts.

HomeSync is mostly a media hub capable of pushing out your content at 1080p, as well as streaming it from local Galaxy-branded devices. There's no news on whether this is anything to do with Google TV, but it does have the ability to grab content from the Play Store, as well as run its own apps. Another nifty feature is the ability to use your smartphone as a remote control with HomeSync.

0:00 / --:--

Continue reading: Samsung unveils HomeSync at MWC, an Android-powered TV-connected device (full post)

Samsung launches their Galaxy Note 8.0 at Mobile World Congress 2013

Anthony Garreffa | Mobile Devices | Feb 24, 2013 2:32 PM CST

MWC 2013 - Samsung have unveiled a new member of their Galaxy family of devices, the Galaxy Note 8.0. We've had a hands-on experience with it a little while ago, but now we have some more details to report on Samsung's latest device.

The new Galaxy Note 8.0 slides between the 5.5-inch Galaxy Note II smartphone and the 10-inch Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet, but has some nice abilities for a middle child. We're looking at Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean as the OS, an 8-inch 1280x800 display with a pixel density of 189ppi. This makes the Galaxy Note 8.0's screen slightly better than Apple's iPad mini which features a 7.9-inch 163ppi display.

Cranking along inside the device we have a 1.6GHz quad-core processor, Samsung's own Exynos 4 - backing this up we have 2GB of RAM and either 32GB or 64GB of internal storage. There will be LTE-capable Note 8.0's in the wild, but at first there will be 3G connectivity on offer through HSPA+. Thanks to being part of the Note family of devices, we will have the S Pen stylus, which is really useful for the included apps from Samsung.

0:00 / --:--

Continue reading: Samsung launches their Galaxy Note 8.0 at Mobile World Congress 2013 (full post)

Battlefield 4 confirmed for next-gen consoles, we will see more in the next two months

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Feb 22, 2013 10:11 PM CST

If there's a single game I'm excited for in the next couple of years, it has to be Battlefield 4. Battlefield 3 really pushed the boundaries within the first-person shooter in terms of graphics, but the next one should amp that up considerably.

EA labels president Frank Gibeau has said:

0:00 / --:--

Continue reading: Battlefield 4 confirmed for next-gen consoles, we will see more in the next two months (full post)

Gaming in 4K tested out on Windows 8 and Max Payne 3

Anthony Garreffa | Displays | Feb 22, 2013 9:29 PM CST

Something we will be getting more into this year is 4K Ultra HD technology, this is the next-gen of PC and it's some seriously hot stuff. The Windows blog got their hands on a 55-inch 4K-capable Ultra HD TV and ran some DirectX 11 games on it.

They tried Max Payne 3 with an AMD Radeon HD 7970 and saw some great details from the game. The one thing to remember here is the insane amount of pixels being pushed from the 4K Ultra HD TV set. At 1280x720, you're barely scraping 1-megapixel of information at 0.91 megapixels. The standard now, 1920x1080, pushes 2.07 megapixels - but 4K? An insane 8.2 megapixels... a huge, huge jump. That jump requires some serious GPU horsepower.

The TV being used was set to just 30Hz, so the maximum frames per second will be 30. The 4K display wasn't the only one being used, with the GPU driving 3 other displays, too. There's a video on the site which you should check out, too.

0:00 / --:--

Continue reading: Gaming in 4K tested out on Windows 8 and Max Payne 3 (full post)

Apple seeking new 'Maps Ground Truth Data Specialist' in Australia

Anthony Garreffa | Business, Financial & Legal | Feb 22, 2013 8:10 PM CST

Apple are looking for someone in Australia for a new position, the position open is for a 'Maps Ground Truth Data Specialist'. This position has been up for a couple of days, and comes just months after Apple's Maps app failing to provide correct mapping data in Australia.

The position will check "changes to map data, provide feedback on unique local map requirements, collect ground truth information, and evaluate competing products." But what is 'Ground Truth'? Well, that is information collected on location versus the data being collected remotely, such as data from satellites.

The full job listing is below:

0:00 / --:--

Continue reading: Apple seeking new 'Maps Ground Truth Data Specialist' in Australia (full post)

Sony aiming to show PlayStation 4 console at E3...or sooner

Trace Hagan | Gaming | Feb 22, 2013 4:29 PM CST

As we've previously reported, the actual PlayStation 4 console was noticeably absent from the unveiling Wednesday night. Sony said that this was due to the console's hardware and design still being finalized. The CEO of Sony has now come out and said that we should see the actual console at E3 or sooner.

"I would look for E3 as a time when you'll get a good look at it," he told Forbes in an interview. "Or sooner."

As soon as actual pictures of the PlayStation 4 surface, you can be sure that you'll be able to find them here on TweakTown.

0:00 / --:--

Continue reading: Sony aiming to show PlayStation 4 console at E3...or sooner (full post)

New service Makexyz is like Airbnb for 3D printer owners

Charles Gantt | Science, Space, & Robotics | Feb 22, 2013 12:02 PM CST

It's no secret that 3D printing is one of the hottest trends in recent history, and it should be no surprise that anyone and everyone is coming up with new ways to capitalize on the 3D printing revolution. Makexyz is a new service that has been launched to help connect those who need 3D printed items with 3D printer owners.

Makexzy creator Nathan Tone told VentureBeat "Instead of being printed at some Orwellian factory, our objects are printed by real people." Tone said the idea for the service came to him when a part he designed, took weeks to be printed and shipped to him through traditional 3D printing services. "Theres's a big benefit to just printing locally. Objects are half as expensive and you get them twice as fast", he said.

Tone says that services like Shapeways take too much time and cost over double as something printed on a personal machine sourced locally. With most services charging as much as $1.50 per cubic centimeter having something printed is just out of reach for some designers. "We've been careful to make sure that our prices are lower than working through a big company", Tone said.

0:00 / --:--

Continue reading: New service Makexyz is like Airbnb for 3D printer owners (full post)

Facebook plans to place your old photos into cold storage facility

Charles Gantt | Internet & Websites | Feb 22, 2013 8:18 AM CST

Image storage is becoming a major issue for social networking giant Facebook. The service sees over 300 million photos uploaded every single day, which equates to over 109 billion photos uploaded to the social network annually. Naturally, not all of these photos are viewed every single day - some of them go months without being viewed.

Facebook says that 82-percent of all traffic that the service sees is made up of only eight percent of the images stored on the company's servers. This equates to a very large amount of energy inefficient storage for files that are rarely accessed. Facebook has come up with a plan to solve this issue, though.

The company is planning a new "cold storage" facility that will house the old photos and store them for future retrieval. The facility will be located in Prineville, Oregon, and will have three 16,000 square-foot data hubs. The servers will lay in hibernation until data is requested from them. This will increase the amount of time it takes for an old photo to be served to the end-user, but most will never notice it. The delay will be "a matter of seconds, or milliseconds", said Facebook communication manager, Michael Kirkland.

0:00 / --:--

Continue reading: Facebook plans to place your old photos into cold storage facility (full post)

Facebook bug prevents users from entering birth year before 1910

Trace Hagan | Internet & Websites | Feb 22, 2013 12:17 AM CST

And now, a human interest story. Meet Marguerite Joseph. She's 104 years old and quite proud of her age. Not only is she old, she is an avid user of Facebook. Due to her age, she was in the perfect position to discover a bug within the website that prevents her from putting her real birth year.

She's been in a little bit of a battle with Facebook to get the bug ironed out, but she hasn't been able to. Now that she's getting publicity about the problem, Facebook has issued a statement saying they've discovered a bug that prevents users from entering a birth year before 1910:

"We've recently discovered an issue whereby some Facebook users may be unable to enter a birthday before 1910. We are working on a fix for this and we apologize for the inconvenience."

0:00 / --:--

Continue reading: Facebook bug prevents users from entering birth year before 1910 (full post)

RIAA says Google's updated ranking isn't working at reducing piracy

Trace Hagan | Internet & Websites | Feb 21, 2013 7:04 PM CST

Another week, another complaint about piracy from the Recording Industry Association of America. This time the RIAA is saying that Google is not making pirate sites harder to find in its search results. Six months ago, Google offered up a change to the way it ranks sites that could cause pirate sites to appear lower in rankings.

Specifically, the company said: "Sites with high numbers of removal notices may appear lower in our results. This ranking change should help users find legitimate, quality sources of content more easily."

The RIAA say that finding pirate sites in Google's search results is just as easy as it ever has been. They issued a new report regarding the matter, in which they allege the following: "We have found no evidence that Google's policy has had a demonstrable impact on demoting sites with large amounts of piracy."

0:00 / --:--

Continue reading: RIAA says Google's updated ranking isn't working at reducing piracy (full post)

Actual PlayStation 4 hardware didn't make an appearance last night because it's 'still in development'

Trace Hagan | Gaming | Feb 21, 2013 2:03 PM CST

Most of you were probably tuned into the live stream or our live coverage of the PlayStation 4 event last night. The one thing that you probably noticed was that a picture or actual hardware version of the PlayStation never made an appearance. There wasn't a single sighting of the device last night and Sony's CEO Jack Tretton has explained why.

According to an interview with AllThingsD, Sony hasn't finalized the hardware or specifications, so they didn't have a final hardware design to show off. That's right, Sony announced the product before they had even finished designing it.

Sony Computer Entertainment of America CEO Jack Tretton: "We're certainly capable of showing playable game content, but we don't have a mass-production box that we can bring out and pull out. That's still in development in terms of final specs and design."

0:00 / --:--

Continue reading: Actual PlayStation 4 hardware didn't make an appearance last night because it's 'still in development' (full post)

Court rules in favor of CNET, BitTorrent client downloads can stay up

Charles Gantt | Business, Financial & Legal | Feb 21, 2013 11:11 AM CST

Last week I reported on CNET being sued by a coalition of artist over its Download.com site offering downloads of BitTorrent clients like uTorrent. CNET argued that it was well within its rights to offer such downloads, and as it turns out, the court agreed.

The coalition claimed, that because CNET had reviewed the software and provided an educational video on how to use said software, that Download.com was encouraging the use of the program. The court disagreed, with the judge saying that "there was no indication of encouragement and that a ban on any distribution of the technology would dampen public discussion of P2P technologies."

The judge did agree with the coalition on the fact that uTorrent and other P2P clients can be used to infringe on copyrights, but said:

0:00 / --:--

Continue reading: Court rules in favor of CNET, BitTorrent client downloads can stay up (full post)

Police use Facebook to alert mother of son's death, say they tried more conventional methods first

Trace Hagan | Current Affairs | Feb 21, 2013 6:08 AM CST

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Clayton County Police Department used Facebook to contact Anna Lamb-Creasey to inform her of her son's death. The department says that they tried more conventional methods first, but resorted to Facebook after those failed.

The Chief of Police stated, "Society has accepted social media as a major form of communication, and so have I."

Lamb-Creasey doesn't think the department should have used Facebook to contact her. She says, "They told me that they did the best that they can do. But I'm not sure about that. [Because] if they can track a criminal down, they couldn't track me down? They could have done better. I've been on my job 13 years. They could have found me."

0:00 / --:--

Continue reading: Police use Facebook to alert mother of son's death, say they tried more conventional methods first (full post)

Sony says PlayStation 4 will not block used games

Trace Hagan | Gaming | Feb 21, 2013 1:03 AM CST

Sony has confirmed to Eurogamer that used games will not be blocked on the PlayStation 4, allaying fears that the next-gen console would look to stuff out the used game market. "They purchase physical form, they want to use it everywhere, right? So that's my expectation," Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida said.

Yoshida faltered a bit when directly asked if Sony was going to block used games from being resold. After consulting his Japanese PR adviser, he responded back, "used games can play on PS4. How is that?"

This is good news for everyone who had seen and heard the rumors that the next-gen consoles from Microsoft and Sony were going to block used games. Microsoft could still take that route, though this would likely hurt sales.

0:00 / --:--

Continue reading: Sony says PlayStation 4 will not block used games (full post)

NVIDIA working on new headquarters in Santa Clara, located right across the street from old one

Trace Hagan | Business, Financial & Legal | Feb 20, 2013 11:19 PM CST

NVIDIA has announced that they are working on building a new headquarters right across the street from their current Santa Clara headquarters. The new building's design is being worked on a team at Gensler and is being led by Hao Ko. NVIDIA says the arhitect shares their "values and drive to perfection."

The current renders of the new building are quite awesome and could rival Apple's new headquarters. As you can see in the picture above, NVIDIA's new headquarters will be shaped like two triangles with a connection in the middle.

0:00 / --:--

Continue reading: NVIDIA working on new headquarters in Santa Clara, located right across the street from old one (full post)

Which PlayStation 4 rumors ended up being true? Let's take a look...

Trace Hagan | Gaming | Feb 20, 2013 6:46 PM CST

With the official PlayStation 4 announcement about halfway over, we'd thought we'd bring to you a list of rumors that ended up being true. Without further ado, let's take a look at the rumors that panned out.

Click on any rumor listed below to be taken to the original post.

In the end it looks like most of the rumors that we posted ended up being accurate. Of course, this was just a quick look over some of the past posts--I'm sure our readers could dig up more that ended up not coming true. If you know of one off hand, let us know in the comments!

0:00 / --:--

Continue reading: Which PlayStation 4 rumors ended up being true? Let's take a look... (full post)

LIve from the Sony PlayStation Meeting 2013

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Feb 20, 2013 5:13 PM CST

Sony are poised to launch the PlayStation 4 today, and we're going to cover it live, continue to check back as much as you can! The event is live right now in New York City. Nothing on the PS4 so far, but it shouldn't be long - I'm incredibly, incredibly excited right now - how about you?

16:05 US PST: I did forget, we didn't even get to see the actual PlayStation 4... what's with that? This was just a bit of a tease, I guess, but it would've been nice to see the PS4 itself.

16:04 US PST: PS4 comes "Holiday 2013" and with that, it's all over - what did you love the most? The controller? The graphics? The tease of games? The future of gaming is sure looking bright, and the future of gaming is PC. AMD-based architectures being baked into these consoles shows just how incredible the PC is - and our games should only look better now that the minimum spec is now the PS4 for future game development.

0:00 / --:--

Continue reading: LIve from the Sony PlayStation Meeting 2013 (full post)

SMART Storage Systems introduces 1.8" SAS Optimus SSD

Paul Alcorn | IT/Datacenter & Super Computing | Feb 20, 2013 2:02 PM CST

SMART has announced the new 1.8" SAS Enterprise-Class Optimus SSD. This SAS SSD features random speeds of 100,000 read IOPS and 45,000 write IOPS. Sequential read and write speeds are 500MB/s.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this SSD is the intended market. This small form factor SSD is designed for blade servers, caching and other high-density computing environments, which typically have space constraints. Providing smaller robust solutions will address the needs of this market segment. Another impressive feature is the density, with this SSD coming in capacities of 200GB and 400GB.

The new Optimus 1.8" SAS SSD leverages the Guardianâ„¢ Technology Platform to provide the endurance and feature set required for enterprise environments. A comprehensive suite of proprietary features, the Guardian Technology Platform is comprised of FlashGuardâ„¢, EverGuardâ„¢, and DataGuardâ„¢ technologies. FlashGuard, an innovative combination of Aggregated Flash Management and Advanced Signal Processing technologies, enables commercial MLC Flash to achieve higher endurance levels, making it suitable for the enterprise environment.

0:00 / --:--

Continue reading: SMART Storage Systems introduces 1.8" SAS Optimus SSD (full post)

Newsletter Subscription