Latest News - Page 3014

When we first reported on the story of Intel moving away from socketed CPUs in 2014, most people were worried - myself included. But I did sit back and think about it in the aftermath of posting the news, and wondered if AMD would use this chance to make a move on the CPU market. Well, they have, where The Tech Report has received a nice note from AMD's Chris Hook:

This is good news, but not great news. AMD have been struggling lately, big time. They're losing the CPU fight to Intel in countless numbers and consumers. Their Radeon brand is still strong, but NVIDIA is just as strong now since their slump with Fermi. The future isn't clear, but it's good to see AMD is on our side.

It looks like Google have done yet another good thing for business, education and government customers - with their latest update to the Google Play Store that will let you host your own private internal apps directly into Google Play.

All you'll need to do is enable it in the developer console, then applications can be uploaded to the Play Store with users who are signed in with the same domain name will have a new section that will be accessible. This new section will allow the user to browse, download and update internal applications - all without sideloading.

This is perfect for those who want to host a help desk for example, or a bunch of apps that a bigger team need to access, then this is perfect. Google are helping out the enterprise customer, and this is only a good thing.

If you thought NASA's Curiosity rover was already cool, checking in on Foursquare on Mars and all, well, they're looking to launch another rover in 2010. NASA have announced the news at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco, but haven't provided many more details unfortunately.

NASA's Management Astronaut and the Associate Administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters (imagine that on your resume), John Mace Grunsfield, did tease the world by saying that the next-generation rover would be "based on Curiosity". The current budget for the currently-dubbed "Science Rover" will hover at around $1.5 billion, with no funding coming in from other departments.

The launch of the Science Rover is part of a multi-year Mars program, which NASA says "affirms the agency's commitment to a bold exploration program that meet's our nation's scientific and human exploration objectives". The portfolio includes the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers, two NASA spacecraft and contributions to one European spacecraft that is currently orbiting Mars, the 2013 launch of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) orbiter to study the Martian upper atmosphere, the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission, which will look into the deep interiors of the red planet, and participation in the ESA's 2016 and 2018 ExoMars missions.

Verizon has just filed a very creepy patent, which is for a DVR that would be capable of recording what happens in your living room. Not just audio, but video, too. Verizon say that the technology could help provide targeted ads for whatever you might be doing in your living room.

So, if you were jumping around doing Zumba for example, the DVR would provide ads for fitness. If you were sitting down talking to a friend about your latest Johnnie Walker Blue Label, it would serve up ads on alcohol or other related areas. The other problem is that Verizon aren't the only ones who are looking at doing this, or who have already filed patents for this type of creepy DVR tech.

Comcast patented a similar technology back in 2008, which recommended content based on people that it recognized in the room, and Google proposed a patent for Google TV that would feature audio and video recorders that would work out how many people were in the room watching TV. Verizon's patent was published just last week, but was filed in May 2011. It gets worse: Verizon provides two examples of the context-sensitive DVR's use in a couple's living room - where sounds of an argument would throw up ads for marriage counselling, while sounds of "cuddling" would provide ads for contraceptives.

There have been a lot of cool advancements in recent years, but one staple of the business world hasn't seen much improvement. I'm talking about the traditional business card, which has remained a staple of business for many years and appears as though it will continue to be around for several more years.

A company is doing something new with business cards, and paper in general. They have developed technology that allows them to embed a USB flash drive directly into the paper, so now your business card can pass along your contact information, resume, or something else digitally, instead of having to provide a link on the page.

They are currently running a funding campaign on Indiegogo, with $645 of their $30,000 funding goal met. It's a really interesting concept and could revolutionize trade shows and advertising. However, right now, the storage capacity of the paper is quite small, only 5.1MB or so, but that is just the starting point.

Sony is pretty happy with some recent findings by Netflix that place the PlayStation 3 as the number one TV-connected device used for streaming the online video provider's content. Netflix even said that, on occasion, the PlayStation 3 actually surpassed the PC in hours of Netflix enjoyment and made it to number one overall.

Impressive. Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, had the following to say:

I know, this may seem a bit mundane to most, but it really is the epitome of proliferation of wireless technology. HP has released a new All-In-One printer that is just a bit more all-in-one. By that, I mean that the new HP Hotspot LaserJet Pro M1218nfs MFP--really long name, I know--will scan, print, copy, AND serve as a hotspot, allowing up to 8 people to get wireless internet.

For now, the printer is only available in India, where it might be a bit more needed due to economic conditions. However, this is something that could easily, and probably will at some point, come to the United States and Europe. "The HP Hotspot is a new All-in-One+1 printer that completely redefines the role a multifunction printer can play in a SOHO or small business environment," Nitin Hiranandani, director of printing for HP India, said in a statement.

The printer will set you back 18,306 rupees, which is equivalent to $334. Is this a feature that you would use? Would you like to see a printer like this in the US? Let us know!

Crysis 3 is only months away, but what sort of PC will you require to run the new crossbow-sporting Crysis 3? Well, Crytek have revealed the minimum, recommended and high performance PC system requirements.

Crytek's high performance recommendations don't seem all that bad - a single GeForce GTX 680 or Radeon HD 7870. I guess they're not pushing multi-monitor or high frame rates here - we'll definitely be doing our own testing when Crysis 3 is released. Anyway, here is the breakdown:

Minimum system operating requirements for PC:

Google's latest iteration of their mobile OS, Jelly Bean, has enjoyed a good start so far - but just how much of the mobile OS market share has it stolen from its siblings?

In the last thirty days alone, Jelly Bean has had a nice boost in scooping up more market share thanks to people buying Jelly Bean-based devices like the incredible Nexus 4 which comes with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean on-board.

Since November, Jelly Bean has seen a huge 4% jump in market share - reaching 6.7% total. Splitting hairs, 5.9% of those are on Android 4.1 and the remaining 0.8% are on Android 4.2. Ice Cream Sandwich users (Android 4.0) enjoyed an increase of just 1.8% with a total of 27.5%.

Australia's leading telco, Telstra, have just announced that they have a new way that customers can purchase Google Play store content on their Android-based devices, including apps, games, movies, magazines and books.

Starting today, Telstra customers can now purchase Google Play content and charge it to their mobile phone bills at a value of up to $20 per transaction, with a monthly limit of $100. This $100 monthly limit can be changed, so you're not locked in - it just requires a quick phone call to Telstra. The new way of purchasing content is also available to pre-paid customers, too - they just need the credit on their accounts.

Telstra have teamed up with Google for the launch of this new service, where they've offered a heap of games and apps at half price! This promotion runs until December 25 and includes:

We've been sitting on the AMD Radeon HD 7000 series for a while now, and like anything else, that is set to change in the coming months. DigiTimes' latest report is that AMD plans to release their next-gen HD 8000 series in Q2 of 2013.

The company are currently going through a business reorganization in order to help their poor performance from the quarter just gone, according to DigiTimes' sources from the "upstream supply chain". DigiTimes reports that AMD were set to unveil their Radeon HD 8000 series at the end of the year to compete with NVIDIA, but pulled back.

The Chinese market is huge, and both companies want it - obviously. AMD's market share in the country has dropped to just 30%, and they're hoping that the launch of the next-gen GPUs will swell those numbers up considerably.

The police have asked that Congress consider adding a requirement that wireless service providers keep copies of text messages for two years. Because, after all, you never know when you may need to data mine them during a future criminal investigation. There are a few problems with a requirement of this length, however.

Consider, for a moment, the sheer number of text messages sent every single day. Got a number? 6 billion. Last year more than 2 TRILLION messages were sent, so storing that many text messages would take up a huge amount of storage. Carriers would be required to save text messages for two years, so they would be storing upwards of 4 trillion text messages.

That would be roughly 500 terabytes of data storage. Not an unheard of amount, but certainly a burden on a company. The police would like this new requirement to be added into an update of a 1986 privacy law that is currently being discussed. A new draft of the bill sees it being updated for the cloud computing era with a requirement that police obtain a warrant to read e-mails.

Marvell, a fabless semiconductor company, makes a plethora of wireless chipsets and other integrated electronics. Today, they are touting that they have the industry's first 802.11ac 4x4 wireless solution. Marvell says that it is "built to improve the throughput of enterprise and retail access points (APs) and the robustness of wireless video distribution."

"I believe that with Marvell's new breakthrough 802.11ac 4x4 Wi-Fi solution, we are positioned to change the landscape for enterprise-class network infrastructure and carrier grade video applications, further empowering the entire spectrum of always-on devices. The new era of the digital lifestyle requires superior wireless connectivity which serves as a critical pillar for delivering live content across all screen sizes and 'Smart Furnishings' for connected consumers," said Weili Dai, Co-Founder of Marvell. "I am very proud to see our dedicated team of engineers continue to build ground-breaking wireless technologies that support the latest industry standards, significantly improving network capacity, performance and reliability for Wi-Fi devices accessing the cloud infrastructure. Working with the industry's largest and most innovative global carriers and OEMs over the last decade, Marvell has established a successful track record of delivering world class wireless solutions for enterprise, consumer and mobile applications."

The new chipset, the 88W8864 SoC comes with the latest Wi-Fi standard, 802.11ac, which is the fastest wireless so far. It provides throughput up to 1.3Gbps. Beamforming is also supported by the 88W8864, which allows a stronger link to be formed by directing the beam in the direction of the device. The highlights are as follows:

I'm sure nearly all of our readers will remember when BPI earned a court order in England which forced ISPs to block The Pirate Bay. Well, that same court order is now being used to block The Promo Bay, a site ran by the same people as The Pirate Bay but operated on completely different servers and completely within the law.

That's right, the BPI, someone who would have an interest in preventing independent artists from making in the world is using a court order to block a site that helps promote independent artists. The Promo Bay is a legal promotional platform that seeks to help independent artists reach notoriety.

Virgin Media, BE broadband and BT and currently blocking the perfectly legal site. BT and Virgin Media say that the domain promobay.org is on the list of sites to be blocked under the court order. Virgin Media's spokesperson: "Promobay.org is included on the list of URLs Virgin Media is required to block under UK law following the ruling of the High Court against the Pirate Bay."

Our little Curiosity rover is all grown up now. Sitting on the surface of Mars, it has gone to work analyzing soil samples collected from a drift known as Rocknest. The sampling at this location served two purposes. One, it tested the equipment and provided data. Two, the fine sand particles were used to scrub the equipment of any lingering substances that came with the rover from Earth.

"We have no definitive detection of Martian organics at this point, but we will keep looking in the diverse environments of Gale Crater," said SAM Principal Investigator Paul Mahaffy of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

"We used almost every part of our science payload examining this drift," said Curiosity Project Scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "The synergies of the instruments and richness of the data sets give us great promise for using them at the mission's main science destination on Mount Sharp."

2012 was quite the year for those hungry for knowledge to learn about Apple's iPhone 5 as well as information regarding this year's elections in the United States as Yahoo has revealed its top 10 searches of the year. The election took the first spot in their list, while the iPhone 5 came in second place, which is one spot down from the iPhone's previous #1 spot on Yahoo's 2011 popular searches list.

Kim Kardashian, Kate Upton and Kate Middleton rounded up the top 5 popular searches of 2012, which just goes to show no matter how hard people search for worthwhile content, there's going to be a swarm of folks searching for the latest celebrity gossip.

Here's Yahoo's top 10 searches for 2012:

In the world of online streaming video platforms, Netflix is still king even though it hasn't exactly had the greatest time with its customers in recent months. I mean, there's no way you forgot about Qwikster, right? That's why any new online streaming video service needs to be aggressive and offer as good as a service as Netflix currently does. If today's report turns out to be true, it looks as though Redbox may have quite the service in store for those looking for an alternative to Netflix.

According to GigaOM, it looks as though when Redbox's "Redbox Instant" is launched, it'll charge its customers $6 a month for its online streaming video service, which is $2 cheaper than Netflix currently charges. Not only will it offer unlimited video streaming, but it will also give its users some optional perks like paying $2 extra a month to keep their DVD rentals for four nights, instead of the usual $1.20 per night cost. Redbox also plans on offering on-demand rentals of newer movies at $.99 a pop.

Seeing as Redbox Instant won't have the massive, and somewhat lackluster, catalog Netflix has, I'm still curious to see what kind of catalog it will have. If Redbox offers more worthwhile films at a lower cost, then it could easily be seen as a serious competitor to Netflix's "grab anything that was released on film, no matter how terrible it is" catalog.

Do you have a Wii U sitting under your tree just waiting for its recipient to open it up this holiday season to then spend hours updating the console? We're sure your new Wii U owner will be using their console a lot over the next few months, which means they're going to be sucking up a whole lot of juice out of their GamePad and Pro Controller. That's why you need to consider checking out Nyko's newly announced Wii U power accessories.

Nyko has introduced five new power accessories that will help keep your Wii U GamePad and Pro Controller charged before and during use. Here's a rundown of the peripherals Nyko have made available for the Wii U:

If you've got a Samsung Galaxy Note Ii and you're not impressed with its stock 3100mAh battery, then you do have yourself some options from Mugen Power.

The company have offered an extended battery that is a whopping 6400mAh beast, model number HLI-N7100XL. I wonder what the XL means? Nikolai Lebedovsky, marketing manager at Mugen Power Batteries has said that the company worked quite hard to jam pack as much power into the extended battery as possible.

The company's main goal was to keep its usability intact, but without the trouble of constantly charging, or walking around with a portable USB-powered charger:

If there's anything us parents want to do, it's keep our kids as safe as humanly possible - well, one dad has taken this step in a technologically driven direction for a change.

Paul Wallich would normally walk his son to the bus stop near their house - a 400m journey each and everyday. He did this to make sure his son safely got onto the bus and was on his way to school. 400m isn't a huge distance, but it can be an annoyance during the winter, or when he was super busy.

Wallich decided there had to be a way around this, and to watch his son get escorted to school from the comfort of his warm home. Wallich built a quadrocopter that sports a camera that streams a live feed directly to his PC. This process wasn't too hard, as quadrocopter kits are available at most hobby and electronics specialty shops.