Latest News - Page 3067

Flame, a highly sophisticated virus that was first discovered in Iranian oil refineries, and is supposedly the result of a U.S. and Israel joint effort to slow down Iran's nuclear program, reports The Washington Post. The information comes from multiple Western officials who purportedly have knowledge of the project, but of course want to remain anonymous.

This shouldn't come as a surprise considering the U.S. were unveiled as using the volatile Stuxnet virus, where The New York Times reported about Operation: Olympic Games, which is a project that used Stuxnet and Duqu, both sophisticated viruses. These viruses targeted Iranian SCADA systems, that allowed the creators of this virus to gather intelligence and even control aspects of Iran's nuclear and oil refining facilities.

Stuxnet code has been found within the Flame virus, according to security researchers, which is an unofficial confirmation that the creators of the Stuxnet virus (the U.S. government) are also behind this new nasty virus. Once this was discovered, in Get Smart fashion, the virus began to self-destruct, hastily removing itself from infected computers... not suss, huh?

LG haven't been doing so well in the tablet market which is mainly dominated by Apple, Samsung and Amazon, but instead of making a constant loss, or barely breaking even, they're completely diving out of the market and concentrating solely on the smartphone side of things.

LG is focused on the smartphones big time, with company spokesman Ken Hong speaking to AllThingsD and being quoted here:

Microsoft held their "secret" press event this week, where they announced their Surface tablet running the upcoming Windows 8 OS, but did PC makers know what Microsoft was going to show off? Well, yes, yes they did.

During an interview with The Verge, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer noted that PC makers knew about the Surface tablet ahead of the announcement. The question is, how long before the announcement did PC makers know about Microsoft's Surface tablet? The other question is why didn't Microsoft unveil the Surface tablet at Computex just two weeks ago? Did they hold off so PC makers could show off their various Windows 8-based tablets and Ultrabooks?

Was this why the Microsoft booth at Computex was so quiet? It would appear (to me at least) that this is the case. Ballmer did note that one of the reasons behind Microsoft building the Surface table was to "prime the pump" for Windows 8's release later in the year, noting that a tablet was an important piece of the overall story of Windows 8. PC makers have been quiet about the Surface tablet, and for good reason.

Microsoft are on quite the roll this week, first up we had their Surface tablets, and now the announcement of Windows Phone 8. The next-generation mobile operating system will sport a redesigned home screen, now allowing every tile to be customized in one of three available sizes, and completely ditches the right-hand "rail" that help the link to the full app list.

Skype and VoiP functionality are built directly into Windows Phone 8. Microsoft are adding a background agent that handles incoming and outgoing calls, as well as messaging and integration with several of the Windows Phone 8 features. Skype takes full advantage of this, as well as any other VoiP-based application without favoring one over the other. Microsoft's Greg Sullivan says the integration is so good that he jokes that Apple should create its own FaceTime app on Windows Phone 8, and it would work better than it does on the iPhone.

Windows Phone 8 will include Internet Explorer 10, which will run on the same desktop code used in Windows 8. It will also offer four times faster JavaScript performance and full HTML5 support. Security-wise, it will offer increased security, such as a phishing filter and the SmartScreen URL reputation system.

Acer have jumped out today, late in the week, to announce their thin and light Timeline Ultra M5 Series of Ultrabooks. Measuring in at just 0.81-inches thick, they're quite slim and light. Also sporting up to 8 hours of battery life, a single charge can give you an entire days use from the Ultrabook.

Acer also has their Green Instant On, which as you can imagine is an 'instant-on' tech which can throw the Ultrabook back into action within 6 seconds from a deep sleep, or just 2 seconds from normal sleep mode. Acer's new Timeline Ultra M5 Ultrabooks also feature Intel's third-generation Core processors, as well as NVIDIA's latest discrete GPUs, optical drives, and an option of either a 14- or 15.6-inch display.

The new Ultrabooks feature either a 128GB or 256GB solid-state drive for super-fast access to your files and transfer speed, with all models sporting a DVD drive as well. Two USB 3.0 ports are found on the Ultrabooks, and filling out the GPU side of things we'll find an NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M or 640M LTE dedicated GPUs for your GPU-accelerated, or gaming needs. Fans of backlit keyboards will feel at home since Acer's latest offerings sport the beautiful backlit keyboards, as well as the professionally-tuned Dolby Home Theater v4 and premium speakers that will deliver some great audio for your music, games or movies.

Google Maps with traffic conditions is a great idea, especially if you're trying to get from A to B during rush-hour. But, the feature hasn't been made available across the world. Today, the team at Google Maps have made it available in 7 more counties: Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Mexico, Peru, Romania and South Africa.

The Maps team have also improved the traffic conditions feature, as well as added more roads in 19 counties and regions: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, and the UK. The Maps team has said:

After a reported eight-year development, Max Payne 3 has not done so well. According to last month's NPD numbers, actual sales figures of Rockstar's slow-mo, kill-lotsa-dudes game, Max Payne 3, has only sold 440,000 copies.

Considering that new IP from Rockstar from last year, LA Noire, pushed over 900,000 copies, one would think an already-established IP like Max Payne would do better. But it has fallen short of industry expectations with Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter calling the game "a flop".

Pachter cites the eight-year development, and claiming "Rockstar put off releasing GTA" to work on Max Payne 3. Have you picked up the game yet? I've only played through around 20 minutes of it and have enjoyed it so far, but it's hard to play the game with a broken wrist and cast! 4 more weeks until I can thrash through it!

Bethesda Softworks have announced that the Doom 3 enhanced re-release of Doom 3 is coming out just before Halloween, on October 16. Doom 3 "BFG Edition" hits PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and will retail for $40 on the consoles, and $30 for the PC.

Doom 3 BFG Edition includes Resurrection of Evil and "The Lost Mission", all in glorious 3D, 5.1 surround sound, achievements, improved rendering and lighting as well as a new checkpoint save system. The improvements don't end there, also included is an armor-mounted flashlight "allowing players to illuminate dark corners and blast enemies at the same time".

Doom 3 BFG Edition also comes with the original Doom and Doom 3, making the BFG Edition the "definitive collection" for the series.

NVIDIA has issued a statement regarding Linus Torvalds harsh words. A little recap: Linus Torvalds said during a conference that NVIDIA is the worst company ever and then said "NVIDIA: F*** you!" He said this because he was a little upset with the Linux support and willingness to work with the open source community.

NVIDIA's PR machine has been at work crafting a statement to respond to his comments and finally issued a statement last night. The short version is that they are committed to Linux support using their own proprietary driver that is common among platforms. This allows for same-day Linux support of GPUs.

They also highlight their work with Tegra in the Linux community. Below is the NVIDIA response:

Facebook is adding subscription billing which should allow app developers to make even more money from their most loyal users. Starting next month, app developers will be able to create special plans or content that is available with a monthly fee. The lowest monthly fee that can be offered by a developer is a mere $1.

Kixeye is a perfect example of how developers can take advantage of the new system. Kixeye is planning on having a $9.95 per month subscription plan that will give subscribers access to exclusive in-game items. They are focusing on a smaller subset of players that are more inclined to pay which should yield an interesting revenue stream.

In other news, Facebook is backing away from Facebook Credits as the main currency. Just a few years ago, Facebook was pushing Credits so that Facebook and online shopping would become linked in people's minds. This, unfortunately, prevented developers from using their in-game currency for purchases.

Google seems pretty committed to strengthening its developer ecosystem around Android. So much so that they are now offering live support during office hours with a new program called "Developers Live." The new program allows developers to talk directly to Googlers who are the ones creating the APIs the developer is currently working with.

Louis Gray from the Developer Relations team:

Google doesn't appear to be happy with a website that is converting YouTube videos into MP3s and allowing visitors to convert YouTube videos into MP3 files for download. It turns out that they are so unhappy with the website, which pulls in 1.3m visitors a day, that they have sent a letter threatening legal action.

Apparently, this service that the site is providing is against YouTube's Terms of Service and, as such, YouTube has blocked the websites servers from accessing YouTube. Google has only provided the site with 7 days to comply with Google's request or they could face possible legal action for break the Terms of Service.

"We would estimate that there are roughly 200 million people across the world that make use of services like ours and Google doesn't just ignore all those people, they are about to criminalize them. With the way they are interpreting and creating their ToS every one of those 200 million users is threatened to be sued by Google," the converter spokesman said.

HTC is suffering a bit of a problem that is similar to Apple's notorious 'Antennagate' scandal. That is, the design of the phone is physically not perfect and users are finding poor performance and are having to squeeze the phone to restore proper functioning. let's just hope HTC doesn't tell users to just hold the phone differently.

It sounds as thought it is a loose hardware connection, so this means no quick fix for HTC through software. HTC as done the proper thing, as opposed to Apple, and come out an dadmitted that there is a problem on some One X international versions. The problem does not affect the US One X or One XL. HTC:

HTC's One X looks to be soon receiving an update that should include the latest build of Ice Cream Sandwich, Android 4.0.4. This should definitely close that nasty gap between HTC's One X and Samsung's GALAXY S III.

As usual in this world of Internet craziness we have, ROM developer and XDA member 'Football' has received the leaked ROM and has stirred up a ROM based on the firmware. The new update will be 2.05.401.2, and should be a noticeable update over the current 1.29.401.11.

Android version number gets an update up to Android 4.0.4, which includes some default stability improvements, also baked in are updated kernels, radios and software drivers, too. Early adopters of the new ROM have been happy, with some reporting a better web browsing experience, tweaked auto brightness settings, a smoother user interface and faster unlock speeds - can't complain at that!

If BlackBerry makers Research in Motion weren't already in enough trouble, it seems that the U.S. military could switch over most of their mobile devices from BlackBerry's to those running Apple's iOS or Google's Android mobile operating systems.

BlackBerry's are, as it stands right now, the device of choice for Pentagon among other U.S. military branches. It's also worth noting that RIM's biggest customer is... the U.S. military, but officials within the military have already voiced their opinion on RIM's BlackBerry platform not being able to keep up with the iOS and Android technology.

Teri Takai, the Pentagon's chief of information officer has said that flexibility provided by non-BlackBerry platforms to develop custom applications is what makes the move to the iOS and Android platforms so attractive. The current BlackBerry devices that DoD use are also not portable enough, with Dennis Moran, vice president for Harris Corp stating:

We often forget just how incredible the technology in a spinning drive is. We just take for granted that the size and speed of said drives will just keep increasing without thinking of the incredible speeds already present in the drives. Take for example the actuator arm in the video: it moved back and forth 22 times in just a mere 0.25 seconds.

That works out to just over 0.01 seconds per movement. Incredible. It's not recommended that you try this at home as opening the case of an HDD will allow dust in and will kill the drive extremely quickly. Additionally, most people don't have cameras capable of 1000fps just laying around in their homes.

That said, the video shows just how incredibly nimble and beautiful the inner workings of a disk drive are. That said, a solid state drive is faster and still one of the best upgrades you can do for a computer.

Take a quick stroll down memory lane and find Larrabee. Larrabee was Intel's failed discrete graphics creation designed to go head-to-head with the likes of NVIDIA and AMD. The Larrabee project was canned but Intel decided to continue the work with a change of focus. Instead of being a discrete GPU, Intel decided to target the HPC and supercomputing markets.

This new chip is an in-development chip known as Knight's Corner and is designed to be massively parallel. The product has clearly made significant progress as Intel has officially attached a brand name to the product. That brand name is Xeon Phi and will also be attached to future many-integrated-core (MIC) products.

Intel chose Xeon Phi as they wanted it to be part of the Xeon family. As for the Phi part, Intel says it's because it "evokes many concepts in science & nature including the 'golden ratio' in mathematics." Along with the brand name, Intel has released some technical details of the upcoming MIC chip.

Intel has agreed to buy 1,700 patents relating to Wi-Fi, 3G, and LTE from InterDigital. Last year, there were murmurs about a treasure chest of patents relating to those technologies being up for sale by InterDigital. The cost for these key patents? Only a cool $375 million in cash. Apparently, Intel has been after these patents for a while.

Intel's Senior Vice President, Doug Melamed, had this to say about the transaction: "These patents will support Intel's strategic investments in the mobile segment. The addition of these patents expands our already large, strong and diverse portfolio of intellectual property."

Interestingly enough, InterDigital refers to these as only a small portion of its overall collection of patents. How much more value is included in the other patents that they have? Senior Executive Vice President at InterDigital, Scott McQuilkin, had this to say about the upcoming transaction:

Let's face it, Apple has more money than they know what to do with. Before their stock buy-back program, they had right around $100 billion in cash. Apple already has the record for most profitable quarter among technology companies, so what is next for the giant? One analyst believes they could become the most profitable publicly traded companies.

"In CY12, we believe Apple is poised to generate the highest annual net income of any publicly traded company ever," White wrote. "On average, we estimate Apple's net income in CY12 will be over 6x higher than the three tech companies on an individual basis (when at a $500 billion market cap) or 1.9x the aggregate profit of these three companies combined. When including all five companies, we estimate Apple's net income in CY12 will be 4x higher than the average."

So why the huge increase in value? White is citing a new iPhone with a 4" screen launching in the third quarter, an "iPad mini" that is set to launch sometime in September, and an upcoming HDTV made by Apple. White has confirmed his buy recommendation along with a price target $1,111, which is about double the current price of $572 (as of opening bell Monday).

If you thought Verizon's FiOS internet was fast, then brace yourself for Verizon FiOS Quantum. Verizon has announced today the pricing and new name for their updated FiOS internet service. The speeds, as we previously reported, have effectively doubled or tripled across the board, but at the time we didn't know the pricing.

We can now officially report the pricing and tell you that the cost will be about $10-15 higher a month for at least double the speed. That is, unless you are on the bottom tier. The Lowest 15/5 tier sees a $10 price increase without any increase in speed. Prices range from $65-210 a month for speeds ranging from 15/5 all the way up to 300/65.

Existing customers won't have to fork over an upgrade fee, but will see their bill go up, depending on bundles and such. If you are willing to sign a two-year contract, prices will drop by about $5 a month, something that's probably not worth being locked into a two-year contract for. Most people probably can't even utilize their current FiOS connection, let alone these massive new speeds.