Here's the best 'TV guide' for eSports - FolloweSports.com

Chris Smith | Gaming | Aug 21, 2015 6:32 AM CDT

Once a week my parents would buy the newspaper in order to get a TV guide for the next 7 days. I'd groan as a flip the pages and realize that there is actually nothing worth watching for a whole week, so I'd run off to tinker with computers a little more. This old technology has been largely replaced by online guides which are live updating and cover hundreds more channels - so why not have something like this for eSports events?

Well, the guys at FolloweSports.com thought exactly the same thing, so they went out and something to fix this issue. It's free to use and covered all major eSports titles - loading up the webpage quickly I can see all tournaments that are currently or soon to be happening, complete with prize pools, bracket information, event naming, game titles and more.

Without signing in, all game times are tailored towards my personal time zone and each game has a direct link to the stream when live. There's a bunch of filters and searches you can conduct to find something specifically if you wish.

Continue reading: Here's the best 'TV guide' for eSports - FolloweSports.com (full post)

More Ashley Madison information revealed and its doubled the amount

Chris Smith | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Aug 21, 2015 5:34 AM CDT

With news already coming out that the Ashley Madison hack has seen over 700 Australian Government employee email addresses named, sitting alongside members of the White House and US congress and even dirtying the name of Sao Paulo due to the sheer number of accounts within, there is now even more to add to the plate.

This latest update comes in the form of yet another information dump, being twice the size of the last one. Released onto the dark web, this information leak is largely targeted at Noel Biderman, the CEO of Ashley Madison's parent company, Avid Life. Alongside including many of his business emails, this leak is coupled with a statement which reads "Hey Noel, you can admit it's real now."

Measuring around 20GB, this leak is said to be focused mainly on internal operations and information - quite possibly to ensure people take this leak seriously and removing the possibility of Ashley Madison calling it off as a hoax.

Continue reading: More Ashley Madison information revealed and its doubled the amount (full post)

Ashley Madison hack unearths White House and US Congress staff

Chris Smith | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Aug 21, 2015 4:27 AM CDT

The Aussies are in trouble, with the latest Ashley Madison hacking scandal unveiling over 700 Australian Government email address' linked to the affairs website, but it looks like they aren't the only ones. Looking further into the data, The Big Story published an article outlining that members of the White House and US Congress were also involved in the mix.

Including those holding high positions in multiple Government offices (including law enforcement), the hacked and published list includes some powerful titles which The Big Story explained as; "at least two assistant U.S. attorneys; an information technology administrator in the Executive Office of the President; a division chief, an investigator and a trial attorney in the Justice Department; a government hacker at the Homeland Security Department and another DHS employee who indicated he worked on a U.S. counter terrorism response team."

Although you may view it as morally unjust, there will be no legal action taken against these Government employees, sources say. This inaction is due to there being no elected officials involved, nor have these people committed a felony. Further to this information, the names have not been publically posted or confirmed by the US Government.

Continue reading: Ashley Madison hack unearths White House and US Congress staff (full post)

Intel says that DDR4 will overtake DDR3 sometime next year

Derek Strickland | RAM | Aug 21, 2015 2:13 AM CDT

IDF 2015 - Intel has laid out predictions for a marked rise in DDR4 RAM adoption following the widespread availability of Skylake-powered servers, notebooks and desktops.

Right now mainstream support for DDR4 RAM is rare, and it's mostly found in Intel's Xeon-powered servers and in enthusiast grade PC's powered by X99 chipsets. But according to analyst firm IHS, whose findings Intel touted on stage, DDR4 will already start to overlap production of DDR3 as early as next year.

IHS further lays out a timetable for desktops and servers that shows the projected transition period from DDR3 to DDR4. Servers have been using DDR4 since late 2014 thanks to the Xeon E5 v3 processor, and the platform will continue to account for a bulk of memory usage throughout this year and well into 2016. By the end of this year alone IHS predicts that DDR4 will account for 60% of all server memory shipments, and jump to 90% in the same time next year.

Continue reading: Intel says that DDR4 will overtake DDR3 sometime next year (full post)

The new Alienware 18 gaming laptop packs two GeForce GTX 980M GPUs

Anthony Garreffa | Laptops | Aug 21, 2015 1:52 AM CDT

Alienware has just announced its latest and greatest gaming notebook, the Alienware 18, with what I would call the single most best, cringe-worthy announcement video of all time. Check it out below.

The new Alienware 18 gaming laptop packs two GeForce GTX 980M GPUs

The new Alienware 18 gaming laptop kicks off with a minimum of a Core i7-4710MQ at 2.5GHz, but you can opt for the Core i7-4910MQ or Core i7-4940MX if you want some added CPU performance. There's four DIMM slots inside, with a stock 16GB of RAM upgradeable to 32GB. The stock model includes a 500GB HDD, while the 1TB model costs an insane 1TB more. Very strangely, there's no SSD here which is super disappointing and somewhat of a showstopper for me.

GPU wise you can have up to two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M or GTX 980Ms in SLI, which will more than handle the 18.4-inch 1920x1080 display and any game you throw at it. Connectivity wise, we have a Killer Ethernet port, Broadcom 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 4 x USB 3.0 ports, a miniDisplayPort, HDMI (in and out) and more. Dell has also packed in 20 LED lighting colors across 10 separate zones for the ultimate customization.

Continue reading: The new Alienware 18 gaming laptop packs two GeForce GTX 980M GPUs (full post)

'He-Man' feature film reboot coming down from Eternia

Ben Gourlay | Celebrities & Entertainment | Aug 21, 2015 12:58 AM CDT

The cult 1980's animation 'He Man and the Masters of the Universe' looks set to be re-imagined for the big screen, as Sony Pictures orders a new script from comic book writer turned screenwriter Christopher Yost.

Previously bought to the screen in the ham-statistic 1987 turkey, which starred Dolph Lundgren and Frank Langella. While the picture bombed - failing to recoup it's production budget - Sony are no doubt hoping that the world will look on the Prince of Eternia just a little bit kinder. With development on the film still in early stages, the film isn't expected to be launched until 2018 at the earliest.

Continue reading: 'He-Man' feature film reboot coming down from Eternia (full post)

AMD's next-gen GPUs will feature between 8-16GB of super-fast HBM2

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Aug 20, 2015 10:41 PM CDT

We've been hearing about AMD's next generation GPUs for a while now, but it looks like they're beginning to take more form. It's being reported that AMD's upcoming 'Greenland' GPU will be an entirely new microarchitecture, with development on Greenland starting some two years ago.

But more interestingly, rumor has it that it's not just going to be yet another Graphics Core Next architecture (GCN), but it'll feature a new ISA (instruction set architecture) that will be so different to GCN, that it will be very exciting. On the surface, it'll be like previous generation Radeon products, with so much more happening underneath.

Greenland will reportedly usher in twice the power efficiency of GCN, where we can expect these GPUs to be made on the 16nm FinFET or 14nm process, with a serious jump on the number of stream processors when compared to the Fiji architecture. Fiji is the GPU behind the Radeon R9 Fury and R9 Fury X cards, powered by High Bandwidth Memory, or HBM. More importantly, it's being reported that Greenland will pack HBM2, with enthusiast level and professional cards packing up to 32GB of HBM2. The consumer orientated Greenland-powered Radeon cards will come in two flavors: 8GB and 16GB, both of the next-gen HBM2 technology.

Continue reading: AMD's next-gen GPUs will feature between 8-16GB of super-fast HBM2 (full post)

Samsung will begin making HBM early next year

Anthony Garreffa | Business, Financial & Legal | Aug 20, 2015 9:58 PM CDT

It looks like the High Bandwidth Memory game is about to receive a very big new player in the form of Samsung, with the South Korean electronics giant announcing at IDF 2015 that it will begin mass production of HBM early next year.

Right now HBM1 is limited to just 4GB and 512GB/sec, but HBM2 will be capable of driving far past 8GB and sitting at around 1TB/sec memory bandwidth. We should expect new video cards to feature up to 48GB of HBM2, with consumer cards most likely sitting at around 8-12GB of HBM2. With NVIDIA dominating the GPU market share with no signs of slowing down, next year is going to be one of the biggest for GPUs.

HBM2 is going to usher in more changes in the next 12-18 months than I think most people can even predict, especially when we begin seeing professional video cards (think video professionals, servers and the like) with GPUs packing 48GB of HBM2 with up to 1.5TB/sec of memory bandwidth. Even the fastest GeForce cards right now only feature 334GB/sec of memory bandwidth, while the HBM1-powered Fury X from AMD packing 512GB/sec bandwidth.

Continue reading: Samsung will begin making HBM early next year (full post)

Microsoft rumored to unveil Xbox One slim model in October

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Aug 20, 2015 7:10 PM CDT

A new slim Xbox One model is rumored to be part of Microsoft's planned barrage of new hardware for October, including the Surface Pro 4, Lumia 940/940 XL and Band 2.

According to rumors the compact Xbox One, coined as the Xbox On Mini, is able to hit the smaller form factor by nixing the Blu-ray drive altogether and shaving off a considerable chunk of space--about 1/3 of the current massive VCR-sized monstrosity. This will turn the Xbox One Mini into a digital-only machine, and the excising of the drive will also lead to a nice price drop to boot.

News of a slim Xbox One circulated as far back as October of last year when AMD shrunk the console's 28nm APU to a smaller, cheaper and more efficient 20nm factor. The 20nm APU, which is 1.9 times more dense than the previous model, could lead to speeds up to 30% faster with 25% less power draw.

Continue reading: Microsoft rumored to unveil Xbox One slim model in October (full post)

GTA V mods coming to PS4, Xbox One in new update

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Aug 20, 2015 6:19 PM CDT

In the next update for GTA V, console gamers will be able to create, share and download customized mods, adding in a massive dollop of freshness to the game.

GTA V mods coming to PS4, Xbox One in new update

Rockstar Games didn't exactly break the news with a full-on announcement--instead it was cleverly embedded in a blog post about the Ill-Gotten Gains modding contest, where the devs pretty much sneaked in a confirmation.

"The upcoming launch of the Rockstar Editor for PS4 and Xbox One as the next update to Grand Theft Auto V and GTA Online means the next Rockstar Editor Contest will be the first one with entries across all three platforms - so the creative competition will be fiercer than ever. Stay tuned for info about that contest and forthcoming update."

Continue reading: GTA V mods coming to PS4, Xbox One in new update (full post)