Is Dead Rising 3's new 13GB DLC patch simply too much?
If you were to download Dead Rising 3 from the Xbox Games Store, it would be around 30GB to download. This sounds huge, but we're in an age of massive games - and this comes as no surprise. But massive DLC? No.
Dead Rising 3's latest patch weighs in at 13GB, which is just massive. This represents 56% of the full-size game itself from the Xbox Games Store, which I think is ridiculous. Dead Rising 3's Executive Producer, Josh Bridge, explains that Capcom Vancouver, the developer behind the zombie title, has been "actively engaging and monitoring fan feedback" in regards to bugs and issues in the game, since it dropped in November 2013.
Capcom Vancouver then brewed up the 13GB patch "in reaction to everything we could find." The patch is 100% mandatory, so you need to download it, or you won't be able to play it with an Internet-connected Xbox One. The full list that the patch covers is for your convenience, below:
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Want that AMD 16-core processor? You can buy it right now for $663
We reported over the weekend on the 16-core processor from AMD, but if you want to get in early, you can buy the Opteron variant of it... right now. The AMD Operton 6300-series, or "Warsaw" processor, is designed for 2- and 4-way goodness in servers.
It uses the socket G34, and are based on the Piledriver architecture. The new chips feature between 12 and 16 cores, 16MB of L3 cache, quad-channel DDR3 memory and much more. They should have a much better performance-per-watt ratio over today's Opteron 6300 series, too. The company were poised to release these new CPUs later in Q1 2014, but ShopBLT is offering a pre-order on the 12-core version for $421, and the 16-core Operton for $663.
The details on the processors are as follows: the 12-core version is the Opteron 6338 HE, which has a 99W TDP. The 16-core processor, is the Opteron 6370 HE, and also has a 99W TDP. The HE stands for high efficiency, and should feature moderate clock speeds to keep the power numbers down.
Continue reading: Want that AMD 16-core processor? You can buy it right now for $663 (full post)
WhatsApp sees 50 billion messages per day, more than all SMS combined
During the DLD conference in Germany, WhatsApp CEO, Jan Koum, shared some exciting news with attendees about the messaging app's usage numbers. WhatsApp now has more than 430 million monthly active users, which makes it the worlds largest messaging app by leaps and bounds.
More importantly though are the number of messages sent every day on the service. More than 36 billion outbound messages are sent in a day while 18 billion inbound messages are received each day. That equates to 50 billion text messages sent over WhatsApp each and every day. To put that into perspective, that is more messages sent each day than all SMS messages on every carrier world wide in a 24 hour period.
With many of the largest mobile carriers still charging fees for a set amount of text messages every month, WhatsApp is now the biggest competition in the SMS realm for every wireless carrier in the world. Most of my friends as well as almost everyone I know uses WhatsApp on a daily basis, and many who use it as their sole text messaging platform. With growth like this, I feel that there is no stopping WhatsApp and if the company can released a PC version as well, the sky is the limit on how far WhatsApp will go!
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U.S. lawmaker claims Edward Snowden had outside help to steal data
The United States government believes National Security Agency (NSA) whistle blower Edward Snowden possibly received support from the Russian government.
"I don't think Mr. Snowden woke up one day and had the wherewithal to do this all by himself," said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Teaxas), in a recent TV interview. "To say definitively I can't answer that, but I personally believe he was cultivated by a foreign power to do what he did. Again, I can't give a definitive statement on that, but I think given all the evidence I know Mige Rogers has access to, that I've seen, that I don't think he was acting alone."
Snowden has evolved into an enigma since his public data breach last year, as the former CIA technical assistant received a GED and dropped out of a Maryland community college. Described as a "geek," it seems shocking that he would eventually find his way to the U.S. government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton - and would remain there until he quickly left for Hong Kong in 2013.
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MSI begins shipping its new R7 260 1GD5 OC Video Card to US Market
This morning MSI officially announced the release of its mid-grange Radeon R7 260 1GD5 OC video card to the public. The new GPU is a very budget friendly entry into the 4K gaming space, and is equipped with AMD TrueAudio technology for an immersive sound experience like any other.
The R7 260 1GD5 OC video card features a large 100mm fan that provides excellent cooling while keeping the sound levels at a minimum even when gaming. The heat exchange is assisted by dual heat pipes and an over sized heat sink that helps keep frame-rates up. Additionally, the GPU features MSI's exclusive Afterburner technology which supports core voltage adjustment technology and can be overclocked by up to 32.4% using the popular Afterburner overclocking utility. The core frequency can even reach up to 1.35GHz with just air-cooling. Enthusiasts can also use the Afterburner APP on their Android / iOS handheld devices to monitor and overclock their video cards.
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CES 2014 - GIGABYTE's new BRIX devices and Thunderbolt 2 motherboard
CES 2014 - GIGABYTE's marketing director, Colin Brix, took a few moments to walk us through the company's new Brix devices. Up first is the new Brix Pro which features Intel's new Iris Pro Integrated Graphics, and is powerful enough to even run Battlefield 4. The Brix Pro is also Gigabytes official entry into the Steam Machine arena and is Valve approved.
We were also shown a Brix device that is coming out this year that features discrete graphics for more GPU processing power. The unnamed device features both Intel Haswell and AMD processors and will have support for NVIDIA GPUs at a later date. GIGABYTE says that the unnamed device will be perfect for LAN parties, or anywhere you need desktop performance in a small, ultra-portable package.
The last Brix device we got a chance to check out is the new Brix NAS device which is code named Brix MAXX. The device has room for up to four 2.5-inch HDDs or SSDs, and is being billed as a home-sized personal cloud storage device. The Brix NAS supports SMBA, DLNA, as well as other server configurations, and features several RAID features. The Brix NAS is the first Brix device to run Android as its main OS, and features apps for your mobile devices for quick file syncing.
Continue reading: CES 2014 - GIGABYTE's new BRIX devices and Thunderbolt 2 motherboard (full post)
HBO says its OK to share your HBO GO account with friends
In a world where it seems that sharing any form of media with your friends is illegal or against the service's ToS, HBO has stepped up to the plate and said that it is OK to share your HBO Go account with friends and family. In a recent interview with website BuzzFeed, HBO's CEO Richard Plepler went on the record saying that "It's not that we're unmindful of it [ HBO GO Account Sharing ], it just has no impact on the business."
Plepler says that the company sees HBO GO as an added value feature to its Premium Channel cable service and not as an individual product in itself. He went on to say that allowing users to share their HBO Account with friends is a "terrific marketing vehicle for the next generation of viewers," and that it could lead to more HBO subscribers in the future. "HBO Go is value added - what you want to watch," Plepler said, in response to questions about offering HBO Go as a stand alone product. "Right now, that's the right model for us. Are we always thinking about optionality, of course we are always thinking about optionality... if the arithmetic changes and made sense in a different way we are not going to be caught without the ability to pivot."
I take this as a breath of fresh air, and hope that more companies will be open to this kind of thinking, and will lessen their restrictions on account sharing in the future. HBO has the right idea, and if more companies follow suit, we could see a sort of "mini revolution" in the content streaming arena that would lead to more competition and value for the customer in the future.
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MSI unveils new Z87 MPower MAX AC motherboard, features 802.11 ac
Today MSI launched a new variant of its Z87 MPower MAX, the company's flagship LGA1150 motherboard. The new Z87 MPower MAX AC includes an 802.11 ac Wi-Fi interface courtesy of a daughter board that features an Intel communications processor that brings dual-band 802.11 AC Wi-Fi to the popular motherboard.
MSI says that the new Z87 MPower MAX is capable of Wi-Fi speeds up to 867 Mb/s on the 5GHz channel when connected to a compatible router running 802.11 ac. Bluetooth 4.0 is also featured in the new Intel-based daughter board which allows for connectivity of Bluetooth enabled peripherals, accessories and mobile devices. The Z87 MPower MAX AC is a standard ATX form factor motherboard and features all of the same configurations and features of its predecessor, the MSI Z87 MPower MAX which we reviewed last year.
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SanDisk launches industry's first line of ULLtraDIMM SSD's
Today SanDisk became the industry's first manufacturer to launch a line of ultra-low latency, memory channel-based ULLtraDIMM solid state drives. The new SanDisk ULLtraDIMM SSDs are basically SSDs flash memory that has been populated on memory-channel DIMMs to provide as low latency as possible to ensure data gets to the CPU as fast as possible.
"The SanDisk ULLtraDIMM SSD was designed to expand the reach of ultra-low latency flash storage throughout the data center and scale to meet the requirements of any enterprise application, no matter how bandwidth or capacity intensive," said John Scaramuzzo, senior vice president and general manager, Enterprise Storage Solutions at SanDisk. "The ULLtraDIMM SSD's linear performance scalability and innovative DIMM form factor allow organizations to deploy flash as their application requirements change, without requiring significant infrastructure investment."
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Sharp unveils new 15.6-inch tablet with a 3200x1800 resolution screen
Sharp has just announced a new tablet that is destined for the business and professional world, the RW-16G1. Sharp's new slate features a 15.6-inch display, with a 3200x1800 resolution.
The new slate will feature a dual-core Intel Core i5-4200U processor - 1.6GHz/2.6GHz, 3MB of L2 cache, 15W TDP, and Intel HD 4400 graphics. We have 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 128GB SSD, and that gorgeous 15.6-inch display which is based off an IGZO panel. We have Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC for wireless technologies, a 2-megapixel webcam, SD card reader, mini DisplayPort, HDMI, and three USB 3.0 ports.
Sharp's RW-16G1 also features a stylus, accelerometer, gyroscope, geomagnetic sensor, and more. As for its operating system, we have Windows 8.1 Pro, which makes this new, massive, high-res slate like a much better, more expensive Surface Pro 2.
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