CeBIT 2013 - OCZ have taken the time out of CeBIT to unveil their new Vector PCIe device, a PCIe-based Vector SSD. The new PCIe Vector has improved IOPS performance, which provides the user with superior sustained performance, no matter if the data streamed are compressed, or uncompressed.

The new drive comes on a PCI Express 2.0 x4 interface, which provides it with plenty of bandwidth and on the PCIe Vector itself we find dual Indilinx Barefoot 3 controllers. The PCIe Vector outpaces OCZ's current SATA 3.0-based Vector SSDs and RevoDrive 3 Series, which is really saying something. We're looking at up to 1GB/sec in transfer speeds, and a crazy 140,000 IOPS. The new PCIe Vector includes a huge 5-year warranty, and comes in 240GB, 480GB and 960GB capacities.

The PCIe Vector is bootable as a direct-attach storage device, and has been designed for Windows-based client, and workstation machines. No word on price just yet.

If there's one bit of technology kit I'm the most excited for, it would be a huge tie between Google Glass, and Oculus' Rift VR headset. News is leaking out now that head of DICE's Frostbite creative team, Frank Vitz, is eager to get his hands on Oculus Rift, and test it out on the powerful graphics engine.

All of this started when an MTBS3D (Meant to be Seen) forum member found an intern job posting by EA's DICE, which was looking for someone to work on next-generation VR technology. The job posting specifically talked about investigating and building support into the Frostbite engine for the Oculus Rift headset. MTBS3D president, Neil Schneider, e-mailed Vitz as he thought he might have something to do with the job posting.

He was right, with Vitz admitting so in an e-mail reply. Vitz gave Schneider permission to post the e-mail exchange on his site with details about what DICE would like to do with the Oculus Rift headset. Vitz also said that he has one of the very first Rift developer kits heading to him later this month, and is aware of at least four kits on order within their internal community. Vitz added that there are multiple titles being worked on that would be great for Rift, but noted that it would be up to each individually team to make sure their project works in stereoscopic 3D, and with Oculus' Rift VR headset.

If you're an education customer, or were looking to buy a new Apple iMac for one of your children in school, then now is the time. Apple has updated the pricing on their education-only 21.5-inch iMac, but have also provided beefier internals to go with it.

The 21.5-inch iMac now starts at $1099 - a slight $100 increase on the old price - but gives you an Intel Core i3 dual-core 3.3GHz processor, HD Graphics 4000, 500GB HDD and 4GB of RAM. There's always the option to bump the storage and RAM up, something I would suggest on any system. 8GB of RAM is cheap and your main drive should always be an SSD these days, the performance increase is worth it.

Education customers can begin ordering these new iMacs, with 5-7 business day shipping times at the moment.

Those looking forward to the coming Valve Steam Box, you won't have to wait too much longer. Speaking with the BBC, Gabe Newell has said that they should be giving out some prototype Steam Boxes within three to four months. "We're working with partners trying to nail down how fast we can make it," Newell said.

We'll be giving out some prototypes to customers to gauge their reactions, I guess, in the next three to four months...

There are noise issues and heat issues and being able to [deal with] that while still offering a powerful enough gaming experience is the challenge in building it.

The FAA has said that they are investigating a pilot's claim that he saw a drone flying over Brooklyn in New York. The pilot claims to have seen the drone while on final approach to John F Kennedy Airport. Over the radio, he can be heard saying, "We saw a drone, a drone aircraft."

"The FAA is investigating a report...he saw a small, unmanned or remote-controlled aircraft while on final approach to Runway 31 Right. The sighting was approximately four to five miles west of the airport at an altitude of approximately 1,500 feet," FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said in a statement.

Other aircraft in the area was warned of the drone sighting, but two other pilots said that they did not see the drone. The FAA is working on new rules to allow unmanned aircraft to be flown in US airspace. Generally only governments and public entities, such as police departments, are allowed to operate them. Even they must apply for permission first.

Google has released an update to its Google Maps for iPhone app. The new update brings with it several improvements, with the most important one probably being the improved local search. The new version of the app is promising faster local search through new search icons and integration with Google Contacts.

For faster local search, you can tap one of the new icons for restaurants, coffee shops, bars and other types of places to quickly see nearby haunts. So if you're in a rush and need a quick coffee, just tap the search box, then the coffee cup icon, to see the cafes closest to you.

Other minor improvements include the addition of an English language version for Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and UAE. As part of this globalization, the app now allows you to select between miles and kilometers in the settings menu. This way you can use the units most familiar to you.

A new report by Fortune says that YouTube is working on a music streaming service that will compete directly with competitors such as Spotify. YouTube has long been a source of music, both legally and illegally, so a streaming service is not too far out of the norm for the site.

The current model relies on advertising revenue generated from showing ads during music videos. A portion of this ad revenue is shared with the label or content owner. A new service would likely continue to rely on these advertisements to offer a free service, though a premium service would likely be offered with an ad-free experience.

Fortune cites sources in both the record industry and Google. YouTube's spokesperson said:

During this week's Microsoft TechForum, Craig Mundie, a senior advisor for Microsoft, said that the company is looking to take the Kinect to new heights including TV's and laptops. "My dream is to get a Kinect into the bezel of something like this", as he pointed to a Surface tablet.

The company was showing off a bulky, but very large display that featured a Kinect built into its bezel at its recently opened "Envisioning Center" along with many more Kinect integrated screens. The Kinect's being shown off were much smaller than the current model, but no one would comment on if they are version 2.0 or not.

Before you can expect to see a Kinect in your ultra-thin smart TV, or even in your laptop or desktop monitor, things will have to get much smaller and some new technology will have to be created. The Kinect sensor does not work in daylight. "It turns out it's infrared so when you go out in the sunlight the sun is a big infrared source that drowns it out," Mundie explains. "There's a whole bunch of problems, not just miniaturization, in designing the sensors so they actually do what you expect them to do in all of the environments."

CeBIT 2013 - We are still three months out from Intel's Haswell line of processors hitting retail shelves, but that is not stopping ASRock from unveiling four new LGA1150 motherboards.

The high-end ASRock Z87 Extreme6 is a standard sized ATX motherboard that is equipped with gold capacitors, can support dual channel DDR3 RAM up to 1600MHz, and features two PCI-Express 3.0 slots. It sports 14 USB ports of which six are USB 3.0, 8 SATA 6Gb ports and DVI, D-Sub, HDMI and Display Port.

The Z87 Pro4-M is a MicroATX board that features 100% solid capacitors, one PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, support for AMD CrossfireX, multiple monitor support through built in display connectors, and 12 USB ports (six USB 3.0) The Pro4-M also includes six SATA 6Gb ports.

Opera has released a completely redesigned version of its web browser that runs on Android, and is being billed by the company as "the best browser on Android." Opera says that they started from scratch to bring a fully native web browsing experience to your Android based smartphone.

Opera says that the new browser brings forth a new way to browse the web that is more elegant and efficient. The new Discover feature provides a panel in which you can read popular articles from the web based on your interest. Another new feature is "Speed Dial", a service that is similar to a bookmark folder, but streamlines the process of organizing favorited websites.

Like similar browsers, the search and URL bar are now combined, tabbed browsing is present, and users are able to save websites to their phone for viewing when not connected to a data source. Browsing history has also been simplified making it easy for the end-user to quickly find and revisit previously viewed sites.