NVIDIA shield receives Android Lollipop update to great success

Chris Smith | Software & Apps | Dec 27, 2014 7:07 AM CST

NVIDIA was one of the first companies to roll-out Android's 5.0.1 Lollipop Operating System to their devices, seeing this widely-acclaimed update work flawlessly on NVIDIA's tablet offering.

Said to focus on adding new features to the Android platform, with NVIDIA adding in a few extra's of their own to increase the updates potency, as per their usual practice.

Seeing their Camera Awesome App updated to include new FX features said to take advantage of the Tegra K1 chip on offer (for acceleration of live and preview recording), NVIDIA also brought back their acclaimed SHIELD power control menu. The feature is designed to help you pick your processor modes, including things such as Custom Battery Saver, Optimized and Max Performance, alongside giving you the ability to enable an auto-shutdown of your device.

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Tesla Roadster 3.0 package announced with a claimed 400+ mile range

Chris Smith | Business, Financial & Legal | Dec 27, 2014 6:03 AM CST

The latest Tesla model upgrade has been announced, with the Roaster 3.0 package boasting an impressive 400 mile range - seeing a 31 percent increase in battery capacity when compared to it's older brothers 52 kWh lithium-ion offering.

This 70 kWh battery package takes up the same amount of room as the older model, providing "more potent" lithium-ion cells for use. This improved and extended battery also includes an improved aero body-kit, enabling this futuristic vehicle to travel along at a more efficient rate and reducing its drag coefficient from 0.36 to 0.31, meaning a 15 percent improvement has been made.

The last improvement following this massive 40 to 50 percent increase in driving range is a 20 percent decrease in rolling resistance, to further help drive in efficiency.

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Lizard Squad stop DDoS of PSN and Xbox Live thanks to Kim Dotcom

Chris Smith | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Dec 27, 2014 4:29 AM CST

Thanks to the "Lizard Squad", many bright-eyed youngsters were left out of luck - being unable to connect their new Santa-given PlayStation's and XBOX's to their respective online gaming and content networks.

This group of hackers targeted both of these large-scale online mediums on the 25th of December, seeing Kim Dotcom come in as some kind of savior - offering them 3,000 lifetime premium Mega accounts worth $99 each in return for PSN and XBOX Live's safety. The squad accepted, stopping the DDoS atacks instantly, vowing never to return.

According to a Twitter post, this deal is only made true if "they don't attack Xbox Live & PSN again. #ThatsTheDeal," in the words of Dotcom himself.

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Experts claim SSD's to out-price HDD's in 2016 and beyond

Chris Smith | Storage | Dec 27, 2014 3:44 AM CST

According to a publication by Wikibon, "Flash will become a lower cost media than disk for almost all storage in 2016." This will mark a new era in today's digital age - seeing faster storage capacities become mainstream.

Do you remember when you first installed your SSD? Something under 25 seconds to completely re-boot your system was simply unheard of in HDD-only days, seeing you often click that restart button and adventure out to the kitchen to grab a drink or a snack. Well now according to Wikibon, we're only a couple of years off seeing flash memory price-match or even become cheaper than hard disk technology for always-on enterprise applications.

The main limitation of flash memory in this day and age is the price per GB on offer. For sub-$100 you can now easily purchase a 2TB data drive to store all of your photos, home videos and various backup data - this is compared to a hefty price tag of $3,301 for a comparable SSD offering from SanDisk.

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Kodak will unveil an Android-powered smartphone at CES 2015

CES 2015: Kodak will reportedly be showing off its new Android-powered smartphone at CES 2015 next week, as part of the companies new plans for 2015 and beyond. These new plans will kick off with the launch of a new smartphone, but we don't know what to expect, at all.

Kodak's CEO, Oliver Schulte, has said that the company has taken its heritage and used it to inspire a range of beautifully designed devices that will allow their suers to take great pictures, and then edit, share, store and print them in an instant. This has me hoping for some kind of amazing Polaroid Phone... or am I dreaming?

The company says that it will not be manufacturing the handset, as this will be in the hands of Bullitt Group, who has been tasked at making rugged handsets for construction company Caterpillar. Kodak adds that it will not be compromising on design and the users experience, with its unnamed handset aimed at those who are after a high-end experience, without a complicated interface. The smartphone itself will be shipping with an advanced remote management application pre-installed, so if users need to get help from family and friends, it's super easy to do so.

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LG and Mercedes working together on semi-autonomous vehicles

Anthony Garreffa | Electric Vehicles & Cars | Dec 26, 2014 8:39 PM CST

CES 2015 is going to be a year to remember for technology and vehicles, with Mercedes-Benz set to show off its plans for a self-driving vehicle, and so much more. We should know more during their keynote speech, with a super cool prototype to be shown off at the show in Las Vegas.

LG has also revealed that it will be supplying Mercedes with the mono and stereo camera systems, cameras that will be used to keep these cars in their lanes, dim the headlights, brake autonomously, and detect pedestrians or cyclists on or near the road. LG will also be providing biometric systems that will monitor drivers' eye movements and alertness, as well as its mobile and home entertainment expertise.

Merdeces will be providing LG with a license to its 6D Vision self-driving technology, so that LG can share it with other automakers.

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Over 750,000 people pirated The Interview in the first 24 hours

Anthony Garreffa | Celebrities & Entertainment | Dec 26, 2014 6:39 PM CST

There has never been a movie we've reported on so much, but we simply have to continue. The Interview was downloaded over 750,000 times in the first 20 hours of release, according to TorrentFreak.

With Sony Pictures cancelling the theatrical release of the James Franco and Seth Rogen comedy, after being threatened with terrorist attacks by the hackers, Sony Pictures eventually released the movie in a limited release on Christmas Day. The day before, Sony pushed the film out to rent or own on YouTube, Google Play and Xbox Video, as well as their own website, SeeTheInterview.com.

Within the first 20 hours, TorrenFreak estimates that there were over 750,000 illegal downloads of The Interview. The site says that one of the driving forces of people downloading the movie is that Sony failed to give international audiences access to see the movie, as it was only available in the United States.

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Iran plans to expand its 'smart filtering' for Internet users

Michael Hatamoto | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Dec 26, 2014 4:41 PM CST

The Iranian government will move ahead with an effort to use "smart filtering" of the Internet for Iranian users, with "undesirable" content censored - Iran has some of the strictest regulation and controls of the Internet, with many foreign websites blocked.

Despite Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other populations blocked, a growing number of Iranian users access these websites with virtual private networks (VPNs). However, Tehran wants to filter the content, hoping it's a more effective method of preventing some blocked content - and President Hassan Rouhani previously promised to begin opening up technology access.

"Presently, the smart filtering plan is implemented only on one social network in its pilot study phase and this will process will continue gradually until the plan is implemented on all networks," said Mahmoud Vaezi, Iranian Communications Minister, in a statement to the IRNA news agency.

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Despite Kim Dotcom intervention, gaming networks still struggling

Michael Hatamoto | Gaming | Dec 26, 2014 1:56 PM CST

The misery for console gamers stretched into a second day, following a suspected distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack launched by the Lizard Squad hacking group. Microsoft Xbox Live is working, sort of, with some gaming functionality still limited - and Sony PlayStation's online service is still reportedly down.

As frustration continues to mount, especially towards Sony, it would appear the Lizard Squad's efforts to disrupt Christmas - with millions of console gamers expected to boot up their Xbox One or PS4 consoles for the first time, or load new games - was a success for the hacker group.

Despite Kim Dotcom providing lifetime vouchers to his MegaPrivacy cloud storage service to Lizard Squad members, Microsoft and Sony still struggled to resolve network problems following the DDoS attacks.

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Report: North Korea's Bureau 121 scarier than previously thought

Michael Hatamoto | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Dec 26, 2014 12:41 PM CST

The North Korean government has steadily increased capabilities of its secretive Bureau 121 cyberespionage unit, but very little is known about how it operates. A North Korean defector recently shed light on the division of specialized "cyber warriors," with specific training of programming languages, operating systems research, and IT network security vulnerabilities.

By the time hackers are officially hired by Bureau, some candidates have almost nine years of training, according to Jang Se-yul, a graduate of the top North Korean engineering college. Bureau 121 cybercriminals - and their families - are moved to Pyongyang and become among the country's top 1 percent, including a high salary, free apartment, and free Internet access.

The US and other western nations are focused more on limiting cyberespionage, especially from North Korea, Iran, China and Russia - but the cybercriminals have had a step up on us for quite some time. North Korea understands it wouldn't be able to win a conventional war against political rivals, but is able to cause chaos using their hacker branch.

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