Rob Crooke, the Vice President and General Manager of the NVM (Non-Volatile Memory) Solutions Group at Intel, announced the impending release of 3D NAND at Intel's Investor Meeting. Incidentally, the presentation was running on an Intel 3D NAND SSD to demonstrate the progress Intel has already made in integrating their new 3D NAND into a workable device. The launch was a bit light on technical details of the new 3D NAND, but now that images from the presentation are available we are posting more information.

The first Intel SSD was developed in 1992 and featured a whopping 12MB capacity, and continued die shrinks have led to 128Gb dies. The transition to mainstream Intel SSDs began in 2008, and the initial revisions utilized 2D planar NAND. The continued path of NAND development has led to denser designs that sped adoption by lowering the cost per bit. Samsung released the first 3D NAND product in 2014 with 128Gb of density, and Intel's 3D NAND is slated for release in 2015.

Intel helped pioneer the SSD market, and their continued innovation has led to a huge chunk of SSD data center market share. These statistics reflect the current market share of major industry SSD manufacturers. The chart is incomplete and only lists two competitors with NAND fabrication capability. Intel includes the market share of the WD subsidiary HGST in their overall market share numbers due to the HGST and Intel JDA (Joint Development Agreement). The JDA provides Intel NAND to HGST, and in turn HGST collaborates on engineering and manufactures the SAS SSD products.

It looks like console gamers are having fun with the Microsoft Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4, as both next-generation game consoles outpace their predecessors. Since both consoles launched in November 2013, both consoles have a 73 percent higher installation base, than the Xbox 360 and PS3 over the first year of introduction for both consoles.

As the United States economy continues to recover, Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo hope to see gamers spend more on gaming hardware - and new game titles - as hardware companies, game developers, and retailers are finding success.

During its Q3 financial earnings call, GameStop reported new hardware sales rise 147.4 percent, with thanks largely to the Xbox One and PS4. The gaming market is very much alive and well, and with numerous anticipated game launches in 2015, gamers will have plenty of new titles to choose from.

Bandai Namco's Project Cars video game will run at 60 frames per second on the Microsoft Xbox One when it is released on March 17, 2015. Game developer Slightly Mad Studios wanted to reach 1080p resolution for the Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4, but didn't confirm if that goal was reached just yet.

"You've played it in Dubai, London, Madrid, and Paris, but for those that couldn't jet-set around the world, sit back and take a more leisurely look at Project Cars on Xbox One, running at 60 frames per second," according to Bandai Namco.

The game will launch for the Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Wii U, and PC. It was originally scheduled for a November 2014 launch, but was forced to delay the game without specific details offered to gamers.

Acer has launched the 32-inch ultra-high-definition B326HK monitor, aimed at both consumers and business workers. The IPS display has 178 degrees of horizontal and vertical viewing, with connectivity via DVI, HDMI with MHL charging, mini DP, USB 3.0 and DisplayPort. The screen supports a 3840x2160 UHD resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio, and 6ms response time, Acer says.

"Our newest 4K display available in an ergonomic 32-inch model was built for those who want to view games, movies, videos and other graphic intensive content on a big screen," said Ronald Lau, Acer America senior business manager of peripherals. "The UHD resolution delivers incredibly vibrant images with very sharp detail and an adjustable stand makes viewing as comfortable as possible."

The Acer B326HK display is available now with a $999.99 MSRP price tag.

At least 38.6 percent of companies suffered a major IT disruption due to employees visiting non-work related websites and other questionable material on work-owned electronics, leading to malware and other IT issues, according to a survey conducted by GFI Software.

Almost half of employees, 48 percent, report using Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, or some other personal cloud-based solution to store company information - something that isn't necessarily shocking, but a concern for companies trying to keep data secure. If their employment ended, 35.8 percent admitted they would try to save company data, including customer lists and confidential data, despite knowing it is illegal to do so.

"Data protection is a big problem, and one that has been exacerbated by the casual use of cloud file sharing services that can't be centrally managed by IT," said Sergio Galindo, GFI Software general manager. "Content controls are critical in ensuring data does not leak outside the organization and doesn't expose the business to legal and regulatory compliance penalties. Furthermore, it is important that policies and training lay down clear rules on use and reinforce the ownership of data."

Using 3D printing technology to create replicas of the human heart presents the opportunity to save babies' lives, according to a new study submitted to the American Heart Association. Surgeons have the ability to better treat congenital heart defects, while also being able to strategize where they cut tissue and make other improvements.

The ability to 3D print hearts gives surgeons the opportunity to prepare prior to surgery, but it's unsure if heart replicas will help increase success from surgical outcomes. A clinical trial would give medical experts the chance to work on enough cases to see how 3D-printed hearts could help, especially among young children with complicated heart defects.

"From the first two cases straight out of the gate, we've had this dramatic impact," said Dr. Matthew Bramlet, pediatric cardiologist at the University of Illinois College of Medicine and Children's Hospital of Illinois and study co-author.

China is on the short list of countries that have the ability to launch a cyberattack that would be able to shut down the US power grid along with other critical infrastructure, US government officials believe. It would appear these countries already launch reconnaissance probes that have found gaping security holes they can exploit in cyber defenses.

"We see them attempting to steal information on how our systems are configured, the very schematics of most of our control systems, down to engineering level of detail so they can look at where are the vulnerabilities, how are they constructed, how could I get in and defeat them," said Admiral Michael Rogers, NSA head and US Cyber Command head. "We're seeing multiple nation-states invest in those kinds of capabilities."

Beyond China, Admiral Rogers didn't publicly disclose other nation states believed to be sponsoring cyberattacks, though Russia almost certainly is on the list.

Lockheed Martin is promoting its helicopter drone, the K-MAX, as a potential asset to help fight wildfires, helping protect firefighters and pilots. The K-MAX can fly in tandem with the four-pound Indago drone that is used as a fire scout, while the firefighting drone dropped 12 tons of water in one hour.

The K-MAX has the ability to lift and transport up to 6,000 lbs. of cargo while at sea level, or more than 4,000 lbs. while flying at 15,000 ft. density altitude. The helicopter has more than 750 hours of autonomous flight since live testing began in 2007, Lockheed Martin reported.

"The FAA would designate the airspace in the vicinity of the fire area as restricted airspace," said Keith Little, Lockheed spokesman. "We would coordinate with the FAA prior to any actual usage regarding obtaining COA (Certificates of Waiver or Authorization) approval for K-MAX that would allow a quick approval for use of K-Max in support of firefighting operations in the designated restricted area."

Valve has made the 'PC Master Race' proud, sending out an updated set of Early Access rules and guidelines to supported developers earlier this week. This is said to ensure that they 'set proper expectations' of their game when customers decide to utilize this offering.

This announcement has reportedly come around due to users being generally unhappy with Early Access protocols and offerings. It's been claimed that developers have been releasing Early Access games before fans felt they were properly complete or have stopped development on the game all together - meaning Valve had to remove them from their Steam platform. Giant bomb originally released this information to the public which follows an interesting report that claims most Early Access games still function in BETA even after 20 months have passed, alongside this only 25% of games have been fully released.

This seems like not only a way for Valve to ensure customers are happy with the games that they are playing, but for developers to actually carry out the purpose of Steam Early Access which is quoted as by Wikipedia: "Early access, alpha funding, or paid-alpha is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can pay for a game in the early stages of development and obtain access to playable but unfinished versions of the game, while the developer is able to use those funds to continue work on the game."

Dell has launched their latest 4K monitor offerings to the global market, coming in the form of a 23.8-inch P2415Q and a 27-inch P2715Q supported by IPS and TN panels and priced at $599.99 and $699.99 respectively.

As reports claim, besides these two monitors being of different measurements, they're practically the same units. Alongside them both including 99% of the sRGB wide color gamut, they're apparently not using true 10-bit panel technology. Dell have gotten around this by enhancing 8-bit panels instead, enabling them to reach 10.7 billion colors of display.

Both monitors support 60Hz functionality, as opposed to previous dell offerings at a 'cinematic' 30Hz. They also feature a large viewing angle of 178-degrees and a 1000: 1 dynamic ratio supported by a 'fast' 6ms response time. Slight differences come with the 24-inch model providing an 8ms response, on average, alongside its big brother giving the user a 9ms response time most of the time. There's no doubting that these monitors look gorgeous and it's interesting that they don't have true 10-bit displays integrated. One question we have to ask is, when will we be seeing 120Hz and 144Hz integrated into the massive 4K resolution as a standard practice with these high profile releases?