Autonomous vehicle evolution could lead to even longer commute travel

Michael Hatamoto | Electric Vehicles & Cars | May 19, 2015 10:25 PM CDT

Autonomous vehicles will seemingly take over the open road one day, but no one is really sure when that will begin. However, passengers will no longer have to worry about fighting gridlock traffic, it's possible commute distances to and from work will increase.

The free time will allow passengers to get work done, play on social media, or just relax while they commute - and it's possible travel distances could reach around 180 miles each way, according to recent predictions. For example, someone with an autonomous vehicle could leave their home in Vermont at 7:30 AM and arrive at a midtown Manhattan office at 9:00 AM, depending on the road infrastructure for autonomous vehicles.

Autonomous vehicles could change all of that in the coming years: Current standards indicate most people live about 30 minutes away from where they work, regardless of how they travel to and from the office.

Continue reading: Autonomous vehicle evolution could lead to even longer commute travel (full post)

AMD Radeon R9 390X to include 4GB of HBM, with a reported MSRP of $849

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | May 19, 2015 9:46 PM CDT

According to the latest rumors, we should expect the Radeon R9 390X to launch with 4GB of HBM, while a dual-GPU version of the Fiji XT-based card will arrive with 8GB of HBM. For those who have been keeping up, this is a very, very interesting move, if the rumors are true. If you want to catch up on how revolutionary HBM will be, we wrote a detailed piece on High Bandwidth Memory yesterday.

Fudzilla is reporting from "insider sources" that AMD will launch the Radeon R9 390X with 4GB of HBM for an MSRP of around $849, while the dual-GPU version of the card, which should arrive as the Radeon R9 395X2, will include 8GB of HBM. The Radeon R9 395X2 (that's what we're calling it for now, this could change at any moment) should arrive sometime later in the year, or 2016 - depending on HBM yields, I'd say.

The sources stated that AMD had plans to launch the Radeon R9 390X with a price of $799, but this is no longer the case. The sources also added that the R9 390X will be competing directly against the NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X, which launched at $999 and is still around the $999 mark on Amazon still. According to Fudzilla's sources, the HBM-powered Radeon R9 390X will win in some benchmarks, and lose in others against the GDDR5-based Titan X.

Continue reading: AMD Radeon R9 390X to include 4GB of HBM, with a reported MSRP of $849 (full post)

LG shows off 55-inch wallpaper OLED panel, just 0.97mm thick

Anthony Garreffa | Displays & Projectors | May 19, 2015 9:40 PM CDT

Whatever TV you own right now, it's not as thin as LG's latest 55-inch wallpaper OLED panel, something the company just presented at its media event.

The new TV is just 0.97mm thick, weighs only 1.9kg and can be placed onto, and pulled down from a wall with a magnetic mat. LG's latest wallpaper TV is much thinner than its existing 55-inch OLED panel, which is 4.3mm, considerably thicker than LG's latest model.

LG also took some time during its media event to showcase a new convex OLED panel that can be used for digital signage for large-scaling outdoor advertising. The South Korean electronics giant has also pushed for production of the OLED as its next big thing, with the advanced display shrinking TVs down, while making them lighter, as it "emits light itself based on the electric current without a backlight unit, unlike the liquid crystal display (LCD)", reports The Korea Times.

Continue reading: LG shows off 55-inch wallpaper OLED panel, just 0.97mm thick (full post)

Swiss researchers develop pocket-sized, origami-inspired drone

Michael Hatamoto | Drones | May 19, 2015 8:25 PM CDT

Researchers are working on a new drone that is able to automatically unfold itself and quickly go airborne, with the compact and foldable drone ideally suited for emergency first response. The custom quadcopter drone is able to launch in less than one second, and is easily transportable since it's the size of the palm of your hand.

The current prototype has to be folded up by hand - taking less than 10 seconds with a skilled operator - but an auto-fold feature is in development. The drone weighs just 1.3 ounces, so first responders at a natural disaster site could launch a number of these small aircraft to help survey a site.

"You can take it out of the box, switch on the motor, and it's ready to fly," said Dr. Stefano Mintchev, professor of robotics at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, in a statement to LiveScience.

Continue reading: Swiss researchers develop pocket-sized, origami-inspired drone (full post)

Energy drink companies turning to gamers to help boost sales

Michael Hatamoto | Gaming | May 19, 2015 7:35 PM CDT

It's no secret that PC and console gamers tend to love energy drinks, guzzling the highly caffeinated drinks to extend gaming sessions. Traditional energy drinks are under increased scrutiny due to deaths and medical issues suffered by binge-drinking the sugary and caffeinated drinks - with some companies releasing what they say are healthier alternatives.

Products such as GungHo and G Fuel, designed as "gamer drinks," promote being sugar-free with increased levels of vitamins - a rare alternative over traditional energy drinks.

"Sales of caffeinated energy drinks have grown dramatically without adequate consideration of the cumulative intake of caffeine by teens and adolescents and, due to the law governing food additives, without any premarket review by FDA," said Michael Taylor, deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine at the FDA.

Continue reading: Energy drink companies turning to gamers to help boost sales (full post)

Oculus teases 'Step into the Rift' event for June 11 in San Francisco

With E3 2015 just a month away now, Oculus VR has just announced a new "Step into the Rift" event for June 11 in San Francisco, where we should be introduced to the first consumer version of the Oculus Rift, CV1.

Last week we found out the recommended requirements to run the Oculus Rift, where you'll need a mid-range or better video card, and a semi-decent but not over-the-top PC to run CV1. Road to VR reports that they've "received confirmation" that the Oculus Rift CV1 runs 2160x1200 at 90Hz split over two displays, pushing a huge 233 million pixels per second.

Some might remember the tag that Palmer Luckey used during the Kickstarter for the Oculus Rift, which was "Step into the Game". This new "Step into the Rift" tease is a nice throwback to the Kickstarter campaign, as we are about to learn about CV1. The unveiling of Rift CV1 is big enough that it needs its own event, so that it won't get lost in the sea of announcements during E3 2015, which runs between June 16-18.

Continue reading: Oculus teases 'Step into the Rift' event for June 11 in San Francisco (full post)

Exclusive: Razer changes up RazerStore give aways due to public outcry

Chris Smith | Peripherals | May 19, 2015 3:55 PM CDT

After the RazerStore grand opening in the Syntrend Mall in Taipei was shut down due to overcrowding and safety concerns, Razer announced a change in their give away policy for upcoming days, stating that members of the public should come dressed in Razer promotional gear or products in order to win further free things.

Exclusive: Razer changes up RazerStore give aways due to public outcry

A person with information on the matter and who was present on the initial release day spoke to us about their account of what happened, claiming that the reason Razer changed up this policy was not only to entice users to proudly display their Razer logo to the rest of the audience, but because many of the over-crowding issues derived from non-gamers and people not interested in the company, but random members of the public of whom wished to score a free treat.

Due to this being no where near part of their target audience, after the shut down Razer re-focused their plan and announced that "the Razer community team on location plans to issue swag on a discretionary basis, honoring fans who come equipped with Razer gear, such as Razer Kraken headphones, shirts, bags and the likes" as seen in the latest issued press release.

Continue reading: Exclusive: Razer changes up RazerStore give aways due to public outcry (full post)

New Razer Taiwan store opening shut down due to massive crowds

Chris Smith | Peripherals | May 19, 2015 3:21 PM CDT

Thanks to Razer's massive fan-base, hundreds of fans flocked to the opening of the RazerStore in the Syntrend Mall in Taipei, Taiwan. Due to so many people turning up, the mall management ordered Razer to suspend its launch activities including give-aways of promotional materials and some peripherals.

In order to appease fans, Razer has offered free Nabu X wearables to the first 250 attendees of each day on the 16th and 17th of May, announcing that the store will be open at normal business hours from 11am until 10pm on these days.

In the future fans can also enter in the running to win special promotional bags if they attend this event wearing Razer merchandising or products on their person while special events are taking place.

Continue reading: New Razer Taiwan store opening shut down due to massive crowds (full post)

ASUS shows off the powerful ZenBook Pro UX501 with an NVIDIA GTX 960M

Chris Smith | Laptops | May 19, 2015 2:31 PM CDT

Alongside showcasing its new flagship ZenFone 2 smartphone and the ultra-portable world's thinnest ZenBook UX305 in Manhattan recently, ASUS CEO Jonney Shih also talked about the powerful ZenBook Pro UX501.

Packing an NVIDIA GTX 960M video card and backed by an Intel Core i7-4720HQ processor, this laptop contains a massive 16GB of RAM and supports 4K/UHD video playback. Marketed with 3D rendering and gaming in mind, the 15.6-inch touch display allows you to play away at a 3860 x 2160 resolution coupled with an 178-degree viewing angle.

Offering a PCI-E SSD up to 512GB in capacity, ASUS claim this to be the world's fastest, boasting read and write speeds of up to 1400MB/s - listed as twice as fast as competing PCI-E x2 models.

Continue reading: ASUS shows off the powerful ZenBook Pro UX501 with an NVIDIA GTX 960M (full post)

ASUS shows off its new world's slimmest ZenBook, the UX305

Chris Smith | Laptops | May 19, 2015 1:22 PM CDT

If you're interested in something light, small and portable to take along on business trips of for pleasure, ASUS showcased its new ZenBook UX305 alongside the ZenFone 2 extravaganza recently in Manhattan.

Featuring a 13.3-inch QHD+ screen, an Intel Core M processor, 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD to round it all off, ASUS claims this model weighs in at only 2.64lbs and measures just 0.48 inches thick.

The IPS multi-touch display will run at 3200 x 1800 pixels and supports wide viewing angles which compliments the three SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports, a bundled USB-to-Ethernet adapter and a mini DisplayPort-to-VGA adapter all located in the overall package.

Continue reading: ASUS shows off its new world's slimmest ZenBook, the UX305 (full post)

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