Lenovo teases Yoga 3 Pro on its website, says 'Shhh. Can't talk now'

Anthony Garreffa | Laptops | Oct 5, 2014 8:14 AM CDT

Sitting here, I was watching an episode of Under the Dome when I had a random thought about my Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro, and when the Yoga 3 Pro was coming. I decided to Google it, and noticed that Lenovo had a listing on its website, going as far as listing the Yoga 3 Pro, but it hitting a 404 error.

This set me off on some digging, with some sources stating that the upcoming Yoga 3 Pro will feature Intel's new Core M processor, and most of the same specifications of the already impressive Y2P. We should see 8GB of RAM, varying SSD sizes, and the beautiful 13.3-inch 3200x1800 IPS display.

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New HTC Desire rumored to feature 13-megapixel front-facing camera

We know that HTC is preparing to unveil new smartphones, and maybe an action camera, on October 8 - just days away. But now there is a leak that is showing off HTC's purported new smartphone, the Desire Eye, which features a massive 13-megapixel front-facing camera.

Desire Eye is mostly a mid-range handset, with a 5.2-inch 1080p display, quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of on-board flash storage. What makes it unique, is that Desire Eye will reportedly feature a 13-megapixel cameras on both the front, and rear of the device. HTC should unveil the Desire Eye in a couple of days time at its "Double Exposure" event.

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Sniper Elite 3 updated, now includes support for AMD's Mantle API

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Oct 5, 2014 2:41 AM CDT

Rebellion has just updated Sniper Elite 3, with the game now joining the ranks of AMD's Mantle compatible games. The Head of Programming at Rebellion, Kevin Floyer-Lea explained that switching to a different API, is important not only for the gaming industry, but gamers, too.

Sniper Elite 3 runs on the Asura engine, with Rebellion having to find a way to bake Mantle support in with the assets the developer had made for the DirectX version of the game. With Asura being a cross-platform title, it was easier than some engines, but a big task nonetheless. The Mantle-powered version of Sniper Elite 3 lowers the CPU overhead, thanks to more efficient calls within the Mantle API. You can see in the image below, that the Mantle version of the game uses less CPU power, but also provides increased FPS.

We can see that using the Intel Core i7 3770K processor at stock speeds (3.5GHz), the DirectX 11 version of the game uses 23% of the 8 available threads, and provides 88FPS. The Mantle version of the game on the other hand, uses 21% CPU - 2% less than DX11 - and provides 100FPS, just over 10% added performance. Not bad, considering its free performance for Radeon users.

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Vertu offers up its mid-tier Aster smartphone, priced at $6,900

For those out there with much more money to splash on a new smartphone, Vertu has just unveiled its new Aster smartphone, a mid-tier, titanium-built, Android-powered smartphone with a whopping $6,900 price tag.

What do you get for close to $7,000? A 4.7-inch 1080p display, 5.1-inch 117-carat sapphire screen, 2.3GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 chip, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera and 2.1-megapixel front facer, with the rear-facing snapper certified by Hasselblad, the company who had its technology in the cameras in the 1969 Moon landing.

64GB of internal flash storage, a 2,275mAh battery, front stereo speakers, NFC, Qi wireless charging, and LTE also make the cut. Vertu's CEO said: "Vertu is not here to follow general mass market mobile trends; our technology is leading edge but it doesn't have to be bleeding edge. The same goes for the physical design of Vertu products. The nature of our customers and of our products mean that we have to develop what is right for them, not follow generic broader industry design themes that may be more fleeting than those of the luxury market". The CEO added: "Many of our customers desire and appreciate compact size Vertu products that comfortably fit the inside the pocket of a well-tailored suit or in an expensive clutch bag".

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India teams up with the United States for the exploration of Mars

With Mars being orbited by India's satellite Mangalyaan, it has spurred scientists back here on Earth for their next mission, with NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) signing a new agreement to work together on the future exploration of Mars.

The two space agencies also agreed to collaborate on observations and scientific analysis from their respective satellites that are orbiting Mars. With India now the first Asian nation to research to reach Mars, and the only country in the world that succeeded on its first attempt. NASA has its own Maven satellite that entered Mars' orbit two days before Mangalyaan arrived, with Maven the first spacecraft to explore the upper atmosphere of Mars, and Mangalyaan studying the surface of the planet, in search for evidence of methane, and more.

NASA spent north of $740 million on its latest journey to Mars, with India spending just a tenth of that, at a cost of $74 million. Analysts have said that this puts India directly into the big league when it comes to space, nudging out China and Japan in space exploration in one small step for the country. So far, Chinese and Japanese missions to orbit Mars have failed. In six more years, the two space agencies hope to launch NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, or NISAR. NISAR will observe the Earth, measuring changes in our land surface. NASA said in a statement: "Nisar will improve our understanding of key impacts of climate change and advance our knowledge of natural hazards".

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Google tried to acquire Cyanogen, refused, now seeks $1bn valuation

Anthony Garreffa | Business, Financial & Legal | Oct 3, 2014 6:57 AM CDT

Just weeks out from Google's unveiling of the 5.9-inch Nexus 6 smartphone, the NVIDIA Tegra K1-powered Nexus 9 tablet and Android L, the company has reportedly met with the executives of Cyanogen Inc. to talk about an acquisition, which Cyanogen denied.

Cyanogen is now talking of a Series C round of funding, with some large tech companies and investors in deep talks with the company, which seeks a valuation of close to $1 billion. How can a company who makes a modified version of Android be worth that much money? Simple: Cyanogen is reportedly in talks with taking its CyanogenMod OS to India through a manufacturer called Micromax. Micromax, along with Samsung, own the majority of the smartphone market in India, which could be just what Cyanogen needs to get its OS into the hands of tens of millions of consumers.

With Google being denied the chance to acquire Cyanogen, it could mean a different direction for Android, considering many experts prefer CyanogenMod even over stock Android, which is what Google places on its Nexus devices. With the Android Silver program in trouble, and a failed acquisition of a company that heavily modifies, and sometimes for the better your mobile OS, where will Google go now if it had its hopes on this acquisition going through?

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Shadow of Mordor provides 6GB Ultra HD texture pack for PC

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Oct 3, 2014 5:07 AM CDT

Monolith's new Shadow of Mordor is pushing PCs a little harder in the graphics department, but the effects are good enough to require a 3.7GB download of the games Ultra HD texture pack. This texture packs increases the in-game graphics with higher resolution textures, recommended only for GPUs with 6GB of VRAM, like NVIDIA's GeForce GTX Titan.

But as it stands, there is an issue with the texture pack, as users are reporting that even with the Ultra preset for textures enabled, the game still runs on High quality. There aren't many GPUs on the market with 6GB of VRAM (or more) on them, apart from a select group of Radeon HD 7970s and R9 290Xs, and a couple of NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 780 and 780 Ti, apart from the company's higher-end GTX Titan series.

The game has a built-in benchmark which is easy for comparing your system against friends, and to see the averages, etc increase with an upgrade to your system. We will have benchmarks using Shadow or Mordor shortly, so check back over the weekend.

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Lost creator says the show isn't done yet, a return is 'inevitable'

Anthony Garreffa | Celebrities & Entertainment | Oct 3, 2014 3:30 AM CDT

It has been ten years since Lost premiered, and with the controversial finale four years ago, the Executive Producer behind the show has said that the return of Lost is simply, in the words of Agent Smith, "inevitable".

Carton Cuse talked with Digital Spy, where he said: "Disney owns the franchise, it made them a lot of money, it's hard to imagine it will just sit there idly forever. Damon (Lindelof) and I told our story in that world and I assume someone will come along, hopefully having been inspired by our story, or our version of the story, and want to tell their own story".

"It's like the Narnia chronicles. There are seven books, they were all written by CS Lewis, but they all visit Narnia at different times and different configurations and different ways", he continued. Cuse added: "Someone is going to come up with a way to tell another Lost story. I think it's inevitable. I don't know what it is or how it would work, but I can't imagine something else won't be done with the franchise".

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Apple's upcoming A9 processor to be made by Samsung on 14nm

Now that the new iPhones are here, the talk about the next iPhone has begun. Samsung is reportedly being tapped by Apple to make its A9 processor, the successor to the A8 found in the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

Samsung is expected to use its 14nm process, which the company should surely handle since it made 30% of all A8 processors, sharing manufacturing work with TSMC. Samsung is offering up Apple's next processor built on 14nm FinFet technology, which should provide 15% smaller space compared to the current 20nm, as well as providing 20% more power, and 35% more power efficiency.

We should hear more about the A9 processor soon, but who would be surprised with a new iPhone announcement in the next six months?

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Tesla's next car will 'probably be 90 percent capable of autopilot'

Anthony Garreffa | Electric Vehicles & Cars | Oct 2, 2014 7:47 PM CDT

Most are expecting self-driving cars to be something real before the end of the decade, but 2020 is too far away for Tesla. During a recent interview with CNNMoney, Tesla Motors' boss and real-life Tony Stark, Elon Musk, has teased that an autonomous car from the company is only months away from retail.

Musk said: "Autonomous cars will definitely be a reality. A Tesla car next year will probably be 90 percent capable of autopilot. Like, so 90 percent of your miles can be on auto. For sure highway travel. How's that going to happen? With a combination of various sensors. You combine cameras with image recognition with radar and long-range ultrasonics, that'll do it. Other car companies will follow. But you guys are going to be the leader? Of course. I mean, Tesla's a Silicon Valley company. If we're not the leader, shame on us".

Tesla Motors has an announcement ready for October 9, inviting media and promising to unveil "the D and something else". A self-driving car is a total surprise at this point, and could be the catalyst Tesla requires to become the undisputed new big thing in vehicles not only in the US, but the world. Cheap to run, high-quality, safe, autonomous cars? Sure, they might be expensive at first, but with the new Gigafactory, we could be looking at cheaper, mid-range autonomous cars being the norm by 2020, instead of the first one rolling off the production line.

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