South Park: The Stick of Truth censored on consoles, but not on PC

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Feb 26, 2014 9:24 AM CST

We know that South Park can be crude, but just how far will Trey Parker and Matt Stone push South Park: The Stick of Truth? The answer is pretty far, at least on consoles where it had to be censored in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with the PC version of the game completely uncut.

For those in the US, you'll receive the full frontal version including swearing, poop jokes, and much more. The censored scenes from the consoles include:

The reasoning behind this is from Ubisoft, which says it is simply a "market decision". The consoles' censored parts will be replaced with some words from Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

Continue reading: South Park: The Stick of Truth censored on consoles, but not on PC (full post)

Another iOS security flaw found, allows apps to track your keystrokes

Roshan Ashraf Shaikh | Software & Apps | Feb 26, 2014 8:10 AM CST

Just a day after releasing a fix for authenticating SSL certificates, there's another security flaw found in iOS that's equally dangerous. It was recently found that iOS allows a malicious apps to keep a track on your keystrokes.

This flaw was found by a security firm called FirmEye. To prove that this flaw exists, the security firm uploaded a dummy app in Apple's app store. The dummy app was able to record touch and keystrokes when changing wallpaper, pressing buttons like home, volume up/down and TouchID buttons. The app then sent the records to a remote server. According to the security company, attackers can use these information for reconstructing every character that the victim uses to access any types of accounts.

It was also pointed out via FireEye's blog post that this exploit works even with the latest apple devices with iOS 7.0.4 non-jailbroken. It was also being found that the same vulnerability was in 6.1.x, 7.0.5 and 7.0.6 versions.

Continue reading: Another iOS security flaw found, allows apps to track your keystrokes (full post)

AMD releases Catalyst 14.2 BETA 1.3 Driver

Roshan Ashraf Shaikh | Video Cards & GPUs | Feb 26, 2014 7:43 AM CST

AMD releases catalyst 14.2 BETA 1.3 for 32 and 64 bit version of Windows 7, 8 and 8.1. The BETA drivers provide performance improvements and updates. The updates are available for AMD Radeon with discrete and APU- desktop and notebooks.

The updates contain series of fixes and updates such as crossfire profile updates and performance improvements for GPU configuration with Thief and even fixing frame pacing for dual video card support and non-XDMA configuration for screen resolutions above 2560 x 1600 for Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4.

There are only couple of known issues found in this BETA driver, such as the inability to render the right eye with Crossfire and Stereo 3D enabled on Thief.

Continue reading: AMD releases Catalyst 14.2 BETA 1.3 Driver (full post)

MasterCard wants to use your phones location for security

Anthony Garreffa | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Feb 26, 2014 4:25 AM CST

Let's face it, whenever you're shopping and using your credit card, you'll have your smartphone on you, too. Well, now MasterCard is working with network company Syniverse in order to reduce fraud when using your credit cards overseas.

The companies are working on tying your credit card to your smartphone, so that the card is only capable of working when your smartphone is near. Hany Fam, president of global strategic alliances at MasterCard explains: "There have been many attempts to help prevent credit card fraud, but this is the first solution that works globally and without the need for new devices or infrastructure".

If you end up using this new system, you won't feel it in everyday use. Your smartphone will just need to be turned on and kept with you. Syniverse acts on the phone operator's side of things, interconnecting between different networks reaching more than 5 billion mobile devices globally. The company is capable of locating users' phones on their signal alone, without mobile data being enabled, or used.

Continue reading: MasterCard wants to use your phones location for security (full post)

Nexenta continues to storm the market with SDS solutions

Kalen Kimm | IT/Datacenter & Super Computing | Feb 26, 2014 2:03 AM CST

Nexenta has quietly accumulated a significant customer base of more than 5,000 users and nearly one exabyte of storage installed. Continuing upon that success, Nexenta announced today the upcoming release of NexentaStor 4.0 in Q2 2014 that will bring enhancements to failover time and overall reduced latencies. In addition to improved performance, Nexenta has put forth an effort into improving its out of box experience by simplifying installation and management with wizards and advanced monitoring tools.

While solutions around "software defined" networks, storage, and data centers are relatively nascent, Nexenta is staking its claim early on by partnering with industry leading system integrators. As an existing premier reseller partner for Nexenta, Eva Cherry, CEO and President of Silicon Mechanics says,

"Silicon Mechanics' strong partnership with Nexenta has been instrumental in helping customers realize the benefits of Software Defined Storage with an innovative product that improves performance and reliability...we are excited about how the enhancements in NexentaStor 4.0 will continue to help customers address the challenges inherent in big storage."

Continue reading: Nexenta continues to storm the market with SDS solutions (full post)

Titanfall on PC will use a titanic amount of HDD space: 48GB

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Feb 26, 2014 12:27 AM CST

If you thought Max Payne 3 had a mammoth installation on PC, prepare yourself for Titanfall. Respawn Entertainment's mech-based first-person shooter will see an installation of 48GB.

Compared to Call of Duty: Ghosts which took up 40GB of HDD space, Titanfall really takes the cake here. Titanfall's minimum system requirements have also been released, which are pretty moderate:

OS: 64-bit Windows 7, 8, 8.1

Continue reading: Titanfall on PC will use a titanic amount of HDD space: 48GB (full post)

Broadcom introduces 5G Wi-Fi 2x2 MiMO combo chips for smartphones

Broadcom introduces BCM435 SOC which is the first 5G Wi-Fi (802.11ac) 2x2 Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) SOC for smartphones. This will allow manufacturers to provide twice the Wi-Fi performance of a single MIMO enabled devices while improving the power efficiency of up to 25% while using wireless applications.

This chip also supports Rezence wireless technology which is developed by the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP). This chip will work for Android, Windows and Chrome based systems. It was reported earlier that Dell recently joined the alliance to get the wireless charging technology for its devices.

"Smartphones have become the epicenter of today's digital life and consumers are demanding ever increasing levels of performance and sophistication," said Dino Bekis, Broadcom Vice President, Marketing, Wireless Connectivity Combos. "As a leader in wireless connectivity solutions, Broadcom continues to deliver unprecedented features and capabilities to this demanding and rapidly growing market."

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Snowden's latest: NSA sets up online "Honey Traps" to capture people

Anthony Garreffa | Current Affairs | Feb 25, 2014 10:29 PM CST

The leaks just don't stop from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, with Glenn Greenwald reporting on his latest leak that US spy agencies manipulate and control online behavior in more ways than one.

The NSA even goes as far as making something the GCHQ calls "Honey Traps", which leads to some very suspect behavior. This includes changing a targeted users photos on social networking sites, writing a blog purporting to be one of their victims, and then contacting their colleagues, neighbors, friends and so forth. These tactics are being used by GCHQ's previously unknown and secret JTRIG (Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group).

This is something that the spy agencies call "false flag operations", to purposely deceive and set individuals up for the fall. Not only do the spy agencies discredit a target, but companies can be targeted, too. The work they do will leak confidential information to companies or the press through blogs and other means, post negative information on various forums, which will sometimes stop deals or even ruin business relationships.

Continue reading: Snowden's latest: NSA sets up online "Honey Traps" to capture people (full post)

Toshiba announces next generation of high performance SSD's

Kalen Kimm | Storage | Feb 25, 2014 10:22 PM CST

Toshiba's storage products business unit announced the March 2014 availability of its latest generation of highly efficient SSDs. The HG6 is the newest addition to the HG family, which offers high performance and power efficiency, making it suitable for a range of applications from laptops to data center servers. The 6Gbit/s SATA drives are available in a variety of standard form factors including 2.5-inch, mSATA, and M.2, with capacities up to 512GB.

The HG6 SSD's incorporates Toshiba's error-correction technology known as QSBC, a highly efficient error correction code (ECC). This safeguards customer data from corruption caused by NAND wear, which improves drive reliability and extends the MTBF. It is also the first mainstream SSD product to use Toshiba's A19nm Toggle 2.0 MLC NAND media. These features make it a suitable solution for enterprise class servers.

Toshiba is capitalizing on its unique industry position of being both a NAND inventor and SSD solution provider to provide a highly optimized product. According to Don Jeanette, senior director of marketing at Toshiba Storage Products Business Unit, "As inventors of NAND technology, we leverage our NAND expertise to optimize the performance and data integrity of this series, and truly give customers the power of choice with a broad selection of capacities and form factors."

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Keonigsegg and Razer collaborate on Limited Edition Gaming Notebook

Roshan Ashraf Shaikh | Laptops | Feb 25, 2014 10:02 PM CST

Razer has announced its partnership with Swedish supercar maker Koenigsegg for a series of 'not-for-sale' Koenigsegg branded limited edition Razer Blade gaming laptops.

As far as specification is concerned, its same as Razer Blade: Intel i7 4702HQ with 8GB memory, GTX 765M, 256GB SSD, Qualcomm NIC N1202, Razer's anti ghosting keyboard with adjustable backlight and 14 inch 1600 x 900 resolution panel. All of this in a ultra thin low profile thickness of 0.66 inch and casing made of aluminum.

Koenigsegg branded Razer Blade gaming notebooks will be unveiled at the Geneva International Motor Show in March 2014.

Continue reading: Keonigsegg and Razer collaborate on Limited Edition Gaming Notebook (full post)