LeakedTT: Intel's 2014 SSD lineup appears in leaked slides

Charles Gantt | Storage | Dec 4, 2013 2:21 PM CST

2014 is going to be a big year for SSD technology in general, and the second quarter is going to be no exception for Intel's SSD business. Today new official slides have leaked that detail a massive portion on Intel's 2014 SSD offerings, and include new devices in the Temple Star, Pleasantdale, and Fultondale lines.

All three of the SSD families will utilize 20nm MLC NAND Flash memory and will arrive in three form factors. The SSD Pro 2500 Series (Temple Star) will be featured in traditional 2.5-inch and M.2 sizing with performance falling in the 540MB/s read and 490MB/s write speed range. The slide shows capacities from 80GB up to 480GB.

The SSD DC P3500 series (Pleasantdale) will arrive in both PCIe and 2.5-inch form factors, and will be available in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities. Read performance is around the 2800MB/s range while writes are a little slower at 1700MB/s.

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Guardian editor threatened with terrorism charges over Snowden leaks

Anthony Garreffa | Current Affairs | Dec 4, 2013 2:33 AM CST

Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, is being threatened by British police over "potential" terrorism charges for publishing the incriminating NSA and GCHQ documents that NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, leaked.

Rusbridger testified in front of a British parliamentary committee on Tuesday, where lawmakers pushed the suggestion that the Guardian helped terrorists, just because the British paper revealed UK and US spy agency 'secrets'. Rusbridger stood his ground, stating that the government spying going on all around the world should be of public knowledge.

The Guardian editor said: "We have published I think 26 documents out of the 58,000 we've seen, or 58,000 plus. So we have made very selective judgments about what to print. We have published no names and we have lost control of no names."

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RumorTT: ASUS to unveil a dual-OS slate, runs Android 4.4 and Windows

Something interesting just popped up onto my radar, and that's the news that ASUS is working on a new dual OS tablet. The new tablet is capable of running Android and Windows, something of which ASUS is no newbie at.

But, with Android 4.4 KitKat now out, and Windows 8.1, could we see a mashup of operating systems under a new ASUS-built device? Well, it looks liker we can expect three models: M82T, L82T, and the R82T - with no information on what makes them all different. We do know that on the tablet that slid through the FCC was powered by the Intel Atom "Bay Trail" chip.

Other than that, we know it has a 3910mAh battery, and either 32GB or 64GB of storage. We don't know about the screen size, but we could expect something in the 7-inch range or so - which would work, considering ASUS builds the Android 4.4-powered Nexus 7 slate. If we do see this thing released, we should expect it to be shown off at CES 2014 in Las Vegas, in January.

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DisplayPort 1.3 standard will support 8K, oh and 4K in 3D

Anthony Garreffa | Displays & Projectors | Dec 3, 2013 6:31 PM CST

DisplayPort technology is continuously improving, with DisplayPort 1.3 now being teased with some huge improvements. DP 1.3 will feature a bitrate of 8.1 Gbps per channel, up from 5.4 Gbps found in DP 1.2.

We should see a wonderful world where multiple 4K displays are supported from a single cable - something I'm longing for as I type this on a 4K display - and DP 1.3 will allow this. DP 1.3 will see support for 8K thanks to its insane bandwidth of a theoretical 32.4 Gbps. We should also see 4K 3D support ushered in with DisplayPort 1.3, which will be another awesome addition going into 2014.

What I would like to see, is some confirmation that we will indeed be seeing 4K in 3D, and whether this means I'll get what I've been waiting for, for quite sometime now: 4K at 120Hz. Unfortunately, we won't see the fruits of high-resolution labor until sometime in 2014 - where we'll see it announced, but it won't be pushed into devices until 2015.

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Thecus begins shipping N2310 NAS in North American market

Charles Gantt | Storage | Dec 3, 2013 6:21 PM CST

Today Thecus announced the launch of its latest entry-level home and small office NAS. The all new N2310 is a 2-bay Network Attached Storage device that is packed with features you would expect from Thecus. The new N3210 features support for RAID 0, 1, and JBOD and packs in hardware that will ensure speed and reliability.

"Not only does the N2310 pack in a lot of the capabilities of larger and more expensive units, but it does so with style," said Florence Shih, General Manager at Thecus. "This dashing little black box can store up to 8TB of data with an unprecedented level of energy efficiency. In fact, powering the N2310 for an entire year would only cost you $5.03 in the US."

The N2310 also features a built-in FTP server, BitTorrent Client, and even Plex Media Server support that allows users to stream content to TVs, Xbox 360, and any other device running Plex's streaming client. The device also features two USB ports that enable users to easily copy over photos and files from external drives, as well as a printer, turning the NAS into a central print server. The Thecus N2310 is available now and retails at an MSRP of $169.99.

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Nokia wins patent fight, sees HTC One Mini banned from the UK

Charles Gantt | Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones | Dec 3, 2013 12:07 PM CST

Nokia has just won a major battle in the so-called "Patent War", with a UK judge ruling that the HTC One Mini infringes on some of Nokia's patents. As a result of the ruling, the HTC One Mini has been banned from sale in the UK, and all sales must halt by December 6th, or HTC will face major fines.

Additionally, the company could see its flagship, the HTC One, banned from sale in the UK as well, which could cripple the already troubled manufacturer. The judge presiding over the matter did acknowledge that this would cause considerable damage to HTC and has postponed ruling on the one until HTC has had time to appeal. HTC says that it has agreed to cease all imports of its devices, until the appeal hearing has concluded.

The patent violations are based on certain chip sets used in the HTC One and One mini, and HTC says that it is working with chip suppliers to look into alternative chip solutions that could allow the devices back on the market. "HTC is pleased by the decision of the High Court of England and Wales to stay an injunction against certain chip sets, including those in our flagship HTC One, pending the outcome of our appeal against the validity and infringement of Nokia's EP 0 998 024 patent." the company said in a statement.

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ROCCAT begins shipping its Kone Pure Color mouse in Phantom White

Charles Gantt | Peripherals | Dec 3, 2013 10:39 AM CST

ROCCAT's Kone series of gaming mice are some of the best on the market today, and its Kone Pure Color line allows for optimum gaming performance while breaking the black gaming mouse mold. This week, ROCCAT announced the release of the new Phantom White Kone Pure Color to the line of colorful peripherals.

Much like the other Kone Pure mice, the Phantom White version of the Kone Pure Color features a high-end 8,200 DPI Pro-Aim R3 laser sensor and high quality Omron switches. The mouse includes exclusive ROCCAT Technology such as Easy-Shift[+], Easy-Aim and ROCCAT Talk that ensures you have an edge over the competition that will land you in the top spot at the end of the match.

The original Kone was the first product ROCCAT developed in 2008. CEO and Founder René Korte, reminisces about the beginning days of ROCCAT: "Early on, I was involved in the professional gaming scene. So, I was aware of the many professional players who were dissatisfied with their gaming devices. Since then our overall mission has been to build high-quality peripherals that satisfy the needs of all ambitious gamers."

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OCZ announces Chapter 11 bankruptcy asset acquisition by Toshiba

Charles Gantt | Business, Financial & Legal | Dec 2, 2013 9:11 PM CST

In what is certainly one of the last pages in the OCZ saga, the company announced this afternoon that it has signed an asset purchase agreement with Toshiba Corporation to acquire substantially all of OCZ's assets in a chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding for $35 million.

The acquisition will land Toshiba access to OCZ's proprietary controller, firmware, and softeare and well as the engineering teams responsible for these technologies. OCZ will continue to operate and server existing and future customers during a transition phase, and Toshiba will provide the company with the capital to operate during this period. The sale is expected to finalize within the next 60-days.

SAN JOSE, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 12/02/13 -- OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced that the Company has signed an asset purchase agreement with Toshiba Corporation, a global technology leader and manufacturer of NAND flash memory, to acquire substantially all of OCZ's assets in a chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding for $35M. Under this agreement Toshiba will acquire OCZ's client and enterprise solid state drive business. OCZ will continue to operate and serve existing and future customers during this process. Toshiba has agreed to provide the Company with DIP (Debtor-in-Possession) financing to ensure that there is adequate capital and flash supply to support the business during the contemplated sale period. The consummation of the asset purchase agreement is subject to an auction and approval by the bankruptcy court in the Company's bankruptcy case.

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Microsoft's Xbox One Black Friday battle in the console war

Charles Gantt | Gaming | Dec 2, 2013 8:30 PM CST

The so-called "Console Wars" formed earlier this year when Microsoft and Sony began a dance to see who could one up the others new features on its next-gen console, and it appears that Microsoft may have won a major battle. A newly released report from InfoScout is suggesting that Microsoft took home the majority of console sales during Black Friday.

The retail analytic firm gathered data from about 83,000 shopping receipts, and the figures state that the $499 Xbox One topped sales at both Walmart and Target. In fact Microsoft garnered both the top and second spots with the Xbox One capping 31-percent of the Black Friday market share. The Xbox 360 managed to hold onto 30-percent which means Microsoft held 61-percent of console sales on Friday.

The report lost Sony as holding a mere 30-percent of sales with the PS3 and PS4 capping 15-percent each. Nintendo managed to grab a measly 7-percent with the Wii U accounting for 6-percent while the Wii walked away with barely 1-percent. What does this mean for the PS4? Since it has been released for a several weeks now, I think that many of its big sales numbers are over, and Microsoft led sales due to the close proximity of its Xbox One launch, combined with massive discounts on Xbox 360 units.

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Motorola's Moto G arrives on Amazon for pre-order, shipping Dec 4th

Up until now, the only way to get your hands on one of Motorola's low-cost Moto G Android-based smartphones was to order it from the official Motorola website, but today the company announced that customers could purchase it through Amazon.com. Pre-orders for the Moto have been available on Amazon since early morning and the company says that orders will begin shipping on December 4th.

The Motorola Moto G features a 4.5-inch 720p screen and a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor that has been clocked at 1.2GHz. 1GB of RAM is on hand to keep things moving nice and smooth, while a 5-megapixel rear camera handles imaging duties. Unfortunately LTE support is missing, and only 3G radios are installed. The phones pricing points make up for this though, with an 8GB model retailing for $179 off contract, and 16GB for $199 with no contract.

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