North Korea threatens to 'wage a cyber war' against United States

Michael Hatamoto | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Jun 14, 2015 7:39 AM CDT

The North Korean regime didn't like news that the United States tried to launch a Stuxnet-like cyberattack against the country, and threatened it could "wage a cyber war against the US to hasten its ruin."

A report in a North Korean newspaper also said the country "can react to any forms of wars, operations and battles sought by the US imperialists," and added "the US is greatly mistaken if it thinks the DPRK will just overlook with folded arms the provocations in the cyber space."

North Korea has threatened a cyber-based apocalypse against the US in the past - and was reportedly behind the attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Continue reading: North Korea threatens to 'wage a cyber war' against United States (full post)

The world's first 360-degree 8K video has hit YouTube

Anthony Garreffa | Internet & Websites | Jun 14, 2015 5:35 AM CDT

If you thought your PC or Internet connection couldn't handle that 8K video we reported on last week, what do you think will happen with this new 360-degree, 8K video that Dubai360 has just posted to YouTube? Your PC will melt in its own flames, that's what.

The world's first 360-degree 8K video is a beautiful one, with a 24-hour timelapse of the Dubai airport. The 8K video was achieved using 88,000 individual shots that created many four-hour videos, that were then stitched together. It's an incredible video, and is sure to test out both your PC, and your Internet connection. Just don't try it with dial up.

Continue reading: The world's first 360-degree 8K video has hit YouTube (full post)

EA rumored to unveil next-gen Battlefield 5 at E3 this week

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jun 14, 2015 1:16 AM CDT

Very shortly after we posted our news on EA showing off three unannounced games with one of them being new IP, we had an industry source of ours say that they've heard that EA will be teasing Battlefield 5 at E3.

We shouldn't be surprised by this, as Battlefield is one of EA's largest franchises. It was shot in the foot majorly with Battlefield: Hardline, and with Battlefield 4 being on the market for 16 months now, it's time to start hearing about a new Battlefield game. EA is already busy with Star Wars: Battlefront, and the new Mirror's Edge Catalyst, but a surprising tease of Battlefield 5 would really shake the walls at E3.

Of course our insider could be wrong, but with EA already saying Battlefield 5 will be a military-themed shooter in the same vein as Battlefield 4, and a release of Q4 2016, it's not too far away anyway. One thing I would like to see with Battlefield 5 is a full concentration on the PC build of the game, where they water it down to consoles. This way we will get one of the best looking games ever released, and please EA - include VR support.

Continue reading: EA rumored to unveil next-gen Battlefield 5 at E3 this week (full post)

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge Iron Man Limited Edition sells for $91,635

Anthony Garreffa | Mobile Devices | Jun 14, 2015 12:51 AM CDT

Do you have $91,000 spare to blow on a smartphone? Too bad. Someone else shelled out a couple of house deposits on the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge Iron Man Limited Edition smartphone.

JD.com, China's second largest e-commerse retailer, auctioned off just one of the Galaxy S6 edge Iron Man Limited Edition smartphones, with a huge 92,429 bids received, the final price was $91,635. At $91,635, this lucky bidder spent nearly 100 times what the phone retails for, at $1079.

While I love the Galaxy S6 edge, you'd have to be very wealthy - Tony Stark rich - to spend nearly $100,000 on a smartphone. But, what a collector's item, eh?

Continue reading: Samsung Galaxy S6 edge Iron Man Limited Edition sells for $91,635 (full post)

EA rumored to be showing off '3 unannounced games' and new IP at E3

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jun 14, 2015 12:10 AM CDT

With E3 2015 right around the corner now, Electronic Arts is teasing its lineup of games that it will have at the show. Not only will EA be showing off games we already know about, but industry insider Shinobi602 says that EA will be showing off "3 unannounced EA games, one of which is a new IP".

EA will be presenting a large amount of games at E3 next week, including FIFA 16, EA SPORTS FIFA, Madden NFL 16, Madden NFL Moible, Minions Paradise, Mirror's Edge Catalyst, NBA LIVE 16, Need for Speed, NHL 16, EA SPORTS Rory McIlroy PGA TOUR, Star Wars Battlefront, and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

But it's the 3 unannounced games, with one of them being new IP that has me interested. I'm really hoping we get to see Battlefield 5 unveiled, with the player numbers on Battlefield 4 dropping, and Battlefield Hardline pretty much being a flop. Mass Effect 4 is sure to be shown off, but some new IP would be good to see, too.

Continue reading: EA rumored to be showing off '3 unannounced games' and new IP at E3 (full post)

ArmA 3's new terrain surface looks incredible in a recreation of Tanoa

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jun 13, 2015 10:50 PM CDT

Bohemia Interactive has had its upcoming ArmA 3 expansion detailed in a new leak, where we've been teased of a beautiful new environment that is a far cry from the maps we have in ArmA 3, as you can see in the images below.

The beautiful island of Tanoa, found in the South Pacific, is part of Horizon Islands. Tanoa is a lush tropical environment, with a thick jungle floor and very large geological features. Not only is Tanoa absolutely massive, but the upcoming expansion for ArmA 3 will feature new vehicles, weapons, attachments, gear, story content, and much more.

The developer will be detailing the ArmA 3 expansion during E3 next year, with the expansion due for release sometime in the first half of 2016.

Continue reading: ArmA 3's new terrain surface looks incredible in a recreation of Tanoa (full post)

Google Chrome will soon be better on battery consumption

Anthony Garreffa | Software & Apps | Jun 13, 2015 12:44 AM CDT

Google has recently done the world some good, by detecting and shutting down any unnecessary Flash content in Chrome, which improves battery life on mobile devices and notebooks.

But the company isn't just stopping there, as it's just the first change in Chrome in order to reduce the battery consumption foorprint of its popular browser. Senior Chrome Engineer, Peter Kasting, recently took to Google+ to talk about some of the changes the Mountain View-based search giant is going, which has them starting with how Chrome renders background tabs.

Up until now, Google has rendered all tabs with the same priority, but as you can imagine this isn't great on battery life. From now on, Chrome will be prioritizing foreground tabs over background tabs, which is sure to save some battery life. The team is also working on reducing the CPU usage that is used during Google searchers, by shifting the number of wakes down from around 390, to just 120, cutting CPU usage from 0.3% to 0.1%.

Continue reading: Google Chrome will soon be better on battery consumption (full post)

Lian Li shows off their new dual-compartment chassis, the PC-O8

Anthony Garreffa | Cases, Cooling & PSU | Jun 12, 2015 11:39 PM CDT

Lian Li have always had exciting cases, but their new PC-O8 is one of the bigger and badder ones the company has ever released. The new Lian Li PC-O8 chassis is a double-wide, dual-compartment beast, that can handle 240mm and 360mm radiators.

We have an oversized tempered front and side glass panels with built-in RGB LED lighting, support for ATX motherboards and the aforementioned 240mm radiator support at the top, and 360mm radiator support at the front. Lian Li has installed removeable HDD cages, and as usual, a beautiful all-aluminum construction.

Lian Li will have the PC-O8 available in the US through Microcenter at the end of June for an MSRP of $395.

Continue reading: Lian Li shows off their new dual-compartment chassis, the PC-O8 (full post)

MSI Radeon R9 390X Gaming 8G spotted, features Twin Frozr V cooler

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Jun 12, 2015 9:18 PM CDT

We were the world exclusive on posting the first images of the Radeon R9 390X, but the leaks continue with ASUS and now MSI. The MSI Radeon 300 series has been leaked, headlined by the Radeon R9 390X Gaming 8G.

The MSI Radeon R9 390X Gaming 8G is based on the Grenada XT (Hawaii XT) GPU, which means we're getting a rebadged Radeon R9 290X. This has us seeing 2816 stream processors, 176 TMUs, and 64 ROPS. MSI has clocked its card at 1100MHz, using 8GB of GDDR5 sitting at 6.1GHz on a 512-bit memory bus. This card features the always impressive Twin Frozr V cooling technology that MSI is known for.

Under that we have the Radeon R9 280 Gaming which uses the Tonga Pro GPU, with 1792 stream processors, 112 TMUs and 32 ROPs. The GPU is clocked at 1GHz, while the memory sits at 5.7GHz for the 4GB part, or 5.5GHz for the 2GB version. Then we have the Pitcairn XT-based Radeon R7 370 which has 1280 stream processors, 80 TMUs and 32 ROPs. This is pretty much the Radeon HD 7870 with 4GB of VRAM, a clock speed of 1070MHz on the 4GB model while its just 1050MHz on the 2GB model.

Continue reading: MSI Radeon R9 390X Gaming 8G spotted, features Twin Frozr V cooler (full post)

AMD Radeon R9 Fury X confirmed, rocks 4GB HBM and 4096-bit memory bus

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Jun 12, 2015 8:08 PM CDT

We had a world exclusive when we outed the name of AMD's new Radeon R9 Fury X, which has been 'confirmed' with the official marketing material for AMD's Fiji-based product. We are to expect this to be AMD's best GPU yet, aimed at the ultra enthusiasts and those who want to run 4K and beyond.

The new Fiji GPU will measure in at around 560mm2 making it the biggest GPU that the company has ever produced, where inside we'll have 64 Compute Units each featuring 64 stream processors. This brings us to a total of 4096 stream cores, 128 raster operation units, and 256 texture mapping units.

But it's going to be the High Bandwidth Memory that sits next to the GPU die that is going to make the Radeon R9 Fury X special. The GPU and HBM have allotted space on an interposer die which measures at around 1000mm2, and while this chip is far larger than any other previous GPU released, HBM saves countless space on the PCB that would normally have GDDR5 chips sprawled throughout.

Continue reading: AMD Radeon R9 Fury X confirmed, rocks 4GB HBM and 4096-bit memory bus (full post)

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