The Open Compute Project (OCP) is an initiative started by Facebook to build the most efficient computing infrastructures at the lowest possible cost. OCP focuses on total control of the architecture, from custom-designed server components to software and operating systems. This has led to massive disruption in the enterprise space and the upending of the old model, which relied upon massive systems provided by a group of OEMs that were prohibitively expensive. The Open Compute Project relies heavily upon the open source model of information sharing and has drawn in the other titans of the computing world. Apple, Google, and Microsoft are among the 150 members, along with a bevy of hardware suppliers, that contribute to the OCP and their ideals.

The Open Compute Summit is the yearly meeting of the leaders of the movement, and a great forum to showcase the ideas and resulting hardware driving the movement forward.

This radical new way of thinking has saved tremendous amounts of both energy and money, with Facebook disclosing that they saved 1.2 billion dollars over the last three years, and also saved the equivalent of enough energy to power 40,000 homes and the emissions equivalent of 50,000 cars. Facebook's leading challenge revolves around how to store relatively cold data (data that is written once and seldom read) for long periods of time. Facebook intends to keep those pictures you shot five years ago forever, and storing all that data in a cost effective manner is their most pressing issue. Enter the 42U Blu-Ray storage cabinet. This robotic cabinet holds 10,000 triple-layer 100GB discs storing up to a petabyte of information, and future implementations will store an amazing 5PB per cabinet.

Google has released both its Q4 2013 and full year 2013 financial results, with the Mountain View-based search giant seeing increases in both revenue, and income.

For Q4 2013, Google saw revenues of $16.86 billion, up 17% year-over-year. Operating income for the three-month period was $3.92 billion, or 23% of its total revenues. Net income reached $3.38 billion, up from $2.89 billion from the same time last year. Google owned-site revenue was up 22% year-over-year to $10.55 billion, representing 67% of Google's total revenues.

Paid clicks were up around 31% for the quarter, with an 11% year-over-year decrease on cost-per-click. Motorola Mobility, which Google just sold to Lenovo for $2.91 billion, saw a $384 million operating loss for Q4 2013.

We were mostly alone when we posted a few stories from Edward Snowden's world-first interview with German TV outlet NDR, but that video was removed from YouTube a couple of hours ago.

Attempting to access the video results in the following message: "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by ARD". That's ok though, because some sites have a full transcript of it. It doesn't take away from the fact that the video was removed, and then more so, it was cut down from the reported 6 hours, to just 30 minutes long. You can read the transcript of Snowden's startling video interview, here.

Ever since its GPU2013 event in Hawaii, AMD enthusiast have been chomping at the bits waiting to get their hands on the Mantle drivers for Battlefield 4, and today the patch finally came through. The update is here, and AMD has released the 14.1 Beta drivers for its GPUs for 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and 8.

At the moment, Mantle support for Battlefield 4 is only available on the R9 290X, R9 290, R7 260X and the latest AMD Kaveri APU's. Support for other cards and APUs will come as AMD works the bugs out of the system. Along with today's release, DICE has released the first performance numbers from Battlefield 4 running on Mantle. The first test was ran on a AMD A10-7850K APU with the game set to 720p at medium settings. Mantle gave the game a 14-percent boost in frame rates from 39fps to 43fps on the Singapore Beach map.

Up next DICE tested Battlefield 4 running an AMD FX-8350 CPU paired with a Radeon HD7970 at 1080p with settings set to ultra and MSAA set to 1x. While playing at these settings on Siege of Shanghai, Mantle increased performance by 25.1-percent taking the frame rate up from 53fps to 67fps. Finally, DICE tested the game on a Intel Core i7-3970x Extreme CPU paired with two R9 290X video cards, and the game set to 1080p ultra settings and MSAA set to 4x this time. Mantle increased performance again this time in the single player level, South China Sea, with frame rates being increased by a whopping 58-percent, going from 78fps to 116fps.

Today ROCCAT announced the launch of its latest gaming headset, the Kave XTD 5.1. The Kave XTD is a true 5.1 digital gaming headset and is built on the foundation of the original Kave headset, with an entirely new ground-up design. The Kave XTD 5.1 features a fully-equipped desktop remote that incorporates a full 5.1 digital sound card as well as several other exciting features.

The Kave XTD 5.1 features ROCCAT Smart Link technology that lets users pair their smartphone with their headset and can make and receive calls during a gaming session by pressing a button on the remote control. The phones audio is piped into the headset, and allows gamers to take their call while in-game without the need to remove their headset. The Kave XTD's software mutes any incoming or outgoing audio from the game or chat software during calls, so no one hears your conversation but you.

The Kave XTD features 3 drivers per ear cup that have been aligned at a 12 degree angle to provide clean, crisp, and immersive sound. The remote control also features the ability to connect a true 5.1 audio speaker system to your PC from the 5.1 sound card built into the remote, and users can switch from headset mode to speaker mode with the push of a button. Finally, the Kave XTD 5.1 features a sensitive boom mic that is positioned perfectly for accurate communication with your fellow players.

U.S. officials are still trying to come to terms with former NSA analyst Edward Snowden's spying disclosures, with James Clapper, the Director of the National Intelligence, demanding his journalist "accomplices" return leaked documents.

Clapper didn't place blame on specific "accomplices," but reporters at The Guardian, for example, would likely be an obvious choice.

Clapper's spokespeople later clarified and said the U.S. official "was referring to anyone who is assisting Edward Snowden to further threaten our national security through the unauthorized disclosure of stolen documents related to lawful foreign intelligence collection programs."

Facebook has just launched a new iPhone app called Paper, a new standalone app for the social network that is more like a news reading app than purely a social network. Paper uses the traditional Facebook News Feed, but recreates it in a more immersive, full-sized experience.

The new app does away with nearly all of usual buttons, and UI styles for a much cleaner, bigger status update, photos, and news stories. If you tilt your iPhone, Facebook will adjust themselves, something the team calls the "Ken turns" effect. UI elements simply face away, with news stories displayed in a much different manner. Facebook has pumped over nine months into the new iPhone exclusive app, which is also locked to the US market for now. No one outside of the US market will have access to it, for now.

Paper brings forth a new venture for Facebook, where the main screen now displays completely different content. It will feel more like Flipboard infused with Facebook, made for the iPhone. A new compose screen is bought into play, where you can view the exact end product before making it live. Facebook says: "it's a publishing tool, a way of publishing great content, and a way of viewing great content".

Edward Snowden has been nominated by two Norwegian politicians for the 2014 Nobel peace prize. Baard Vegar Solhjell, a former environment minister, and Snorre Valen, politicians with the Socialist Left party, said the public debate and policy changes in the wake of Snowden's NSA revelations had "contributed to a more stable and peaceful world order".

The five-member panel will not confirm who has been nominated, but nominators include members of national parliaments and governments, university professors and previous laureates, must enter their submissions by February 1. You can watch Snowden's world-first 30-minute video interview with German TV station NDR, right here.

ZDNet is reporting that Apple has been blocking 4G networks to certain carriers around the world, with the Cupertino-based giant now looking at possible fines for LTE blocking in Belguim.

The Council of Ministers has ruled that no mobile phone maker can block 4G access for any carriers. Apple has a preferred partner relationship with Mobistar in the region, with Mobistar being the only officially certified by Apple to sell the iPhone. Mobistar doesn't have operational 4G network for consumers yet, but its competitors Proximus and Base do, but they are now officially certified by Apple.

Base's Corporate Affairs Manager, Coralie Miserque, wrote in a blog last November: "It was a true obstacle course; after months and months of (fruitless) attempts to approach Apple, Base finally received a typical Apple answer that the certification process was pending and would require some time. But how much time, the company refused to specify. It seems that Apple continues to protect its preferred partner in Belgium and refuses to certify its two competitors or at least is delaying the process until Mobistar has deployed its own 4G network. And this is not an exception, in other countries, Apple often grants its preferred partners 4G access months before anyone else".

Apple was awarded quite the patent on Tuesday, that might end up with consumers seeing a solar-powered MacBook being announced sometime in the future. The concept's original patent filing took place in 2010, so we might not even see this technology used by Apple in the coming years.

The patent described multiple formats which could be used, with a laptop being powered by direct sunlight. All versions did share the same core concept, that the display and functional features on both sides, were labeled as "electronic device display module". Currently displays baked into laptops have a screen on one side, and a non-functional lid surface on the other - which is for protection purposes.

Apple's new patent would see the back of its MacBook screen turned into a very special part of the device. The main concept involves a multifunctional outer surface for the laptop, which would feature photovoltaic cells, that would let the computer run indefinitely, as long as it was in sunlight.