This morning the Wi-Fi Alliance launched its Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ac certification program, and we sat down with them to talk all things 802.11ac. Before we get into the interview, lets cover what the Wi-Fi certified program is, and why it is needed. In today's world, we are seeing more wireless data being generated than ever before, and current Wi-Fi standards simply can not keep up.

This massive overload in Wi-Fi data is the direct result of several factors including: always-connected devices such as smartphones, tablets, notebooks, and even household appliances such as TVs, audio systems, and even refrigerators and laundry machines. This is where the Wi-Fi Alliance comes into play. They are the party responsible for certifying that 802.11ac chipsets meet the stringent standards and requirements to push connected devices to the next level.

Building on the high-performance foundation of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ac products deliver whole-home coverage at two or even three times the speed of older Wi-Fi products and handle demanding applications such as Ultra HD and 4K video, multimedia, and rapid file transfer with ease.

EVGA has listed their EPower Board 2.0 on their website, which is a separate VRM board that is designed purely to provide certain parts of your PC with extra power. These parts include video cards, motherboard or any other part that requires high-current low-voltage power.

The EVGA EPower board is designed to operate with one voltage output: VCORE output - Voltage adjustment range of 800mV to 2000mV. Current source up to 400A.

EVGA list a "Recommended Toolkit", which is detailed below:

During a testimony before a congressional intelligence committee on Tuesday, the head of the National Security Agency (NSA) and over government officials strongly defended the government's not-so-secret surveillance program, noting that the NSA has "been able to connect the dots and prevent another terrorist attack."

Director of the NSA, General Keith Alexander, told the House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that the NSA's gigantic telecommunications surveillance program has helped to stop a "little over 10" plots with a "domestic nexus" and a total of 50 such plots in more than 20 countries over the last couple of years thanks to PRISM. The head of the NSA reiterated that under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, the NSA has authority to access all telephony metadata.

This metadata is pretty much everything in regards to the call, the who, when and where of every call across the United States. John Chris Inglis, NSA's deputy director has said that there is a purge of data every five years - you know, because we can prove that and all.

It looks like NVIDIA is taking a different, and great new path with their business - where they'll shift from simply making their own GPU's and SoC's to licensing their technology to other manufacturers.

NVIDIA will begin by offering their Kepler GPU architecture, which the company state is the world's most advanced and efficient GPU, and the reference design for their next-generation Tegra mobile processors. Licensees of NVIDIA's technology will receive designs, collateral and support to integrate Kepler into their devices. NVIDIA will also license their vast visual computing portfolio, which will open up to licensees the intellectual property necessary to make their own GPU's.

The company have had trouble getting into the mainstream with their Tegra processors, as good as they are, it's still not mainstream. This new path could lead to a much better future for NVIDIA, as OEM's will most likely just dive onto this plan versus spending buckets of money on their own internal R&D.

Engadget have had some hands-on experience with Qualcomm's new MDP devices, which are powered by the company's Snapdragon 800 SoC (MSM8974). The tablet the site used is an 11.6-inch device featuring a 1920x1080-pixel display.

Also inside, we find 2GB of LPDDR3 RAM, 32GB of built-in flash storage with microSD expansion capabilities, a 12-megapixel auto-focus rear-facing camera and a 2-megapixel camera up front. The device itself is quite thin, measuring in at just 0.46 inches thick (11.7mm) and has a 3400mAh Li-ion battery crammed inside. Connectivity wise, you're covered with LTE, Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 4 LE, GPS and NFC. Pressure and humidity sensors also make an appearance.

The phone side of things features a 4.3-inch 720p display with a 1500mAh battery. Engadget chucked the Snapdragon 800 SoC into the benchmarking ring, and found some truly ridiculous results. In just a few tests, it truly blows the competition away - completely. Things like AnTuTu 3.x score 13,836 on the current Snapdragon S4 Pro, compared to a whopping 33,828 with the Snapdragon 800 doing the work.

Apple has released an update for Java 6 on Mac OS X. This update brings with it important security updates, reliability improvements and compatibility improvements. This Java 6 update is available from Apple, while the newer Java 7 is available directly from the developers at Oracle.

Apple details the improvements to Java 6:

Java for OS X 2013-004 delivers improved security, reliability, and compatibility by updating Java SE 6 to 1.6.0_51.

Likely as another shot at Microsoft, Sony has confirmed that PS Plus will not be required for PlayStation 4 users interested in using the social aspects, entertainment apps, or auto-updates. Xbox 360 users will know that Xbox Live Gold is required for Netflix, Hulu, and social aspects of the console.

It's possible that streaming PlayStation 3 games to the PS4 may require PS Plus, but it seems like that is still up in the air. Unlike the PlayStation 3 which required PS Plus for automatic updates, PlayStation 4 users will find that they get this feature for free.

It seems like some of the PS Plus details for the PlayStation 4 are still under discussion inside the company and are subject to change. This would explain why Sony has detailed the system and PS Plus fully. PS Plus will apply across the PlayStation 3 and 4 for no extra charge.

Google is one of the first companies to release transparency reports that disclose the number of requests for personal data they receive from various governments. Unfortunately for Google, FISA and NSL requests often come with gag orders to prevent them from disclosing the fact they even received a request.

We have long pushed for transparency so users can better understand the extent to which governments request their data-and Google was the first company to release numbers for National Security Letters. However, greater transparency is needed, so today we have petitioned the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to allow us to publish aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures, separately. Lumping national security requests together with criminal requests-as some companies have been permitted to do-would be a backward step for our users.

Google has filed a motion to gain permission to specifically separate the number of FISA requests they receive from general criminal requests in their transparency reports. Facebook, Apple, and Yahoo have all started publishing national security orders in their respective transparency reports.

Today, Logic Supply announced the release of their LGX ML250 Intel Core i3 / i5 fanless industrial PC systems. The system is built around ASRocks's IMB-170 industrial motherboard and features Intel's Core i3, i7, and Celeron processors. The systems are being touted as "an economical alternative to wide-temperature fanless systems. The LGX ML250 combines commercial-off-the-shelf, high-performance, mobile computing with a silent, compact, fanless chassis that's designed to be redesigned."

The systems feature a wide range of customizing options including three different processors, several memory choices, and SSD and HDD storage options. The devices can be accessorized with two different Wi-Fi setups and features several different mounting options.

Operating system options run the full gamut of Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Embedded, and even Linux distribution choices. The LGX ML250 was "designed to be redesigned" which makes it easily rebranded or customized to fit your application. Options range from additional front panel I/O designs to screen printing.

Last week during E3, AMD launched its new FX-9590 CPU, the world's first factory clocked 5GHz CPU. While the timing was a little odd for such a big deal product, it still managed to make some enthusiasts turn their heads and once again look AMD's way. Unfortunately in another weird move, AMD announced that the new CPU would only be available to system integrators for the time being.

AMD neglected to release any pricing information for the CPU, but lucky for us, a Tier 1 system integrator, PC SuperStore, posted pricing information on the AMD FX-9590 as well as the FX-9370, which is the 4.7GHz little brother. AMD seems to think that the 5GHz FX-9590 is worth a premium of $920, while the FX-9370 will only run consumers $346 for a mere 300MHz drop in clock speed.

As a long time AMD user, the idea of a $920 CPU simply turns me off entirely. I was actually considering sticking with AMD for my new system when the FX-9590 is released to consumers, but at that pricing point, I will just switch over to an Intel Core i7 Haswell 4770K, which may only have four cores compared to the eight of the AMD CPU, but the Haswell will use half the power, and with HyperThreading and Turbo Boost, it will outperform the CPU by leaps and bounds. Just for full transparency, if AMD would have priced the FX-9590 at around $450-$500, I most likely would have stuck with them.