Saturn V rocket engines recovered from the bottom of the ocean

From the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, significant pieces of Saturn V's rocket engines have been recovered. What makes this a big announcement is the fact they've been there for over 40 years, and recovered thanks to a privately-funded expedition by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Bezos explained the site of the discovery three miles below the surface, more than 400 miles from Florida's east cost as "an underwater wonderland, an incredible sculpture garden of twisted F-1 engines that tells the story of a fiery and violent end, one that serves testament to the Apollo programme." The Amazon founder announced over a year ago that they had located the engine pieces that took man to the moon in 1969.

After three weeks abord a recovery vessel named 'Seabed Worker', Bezos and his team are on their way back to Cape Canaveral with their pieces of the Saturn V rocket engines. Bezos said in a statement on the expedition website: "We're bringing home enough major components to fashion displays of two flown F-1 engines. Many of the original serial numbers are missing or partially missing, which is going to make mission identification difficult. We might see more during restoration. The objects themselves are gorgeous."

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60 seconds on the Internet sees 640TB of data transferred, over 204 million e-mails sent

Anthony Garreffa | Internet & Websites | Mar 21, 2013 12:34 AM CDT

Sixty seconds on the Internet doesn't sound like much, but think of all the millions of users on simultaneously, all doing different things and the numbers add up very quickly. In only 60 seconds, around 640TB of data is transferred around the world.

The data comes from an infographic by chipmaker Intel, who breaks it down into even more interesting numbers. Google is a big part of these numbers, where more than two million searches are conducted every sixty seconds. YouTube pushes out around 1.3 million videos, while at the same time consumes 30 hours worth of uploaded video for public consumption.

Moving onto social networks, Facebook sees around 6 million views, and Twitter enjoys around 100,000 new tweets per minute. E-mail is still a huge number, with 204 million e-mails sent out every minute. Most of these are most likely spam, but they still count as data being transferred. Intel has also made some projections looking into the future, where they expect the number of networked devices to double by 2015.

Continue reading: 60 seconds on the Internet sees 640TB of data transferred, over 204 million e-mails sent (full post)

Google Keep, Google's new note taking service is now available on the web and Android

Anthony Garreffa | Software & Apps | Mar 20, 2013 9:33 PM CDT

Google have officially launched Keep, and if you haven't heard of it before now - like myself - it might actually become a tool you'll use on the daily. Google Keep is a note taking service, available online and through an app for Android.

Keep is aimed at users who need to quickly tap something into their device, where it is saved onto Google Drive. Those of you with Android 4.2.2-based devices get an even better way of taking notes, as there's a lock screen widget available for even quicker and easier access to jotting down notes. There's the trailer above explaining Keep, and if you're interested, check it out on the Play Store for your Android device.

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Logitech unveil their G line of gaming products

Anthony Garreffa | Peripherals | Mar 20, 2013 8:39 PM CDT

Logitech are reiterating the fact that they're committed to PC gaming by unveiling their new Logitech G line of gaming peripherals. This lineup boasts six redesigned mice and keyboard favorites, as well as two brand new headsets. There's a lot to cover, so let's get introduced to Logitech's new products.

Logitech G700s Rechargeable Gaming Mouse - Logitech's G700s mouse is a wireless gaming mouse featuring the report rate of an epically fast wired gaming mouse. Logitech have made the G700s capable of maintaining a consistant report rate, no matter if you're using the mouse over its included 2.4GHz wireless connection, or physically connected through USB. You can switch out from wireless to wired gaming if your battery dies, using a data-over-cable connection thanks to its standard microUSB cable.

There are 13 programmable controls on the G700s, macros and more, which are all controlled and manipulated through Logitech's Gaming Software (LGS). Logitech are slapping a suggested retail price of $99.99 for the G700s mouse.

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Samsung working on fixing security flaw present on some Android devices

Trace Hagan | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Mar 20, 2013 4:32 PM CDT

Samsung has confirmed that they are working on a fix for a flaw that allows bypassing of the lock screen. The bug was posted to the internet today and shows a method for bypassing the lock screen, permanently, if you have enough time to download an app from the Play Store.

The steps to reproduce the bug are below:

The bug is only present on Samsung's implementation of Android. It doesn't seem to affect the stock build. In a statement, Samsung said, "We are aware of this issue and will release a fix at the earliest possibility. Samsung considers user privacy and the security of user data its top priority."

Continue reading: Samsung working on fixing security flaw present on some Android devices (full post)

RumorTT: Amazon developing a $99 7-inch class Kindle Fire HD

Charles Gantt | Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones | Mar 20, 2013 10:45 AM CDT

Amazon hit a home-run when they launched the original Kindle Fire HD, and now if rumors are true, they are looking to knock another one out of the ball park. A $99 Kindle Fire of the 7-inch class is said to already be in production and could ship later this year.

The new 7-inch Kindle Fire would be a direct competitor to Apple's iPad mini, as well as other small tablets such as Google's Nexus 7, as well as offerings from ASUS, Samsung and Sony. It would also offer competition to the flood of off brand Chinese Android tablets that have been popping up in the sub $100 range.

We are not finding any reports on hardware specifications yet, but we know that the device is said to feature a 1280x800 LCD and it could contain similar hardware to Amazon's current $99 7-inch Kindle Fire HD. Would you buy a new 7-inch Kindle Fire HD at $99 if you owned a larger Kindle Fire or even another tablet? Let us know in the comments.

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Introducing Tweakipedia, our new home to all things tweaking at TweakTown

Anthony Garreffa | TweakTown | Mar 20, 2013 9:11 AM CDT

Today we are very excited to be announcing a new part of our website called Tweakipedia. Tweakipedia will be an amusement park of technology, filled with guides from how to overclock your computer to installing Windows from a USB drive. Not only that, but we will be taking in reader submissions on tweaks and guides.

This means that if you have a tweak recommendation, then you can submit it to us and we'll get it into Tweakipedia. We'll also love to hear suggestions on what you'd love to see next, so if you are itching to see how a certain GPU (or three) performs in a particular game, then you can request that. If you didn't know how to do a particular task - for example, building a system with Corsair's Obsidian 900D case - then we would secure that part and write a how-to build guide on it.

The idea is that the reader is heavily involved in Tweakipedia. We want you to submit ideas, requests, your own guides and tweaks - everything. This way, you're directly contributing to Tweakipedia and seeing it slowly morph into a gigantic source of great tech information. That is the next point - Tweakipedia will be a source we can continue to come back on in future reviews, articles and more. We might take a look at something in two weeks from now, say the performance of HD 7970's in CrossFire on the latest Catalyst drivers at the time, but six months from now, those numbers will be completely different, so we can come back and see how far things have come.

Continue reading: Introducing Tweakipedia, our new home to all things tweaking at TweakTown (full post)

RumorTT: Next-gen Xbox to be always-on, games installed to HDD

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Mar 20, 2013 6:50 AM CDT

Fresh from the rumor mill, we have some new next-generation Xbox news. The latest rumors include some screenshots of a purported Xbox Development Kit (XDK) for the next-gen console from Microsoft.

The leaked documentation, if true, would see the next-gen Xbox feature a large HDD, large enough to "hold a large number of games". All next-gen Xbox games are said to be installable to the drive, and "play from the optical drive will not be supported." It seems as though installation of games will be a requirement, with games not capable of being played off the disc at all. This might be a nice change from Microsoft, being able to install the games to the Xbox and take the disc out - not requiring it again until you re-install it.

What about piracy? Well, Microsoft are reportedly developing an anti-used games system, requiring activation codes for 50GB capacity Blu-ray discs. This would definitely shoot holes in piracy for the next-gen Xbox, but how Microsoft play this out will be very, very important.

Continue reading: RumorTT: Next-gen Xbox to be always-on, games installed to HDD (full post)

Three South Korean TV stations and two major banks hacked

Anthony Garreffa | BREAKING STORY | Mar 20, 2013 5:18 AM CDT

Things are heating up in South Korea once again, with South Korean authorities investigating a major attack on multiple fronts. Three TV broadcasters and two major banks were attacked, with the South Korean army raising their alert levels thinking that North Korea are behind the attacks.

Servers at television networks YTN, MBC and KBS were taken down, as well as two major banks; Shinhan Bank and NongHyup Bank. Some of the computers that were infiltrated had files deleted, according to the authorities. A police official has said: "We sent down teams to all affected sites. We are now assessing the situation. This incident is pretty massive and will take a few days to collect evidence."

The banks are back up and running, but the TV stations have said they don't know when they'll be fully operational again, with some workers at the stations not able to boot their systems back up. South Korean military hasn't been affected, but they've raised their state of readiness in response. Police and government have both declined to speculate on North Korea's involvement, but the North have threatened the South more than once now, stating they would attack both South Korea and their major ally, the United States after they were slapped with United Nations sanctions for their nuclear test back in February.

Continue reading: Three South Korean TV stations and two major banks hacked (full post)

Noctua announce they're providing free mounting upgrades for Intel's Haswell processors

Anthony Garreffa | Cases, Cooling & PSU | Mar 20, 2013 4:36 AM CDT

Intel's Haswell platform is just months away, and cooling expert, Noctua, have announced that they are continuing their great tradition of offering customers their SecuFirm2 mounting kits for Haswell, free of charge. Yes, free.

Newer Noctua heatsinks support Haswell out of the box, but older models are now included with the new NM-i115x, with no cost to the consumer whatsoever. In order to get yourself the NM-i115x, all you have to do is provide proof of purchase (which can be a photo, scan or screenshot of your invoice) of both an eligible Noctua CPU cooler and either an LGA115x motherboard or LGA115x CPU. The mounting kits are compatible with most Noctua coolers released since 2005, and will be available at retail stores for a low service charge.

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