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Ubisoft Releases Burning Building Trailer For Far Cry 3

Ubisoft have released another teaser video to tempt people to buy Far Cry 3 when it's released in September, just in time for the back to school season, guaranteeing that legions of students will be playing this at home instead of doing their homework...

This one shows our protagonist fighting his way through a huge building set completely ablaze in order to save a damsel in distress called Lisa, who is trapped inside. The three minute video is very good and we won't spoil it by describing what happens. Note how the flames are rendered, which look and move in a surprisingly realistic way, helping to give the impression of searing heat.

YouTube

Posted by | Mon, May 21, 2012 - 07:48 PM | Comments

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Overkill Has Cool Blend of PAYDAY and Left 4 Dead In The Works

Following various recent hints dropped into PAYDAY The Heist, Overkill Software's Game Director, Ulf Andersson, has announced that his company are currently collaborating with Valve to produce a game that's a blend of PAYDAY and Left 4 Dead, "We are working on a very cool blend of PAYDAY and Left 4 Dead. I am sure it is so exciting that it will have some players check into the hospital before we are done".

He hasn't said anything other than this tantalizing statement, so we'll just have to wait a little longer to see what Overkill come up with. One thing we know though: Valve have not put out a bad game yet, so this collaboration is likely to produce something wicked that lives up to the hype.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Mon, May 21, 2012 - 06:15 PM | Comments

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Ubisoft Launches Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Commander For Facebook

Today, Ubisoft announced that Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Commander, an isometric tactical combat game, is now available to play on Facebook. Head to Facebook if you'd like to try this game out.

“We are taking the popular Ghost Recon franchise and bringing it to platforms that allow players of all skill levels to enjoy at their leisure, on the platform of their choosing,” said Chris Early, vice president of digital publishing at Ubisoft. “This is the basis of our companion gaming strategy that Ghost Recon Commander exemplifies so well.”

Legit Forums

Posted by | Mon, May 21, 2012 - 05:14 PM | Comments

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Leap Motion Releases Super Accurate Kinect-Style Motion Sensing Device

Microsoft's Kinect motion controller initially for the Xbox 360 and now also the PC, has been very successful and shows how computers can be controlled by gestures rather than just with the traditional keyboard and mouse. This success hasn't been lost on competitors, who are now starting to make similar products. Enter Leap Motion's Leap controller, an affordable $69.99 device that the company is starting to take pre-orders for. If you pre-order a unit, you'll be waiting a bit as they aren't going to ship until December 2012 or January 2013.

Unlike Microsoft's Kinect, the Leap tracks finger movements with precision down to a 100th of a millimeter, allowing precise interactions with the computer, on the same order as using a mouse. In fact, the company makes the bold claim that with this device, one can "say goodbye to your mouse and keyboard." That remains to be seen. The company's About/FAQ page is here. Note that as of this writing, Leap Motion haven't revealed the specifications of the device or gone into any significant detail into how it works. The video below demonstrates what the device can do and does look impressive. However, it would probably be wise to wait for a review or two before spending hard cash on a new, unproven product from a new company.

"It was this gap between what's easy in the real world but very complicated to do digitally, like molding a piece of clay or creating a 3-D model, that inspired us to create the Leap and fundamentally change how people work with their computers," said Leap Motion CEO and co-founder Michael Buckwald. "In addition to the Leap for computers, our core software is versatile enough to be embedded in a wide range of devices, including smartphones, tablets, cars and refrigerators. One day 3-D motion control will be in just about every device we interact with, and thanks to the Leap, that day is coming sooner than anyone expected."

Legit Forums

Posted by | Mon, May 21, 2012 - 05:10 PM | Comments

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iBUYPOWER Announces Dual-CPU Professional Series Workstations

iBUYPOWER announced two updates to their Professional Series workstations this afternoon. iBUYPOWER is launching the Professional Series P900DX, the most powerful update to their Professional Series workstations. In addition, iBUYPOWER is also announcing the availability of the new Intel Xeon E3-1200-V2 CPUs on Professional Series P500X Workstation PCs.

The new P900DX features two of the latest Intel E5 Xeon processors with up to 8 cores per CPU. High memory capacity and 3rd Generation PCI-E combine with increased processing power in the new P900DX workstations to deliver performance for the most intensive CAD simulation tasks. Professional Series P900DX workstations start from $3,699. The updated P500DX workstations feature Intel Xeon E3-1200-V2 CPUs, which features increased performance at lower power consumption for a more efficient workflow. Professional Series P500X Workstations start from $1,229.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Mon, May 21, 2012 - 04:39 PM | Comments

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Rumor: NVIDIA To Recall All Kepler 600-Series Cards Due To Fatal Hardware Flaw?

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported this situation. We would like to apologize to NVIDIA and any of our readers that were mislead or misinformed. Below is the updated news post.

Is there a fatal hardware flaw in all NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670/680/690 'Kepler' graphics cards? There have been rumors coming from various sites today that something might be going on. A site called pnosker.com says they have have information from from TSMC that says the "chips may be suffering from serious performance degradation over long periods of heavy load", therefore, NVIDIA may be recalling all of their Kepler cards due to this issue.

We have never heard of Patrick Nosker or pnosker.com before and this story sounds a bit off as how would he be getting inside information before larger publications? The site later reports that this is their first time ever citing a source and that they don't even have an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 graphics card. It doesn't sound like this source has any merit. We have NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690, GTX 680 and GTX 670 video cards here running on our test machines 24/7 for longer than a month and have had no failures.

NVIDIA was asked if they were having any Kepler issues and they denied that they will be recalling any cards over a hardware issue. NVIDIA's Bryan Del Rizzo stated that "There is no truth to this". Case closed

pnosker.com

Posted by | Mon, May 21, 2012 - 04:18 PM | Comments

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Google Chrome Beats Out Internet Explorer To Become World's #1 Browser

It's been a while coming, but it would appear Google Chrome has secured its place as the number one web browser in the world. According to StatCounter, Chrome overtook Internet Explorer during the week of May 14th to May 20th, where it rose to 32.76% against Microsoft's 31.94%. Granted Chrome slipped a bit this week, dropping to 31.88%, however it still retained a greater market share then Internet Explorer, which has dropped even further to 31.47%. It seems this time Google's web browser will retain the crown, unlike our previous report where it only managed to last a day at the top. That said, Chrome has a long way to go when it comes to catching Microsoft's Internet Explorer in the United States, where Google's has 23.83% of the market versus Microsoft's 37.81%. Only time will tell if Chrome will retain the title of number one browser in the world, but from the way things appear this time it might just stay that way.

Despite its worldwide success, Chrome still has a ways to go to catch Internet Explorer in the U.S. In fact, StatCounter's data shows that the week Chrome overtook Internet Explorer, Google's browser held just 23.83 percent market share, compared to Microsoft's 37.81 percent. Chrome's success appears to have come in large part from Europe, where the browser outpaced Internet Explorer by more than 1 percentage point.

CNET News

Posted by | Mon, May 21, 2012 - 03:08 PM | Comments

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Nexus Release Thrio 310 Mid Tower Case

Nexus has released their Thrio 310 mid tower case, which aims for a high end look and features at a budget price of around $59 / 46 Euro. It features noise absorption material made of dense foam, toolless drive installation clamps and the bottom mounting for the PSU has soft foam bumpers to absorb vibration and noise. The side panels are easily removed with thumbscrews and the case comes with a 120mm fan, plus space for three additional fans. It has a black interior, three external 5.25 inch bays, 8 internal 3.5 inch bays, 7 expansion slots and front ports 3 x USB2.0, 1 x USB3.0, 1 x mic, 1 x audio. It's compatible with ATX and mATX motherboards. Size: 468x180x430mm (DxWxH). The technical data sheets can be downloaded here (1.27MB PDF).

We already preinstalled one of our excellent silent case fan, a 120mm fan is fitted as air outtake. Some isolating padding where the PSU is placed prevents resonance. And there are ventilation holes to mount the PSU upside down, so the hot air of the PSU will not get inside the case at all. The rubber feet keep the case elevated from the floor to make smooth airflow possible and to eliminate resonance.

Nexus Technology BV

Posted by | Mon, May 21, 2012 - 02:58 PM | Comments

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Warren East CEO, ARM Expects To Gain 20% Of Notebook PC Market By 2015

Warren East, CEO of ARM, has brazenly stated that he expects his company's processors to eventually take 10-20% of the notebook PC market by 2015. He also expects that the impact ARM will have on the PC market will be far greater than competitor Intel when it pushes into the smartphone market. East, while forecasting 10-20% market share for ARM, expects Intel to only gain 5-10% of the smartphone market. Still, this isn't the biggest prediction East has made, apparently last month he went so far as to predict that the embedded processor market would dwarf that of mobile device chips, with billions of chips shipped per year by ARM in just a couple more years.

While East forecasts 10 to 20 percent market share for ARM notebooks by 2014 or 2015, he believes Intel-powered smartphones will only capture about five to 10 percent of the smartphone market. Intel-powered handsets have only recently begun to enter the market, but more are expected to emerge in the coming months.

Electronista

Posted by | Mon, May 21, 2012 - 02:20 PM | Comments

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Facebook Shares Fall Below $38 IPO Price

Facebook (FB) shares sank on Monday without the full support of the company's underwriters, leaving some investors down 25 percent from where they were Friday afternoon. Facebook's market debut Friday suffered some hiccups, with trading on the Nasdaq delayed for a half hour and issues with traders' orders. The stock closed Friday just a few cents above where it priced Thursday night, when many investors had hoped for a big first-day pop. The shares opened Friday at $42.05, and fluctuated throughout the day before closing at $38.23. Facebook is currently trading at $34.72. It looks like the insiders made a ton of cash, but the investors who are probably Facebook users lost a lot of money so far on this IPO.

"At the moment it's not living up to the hype," Frank Lesh, a futures analyst and broker at FuturePath Trading LLC in Chicago said, adding that some people may have decided to hang back and buy the stock on the declines.

CNBC

Posted by | Mon, May 21, 2012 - 12:28 PM | Comments

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Thermaltake Makes Gaming Mouse With Detachable Fan

Tt eSPORTS has laucnhed world’s first gaming mouse with detachable fan! The Thermaltake BLACK Element Cyclone gaming mouse is the real deal. It is a true gaming mouse that eliminates the issue of having a wet gaming palm. The BLACK Element Cyclone edition gaming mouse and its detachable fan-device allows gamers to attach the fan to gaming mouse when gaming. The little fan spins at 6,000 RPM and is rated to push 2.7 Cubic Feet per Minute (CFM) of air across your hand. With the fan spinning that fast you'd expect it to be loud, but Thermaltake said the noise level is just 21.7 dBA.

The BLACK Element gaming mouse was then created to overwhelm e-Sports community with its two additional features: muscle power and visual effects. Its unbeatable 6500 DPI laser sensor engine and 5 amazing vibrant color choices to match gamer’s preferences, are still exciting the e-Sports community and highly praised by media. In 2012, Tt eSPORTS proudly presents the BLACK Element Cyclone gaming mouse, an innovative gaming product that re-invents the mouse design. The Cyclone edition allows gamers to enjoy the same strength, same comfort, and same visual characters from its predecessor BLACK Element, but with extra cool when gaming. A true manifestation of dedicating the best gaming product development for the e-Sports community, Tt eSPORTS BLACK Element Cyclone edition is comfortable to grip and allows you to grip it while gentle breeze flowing from your fingertips to your heated palm, slowly cool down the temperature.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Mon, May 21, 2012 - 11:42 AM | Comments

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AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform

AMD today launched the AMD Embedded R-Series accelerated processing unit (APU) platform. Designed for mid- to high-end graphics-intensive applications such as digital signage, casino gaming, point-of-sale systems and kiosks, as well as parallel-processing-intensive applications spanning medical imaging and security/surveillance, the AMD Embedded R-Series APU combines the new “Piledriver” CPU architecture, an evolution of the “Bulldozer” architecture, with discrete-class, DirectX 11-capable AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series graphics in a heterogeneous multicore embedded processing platform.

“AMD pioneered the embedded APU to offer our customers a high-performance, power-efficient, small form-factor embedded processor,” said Buddy Broeker, director, AMD Embedded Solutions. “With the AMD Embedded R-Series, we are taking our APU technology to the next level. By leveraging its seamlessly integrated heterogeneous system architecture, developers can tap into a high-performance and efficient parallel processing engine to accelerate their graphics- and compute-intensive applications, all while using industry-standard libraries such as OpenCL and DirectCompute.”

Legit Forums

Posted by | Mon, May 21, 2012 - 11:33 AM | Comments

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Intel LGA1155 mATX Motherboard for $14.99 Shipped - ECS H61H2-M2

We normally don't post up hot deals on the front page of LR, but some deals are just too good to pass up. We ran across a micro-ATX Intel LGA1155 motherboard this morning that costs just $14.99 shipped after rebate! The board is the ECS H62H2-M2 and Newegg is practically giving it away. Newegg has ECS H61H2-Motherboard for $54.99 - $10 off w/ promo code ECS521 - $30 rebate = $14.99 with free shipping. The board is in-stock right now and the rebate is valid until 5/30/2012. Not a bad deal at all for a board that has some pretty decent features and would make for a great budget build. This board doesn't feature USB 3.0 or SATA III, but at $15 who cares!

High performance ECS Motherboard H61H2-M2 supporting latest socket LGA 1155 Intel 2nd Generation Core i7 / i5 / i3 Processors. It Features Intel H61 Express chipset with SATA 3Gb/s and digital output delivers smooth blu-ray and HD video playback for the best visual experience.H61H2-M2 is the best choice for family and commercial use.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Mon, May 21, 2012 - 10:24 AM | Comments

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New Teaser Trailer Released For Skyfall - James Bond '007' is Back!

The first teaser trailer for Sam Mendes’s “Skyfall,” the upcoming James Bond film featuring 007 is here! Returning as Bond, James Bond, Daniel Craig plays a word association game with a bearded psychologist at the beginning of the trailer. To “country,” he replies “England.” To “murder,” “employment.” And to “Skyfall,” Bond answers “done.” Check out a glimpse of the 23rd James Bond adventure below.

SKYFALL will be in cinemas in the UK from October 26th, 2012 and in US theatres from November 9th. This movie also just happens to arriving on the 50th anniversary year for the movie series. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment mark James Bond’s monumental golden anniversary announced BOND 50 this morning. BOND 50 is the complete Bond experience showcasing all 22 classic films on Blu-ray together for the first time ever, neatly packaged into one cool, sleek collectable box-set. The only problem is that BOND 50 comers out in September 2012 and will obviously not include Skyfall!

Skyfall is the twenty-third James Bond film, produced by Eon Productions for MGM, Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment. Directed by Sam Mendes, it features Daniel Craig's third performance as James Bond and Javier Bardem as Raoul Silva, the film's villain. The film is due to be released in the UK on 26 October 2012, which includes IMAX venues.

YouTube

Posted by | Mon, May 21, 2012 - 10:16 AM | Comments

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KINGMAX Launches ED-07 USB 3.0 Flash Drive

KINGMAX recently launched the Elite Series USB 3.0 Flash Drive, ED-07. The KINGMAX ED-07 is a very fast USB Flash drive with sequential read speeds reaching up to 170MB/s and sequential write speeds up to 40MB/s. The KINGMAX ED-07 measures in at 37 x 12.4 x 4.26mm (LxWxH) and is available in a number of capacities ranging from 16GB to 128GB. KINGMAX believes that since Intel Ivy Bridge processors are now available in the market, that USB 3.0 peripherals will become more and more popular. Could 2012 be the year for USB 3.0 flash drives?

ED-07 USB3.0 Flash drive is light and portable, with housing of two colors: slivery grey and water blue. It includes capacity of 16GB/ 32GB/ 64GB and 128GB, providing a variety of choice for consumers. Elite series highlight its style of sophistication and calmness, and the appearance of simplicity is particularly suitable for people who value most of high quality. The housing of ED-07 is made of aluminum alloy case with anodized coating, giving ED-07 shining surface and properties of corrosion resistant. ED-07 also has cap design with tail-attached function to avoid the loss; attaching a string to the niche at ED-07’s tail makes it an easy-to-carry accessory.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Mon, May 21, 2012 - 10:02 AM | Comments

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TP-LINK’S New AV500 Gigabit Powerline Adapter

TP-LINK today announced its new AV500 Gigabit Powerline Adapter, providing industry-leading performance, hassle-free set-up, for an instant, secure high-speed network for the home or office. The AV500 Gigabit Powerline Adapter provides high-speed streams at up to 500Mbps on a line length of up to 300 meters, creating an incredibly fast, robust network. At these speeds, the AV500 Gigabit Powerline Adapter delivers the performance required for fast, whole home or office solutions to connect all network compatible devices from HD video streaming, online gaming, VolP or any other bandwidth intensive applications. The AV500 Gigabit Powerline Adapter is being sold under part number TL-PA511KIT for $89.99.

AV500 Gigabit Powerline Adapter Specifications:

• HomePlug AV standard compliant, high-speed data transfer rates of up to 500Mbps
• One Gigabit Ethernet Port; built-in QoS provides networking flexibility and stable HD video streaming, online gaming capabilities
• Plug-and-play setup; no configuration required
• Patented Power-Saving Mode automatically reduces power consumption by up to 85%
• Up to 300 meter (984 feet) range over the household power circuit

“Our flagship Gigabit Powerline Adapter transforms your home or office power outlets into a high-performance network with no need for new wires or drilling,” said Howard He, Product Engineer of TP-LINK USA. “With our convenient network at 500Mbps, the Gigabit Powerline Adapter will transmit multiple HD video streams to every room or office, making it an exceptional choice for an easy-to-build multimedia network.”

Legit Forums

Posted by | Mon, May 21, 2012 - 09:55 AM | Comments

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ARCTIC Releases Accelero Xtreme III Video Card GPU Cooler

ARCTIC just moments ago released its new graphics card cooler, the Accelero Xtreme III. It is capable of cooling the world's fastest single GPU powered video card along with dozens of other models. With three 92mm ultra-quiet PWM fans (0.5 Sone) and five heatpipes with an 83-fin heatsink, the Accelero Xtreme III provides an optimal cooling capacity of up to 300 Watts in total silence. The Accelero Xtreme III is available now and comes with a six-year limited warranty and a MSRP at $119.95 or 90.41 EUR, excluding VAT.

ARCTIC Accelero Xtreme III Specifications:

• Max. Cooling Capacity 300 Watts
• Heatpipe Ø 6 mm x 5
• Heatsink Material Aluminum fins x 84, thickness 0.3 mm
• Fan 92 mm, 900 - 2,000 RPM (controlled by PWM) x 3 fans
• Bearing Fluid Dynamic Bearing
• Noise Level 0.5 Sone
• Current (per fan) / Voltage (per fan) 0.12A / 12V
• Power Consumption 4.32W
• Dimensions 288 (L) x 104 (W) x 54 (H) mm
• Net Weight 653 g

Accelero Xtreme III offers the best cooling solution for the fastest single GPU graphics cards in the market, and it is extraordinarily quiet too. Its up-to-date mounting mechanism and heatsink design makes it compatible with a wide range of graphic cards. It comes with a comprehensive set of 31 RAM and VR heatsinks to cool all the components surrounding the GPU. The package also provides you with our award-winning MX-4 thermal compound to enhance the GPU’s thermal conductivity.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Mon, May 21, 2012 - 05:50 AM | Comments

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ASUS Launches First Intel Thunderbolt Certified Motherboards

ASUS announced the launch of its P8Z77-V PREMIUM motherboard this morning — the flagship of the P8Z77 Series and the first Intel certified motherboard in the market to offer the latest Thunderbolt connection interface. The PREMIUM designation has been reserved for only the best motherboards with the latest technologies, and the P8Z77-V PREMIUM maintains this standard. In addition to the onboard Thunderbolt connection on the P8Z77-V PREMIUM, ASUS also offers the same technology on the P8Z77-V PRO/THUNDERBOLT motherboard.

Thunderbolt is a new, high-speed I/O technology designed for performance, simplicity and flexibility, with lightning fast transfer speeds that are twice that of USB 3.0 and up to 20 times faster than USB 2.0. It offers simultaneous bi-directional 10Gbps transfer speeds over a single cable, with the flexibility to daisy-chain up to six Thunderbolt-ready devices with a single connection as well as offering full display port support for a 7th Thunderbolt or display port equipped monitor. This allows for a clutter-free computing experience while offering unprecedented levels of performance. Users can connect multiple Thunderbolt-enabled external storage drives to a Thunderbolt-enabled display and transfer files while watching HD movies, all without experiencing any lag. In addition for content professional this connection has been designed form the ground up for multimedia offering low latency with highly accurate time synchronization for professional audio and video applications. PC enthusiast and gamers can take immediate advantage combining Thunderbolt and on-board Lucid Virtu MVP to enjoy top-notch graphics performance.

The P8Z77-V PREMIUM motherboard boasts several new features pushing pass the limitations of the Z77 chipset, such as true 4-way NVIDIA SLI and 4-way AMD CrossFireX on the latest PCIe Gen 3.0 slots for maximum graphics performance. Also introduced is advanced SSD Caching II, allowing users to cache additional frequently used programs and files using multiple SSDs to instantly upgrade system performance. A 32GB mSATA based SSD is also onboard, enabling Intel Smart Response and Rapid Start Technology for super-fast boot up and resume times. Network traffic is handled by a pair of Gigabit Intel LAN ports, ensuring high speed transfers for outstanding network performance. In addition in conjunction with ASUS’ exclusive Network iControl users can customize their network performance to their specific usage. Rounding our connectivity the premium also features the fastest USB 3.0 implementation via USB 3.0 Boost support extending performance for USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 devices.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Mon, May 21, 2012 - 05:26 AM | Comments

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Windows 8 To Take Desktop GUI Design In a New Direction

In a rather long blog entry in the Building Windows 8 blog, Microsoft goes through the history of Windows Graphical User Interfaces (GUI), going all the way back to Windows 1 in 1985 and ending with the upcoming Windows 8 GUI. They explain the new direction that they're going with Windows 8, calling Vista's Aero Glass look "dated and cheesy", with Windows 7 toning all this down significantly, along with the use of flat icons as opposed to Vista's 3D ones.

For Windows 8, they're getting rid of the rounded window look and going for a smart, square-edged look instead - this will be better for windows screenshots if nothing else, which will be free of the corner "ears" that Aero Glass screenshots have. They will also be getting rid of the transparancies still visible in Windows 7, the glows and gradients found on buttons etc, with a default look of an overall white to create an airy and premium look.

Personally, the one thing I really liked about the much maligned Vista was its Aero Glass GUI, with its smart-looking black shine, transparent glass effects and stylish 3D icons, all combining to give it a serious wow factor. It still has it for me to this day, in fact. Had Vista been a better product overall, perhaps Microsoft would not have felt so compelled to move away from its impressive GUI? We'll never know.

We applied the principles of “clean and crisp” when updating window and taskbar chrome. Gone are the glass and reflections. We squared off the edges of windows and the taskbar. We removed all the glows and gradients found on buttons within the chrome. We made the appearance of windows crisper by removing unnecessary shadows and transparency. The default window chrome is white, creating an airy and premium look. The taskbar continues to blend into the desktop wallpaper, but appears less complicated overall.

To complete the story, we updated the appearance of most common controls, such as buttons, check boxes, sliders, and the Ribbon. We squared off the rounded edges, cleaned away gradients, and flattened the control backgrounds to align with our chrome changes. We also tweaked the colors to make them feel more modern and neutral.

Microsoft

Posted by | Sun, May 20, 2012 - 06:51 PM | Comments

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NVIDIA's GTX 680 Intermittent VSYNC Stuttering Issue To Be Fixed In Next Driver

If you have a new NVIDIA GTX 680 graphics card and you appear to have been experiencing intermittent stuttering issues in your games while vertical sync (vsync) was turned on, you're not imagining it.

There's a very long thread over at Tom's Hardware where users have been complaining of this problem. The TH editors were unable to reproduce the problem over several games, but asked NVIDIA about it. They explained that they've found the root cause of the problem, but that it will take extensive testing before it's released, so will therefore be rolled into the next driver release, slated for June. So, if this is driving you mad, then simply sit tight or turn off vsync for now. This problem doesn't appear to affect previous generation cards. NVIDIA's official response is quoted below.

We have received reports of an intermittent v-sync stuttering issue from some of our customers. We’ve root caused the issue to a driver bug and identified a fix for it. The fix requires extensive testing though, and will not be available until our next major driver release targeted for June (post-R300). For users experiencing this issue, the interim workaround is to disable v-sync via the Nvidia Control Panel or in-game graphics settings menu.

Tom's Hardware

Posted by | Sun, May 20, 2012 - 06:22 PM | Comments

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Nokia's Lumia 900 Glass So Tough, It Can Easily Withstand Having a Nail Hammered Into It!

When choosing a mobile phone, there are many things that have to be considered, with features such as operating system, phone company and costs all having to be taken into account. Another is just how tough the phone is to resisting life's knocks, bumps, scrapes and falls. Well, if this video from Nokia's hardware validation lab is anything to go by, the Nokia Lumia 900 is very tough indeed. The video below shows one being torture tested by having a nail hammered into its glass face and then the phone itself being used to hammer a nail into a piece of wood! Incredibly, it survives this without a scratch and is still fully functional at the end of it. Of course, it must be remembered that the shocks go right through the phone, so the circuit board, battery and case must all be made to be very tough as well. Note that trying such a harsh test on your own phone is not recommended.

Now, one of the world's most popular smartphones is of course the Apple iPhone, which is unfortunately well known for not taking knocks and falls too well, often resulting in cracked and broken glass fronts. Perhaps Apple should note when designing their next expensive iPhone, that this level of toughness is perfectly possible in a smartphone and doesn't cost the earth to implement?

Posted by | Sun, May 20, 2012 - 10:31 AM | Comments

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Homemade Transformer Has To Be Seen To Be Believed!

Ok, here's something a little different for a lazy Sunday afternoon. Fans of the Transformers series of sci-fi movies will love this: a Japanese enthusiast has built a homemade real-life Autobot! The size of a model radio-controlled car and using 22 servo motors for the joints, it can literally change from a car into a warrior bot and back in a matter of seconds, looking very cool while transforming. It can also do some funky moves while in "humanoid" form, too.

This is a version 8 model and a version 9 is in the works, which will be very interesting to see. The number plate has the name "Kenji Ishida", which is presumably the name of the enthusiast who made it.

Posted by | Sun, May 20, 2012 - 10:04 AM | Comments

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Microsoft: Delivering Reliable and Trustworthy Metro Style Apps

In a bid to maintain quality (and copy Apple?) Microsoft is laying down some ground rules for developers wanting to code apps for the Metro interface that's new to Windows 8, due for release in a few months.

Apps will only be available through the Windows Store, which allows one-click installs, user feedback and crash monitoring - all handled by the operating system, reducing development time and providing a consistent user experience. To help ensure this seamless experience, Microsoft is also requiring developers not to use APIs which aren't included in the development kit. All apps submissions must go through an Apple App Store style vetting process before they will appear, along with a cut of all sales of course. Finally, apps can't just grab access to certain features of mobile devices, such as GPS and cameras. Instead, they will be forced to request access from the user. This is good, as these functions allow personal data about a user to be obtained, such as location and their picture. This should help to keep potential malware and intrusive apps at bay. But what about the screening process you say? Nothing is perfect and a few dodgy apps sneak past Apple's screening process occasionally, which are subsequently pulled. Having a safety net like this is highly recommended.

Windows Store – For customers, it starts with the Store, their one-stop-shop for Metro style apps. To get into the Store your app is reviewed for both technical and policy compliance, including security checks. After it’s published to the Store, your app will be rated and reviewed by the community. Together, the onboarding process and community reviews help create an environment in which customers can try apps with confidence.

Microsoft

Posted by | Fri, May 18, 2012 - 07:04 PM | Comments

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Big Content's Piracy Myth Busted: BitTorrent 'Piracy' Does Actually Boost Sales!

Big Content routinely cries foul over 'piracy' of their precious content and on that basis, uses its formidable wealth to continue persecuting file sharers - that's ordinary people like you and me - by trying to force extortionate financial settlements or taking them to court and lobbying governments around the world to get draconian anti-consumer laws passed such as three strikes and you're off the internet. Note that Big Content never shows in court or anywhere else, independently verified evidence of the supposed "harm" dealt by file sharing. They always rely on statutory damages and claim that it's impossible to quantify it. So, how do they know how much "damage" is being done, then? Interestingly, looking at their financials, they're always in rude health, even during these rough economic times around the world. This includes, music, movies and especially video games - witness the astounding sales of the latest Call of Duty series breaking all sales records recently. Something doesn't smell right, does it?

Most file sharing studies have shown that file sharing has a neglible effect on sales, good or bad and the ones that show damage to sales tend to be funded by Big Content. However, this latest independent study, entitled "Profit Leak? Pre-Release File Sharing and the Music Industry" by Robert Hammond, Assistant Professor of Economics at North Carolina State University, claims that piracy actually increases sales of music albums. Moreover, Hammond claims that the study is much more accurate than previous ones made, since the sample size is so much larger: 1095 albums from 1075 artists on the largest private BitTorrent tracker dedicated to music. The research focused on albums that were leaked before release and found that on average resulted in 59.6 additional sales, a small, but clearly measurable benefit. Interestingly, the artists to gain the most were the widely known ones, with the little known ones not affected by file sharing at all.

The study can be downloaded here (681KB PDF) or viewed online courtesy of scribd here and the professor's website is here.

"I isolate the causal effect of file sharing of an album on its sales by exploiting exogenous variation in how widely available the album was prior to its official release date. The findings suggest that file sharing of an album benefits its sales. I don’t find any evidence of a negative effect in any specification, using any instrument," Hammond concludes in his paper.

Posted by | Fri, May 18, 2012 - 06:25 PM | Comments

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Borderlands 2 Special Editions Revealed & Detailed

Looks like 2K games and Gearbox have been busy detailing their two special editions of Borderlands 2. First up is the "Deluxe Vault Hunter's Collector's Edition" which comes stacked with a Marcus bobblehead, map of Pandora, hardcover art book, digital comic download code and of course bonus DLC content. For those who would rather go big or go home, there's the "Ultimate Loot Chest Limited Edition" which includes the above items along with a replica red loot chest scaled down of course, steel book case, lithograph postcard set, field notes from Hammerlock, cloth map of Pandora, creatures ID chart, and a numbered certificate of authenticity. You can get the "Ultimate Loot Chest Limited Edition" for $149.99 and the "Deluxe Vault Hunter's Collector's Edition" for $99.99. Pre-orders of either version will give users access to "Borderlands 2 Premiere Club" which gives users access to the Gearbox Gun Pack, a Golden Key which opens a rare item located in the Golden Sanctuary. Furthermore the Vault Hunter's Relic which boosts abilities will be included as well alongside the Mechromancer class. Those pre-ordering the regular edition will get Mechromancer as well, however it will remain post-launch DLC content.

Borderlands 2 is a big fall release for both 2K Games and Gearbox, timed to hit just when you might be getting sick of grabbing loot from a certain other game. And as a big fall release, it's getting a few special editions, because of course it is. Today 2K and Gearbox detailed the two special editions of the game and the goodies stashed within.

Shack News

Posted by | Fri, May 18, 2012 - 02:16 PM | Comments

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EA Promotes Crowd Funded Games With Free 90-Day Distribution On Origin

It looks like alternative business models are alive and well in the world of PC video games. The crowd funding model, where the developer asks fans to pay money for the development of the game, rather than just the final product, has caught the eye of gaming giant Electronic Arts.

For anyone that can present to them a fully developed crowd funded game, they will offer the Origin distribution service free for 90 days to help the game reach a wide audience. Origin SVP David DeMartini had this to say about the initiative, "The public support for crowd-funding creative game ideas coming from small developers today is nothing short of phenomenal. It's also incredibly healthy for the gaming industry. Gamers around the world deserve a chance to play every great new game, and by waiving distribution fees on Origin we can help make that a reality for successfully crowd-funded developers." Sounds good. The daddy of online game distribution, Valve, are sure to counter with something of their own with their Steam platform and it will be interesting to see what they come up with. Budding developers can sign up for this offer here.

Origin is offering to waive its distribution fees for any developers that have a successfully crowd-funded, ready-to-publish downloadable PC game. Origin will provide distribution services for 90 days after the game's launch, giving new crowd-funded games a chance to reach the growing worldwide audience on Origin.

If you have a game development project that has been successfully funded via a crowd-funding service, you are eligible to submit your final game for distribution on Origin.

The Escapist

Posted by | Fri, May 18, 2012 - 01:40 PM | Comments

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Microsoft Promotes PC Sales With Free Xbox 360 From Today

Starting May today, Microsoft is to start promoting Windows PC sales, by giving away a free 4GB Xbox 360 with qualifying PCs. The promotion will be marketed at "hard working" students, who need to unwind after a day full of studies and classes. In the USA, the promotion starts May 20, where a qualifying Windows PC costing at least $699 bought from a participating retailer will include a free 4GB Xbox 360. The deal is also available in Canada, but is slightly different. Here, the promotion starts today and the PC has to cost just $599 or more from participating retailers, with the same 4GB Xbox 360 being given away. Participating retailers in the US include Best Buy, Dell.com, Fry’s Electronics, HPDirect.com, Microsoft Stores, and NewEgg.com. In Canada, they include Best Buy, Dell.ca, Future Shop, Staples and The Source.

With all the hard work students put in for their classes in college, they need some downtime, right? That’s where the Xbox 360 comes in! To blow off some steam, you can just hop on Xbox LIVE and play some Halo with friends and family far away or just down the hall. Could be a great way to blow off steam and relax after a long day full of studying and classes.

Microsoft

Posted by | Fri, May 18, 2012 - 01:10 PM | Comments

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Next Apple iPhone to feature larger screen

Sources report that tech giant Apple Computer has placed orders for a new larger sized screen with its Asian suppliers of iPhone displays. The displays are reported to be 'considerably' larger than the 3.5" screens that are being used on current Apple iPhone models. The screen is said to be at least 4-inches wide, corner-to-corner and will be the focal point of the newest generation of iPhone coming in October. This looks to be a direct response to arch-enemy Samsung whose smartphones have screens of us to 4.8-inches.

The new iPhone screens will measure 4 inches from corner to corner, one source said. That would represent a roughly 30 percent increase in viewing area, assuming Apple keeps other dimensions proportional. Apple has used a 3.5-inch screen since introducing the iPhone in 2007. It is likely all three of the screen suppliers will get production orders from Apple, which could begin as soon as June. That would allow the new iPhone to go into production as soon as August, if the company follows its own precedent in moving from orders for prototypes for key components to launch.

Reuters Technology News

Posted by | Fri, May 18, 2012 - 01:19 AM | Comments

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HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE Banned From the US

The anticipated rollout of two of HTC's newest mobile phones, the One X and EVO 4G LTE have been delayed due to Apple Computer's litigation against the Taiwan company HTC. This is yet another round in the global battle for mobile handset superiority which sees the latest battle being waged literally at the doorsteps of the US. The two HTC devices have been held up at US Customs as a result of an exclusion order by the US International Trade Commission (ITC) from late last year. Because of this action - prompted by Apple - HTC and its partners AT&T and Sprint are currently unable to sell the handsets in the US. Both AT&T and Sprint are Apple partners as well and are reportedly working on brokering a deal between HTC and the iPhone parent, Apple.

The patent in question has to do with when you click on a phone number or email address inside of a text or email. Before, when you tapped on a phone number in a text or email, a menu would pop up giving you a list of options. Now, it just goes straight to the phone’s dialer. That menu is apparently a patented idea by Apple. The international versions of both phones still have the functionality. We still do not know if US Customs agrees. As far as we know, the devices are still detained.

Digital Trends

Posted by | Fri, May 18, 2012 - 12:53 AM | Comments

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Intel Going Green, Aims To Have Conflict-Free CPUs By End of 2013

Like many companies and organizations around the world, Intel has a Green agenda. Therefore, it has set itself quite a few goals that it wants to achieve by 2020, such as the usual reductions in things like use of energy and water, eliminate chemical waste sent to landfill by 2020, plus use renewable power wherever possible. Interestingly, it wants to become conflict-free across four key minerals: gold, tantalum, tin and tungsten by the end of 2013. To achieve this, it will make supplier audits more stringent. It looks like Ivy Bridge's successor, Haswell, might be the first conflict-free (and hence guilt free?) processor ever made.

"At Intel, corporate responsibility is a crucial component to the overall growth of our business," said Michael Jacobson, Intel's director of corporate responsibility. "From product to customer to employee to environment, corporate responsibility allows Intel to have a greater and more influential impact on industries, communities and the global economy."

Legit Forums

Posted by | Thu, May 17, 2012 - 07:30 PM | Comments

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Sony Introduces PlayStation Network Store Pre-Orders

Valve's Steam platform is very successful, so it isn't surprising to see others copy some of Steam's features. Certain Games bought from the Sony PlayStation Network store for the PlayStation 3 can now be preloaded before the game's official release date, which is similar to what Steam offers. On the day of release, an unlock code will be sent to the console, which allows the game to be played. Unlike Steam however, payment isn't taken immediately the order is placed, but instead will be charged two days before the release date, in most cases. Preorders can be cancelled by the customer, however, they will be cancelled by Sony if payment cannot be taken on the payment date. The first game to be made available this way is Sorcery, currently available from the European store.

Sony

Posted by | Thu, May 17, 2012 - 06:52 PM | Comments

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SAPPHIRE Introduces Overclocked HD 7770 Vapor-X Graphics Card

SAPPHIRE's Vapor-X cooling technology, first intruduced in 2007 with the HD 3870 ATOMIC Edition graphics card, is known for excellent cooling along with quiet running. SAPPHIRE have now introduced it to their 7000-series in the form of the HD 7770 Vapor-X graphics card, which features two large fans and the Vapor-X heatpipe cooling system. The card is factory overclocked to 1.1GHz GPU and 5.2GHz effective for the 1GB GDDR5. Connectivity has been upgraded too, hence the card has two DVI ports (DVI-I and DVI-D), HDMI and a single DisplayPort output, supporting up to four monitors. The card also supports HDMI 1.4a, which supports stereoscopic 3D of 60Hz per eye (120Hz total). It is also ready for the next generation of 4K displays that can be driven from a single high speed input of 3GHz HDMI 1.4a or DisplayPort 1.2 HBR2.

Vapor-X cooling has been widely available on a number of highly successful TOXIC Edition and Vapor-X models in the HD 5000 and HD 6000 series for the global market. Now this extreme and exclusive cooling technology has also been introduced on new products in the HD 7000 series.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Thu, May 17, 2012 - 05:48 PM | Comments

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Diablotek Introduces the TITAN XT Mid Tower PC Case

Diablotek recently announced the companies latest PC enclosure, the Titan XT. Diablotek is known for budget friendly cases for under $50, so this might be of interest to many of our readers that need to stuck to a budget. You won't find SuperSpeed USB 3.0 headers or a window, but the case doesn't look half bad. The Titan XT is covered by Diablotek 1-year Limited Warranty on parts and labor. Titan XT ATX Mid-Tower Features:

• Top Mounted Power Supply.
• One Pre-installed Rear 120MM Fan and Optional one Front/two Side 120MM Fan.
• Top Mounted IO Ports with two USB 2.0 and HD Audio In/out.
• Tool-less Assembly for 5.35” Devices and 3.5” HDDs.
• Model No: CPA-8821

“I am pleased to announce our latest model the TitanXT, designed for System integrators, resellers, or even enthusiast this case features full length VGA Support, Tool-less Assembly and much more all at a price point that can’t be beat. So make sure to check it out when it hits retail and etail stores this week”, said Susan Wang, VP Operations at Diablotek International Inc., North America.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Thu, May 17, 2012 - 04:03 PM | Comments

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UE4 Development Being Assisted By Pitbull Studio

Epic Games is a major games studio that's been around what seems like forever and they are also the people bringing the amazing Unreal Engine 4 to the world. So, you wouldn't expect them to need any help from a small studio that no one's heard of would you? Enter three year old Pitbull Studio from Sunderland, England. These guys headed up by Ex-Midway Newcastle's Robert Troughton, specialise in work for hire and it looks like they bring in a lot of engineering talent to Epic by helping them to develop UE4 and the first game based on it. Epic's director of engineering, Daniel Vogel, confirmed the collaboration, "Epic has a great history working with Pitbull Studio. We can count on them to provide reliable engineering resources, and they're helping us prepare for the next generation of games."

Pitbull Studio currently have several vacancies for talented programmers to work on various aspects of UE4 development from environment artists to engine programmers. Do you feel up to the challenge?

Joystiq

Posted by | Thu, May 17, 2012 - 03:28 PM | Comments

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Unreal Engine 4 Amazing Demo Screenshots Released

In a Wired article about the state of gaming, consoles and Unreal Engine 4, Epic released some, well, epic, screenshots of a demo showing off what UE4 is capable of. It's so good in fact, that it looks almost photoreal in places. The two minute demo was shown at GDC behind closed doors to around 30 people, who's jaws dropped at the visuals and is due to be officially shown to the public in June, when UE4 is released.

One of the many benefits of the new engine, besides creating fantastic-looking video, are dramatic efficiency improvements when developing games. Typically, when certain rendering aspects are altered, such as lighting effects, there is a "baking time" of around 30 minutes where the computer has to go away and precompute lots of data. UE4 eliminates this entirely, allowing developers to see their changes instantly, thus helping speed up and improve game development by orders of magnitude - a massive benefit to developers and gamers alike, who will benefit from a better product.

In June, UE4 will be revealed to the gaming public. The reactions will likely be as spontaneous as staged lighting effects used to be. It’s all pre-scripted at this point: Fanboys will wet their pants, contrarian analysts will wring their hands, message boards will explode in either fury or collective orgasm. In all of the clamor and fanfare, though, the simple truth will be lost. Epic has redefined gaming before, and with Unreal 4 the company is doing it again.

Wired News

Posted by | Thu, May 17, 2012 - 03:00 PM | Comments

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BitFenix Launches Recon and Hydra Pro Fan Controllers

BitFenix is proud to introduce two brand new fan controllers designed to put the user in the driver's seat – Recon and Hydra Pro.

Recon is the world's first Internet-connected fan controller. After installing the included Windows-based software, this five-channel fan controller enables users to connect to it using smartphones, tablets or laptops via the Internet. Once connected, users can monitor and adjust their fans and temperatures via their mobile device. The BitFenix Recon will be available starting next week with an MSRP of 34.90€ in the EU and $39 in North America. Hydra Pro combines a powerful fan controller with an LED control device. Its five thermal channels deliver up to 30W of power each, and are easily controlled via low-profile sliders that make it compatible with a wide variety of cases – even those with doors. If this controller is used with BitFenix Spectre and Spectre Pro LED fans, there is a convenient push-button LED on/off switch! The BitFenix Hydra Pro carries an MSRP of 30€ in the EU and $34.90 in North America. It will not be available till June 2012. Here is a video on the fan controller.

"Users have been clamoring for these two devices for a while now, and I'm proud to report that the wait is finally over," says BitFenix Product Manager David Jarlestedt. "With Recon and Hydra Pro, BitFenix once again takes our disruptive ideas and brings them into a new design space – fan controllers. Offering never-before-seen functionality at competitive price points, Recon and Hydra Pro are set to become the go-to thermal control devices for enthusiasts the world over."

Legit Forums

Posted by | Thu, May 17, 2012 - 12:16 PM | Comments

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EVGA Recalls GeForce GTX 670 SuperClocked Video Cards

Kyle Bennett over at [H]ard|OCP has learned that EVGA is recalling their GeForce GTX 670 SuperClocked (SC) video cards due to some bad products that managed to get out the door. It appears that some of the cards are artifacting in games and benchmarks. EVGA has only been selling the card for a week, so this is a very small recall and EVGA is going to be taking care of customers by replacing their card with an EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW version at no additional cost! We reviewed the EVGA GTX 670 Superclock card (P/N: 02G-P3-2672-KR) last week and had no problems with our card, but if you have one you might as well switch it out for an upgrade!

EVGA has isolated this problem to an early batch of GTX 670 Superclock cards (P/N: 02G-P3-2672-KR) that were not properly screened during QA/QC procedure. We have already been working with our partners to retest this particular batch. In the meantime, our R&D has also done numerous tests, burn in and component quality verification to confirm that the EVGA GTX 670 Superclock is a well designed product. If any of your users are experiencing issues with their EVGA GTX 670 Superclock boards, please ask them to email Jacob Freeman (jacobf[at]evga[dot]com), and he will assist in getting them setup with an RMA cross shipment along with EVGA upgrading them to the GTX 670 FTW version (P/N: 02G-P3-2685-KR) for the inconvenience of this.

HardOCP

Posted by | Thu, May 17, 2012 - 08:44 AM | Comments

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Fake or Real: RunCore Admits To 'Enhancing' SSD Destruction Video

When RunCore announced the InVincible Solid State Drive yesterday, something didn't sit right with us when we watched the video clip. The video shows how with a single click you can over-volt the SSD and basically destroy your data. The video that RunCore posted on YouTube shows a plume of smoke coming from the SSD and the NAND Flash, SSD controller and the DRAM Cache chip all being visually damaged when they take the drive apart.

If you want to see the smoke and the internal damage, skip to the 2:33 mark and take a look for yourself. If you look at the white lines that are painted on the PCB they are 'bent' in several spots and you can clearly make out the round Photoshop tool used on the controller and cache chip to make the self-destruct feature damage look impressive. We don't doubt that the self-destruct feature works on the RunCore InVincible SSD, but we had to ask RunCore why they faked the damage for the video. We got a response this morning saying that they faked it to be more dramatic. If you want an SSD that self-destructs and bellows smoke like something from Mission Impossible, you are out of luck. This news post will self-destruct in five seconds.

"We “tuned” it a bit to make it become a notch more obvious, and uuunnn dramatic." - RunCore Taiwan PR

Legit Forums

Posted by | Thu, May 17, 2012 - 08:17 AM | Comments

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PQI Introduces Mirrored Stainless Steel USB 3.0 Drive

Power Quotient International (PQI) announced the USB 3.0 Intelligent Drive U821V traveling disk this morning. The Intelligent Drive U821V has a modern appearance and is unique in the sense that it is a “zero-step” storage device that can simply be inserted and ready for use without having to first remove a cap or push out a retractable USB head. The U821V traveling disk sports a utilitarian, corrosion-resistant, stainless steel surface that has a mirrored finish. This SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Flash drive is available in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB capacities. PQI did not publish the performance numbers of the U821V.

The Intelligent Drive U821V has USB 3.0 high transfer rates, low power consumption and is backward compatible with USB 2.0. It also features a more stable power management system that greatly reduces the risk of data loss. he Intelligent Drive U821V’s swivel design removes the hassles from attaching and detaching. This slim, stylish and functional storage device is the perfect complement to the Ultrbook. With all these exciting new features, the Intelligent Drive U821V is something you cannot afford to miss this summer.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Thu, May 17, 2012 - 07:41 AM | Comments

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VIA Announces Fanless VIA AMOS-3002 Pico-ITX System

VIA Technologies today announced the VIA AMOS-3002, an ultra compact, fanless system designed around the tiny VIA EPIA-P900 Pico-ITX board. The VIA AMOS-3002 provides embedded customers with a system that delivers all the latest features and digital media standards required for a diversified range of embedded applications including telematics, in-vehicle control, machine to machine controller (M2M), digital signage and kiosks.

The VIA AMOS-3002 is specifically designed to support the VIA EPIA-P900 Pico-ITX board, which combines a 1.0GHz Eden X2 processor and the VIA VX900H MSP, to operate completely fanlessly within a robust chassis measuring 19.7cm x 10.4cm x 4.9cm (WxDxH). The VIA AMOS-3002 has a certified operating temperature of -20 to 60 degrees C, vibration tolerance of up to 5Grms and a shock tolerance of up to 50G. The VIA AMOS-3002 is also available with the VIA EPIA-P830 featuring a 1.0GHz Nano E-Series processor, offering an operating temperature of -20 to 70 degrees C.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Thu, May 17, 2012 - 07:29 AM | Comments

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NVIDIA Reveals GK110 Specifications and Availability

Yesterday, we reported that NVIDIA revealed the GK110 GPU, or "Big Kepler", as it has been dubbed, which is going to go in their K20 Tesla graphics card for professional applications (it will most assuredly have a professional price, too). From a technical perspective, we were able to give some idea of its performance, but not much else. However, NVIDIA have now revealed more specs of the device and when it will be available to gamers. It appears that the only parameter left out is the clock speed.

The GPU contains 7.1 billion transistors, 2880 CUDA cores, 15 SMX clusters, talking to up to a whopping 24GB GDDR5 over a 384-bit data bus, not the 512-bit that had been widely rumoured, which is sure to disappoint hardcore performance enthusiasts. This also means that the card will have an odd amount of memory, rather than a power of two like on the GTX 680. The GK110 compares with the GK104 GPU used in the current GTX 680, which has 3.5 billion transistors, 1536 CUDA cores, 8 SMX clusters and a 256-bit data bus, so the GK110 is basically a lot wider, but not twice as wide as its little brother, so we don't expect it to deliver twice the performance at the same clocks, even though it has twice the transistors. Note that a bigger chip will have to run at lower clocks too, further reducing performance.

And availability? Eager gamers brace yourselves: it looks like it will be 6 to 9 months away, appearing in Q1 2013. Also, it may possibly be branded GeForce GTX 780. The price for this monster card should be interesting, too. Specs for the GK110 are below.

The die shot above is of the GK110 GPU and the card pictured is the K20 without its top cover. Note the lack of a rear connector panel as it's not intended to be used for graphics, but GPU compute instead. Power is supplied via 6+8 pin connectors mounted at the back of the card.

• 2880 CUDA Cores
• 15 SMX Clusters
• 384-bit Memory Controller
• Up to 24GB of GDDR5 memory
• 2nd Gen ECC
• Hardware GPU Silicon Virtualization
• Hyper-Q (Slashes CPU idle time by allowing multiple CPU cores to simultaneously utilize a single Kepler GPU, dramatically advancing programmability and efficiency)
• Dynamic Parallelism (Simplifies GPU programming by allowing programmers to easily accelerate all parallel nested loops – resulting in a GPU dynamically spawning new threads on its own without going back to the CPU)
• 50-85% Double Precision Rate to Single Precision
• At least 1.5 TFLOPS DP FP64
• Target: 250 GB/s bandwidth

VR-Zone

Posted by | Wed, May 16, 2012 - 05:07 PM | Comments

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Steam Remote Game Downloads Feature Now Live

Earlier this month, we reported that Valve was to introduce a new Steam client feature called Remote Management. At the time, it was available in the latest beta client. However, it has now gone live and can now be used by all Steam subscribers. To get it, simply run Steam and let it auto update.

This new feature allows the gamer to manage their games library remotely by using a mobile phone or web browser. With the Steam client running on the computer, the gamer is able purchase and download games immediately, without having to wait to get home. Very handy if the time on a special offer is about to expire for example, but also rather conveniently for Valve, helps to make Steam purchases just that little bit more impulsive...

The specific changes include:

- Remote management of your games library through the web or mobile device
- Added UI to redeem Steam wallet vouchers sold by GameStop
- Fixed download issues with new content system
- Fixed crashes related to Steam Workshop file management

Valve

Posted by | Wed, May 16, 2012 - 04:04 PM | Comments

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Zalman To Showcase Many New Products At Computex 2012

Zalman the company that made a name for itself with its high end CPU & GPU coolers, is to showcase a top to bottom lineup of new products at COMPUTEX 2012, Grand Hyatt Hotel, suite rooms 1035 & 1036, June 5-9. They will have something in each category: CPU coolers, PC cases, notebook coolers, power supplies, graphics cards, external HDD case, LED backlight monitors, speakers and finally, gaming-grade keyboards and mice.

New for cooling, we have the CNPS14X dual radiator 140mm cooler, CNPS9900DF dual fan vertical flower cooler and three new models of water cooler, the LQ310, LQ315 & LQ320. Zalman will also present several smart-looking mid tower cases. Other items of interest, include several new PSUs, the ZM1250W Platinum ultra high efficiency, ZM550/650/750-XG ultry high efficiency, plus various new graphics cards, mostly with non-reference Zalman coolers.

On the AMD side, interestingly, Zalman are not showing a HD 7970, but the new range starts with a HD 7950 and continues on down with the HD 7870, HD 7850, HD 7770 & HD 7750. Their NVIDIA presentation is much more limited though. Again the top model, in the shape of the GTX 680 is missing, leaving just a GTX 670, GTX 560Ti and GTX 550Ti in the range. Note that the GTX 670 only has the reference cooler, which seems odd, since other manufacturers have released non-reference cooler versions. Due to an issue with the link to the direct web page not working, please select item number 96 from the menu.

Zalman

Posted by | Wed, May 16, 2012 - 03:15 PM | Comments

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RunCore Launches InVincible SSD w/ Self-Destruct Feature - Video Shows Smoke!

Last month we told you that RunCore will be releasing an SSD that self-destructs and it looks like that drive has finally come to market. The drive is called the RunCore InVincible Solid State Drive and allows you to control the total physical destruction of your data with with a single click. RunCore posted up a video showing the data detruction and there was a small plume of smoke that came from the SSD when the drive was killed by blowing up the NAND Flash by over-volting it! If you are worried about your data and want to destroy it quickly, this might be one way to do it!

A less subtle method is the physical destruction of your SSD by applying an over-current to the NAND flash memory and thereby physically destroying these. The RunCore InVincible product series is catering to embedded computer systems requiring high-speed serial switched fabric interconnects for rugged design implementation and more flexible power ranges. Delivering optimized storage options particularly in mission-critical fields such aerospace, defense and general industrial applications.

Legit Forums

Posted by | Wed, May 16, 2012 - 01:09 PM | Comments

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LaCie Launches 2big NAS For Business Users - 100MB/s Transfer Speeds

LaCie recently announced a new 2-bay network-attached storage solution (NAS) that delivers the ideal combination of speed and security for small businesses – the LaCie 2big NAS, design by Neil Poulton. Powered by a 2GHz processor and improved file system, the 2big NAS delivers speeds up to 100MB/s, ensuring employees can share files from any PC, Mac, or Linux workstation. The LaCie 2big NAS is available now in diskless (0TB) version for $299 and a 6TB version for $649.

"According to data from Research and Markets, network storage is growing in excess of 30 percent annually, increasing the demands placed on network storage devices," said Erwan Girard, Professional Business Unit Manager at LaCie. "The LaCie 2big NAS was developed to scale with the needs of SOHO users, delivering fast file sharing and data security, the two most critical factors for a small business."

Legit Forums

Posted by | Wed, May 16, 2012 - 12:44 PM | Comments

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Zotac Launches GeForce GT 630, GT 620 & GT 610 Video Cards

ZOTAC yesterday expanded their NVIDIA GeForce 600 series by adding the ZOTAC GeForce GT 630, GT 620 and GT 610 video card options. The ZOTAC GeForce GT 630, GT 620 and GT 610 series are available in a variety configurations with 512MB, 1GB, 2GB and 4GB memory options in PCI Express 2.0 x16, PCI Express x1 or PCI interfaces. You can also get them active or passive cooled since these are low power entry level DirectX 11 graphics cards. You can see the ZOTAC GeForce GT 630 4GB Synergy Edition video card below. The Zotac GeForce GT 630 comes clocked at 810MHz on the 96 CUDA cores.

“ZOTAC is pleased to bring the GeForce 600 series to value shoppers seeking a superior visual experience discrete graphics brings to computing,” said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International. “By installing one of our ZOTAC GeForce GT 630, GT 620 or GT 610 series graphics cards, users can experience faster video and image processing and perfect high-definition video playback with a simple upgrade.”

Legit Forums

Posted by | Wed, May 16, 2012 - 12:39 PM | Comments

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Dell Introduces 2U Rack Workstation for Virtualized 3D Workloads

Dell announced today it is expanding its client virtualization solutions with the introduction of the first virtualized 2U rack workstation enabling up to four concurrent professional graphics users to work from a single workstation from virtually anywhere. The Dell Precision R5500 rack workstation is the first four-GPU (graphics processing unit) configuration to be certified by Citrix with GPU pass-through on Citrix XenServer 6 using Citrix XenDesktop HDX 3D Pro, and brings additional security, IT resource optimization and end user flexibility to high performance workloads. This new usage model is designed for customers running 3D workloads in the engineering, medical, media and entertainment, scientific, software development and economic and finance market segments looking to support additional users on a single workstation.

“The Dell Precision R5500 offers the highest user density available on a XenServer certified platform for XenDesktop HDX 3D Pro, with four concurrent users per host,” said Derek Thorslund, director of product management, HDX technology at Citrix. “This makes it a very attractive option for customers looking to deliver high-end 3D professional graphics while keeping their intellectual property safe in the data center.”

Legit Forums

Posted by | Wed, May 16, 2012 - 12:23 PM | Comments

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New Trailer Released For The Last of Us - The Truck Ambush Trailer

Developed by Naughty Dog, creators of the best-selling Uncharte series, the upcoming game title called 'The Last of Us' looks like it will be a good one for PlayStation 3 owners! The Last of Us is expected to be released on 12/31/2012 and has an MSRP of $59.99 by Sony Computer Entertainment. Check out the new game trailer below.

Abandoned cities reclaimed by nature. A population decimated by a modern plague. Survivors are killing each other for food, weapons; whatever they can get their hands on. Joel, a brutal survivor, and Ellie, a young teenage girl who's braver and wiser beyond her years, must work together if they hope to survive their journey across the US.

YouTube

Posted by | Wed, May 16, 2012 - 12:18 PM | Comments

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End of the Road For Apple Mac Clone Maker Psystar, This Time Permanently

Who remembers Psystar? This was the plucky upstart company that tried making and selling "hackintosh" PCs under the "OpenMac" brand in 2008 - that's regular PCs with Apple's Mac operating system installed on them. However, to do this, they had to get around Apple's DRM which locked Mac OS X to Mac hardware, by using a specially made "Rebel EFI" hack. Unsurprisingly, Apple was unhappy with this - really unhappy and after a surprisingly long delay, they sued Psystar, eventually winning a permanent injunction against them in December 2009 to prevent them selling their computers with Mac OS X on them. The grounds for the injunction were violation of copyrights and of the Mac OS X licence agreement.

During its defence, Psystar hit back at Apple saying that because they had bought the copies of Max OS X on the open market, including Amazon and the Apple store, they could do what they wanted with them. They claimed that Apple was not following fair use guidelines and misusing its copyrights. However, this ignores the fact that software is licenced not sold and Apple are free to impose these restrictions, which was their eventual undoing.

Now, the case has finally been closed, since Psystar had tried to refer it to the Supreme Court, but the Supreme Court refused to take the case on, thus letting the lower court's (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit) ruling stand. The Supreme Court's appeal rejection can be viewed here (105KB PDF) and makes for depressing reading for Psystar, their lawyers and anyone rooting for them. Apple declined to comment on this ruling.

A U.S. District Court sided with Apple in 2009, saying that Psystar "violated Apple's exclusive reproduction right, distribution right, and right to create derivative works," a decision that led to a permanent injunction against the clone maker in December 2009.

CNET News

Posted by | Tue, May 15, 2012 - 05:39 PM | Comments

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Apple's Upcoming MacBook Pros, Airs and iMacs To Get High Resolution Retina Displays

Apple's recent new iPad has rightly been praised for its innovative high resolution 2048x1536 Retina display. With this launch however, it wasn't hard to see this technology coming to other Apple products. Now, according to some leaked info, this display technology will also make its way into the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptops in the near future.

The new MacBook Pro will see major changes in design and functionality, including an ultra thin design and USB 3.0 ports, while the major change in the Air will be the new Retina display, complemented with an Intel Ivy Bridge processor and its improved IGP to drive it. Note that launch of the new Airs are still a little way off, because the power draw from the Retina display combined with the thin and light form factor are posing design challenges for Apple and its manufacturing partners. This isn't a problem for iMac Retina displays however, where panels have been spotted in the supply chain. No release date has been provided, nor the resolution of these Retina displays in any of Apple's upcoming products.

Note that that the current Retina display's resolution is higher than most desktop monitors and way higher than what comes on PC laptops. Of course, PC makers aren't standing idly by while Apple cleans up the market. Starting late 2012 and gaining momentum in 2013, we will see similar display upgrades appearing on PC laptops and desktops, which is very long overdue. In turn, this should spur sales of new, more powerful graphics cards for gaming to drive these displays and may well significantly invigorate the PC market as a whole.

The new Airs will also use improved Apple internal battery technology in order to support the battery life required by high-pixel-density screens such as the Retina Display, according to sources familiar with prototype versions of the super-thin notebook’s internal components.

9 To 5 Mac

Posted by | Tue, May 15, 2012 - 04:31 PM | Comments

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