Zotac A75-ITX WiFi Review
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Ozone Strike Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
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Record Shattering Black Holes Discovered
Black holes have an interesting history to them. At first they were simply predicted by Einstein’s General Theory of Special Relativity, but few people believed they existed or how prevalent they were. One of the great achievements of the Hubble Space Telescope was not only to prove they exist but to show supermassive black holes are at the center of every galaxy we’ve checked.
A team of astronomers, including researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, have found two black holes that make all others pale in comparison. The supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, is believed to be 4.31 million solar masses, where one solar mass is 1.989*10^30 Kg; the mass of our Sun. Both of the recently discovered black holes are 2500 times more massive at 10 billion solar masses. In case that comparison isn’t enough to understand the massive scale of these black holes here’s another; the radius of the Sagittarius A*, our galaxies supermassive black hole, is roughly 1/5th the distance Mercury is from the Sun. The radius of these black holes is five times the orbit of Pluto and will directly affect objects in a 2000 light year radius.
Understanding these objects is important to understanding the formation of the Universe. Black holes are at the heart of numerous massive objects in the Universe, including those dating back to just millions of years after the Big Bang. Exactly how any of these behemoths have formed is still a matter of debate.
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NVIDIA Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Tweak Guide
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been out for a while now and has proven to be quite popular. In fact, Raptr has named it the most played game of 2011. In order to make sure you are getting the most of the game, NVIDIA has published a comprehensive tweak guide. In it, you'll find general optimizations and settings along with many hard-to-find, game-changing configuration options. NVIDIA not only shows you how to make the game look its best, you also get detailed information on how different setting affect performance as well as comparing the benefits tweaking can bring.
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PlayStation Network Accounts Tied to PS Vita Memory Cards, Not the System
Remember the reports on how high priced the memory cards are for the upcoming PlayStation Vita? Well, it looks like you may need a few if you're planning on using multiple PlayStation Network accounts on a Vita. Earlier this week, some websites were claiming the PS Vita only supports one PSN account, but now that is no longer the case. You still need to factory reset the PS Vita to switch accounts, but the PSN accounts are tied to the memory cards themselves and not the PS Vita. This means you can use multiple memory cards for different PSN accounts on the same PS Vita, just you'll have to reset the handheld to factory settings for each one. Why would you use multiple PSN accounts? Well, different regions have access to different games, so the European PS Store will have some different games than the Japanese and US Stores. You can still use multiple memory cards for the same PSN account, it is just different accounts require a different memory card.
The PlayStation Vita launches on February 22nd, 2012, in the US and Europe.
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Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto Not Stepping Down, Will Help Younger Developers at Nintendo
I'm sure some of you heard the other day Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto would be stepping down from his position at Nintendo. He is the Senior Managing Director and General Manager of Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis and Development Division, which is the group primarily responsible for much of Nintendo's internal game development. However, those reports of Miyamoto's retirement turned out to be false, as Miyamoto has no intention to step down from his position, but will help the younger developers at Nintendo. The creator of the Mario and Legend of Zelda franchises wants to help the younger developers take more initiative and responsibility developing software. Basically, Miyamoto wants to help Nintendo develop more key franchises by way of the younger generations and will remain active with the company. Miyamoto also wants to get back to the type of game design that first sparked his interest in the field, so perhaps one day soon we'll hear of a new Nintendo franchise created by Shigeru Miyamoto.
The key thing here is Shigeru Miyamoto is not stepping down from Nintendo and has no desire to do so at the present time.
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Kindle Lending Library Opened to KDP Titles
Amazon has recently announced KDP Select to allow titles published through the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) system to be available in the Kindle Lending Library. The Lending Library allows Amazon Prime members to download one book per month to their Kindle device, absolutely free. The selection of titles was previously restricted to more mainstream ebooks, and not Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) titles. With KDP Select these titles can be made available to the library, and the authors will get paid, based on the number of downloads of their titles.
For the remainder of December 2011, $500,000 will be split between the authors based on how many of their titles were lent from the library. If 100,000 KDP titles are borrowed from the lending library this way, and one title is borrowed 1,500 times, the rights holder will receive 1.5% of the $500,000 ($7,500). Next year at least $6 million will be spread amongst the KDP Select titles. For an ebook to be eligible, it must be exclusively available through KDP.
Also started with KDP Select is the ability for a rights holder to hold a promotional sale on a title. For up to five days of every KDP Select period (90 days) a title can be downloaded for free.
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Call to Develop New Energy Storage Metric
Storing energy is quickly becoming as important as making it. Extremely few of the mobile gadgets we use and even depend on every day could function without a battery, but in the future it may not be a battery powering similar devices. Supercapacitors are an interesting alternative because of how fast they can charge, discharge, and will survive far more power cycles than any battery. However, a single supercapacitor cannot hold as much energy as a single battery. This puts them at a disadvantage on the commonly used Rangone plot which compares an energy storage system’s energy density (storage capacity) and power density (charge/discharge speed), so researchers at Drexel University are suggesting a new metric be developed.
With energy storage systems becoming more important, a more comprehensive metric makes sense to develop. The researchers believe lifetime, efficiency, self-discharge, operating temperature range, and cost should all be included. Such a metric would influence mobile technology as well as national power grids, as storage capabilities are required for large scale implementation of many renewable energy systems.
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Killing Floor Christmas Update
Tripwire Interactive has announced another free content pack for its co-op zombie shooter Killing Floor, the Twisted Christmas 2011 update. The update brings several new achievements, a new weapon for each class, an unlockable "Baddest Santa" character, a new map, and the Christmas zombie models from last year. To kick off the new update, you can play the game for free this weekend on Steam, and it is also 75% off. I would highly recommend this game for anyone that enjoys team based first person shooters.
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Stretching Good for Conductance, not just Muscles
A counter-intuitive, though still explainable, phenomenon has been observed at Arizona State University involving the conductance of molecules. Many scientists want to use molecules to replace components in electronics, as a single molecule can be made to duplicate the properties of electronic devices.
Many have observed that when a molecule is stretched between two electrodes, the conductivity drops. This can be expected as a short wire conducts better than a long one. The researchers at Arizona State though decided to keep pulling and found the conductivity would jump at a certain length. Not a small jump though, but a massive 10 fold increase in conductivity.
The explanation is the geometric deformation of the molecule eventually reduces the energy level of its conducting electrons. This energy level acts as a barrier to the electrons of the electrodes on either side. Eventually the energy level drops enough to allow the electrons to travel freely across the molecule. Reducing the stretch on the molecule will cause the conductance to reduce, as the energy level starts to rise again.
This could have implications in microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS, which represent a $40 billion a year industry. These systems can be found in numerous devices, including cars and mobile devices.
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Gaming Service Raptr Names TES V: Skyrim as Most Played Game of 2011
We're nearly to the end of the year, which means plenty of companies start handing out awards to various games for seemingly dozens of categories. Raptr, the social gaming service, is handing out some awards of a different kind. Rather than say what games were the best in a given category, Raptr is instead saying what games were the most played in a category. Taking home top honors is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the most played game of the year according to Raptr. Now, Raptr tallied the total number of hours played in a game's first month, the average session length in the first month, and average play time per person in the game's first week.
The numbers come from Raptr's registered PC and 360 users (PS3 and Wii data was not included "due to data capturing restrictions") and show Skyrim just narrowly beats out Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 as the most played game of the year. MW3 beat Skyrim in total hours played in the first month by ~9%, but Skyrim won out in average play time per person (23 hours versus 20) and average session length. Skyrim's gamers logged nearly three hours per session, while MW3's gamers had about two hours, similar to Batman: Arkham City, Battlefield 3, and Gears of War 3. Raptr also gave awards out to the most played games in other categories, like most played shooter, RPG, open-world, sports, new IP, and others. You can view the full list of winners here.
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3D Transistors Designed and Built
Smaller and faster are the two things consumers continually ask for when it comes to electronics. Achieving both goals is not easy though, but researchers at Purdue University and Harvard University have created a 3D transistor design to help.
Most of the transistors in the electronics we use every day are flat and lay down within a component. This positioning makes it difficult to shrink the transistors, but if they are stood up vertically, this allows the components to be as small as 22 nm in length. This will only solve the problem for a few more years though, as past 14 nm, silicon most likely will not be able to cut it.
The researchers made their new transistors out of indium-gallium-arsenide; a promising semiconductor to replace silicon. This material will allow for wires within a chip to reach the 10 nm range. The method used to produce the 3D transistors is similar to the current etching method used in industry.
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Early Access and Pre-Load Details Revealed for Star Wars: The Old Republic
As each day in December ends, we creep ever closer to the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic, the first MMO from the folks at BioWare. For people who have pre-ordered the game, BioWare said you could get early access five days before the launch on December 20th. Well, EA has now said early access will start a full week before on December 13th, with access being determined by when you redeemed the pre-order code on the SWTOR website. Access will be staggered over the seven days leading up to December 20th, so some people may get in earlier than others if you did not redeem the code until recently. You can even start pre-loading the game right now from SWTOR.com, with access beginning on December 13th at 7am EST / noon GMT.
Star Wars: The Old Republic launches on December 20th.
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Fully Printed Nanotube Transistors Developed
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles have successfully demonstrated the production of circuits in a printed thin film of carbon nanotubes. Nanotubes are cylinders of carbon only a few nanometers wide, with extraordinary properties, including strength and conductivity. Due to their size, it is possible to spray them onto a material; in this case it was done with an ink-jet printing method.
Thin films are, well, films that are very thin. An example would be the colorful puddles of oil you sometimes see. Really it is a puddle of water with a thin film of oil on top, and it is the light travelling through the film and reflecting off of the water that causes the colors. The nanotube thin films made here would be meant for OLED displays, and thanks to the small size of the film, it could be integrated directly into the screen. This allows for flexible OLED screens as it is the circuitry these nanotubes replace which is too fragile to bend.
The circuits in the film can be used to control pixels within an OLED screen. As the nanotubes are flexible, this can allow for flexible screens to be produced, and somewhat cheaply. The ability to print electronics of any kind allows extremely large quantities to be produced very rapidly. By fully integrating the nanotube circuitry into an OLED screen, the efficiency of production of such display would increase, as would the capability of the screens.
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World's Fastest RC Car Has Top Speed of 100 MPH
The miniature Traxxas X0-1 is a sleek little remote-controlled car with a length of 27 inches, with some extremely powerful technogies under the hood to make it reach a breakneck top speed of 100 MPH. The car comes configured with a front splitter and rear diffuser, canards on both sides of the car, an aerodynamically-contoured underside, premium-grade brakes, and a rear wing for better downforce. The tiny car runs at a stock speed of 50 MPH, but just like any decently overclockable processor, with some fine-tuning it can be configured to throttle at 100 MPH using the included accessories, along with an iPhone/Android app. The tricked-out car can then reach 0-60 MPH in just 2.3 seconds, and 0-100 MPH in 4.9 seconds. Not bad for a pint-sized four-wheel drive. Already have your Christmas wishlist planned out? If you can afford the X0-1's $1100 suggested price tag, this could make for one wicked holiday present.
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