IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 3/26/2012

Online streaming will overtake DVD sales in US this year
With internet speeds constantly increasing, more and more people are able to stream music and videos online reducing the need for CDs and DVDs. Add in the lower cost of streaming options versus the alternative of going out to a theater or purchasing DVDs and you can see why, for the first time ever, the amount of online movies streamed legally will outpace the number of DVDs sold.

online_streaming_will_overtake_dvd_sales_this_year

IHS Screen Digest is predicting that 3.6 billion movies will be streamed in 2012 with only 2.6 billion DVD and blu-ray purchases occuring. This is the first time that online streaming has out-paced DVD purchases. But, I must now call into the question the study, just for our readers. When you purchase a DVD, you get to keep a copy of the movie in question. However, some of the main providers of online streaming are more akin to Blockbuster where you are renting a video and don't get to keep a copy.

FaceBook data study shows patterns in relationship patterns
The FaceBook Data Team has published an interesting new study based upon U.S. Facebook data from 2010 and 2011. The data concerns the changes in relationship status and the trends associated with them. Some of the trends and results of the study are obvious, such as February 14th being the highest gain in new relationships, but there are less obvious results, such as the trends for the most common break up day. The best part? This data is separated into 3 distinct age groups.

Today, being Friday (in the US at least), is the most common day for breakups for people older than 25, so be on the watch for a breakup. But if you're single, don't fret, because Monday is the statistically highest day for new relationships. For people under 25, Thursday is the highest day for breakups, probably because they want to be able to go out Friday night and party.

In addition to the statistics about the days of the weeks, the data shows trends over the entire year. Summer is particularly bad for relationships, whereas winter appears to be generally positive. The most interesting part of the yearly trends is that they are very similar over all the age groups, whereas the weekly trend shows a difference. And lastly, its curious, to me at least, that December 25th is the second highest day of the year for new relationships.

A last interesting observation: April 1st (April Fools Day) is the 5th highest day for new relationships, and April 2nd the most extreme day for relationship losses (11%).

RumorTT: Intel releasing new 300 and 700 Series SSDs in May
Following on the heels on its SSD 520 release, Intel is rumored to be getting ready to unveil a couple more drives in May. Rumor has it that the company will introduce a new 300 Series model (codenamed Maple Crest) for the mainstream consumer market and a 720 Series (codenamed Ramsdale) for enterprise applications.

The rumor lacks some detail, such as what storage size it will be available in, what controller it will use, or what interface it will use. Its predecessor uses SATA 3Gbps and is available in 40GB, 80GB, 120GB, 160GB, 300GB, and 600GB sizes, so I would imagine that would be a safe guess that it will at least meet these, if not exceed.

Beyond the rumored May relase, Intel is set to transition to 20nm NAND flash in Q3 and will most likely release a brand new 500 Series solid-state drive codenamed King Crest. Q4 should bring updates to the 700 Series with larger sizes and higher performance. It'll be interesting how the other SSD manufacturers counter these releases.

RumorTT: Xbox 720, Playstation 4 won't block used
GameStop fully believes that the Xbox 720/NEXT and Playstation 4 will not implement a system to block used games. This belief could be based on hope simply because GameStop relies on the used game market for around half of its profits. GameStop controls somewhere around 60-70% of first-week sales. This means that the game manufacturers need GameStop to stay around in order to market their goods.

"We think it's unlikely that there would be that next-gen console because the model simply hasn't been proven to work. Remember that used video games have a residual value. Remember that GameStop generates $1.2 billion of trade credits around the world with our used games model," said Raines. "So consider taking used games out of that, you'd have to find new ways to sell the games, and our partners at the console companies have great relationships with us."

However, when used games are sold, publishers don't see a dime. Hence they have started using online passes in the past two years to try to make some money off of the used game sales. So, while you may have to pay for a new online pass for a used game, the game itself is not going anywhere for the time being.

Angry Birds Space IS coming to Windows Phone
Forget what Rovio was saying yesterday, Rovio CEO Mikael Hed has done a complete 180 and said that the company is working on porting it to the Microsoft platform. According to him, it is a "big undertaking to support" and that "you have to completely rewrite the application." A new power-up, called Space Eagles, is awarded for progressing throughout the game or can be bought via an in-app purchase.

The game has topping sales charts since it was released yesterday. Currently, the first 60 levels are playable, with more coming through updates. Hed said "We are working towards getting Angry Birds Space to WP7," which indeed confirms that it will be released for almost every mobile segment now available. No release date has been set for sure.

John Carter 3D (2012) Cinema Review

Disney has had a great run for the last two summers, with two very mediocre films that printed a ton of money. 2010 bought Tim Burton's anemic Alice in Wonderland and 2011 bought the latest entry in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Both films grossed over $2 billion at the box office. Unfortunately for the company, John Carter won't be breaking any records. It also is going to struggle to make its production and advertising costs back, which total a massive $350 million. There are however some very good reasons for this.

John Carter opens to a bizarre war between some ships that look like a scene cut from Avatar except rendered on a barren planet. This is the first faux pas. The audience has no idea what it is seeing. There is no context or explanation leaving the audience to wonder if they have missed the first few minutes of the film. The action isn't even staged dynamically, almost directed liked a documentary.

When we jump into the backstory after a few minutes, it's revealed that John Carter is a former cavalry officer of the confederate army. In the best sequence of the film, Carter proves himself to be a formidable enemy of the state, but also of the Apache Indians. After an escape from both, Carter finds a cave of gold, but when a stranger materializes next to him, he is mysteriously transported to the planet Barsoom (which we know to be Mars). On Barsoom, Carter is significantly stronger and dangerous than the inhabitants. Quickly he is thrust into the war which ravages their planet.

Straight up, John Carter is a disaster. Disney knew they had a turkey on their hands following bad exit polling and a disastrous marketing campaign which struggled to sell the film. It's particularly poor if you can't get me interested in a film by its trailer (I'm somewhat of a whore in this regard), but John Carter managed to completely lose me. I should have followed my gut instincts.

John Carter is adapted from the book written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and this film marks the centenary of his introduction in 2012. 100 years ago, we knew nothing of what lay on the surface of Mars, making readers far more intrigued about the possibilities of the not-so distant planet. Unfortunately, now we are a little more scientifically enabled, which makes the suspension of disbelief just a little harder.

The eponymous John Carter is played by relative newcomer Taylor Kitsch, best known for his role on the Friday Night Lights television series. He's got a bit of charm and charisma, and his career will likely recover from this mess.

His love interest Deja Thoris, played by Lynn Collins does a relatively good job of the role she is given, but looks too old for the role. She is clearly a beautiful actress, but she's been made up to look tired and just a little haggard at times.

Director Andrew Stanton, whom may be familiar as the alumni of Pixar, where he served as writer of all three Toy Story films, Wall-E and A Bugs Life, and director of my favourite Pixar film Wall-E and ironically my least favourite - Finding Nemo. Despite his obvious talents, and even taking into account the massive amount of computer graphics and CG characters, I feel that Stanton is out of his depth in the live action arena, especially in being able to coax good performances out of his cast. A far cry from the dynamic and exciting set pieces which frequently inhabit the Pixar stable of films, John Carter feels strangely tired and old-fashioned, a clash of styles with no pay off.

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GIGABYTE Unveils GeForce® GTX 680 Graphics Card
Taipei, Taiwan, 22 March 2012 - GIGABYTE Technology Co. LTD, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, is pleased to introduce the latest GV-N680D5-2GD-B graphics cards. Built with the highly anticipated GeForce® GTX 680 GPU, GV-N680D5-2GD-B utilizes the latest 28nm fabrication process, features GDDR5 memory and adapts 1536 CUDA cores. GIGABYTE GV-N680D5-2GD-B supported Microsoft DirectX® 11 and PCI-Express 3.0 which not only improves the processing ability but provides gamers a faster, smoother and richer gaming experience. Supporting NVIDIA® 3D Vision Surround, 3D Vision, PhysX®, and 3-way SLI®, GV-N680D5-2GD-B guarantees gamers an ultimate gaming experience. Equipped with the innovative GPU Boost technology, GV-N680D5-2GD-B delivered dynamic clocking with different clock rate - Base clock and Boost Clock. It automatically boosts the clock speed of the GPU to offer enthusiastic gamers extra performance.

Faster SMX/ GPU Boost

The next-generation SMX units have replaced SM units, and substantially improve the processing ability. It pushes the breathtaking performance of the GV-N680D5-2GD-B to new levels with NVIDIA® GPU Boost. This technology dynamically maximizes clock speeds to bring out the best performance in every game.

Smoother FXAA/ TXAA/ Adaptive VSync

NVIDIA anti-aliasing FXAA is 60% faster than 4X MSAA. The Performance and quality of TXAA is better than 8X MSAA. Get ultra-smooth gaming with NVIDIA gaming innovations like Adaptive Vertical Sync! GV-N680D5-2GD-B dynamically adjusts VSync to current frame rates for maximum playability. Gamers can achieve a smoothly gaming performance and to have the best experience with realistic visuals.

Richer Single GPU 3D Vision Surround PhysX

GV-N680D5-2GD-B supports NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround. Users can experience broader, richer gaming environments with the latest technological advancements. Bring games to life with NVIDIA Surround multi-monitor gaming on a single card, supercharged PhysX and 3D Vision, plus the unbeatable power of SLI.

AMD First Quarter 2012 Results To Be Announced On April 19, 2012
AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that it will webcast its quarterly earnings conference call on Thursday, April 19, 2012 at 5:00 pm EDT/ 2:00 pm PDT to discuss the results of its fiscal first quarter ended March 31, 2012. All interested parties will have the opportunity to listen to the real-time audio webcast of the teleconference over the Internet through AMD's Web site at ir.amd.com. The webcast will be available for 10 days after the conference call.

ZOTAC announces GeForce GTX 680
HONG KONG - Mar. 22, 2012 - ZOTAC International, a global innovator of graphics cards, motherboards and mini-PCs, today unleashes the next-generation in PC graphics with the GeForce® GTX 680 graphics card. The new ZOTAC GeForce® GTX 680 graphics card redefines smooth, seamless and lifelike gaming with a new architecture, features and unprecedented performance.

Next-generation SMX unified shaders empower the ZOTAC GeForce® GTX 680 with double the performance-per-watt and six-times the amount of processor cores per shader unit compared to the previous generations for out-of-this-world gaming performance. The ZOTAC GeForce® GTX 680 graphics card packs 2GB of the world's fastest GDDR5 video memory with a clock speed of 6008 MHz thanks to a new 28nm manufacturing process for unrestricted performance capabilities.

New NVIDIA® GPU Boost technology maximizes clock speeds using available energy headroom on the fly for an instant performance boost in every gaming scenario. NVIDIA® Adaptive Vertical Sync technology virtually eliminates the compromise of stuttering or tearing associated with gaming with or without vertical sync enabled on the ZOTAC GeForce® GTX 680 graphics card by dynamically adjusting VSYNC to prevent tearing and reduce stuttering for smoother gaming.

"PC gaming always pushes the limits of visuals and the first platform to redefine the definition of lifelike gaming. The new ZOTAC GeForce® GTX 680 with NVIDIA®'s Kepler architecture benefits gamers and developers by maximizing performance and visual quality of current games and providing developers with plenty of headroom to push the next-generation of PC games," says Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International.

Up to four displays can be driven by a single ZOTAC GeForce® GTX 680 graphics card for non-gaming use and enhanced productivity. The ZOTAC GeForce® GTX 680 readily supports 3840 x 2160, or 4K, displays via HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort 1.2 ports to take gaming beyond HD resolutions.
NVIDIA® 3D Vision Surround capabilities enables gamers to take gaming to the next-level with triple-display gaming with a single ZOTAC GeForce® GTX 680 graphics card for unmatched stereoscopic 3D gaming immersion.

The ZOTAC GeForce® GTX 680 graphics card achieves groundbreaking energy-efficiency and only requires two six-pin PCI Express power connectors for maximum performance-per-watt. High-efficiency cooling and additional acoustic dampening materials make the ZOTAC GeForce® GTX 680 quieter than previous generations with only 46dBA of noise from the previous generations 51dBA.

"The ZOTAC GeForce® GTX 680 is the ultimate gamers card. The support for single-card NVIDIA® 3D Vision Surround, class-leading energy-efficiency, quiet acoustics, PCI Express 3.0 interface, new technologies and features combine to make the perfect card for die-hard PC gamers and enthusiasts," Mr. Berger added.

A new Assassin's Creed® 3-Game Pack ships with the ZOTAC GeForce® GTX 680 graphics card and lets gamers relive the original Assassin's Creed® and Assassin's Creed II: Deluxe Edition adventures as well as embark on the latest adventure - Assassin's Creed®: Revelations. The ZOTAC GeForce® GTX 680 graphics card also ships with a 3-Day Game Pass for Trackmania2 Canyon to let gamers experience the latest online racing phenomenon.

It's time to play with ZOTAC and the ZOTAC GeForce® GTX 680 graphics card.

General details
- New ZOTAC GeForce® GTX 680 graphics card
- NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 680 GPU
- 1536 SMX unified shaders
- Engine clock: 1006 MHz (base), 1058 MHz (boost)
- 2GB GDDR5 memory
- Memory clock: 6008 MHz
- 256-bit memory interface
- DVI-I, DVI-D, HDMI & DisplayPort outputs
- PCI Express 3.0 interface
- NVIDIA® GPU Boost technology
- NVIDIA® 3D Vision Surround capable
- NVIDIA® FXAA technology
- NVIDIA® TXAA technology
- NVIDIA® 3-way SLI ready
- NVIDIA® Adaptive Vertical Sync
- DirectX® 11 technology & Shader Model 5.0
- OpenGL® 4.2 compatible
- Hardware-accelerated Full HD video playback
- Blu-ray 3D ready
- Loss-less audio bitstream capable
- ZOTAC Assassin's Creed® 3-Game Pack included
o Assassin's Creed®
o Assassin's Creed® II
o Assassin's Creed®: Revelations
- TrackMania 2 Canyon 3-Day Game Pass included

CyberpowerPC Debuts PC Gaming Series Based on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 -- NVIDIA Ups the Action with Single Fastest GPU Graphics Card on the Market
BALDWIN PARK, CA (March 22, 2012) - CyberpowerPC Inc. http://www.CyberpowerPC.com , a global manufacturer of custom gaming machines and Intel's 2011 Performance Client Innovation award winner, today announced it will feature the new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 graphics card, the fastest single GPU video card, across its entire desktop gaming PC line.

The GeForce GTX 680 offers the fastest, smoothest and richest graphics experience of any single GPU on the market with its eye-popping visual technologies, blazing performance and superior power efficiency as well as support for multiple displays including NVIDIA's stereoscopic 3D Vision technology.

The new GeForce GTX 680 GPU will be offered in all CyberpowerPC desktop gaming PCs including the Gamer Infinity, Gamer Ultra, Gamer Xtreme, Zeus, and the top of the line, Fang III series. Customers can configure their CyberpowerPC gaming rig with a single GPU, dual or triple GTX 680 for 3-way SLI. Base price of a CyberpowerPC gaming system based on the GeForce GTX 680 starts at $1,199.

CyberpowerPC customers who configure GeForce GTX 680-based systems are assured maximum application and gaming performance with a number of advanced graphics features. The GTX 680 includes NVIDIA GPU Boost Technology, which dynamically maximizes clock speeds based on workload of the game to push performance to new levels and bring out the best in every game or application. Support is also included for Microsoft DirectX 11, which provides sophisticated shading and texturing techniques such as tessellation.

The GeForce GTX 680 series also supports NVIDIA 3D Vision and NVIDIA Surround, which bring a fully immersive stereoscopic 3D experience to the PC. In addition, you can stream 3D movies and 3D digital photographs from 3DVisionLive.com in eye popping, crystal-clear quality. NVIDIA Surround allows you to expand your PC games across three displays in full stereoscopic 3D for the ultimate "inside the game" experience.

Additional support is included for NVIDIA SLI Technology; PhysX Technology; CUDA Technology and Pure Video HD - all of which offer amazing performance for scaling games across multiple GPUs, more realistic gaming experiences through GPU acceleration and precise HD image scaling for games, movies and video.

CyberpowerPC's Fang III gaming PCs also have standard support for HDMI and PCI Express 3.0 bus architecture, which offers the highest data transfer speeds for the most bandwidth-hungry games and 3D applications, while maintaining backwards compatibility with existing PCI Express motherboards. With the implementation of the GTX 680 into the Fang III Black Mamba system, gamers can enable stereoscopic game play and content creation simultaneously with the Overclocking Media Control Center option. Additionally, Fang III Black Mamba gaming systems will incorporate the liquid cooled version of the GTX 680 for maximum heat dissipation.

All CyberpowerPC gaming systems can be customized with a number of performance hardware and components such as CyberpowerPC's Advanced Hydro Liquid Cooling kit, Solid State Drives, Blu-Ray drives, performance gaming memory, gaming peripherals, business and productivity software, and more.

All systems are housed in a gaming chassis from top-tier manufacturers that are designed to be feature rich with advanced cooling, silent performance and extreme airflow. Every system is meticulously built with precise cable routing to ensure optimal airflow and a clean aesthetic appearance. CyberpowerPC loads every system with Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Operating System for an enhanced gaming and multimedia experience. All CyberpowerPC desktop gaming systems include an industry-best 3-year limited warranty.

Intel Declares Quarterly Cash Dividend
SANTA CLARA, Calif., March. 22, 2012 - Intel Corporation's board of directors has declared a 21 cents per share (84 cents per share on an annual basis) quarterly dividend on the company's common stock. The dividend will be payable on June 1, 2012 to stockholders of record on May. 7, 2012.

Available Tags:FaceBook , Intel , Xbox , Windows Phone , Windows , 3D , GIGABYTE , GTX , AMD , ZOTAC , GeForce , Gaming , NVIDIA , NVIDIA , GPU ,

1 comment:

gman said...: I suppose I can see why there would be a decline in physical media purchased, mainly movies since the all you can watch plans like my Blockbuster @Home are so easy to use. I remember when my employer, DISH, added the streaming component; I signed up right away at that point. Since it includes games and Blu-ray too for only ten bucks a month, I figured I would be stupid not to. Perhaps purchases will diminish, but I see movie watching going up in the near future.; March 27, 2012 at 5:34 PM

Monday, March 26, 2012

IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 3/26/2012

1 comment: