Intel Third Generation Core i7 3770K Review
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Cooler Master HAF XM Chassis Review
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Metal Oxides May Enhance Electronics and Solar Power
Researchers at Binghamton University are investigating the potential of metal oxides in electronics and solar panels. Unlike typical semiconductors, metal oxides can be tailored to specific needs, while still being cheap and easy to produce.
Metal oxides are already used in electronics, such as indium oxide which is a transparent conductor, making it ideal for monitors. Not all metal oxides work though, but the researchers hope to overcome one big limitation; hole conductivity. When an electron is excited and starts conducting across a material, it leaves behind a positively charged hole. Metal oxides do not have an easy time moving holes around, which limits their performance. By discovering new metal oxides and new crystal structures, the researchers hope to overcome this.
From batteries to all kinds of computer switches, the researchers believe we are currently in the middle of a gold rush, with regards to metal oxides. The next step is going through what we already know about metal oxide and figuring out what we do not know.
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NVIDIA: Smartphones To Outperform Consoles by 2014
Modern phones have come a long way from being merely call-and-text communication devices, but in a few years' time they could possibly outclass modern gaming consoles. A recent NVIDIA presentation showcased the graphics progression of the PC, consoles and the mobile market from 2001 to 2014, with the chart outlining the how the three sectors have fared in recent times. The graph shows the PC chugging along steadily upwards in performance while consoles showed only temporary spikes in graphics improvement, which naturally occurred only when a new gaming console was introduced.
However, mobiles have seen dramatic strides in GPU advances, starting in 2008 and soaring to unprecedented levels in 2010 until the present. With modern high-end mobile graphics processors nearly approaching the same visual quality as those seen on Nintendo's 3DS and Sony's PlayStation Vita, NVIDIA's prediction of smartphones eventually overtaking consoles in performance might just be a possibility in 2014.
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Tribes: Ascend Raid and Pillage Update Now Available
Hi-Rez Studios should have its hands full with Tribes: Ascend for a long time, as the free-to-play game continues to grow with veterans and newbies to the Tribes world. Today the new Raid & Pillage update has arrived for Tribes: Ascend, which adds plenty of new content for the Raider Class. Two new skins are included to give a unique look to your character, although the sheer speed Tribes: Ascend is played at means you will give others a different colored blur to watch. Hi-Rez also adds in three new weapons, so you get some new toys to play with. The Plasma Gun fires large masses of plasma at targets and should go well for mid-air fights, the NJ5-B SMG has a lower rate of fire but more damage behind every shot, and the Cluster Grenade explodes into five mini-grenades for bigger explosions and more knockback. You can check out the video below to see all the new content with the Raid & Pillage update.
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BioWare Says SWTOR Subscribers Not Dropping Despite Lower Numbers on Servers
If you play Star Wars: The Old Republic, you may have noticed a shorter wait to get into your server. You may also have noticed fewer people overall on your server, especially in certain areas. When SWTOR launched, there were extremely long waits to get into a server, which prompted BioWare to bring more online just to get everyone in the game. Now, all of that has changed, but BioWare says the number of subscribers has not dropped. Concurrent users at peak times have dropped, which is responsible for the smaller crowds on servers. Merging the servers has been discussed, but it is not set in stone at this time. If it does happen, that would help to increase overall numbers, but BioWare is working to bump up the concurrent number first. BioWare has a variety of events planned to get more users playing at once, like the recent Rakghoul plague, with each event planned as a one-off. If you miss the event, you will not be able to experience it again, which is certainly an incentive to get more gamers back into SWTOR.
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Call of Duty Announcement on May 1, Name May Already Have Leaked
In what is perhaps one of the worst kept secrets, a new Call of Duty is expected to release this year (typically November). Activision will announce the next Call of Duty game on May 1st, although the name of the game may already have leaked. Some reports are pegging the next CoD to be called Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, which would fit in line with the "near-future" approach the game is rumored to have. The Call of Duty website has various locked images, but one unlocked today that shows off a quadrotor RC drone weapon complete with a machine gun. A new image should unlock each day until May 1st, when the world reveal of the new game airs during the NBA playoffs on TNT. If you do not have TNT then I am sure the video will be on YouTube later that night. So, do you think it will be Black Ops 2 or some other name for the next Call of Duty?
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Red Bull Announces StarCraft 2 Tournament
Red Bull has announced that it will be sponsoring a StarCraft 2 tournament at Austin City Limits from May 26-27. The tournament will feature 16 invited players, with Ilyes 'Stephano' Satouri and Won 'PartinG' Lee Sak announced as the first two players. Four casters have already been announced, Day[9], djWHEAT, Husky, and Rob Simpson. The official announcement refers to this as the "first ever Red Bull Battlegrounds", and hopefully if successful there will be more. Players will compete for $41,000 in prize money, and tickets will be available on April 27.
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Google Drive Officially Announced - Up to 16TB of Storage Available
A couple months back, Google was rumored to be working on a cloud storage solution called Drive. Over time, various leaks and teasers appeared for it, which you can see over at TalkAndroid, and now Google has made it official. The folks over in Mountain View formally announced Google Drive today, which will let you store all the documents, videos, pictures, and more that you want. Google will give everyone 5GB for free, but there are paid options to increase the amount all the way up to 16TB. Yes, that is sixteen terabytes of data, although it will set you back $800 a month. Paid options start at 25GB for $2.49 a month and go up from there, although once you upgrade to a paid account your Gmail storage will increase to 25GB. Google Drive will also let you send email attachments larger than 25MB, which will be perfect for sending video files to your friends or from one computer to another.
Google Docs is built directly into Google Drive, so you and anyone you share a file with can easily make edits to it. You can also comment on different files and receive a notification whenever a friend comments on one of your files. If you think searching all these uploaded files will be a pain, Google has thought of a way to simplify it. You can search for specific words in any file, browse for only photos of a certain location, and more that will be added over time.
Google Drive will work without issue on Windows and Mac, while Android users will need to download an app. People with an iOS device will need to wait a little longer as Google is hard at work to get that platform supported.
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Another Contender for Graphene’s Potential Discovered
Find one miracle material and more are likely to follow. Graphene is an atom-thick sheet of carbon with extraordinary electrical conductive properties. This is because the electrons are able to flow as though they have no mass, like photons. This causes relativistic physics to come into play as the electrons approach the speed of light. What causes this behavior is not limited to graphene though, and researchers at MIT have just found another material that exhibits the same behavior, while bringing with it some new ones.
Bismuth-antimony thin films have the same two-dimensional Dirac cones that define graphene’s electronic properties. Unlike graphene though, the conditions of when these films are grown allow for great control over these properties. According to the researchers, it should be possible to make a bismuth-antimony film with different electronic properties, depending on the direction the electrons are moving. In one direction the electrons are following classical physics, and in another, relativity plays a role. The thermoelectric properties can be controlled to, potentially allowing for advanced thermoelectric devices to power satellites.
More research is needed to confirm these theoretical applications, but there is sure to be enough interest for the experiments to be done. Another reason for the interest is the potential of making electronic devices out of this material, and just this material. By varying the properties of the films from layer to layer, multiple materials will not be needed.
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Skype Arrives on PlayStation Vita
PlayStation Vita owners have just received a new way to stay connected, as Skype arrives today for the Vita. The Skype app will be available today once the PlayStation Store updates, however some regions may take up to 48 hours before it appears. Once it does, you will be free to make video calls over WiFi or 3G with your friends and family. Skype will run in the background on the Vita, which means you can receive calls while playing a game. When you answer the call, your game is paused, and when you end the call, you can return right where you left off. Not all games support the feature as some do shut off network connectivity while playing, but Sony did not reveal the games that do this. Skype can use both the front and rear cameras on the Vita, which can come in handy.
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Entangling the Past with Quantum Mechanics
A recent experiment by researchers at the University of Vienna demonstrates how sometimes science fact is considerably weirder than science fiction. The researchers performed an experiment first theorized twelve years ago that allows one to control if a pair of particles are entangled or not, after they have been measured. This would be like if two people rolled one die each, without showing the results to anyone, and a third person were to state if the dice were the same value or not, even though this person has not seen the dice.
Called a delayed-choice entanglement swapping experiment, the researchers made two pairs of entangled photons. Two of these photons are sent to Alice and Bob, who are not in the same room and cannot share any information. The other two photons are sent to Victor, who also cannot share information with Alice and Bob. When Victor measures his two photons, he has a choice of if he will make a measurement that will force the photons to be entangled, or if he will measure the photons separately, so the photons are not entangled.
Victor’s choice determines what the results are of Alice and Bob’s measurements. If Victor’s photons are entangled, then theirs must also be entangled, and similarly if Victor’s photons are not entangled. The weird part of this experiment is that Victor can make his choice of how to measure the photons, after Alice and bob have measured theirs. Doing so will not change whether the photons are entangled or not.
Quantum mechanics does not always concern itself with time and cause-and-effect relationships. This discovery could prove useful in quantum computers, as a means to manipulate information in separate locations.
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Alan Wake's American Nightmare Apparates on Steam Registry
Xbox Live Arcade first got its hands on Alan Wake's American Nightmare last February, which was an action-oriented standalone follow-up to Alan Wake. Now that Xbox 360 gamers have had their fill of doppelgänger-blasting, flashlight-beaming action it appears that us PC players will be getting in on the macabre fun, too. The clever chaps over at Dark Side of Gaming uncovered details for Alan Wake's American Nightmare on Steam's registry, and indicates that it may be headed to the PC sooner than we think. Incidentally, news about the original Alan Wake's PC version initially surfaced through the Steam registry as well, so there's a good chance we'll be stepping once again inside the shoes of Remedy's fictional horror writer.
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Using Light to Increase Catalytic Rate of Enzymes
Enzymes are present in every organism. These chemicals are required to catalyze many chemical reactions that support life. With the growing interest in biofuels, researchers are searching for ways to use enzymes to accelerate the processes involved in their production. Researchers at ORNL have found a way to speed improve the catalytic rate of some enzymes by as much as 30 fold with light.
In the back of your eyes are molecules that normally have one shape, but when light hits them, the shape changes. It is this structural change which triggers the events that allow any animal to see. What the ORNL researchers have done is examined if a similar conformational change could affect enzymes. First the Jaguar supercomputer was used to model the molecules, which allowed thousands of combinations of the chemistry and different wavelengths of light to be tested. AthenaES, an industry partner of ORNL's, confirmed the model in their laboratories.
Due to the interest in biofuels at the moment, this is where we will likely see this discovery first put to use. Many other products are made with enzymes though, so this discovery will have long reaching effects.
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Amazon's 'Massive' Half-Price Mass Effect 3 Discount Today
Still holding out on your Mass Effect 3 purchase? If you think ME 3's retail price was too steep for your gaming budget, then Amazon's got you covered with its Gold Box video game sale on BioWare's epic RPG finale, which costs only $29.99 today. While that's already a good deal, you can also grab the whole Mass Effect Trilogy (ME1, ME2 and ME3) on Amazon for $56.91, too. Amazon's discount is valid for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Mass Effect 3, so now is a great time for getting the standard copy of one of 2012's definitive RPG experiences.
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Bending Laser Light
Laser pointers, levels, and cutters all rely on the fact that the coherent beam of light moves in a straight line. In the future though there may be applications for lasers that bend, and now we have the math to explain how to do it.
In the 1970s it was predicted that there is a way to cause laser light to bend using an Airy waveform. Airy waves, which describe the movement of quantum mechanical particles, can create a beam with slight curve to them. It was not until 2007 that a researcher was able to successfully demonstrate this effect. Using Airy waves though, a laser can only bend by up to 8º, which is not much.
Here we are in 2012 and now researchers have looked at the problem again and found how to cause laser light to bend to any angle, and even into a complete circle. The key was to return to Maxwell’s equations, which dominate the propagation of electromagnetic waves. It turns out the equations for Airy waves are approximations of the similar equations from Maxwell, at small angles.
Really though, light is not bending, it is just being cancelled out in all the right places. The laser light only travels in one direction, but by creating additional light waves with the proper phase, the light can interfere to cancel out in certain areas, making it look like the light is bending. This distinction does not make the discovery useless though, as optical tweezers could use this to capture and move microscopic objects in complex paths. Also the bent laser could burn curved holes into materials, which no regular laser can do.
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