IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 21/10/2012

Rockstar wants your help with Grand Theft Auto V multiplayer Rockstar wants your help with their upcoming sure-to-sell-millions, Grand Theft Auto V. GTA V is set to use the new Crews with popped its head up with Max Payne 3. Crews are groups of Rockstar Social Club members who form persistant teams and compete online together.

Rockstar doesn't consider Crews a finished product, and they want your help with it. Rockstar have said:

Whether it's suggestions for competitive in-game Crew features in Multiplayer, new ways to manage and recruit, ideas for enhancing Social Club Crew pages and leaderboards, things you did and didn't like about Crews in Max Payne 3, or any thoughts at all related to Crews really that you'd like to share - we're all ears. We'd especially love to hear from current Crew members and leaders so that we can continue making our unique approach to persistent team based Multiplayer as fun as it can be in GTAV.

If you want to get into this, e-mail Rockstar at GTAVCrewFeedback@rockstargames.com

Apple's new Oregon-based data center begins construction It looks like Apple's new data center has begun construction, with the Cupertino-based company's new data center in Prineville, Oregon beginning construction. Apple purchased a 160-acre lot for $5.6 million back in February and threw up a 10,000-square-foot data center temporarily.

Now they're starting work on their fourth major data center, with the first phase of the new data center costing $68 million. Prineville also houses Facebook's huge data centers, with companies flocking to the town because of their low energy, real estates costs and lower tax rates. I'd love to walk through these data centers - who's with me? Group buy time?

4K tech gets named, will be known as Ultra High-Definition, or Ultra HD for short For a while we've been hearing more and more about 4K technology, but it was known as just that '4K'. Well, the Consumer Electronics Associations decision has bought forth an official rebranding of 4K to "Ultra High-Definition".

Sony has said it "lauds the CEA's efforts", but will continue using "4K" for its current products and will brand their future 4K-based devices as "4K Ultra High-Definition (4K UHD)". Sony are set to use their own branding in order to "ensure clarity for consumers and delineate between today's and tomorrow's technology". Sony's full statement:

Just a quick note to let you know that as a leader at the forefront of new display technology such as HD, 3D and beyond, Sony lauds the CEA's efforts to come up with a common language to describe the next generation high-definition technology. However, to ensure clarity for consumers and delineate between today's and tomorrow's technology, Sony will continue to use the 4K moniker for its products and will market its future products as 4K ultra high-definition (4K UHD).

Sony reducing HQ staff by 20 percent and closing a factory in Japan The economy does not seem to be doing as well as everyone would like to portray as doing. Companies' earnings reports yesterday came in at less-than-expected results and many companies are instituting layoffs or continuing their plans in full force. Yesterday, we saw the announcement that AMD was axing part of its force, and now Sony is continuing with its plans to reduce its workforce by 10,000.

Sony had previously announced plans to layoff 10,000 employees by the end of this coming March. We now have more details on how they will achieve this end result. Sony announced that it will be cutting roughly 20 percent of its headquarters staff in addition to closing a factory that is located in Japan. Previously, Sony had cut 1,800 jobs from its books by selling a chemical company to a state-run bank in Japan. The cuts at headquarters and the Gifu plant will amount to another 2,000 people. Reuters is also reporting that Sony plans to cut a further 2,000 employees in Europe, with roughly half of those cuts coming from the ending of its partnership with Ericsson.

Microsoft records video using Surface RT tablet while said device is dropped from 30" Microsoft has beaten everybody else to the punch and conducted a drop-test with its new Surface RT tablet. They recorded video using the device and dropped it from a height of roughly 30-inches. The device records the entire fall, and even manages to survive the drop and continue recording as it is picked up.

Since the recording was done with the internal camera, there's no view of the damage sustained by the screen or chassis, but I'd venture to guess that it was pretty minor, considering it was dropped only from 30-inches. Furthermore, nobody in the video reacts particularly horribly about sustained damage, so it's probably a good bet it survived. Microsoft needs to do stunts like this to drum up support for Windows 8 and the Surface tablets as they launch a week from today. After yesterday's dismal financial results, a lot is riding on these new products that are coming down the pipeline. Only time will tell if they will end up being successful.

microsoft_records_video_using_surface_rt_tablet_while_said_device_is_dropped_from_30

Comay Venus Pro 3 240GB SSD Review

Introduction

Several months ago we looked at the Venus Pro 3 120GB from Comay and found it to be a very unique SSD. At the time Comay shipped its drives with firmware 3.3.2, the code that fixed the BSOD issues. Comay followed up our 120GB sample with a new 240GB drive, but it shipped to us with firmware 5.0.2, the broken TRIM firmware. Since we didn't want to make the Venus Pro 3 240GB look bad for an issue that was out of Comay's hands, we held the review until fully functional firmware was available. Comay was one of the first companies to send us firmware 5.0.3, the version now on their website for download. We also know that Comay is testing firmware 5.0.4 and we suspect they are also testing firmware 5.0.5 since it was shipped to manufacturers in the last week of September. The Venus Pro 3 has a very unique hardware feature that we've only found on enterprise class SSDs so far, and that is host power loss protection. When SandForce first started shipping its first products, we saw a few drives with a hardware capacitor that was about the same size as a button on your jeans. This was referred to as a supercap or CapXX, named from the company that manufacturers them. The supercap used on Comay's Venus Pro 3 gives your SSD an extra four second of power, even when the host (i.e. your computer) loses power. SandForce SSDs, even with a DRAM cache buffer still have a buffer stage in the controller. The extra four seconds gives the SSD time to finish sending the data from the controller to the NAND flash. This feature was designed for server environments, but since most servers have an uninterruptable power backup, I never really felt strongly for the need in that environment. Notebooks and ruggedized environments on the other hand are a different story. We've all been working on a notebook without the power plug in and accidentally hit the button to eject the battery at least one. I've never lost data that way, but with host power loss protection there are a number of consumer scenarios where losing power to your drive can happen. ... Read the rest in your browser!

AMD Announces SeaMicro SM15000 Server Citrix Ready AMD today announced that Citrix Systems, Inc. has verified the new AMD SeaMicro SM15000-XE micro server as Citrix Ready to run Citrix XenServer 6, a complete managed server virtualization technology that enables companies to cost-effectively consolidate servers and ensure business continuity. Citrix Ready is a product verification program that demonstrates compatibility with Citrix Application Delivery Infrastructure. AMD completed a rigorous process to ensure compatibility with the industry-leading XenServer platform, which is widely acknowledged as one of the fastest and secure server virtualization products in the industry.

"Data center virtualization is expected to accelerate, and we have worked closely with Citrix to ensure that our customers can now effectively and efficiently deploy an integrated Citrix-AMD solution," said Andrew Feldman, general manager and corporate vice president of the Data Center Server Solutions group, AMD. "The combination of Citrix XenServer and the highest density, most power efficient SeaMicro server is a winning combination that takes data center efficiency and management to the next level of performance." AMD's SeaMicro SM15000 is the highest-density, most energy-efficient data center platform. It combines compute, networking, and storage in a single ten rack unit system all linked by a high performance supercompute fabric that creates a hyper-efficient system by enabling common components to be shared. AMD's differentiated technology allows the highest performance, compute and storage density as well as the most bandwidth per unit compute of any micro server. In addition, the recently announced AMD SeaMicro SM15000 server extends the patented Freedom Fabric beyond the SeaMicro chassis to connect directly to massive disk arrays, enabling a single ten rack unit system to support more than five petabytes of low cost, easy-to-install storage. The Freedom Fabric ASIC contains three key patented technologies:

SeaMicro's Input/Output (I/O) Virtualization Technology eliminates all but three components from SeaMicro's motherboard -- CPU, DRAM, and the ASIC itself -- thereby shrinking the motherboard, helping to reduce power, cost and space;
SeaMicro's TIO (Turn It Off) technology enables SeaMicro to further power-optimize the motherboard by consolidating functionality and turning off unneeded CPU and chipset functions. Together, SeaMicro's I/O Virtualization Technology and TIO technology produce small and power-efficient motherboards;
The Freedom Supercompute Fabric ties these small, power-efficient motherboards together with an industry leading 1.28 terabits-per-second of bandwidth. The Freedom Supercompute Fabric is built of multiple Freedom ASICs working together to create a multi-dimensional torus -- delivering a low latency, massive bandwidth fabric with exceptionally low power draw.

More information on SeaMicro and its breakthrough micro server technology can be found at http://www.seamicro.com.

Wield The Force With Unique Star Wars Designed Razer Blade Gaming Laptop Razer, the world leader in high-performance gaming hardware, has announced a sweepstakes promising one winner a custom-designed Star Wars: The Old Republic Razer Blade gaming laptop. Valued at over $15,000, the Star Wars inspired Razer Blade is unique: Only one of its kind exists in the known universe, from this galaxy to those far, far away. "Star Wars provides the benchmark by which all entertainment media is measured, and the Razer Blade is the standard for true portability, power and innovation in PC gaming," says Robert 'RazerGuy' Krakoff, president of Razer USA. "The opportunity to work with LucasArts and BioWare on this fun project is a testament to our common love of great entertainment and ensuring the best possible experience for fans."

Sweepstakes participants can sign up for the contest at http://www.razerzone.com/WieldTheForce. Second-place winners will receive a package of Razer's Star Wars: The Old Republic product, including a gaming mouse, headset, mouse mat and a keyboard featuring Razer's revolutionary Switchblade User Interface. The Razer Blade is only 0.88 in. thin, less than half the thickness of traditional gaming laptops of comparable performance. Combined with an ultra-slim power supply, the entire system weighs less than seven pounds, less than half the weight of other gaming laptops, making it the lowest profile, lightest gaming laptop of its class. The Razer Blade features equivalent performance to some of the most powerful traditional gaming laptops, but at a fraction of their size and weight. The lucky winner will be able to experience today's most graphics-intensive games at phenomenal frame rates on the Razer Blade's remarkable 17.3-in. high-definition display. The machine's solid-state drive (SSD) delivers data up to three times faster than traditional hard drives, allowing for blistering boot times. The most striking and innovative feature of the Razer Blade remains its multi-award-winning Switchblade UI. The unique integrated LCD display/multi-touch panel and 10 dynamic adaptive tactile keys put commands and control functions within fingertip reach. The Switchblade UI features a growing list of applications designed specifically for gaming by Razer's in-house software engineers as well as by Razer's active community of users. These apps include a Star Wars: The Old Republic combat logger that saves and displays on its secondary screen in-game data such as Damage Per Second (DPS) and Heals Per Second (HPS). Use the Switchblade UI also to browse the web for in-game guides, watch online videos, stay connected within social networks and take advantage of an expanding list of dedicated gaming apps without ever having to leave a game. About the Razer Blade gaming laptop The Razer Blade is a 17-in. gaming laptop that delivers extreme performance and all-new features and applications in a ultra-portable form factor. It features a fast Intel Core i7 processor and a high-performance NVIDIA GeForce graphics processor within in a lightweight aluminum chassis. The revolutionary Switchblade User Interface, located next to the Blade's full-size keyboard, was designed by Razer from the ground up to enhance gaming experiences and provide more control at the gamer's fingertips. The Switchblade features 10 adaptive tactile keys and a multi-touch LCD panel that can also display in-game information. And at just 0.88 inches thin and weighing a mere 6.46lbs, the Razer Blade is the world's first true gaming laptop.

Ubuntu 12.10 Launches Today Canonical today announces the desktop version of Ubuntu 12.10, the latest release of the popular open source operating system, will be available for public download on the 18th October 2012. As part of Canonical's objective to make all content easier to access, Ubuntu 12.10 introduces innovations that bring together desktop and cloud-based experiences, representing the next stage in the transition to a multi-device, cloud-based world. When searching for documents in the Ubuntu 12.10 Dash, for example, users can see results from online services like Google Drive, as well as files saved on their hard drives. The Online Accounts feature allows authentication to online sites so that content like photos from Flickr accounts and contacts from Facebook can all be searched instantly by the Dash. The Dash can also search both paid and free content from Amazon and the Ubuntu One Music Store such as music, videos or any product be it digital or physical. The results are displayed in a separate section labelled, 'More Suggestions'.

Jane Silber, CEO at Canonical comments: "Ubuntu 12.10 is the operating system for the multi-device era. It makes life significantly easier for users by adapting Ubuntu to the way people really access their content today: online and on the hard drive, at work and at home, on the phone and, of course, on the PC. As consumers and businesses consider their upgrade options, Ubuntu 12.10 offers an easier, faster alternative to competing desktop operating systems." Elsewhere in the release, new Previews give large, clear previews of content as it appears in the Dash search results, giving users a quick way to get more information to help find what they are looking for. For example, previewing an album that the Dash has found in the Ubuntu One Music Store reveals a track listing and the option to listen - all without leaving the preview. If the content is of interest, users can then choose to click through, download or purchase from online retailers. The new Web Apps feature offers unprecedented integration between the desktop and online environment, by making frequently-used web applications like Facebook, Twitter, Last.FM, eBay and GMail available through the desktop, without launching a browser separately. Making web applications behave like their desktop counterparts gives the user a faster experience and reduces the proliferation of browser tabs and windows that can quickly make browsing unmanageable. Ubuntu One, the personal cloud service, is integrated and now available as a native app on Mac OS-X as beta, as well as Windows, iOS and Android. With 5 GB storage free, it's one more way to access documents, music, photos and videos, wherever you are. Ubuntu One's new referrals programme, means that it's possible to get even more storage in return for recommending new users. New APIs mean that application developers can make use of synchronisation features in their own apps. A new remote log-in option now gives users the alternative of logging into a Citrix, VMWare or Microsoft desktop running on a desktop virtualisation server. Ubuntu 12.10 can thereby be used as a thin client by businesses that want to virtualise their desktop applications and deliver them to users over the network. Ubuntu 12.10 can be downloaded at http://www.ubuntu.com/download and is available from the 18th October 2012.

Twonky Media Server 7 Now Available for All Thecus NAS Models At the end of September 2012, Twonky released a new upgraded version of their Server module. TwonkyMedia V7 is now available for all who wishes to display their multimedia content on their mobile device or through their DMA device. Paired with the latest Twonky 7 modules, the users will now have access to a whole new multimedia experience. A home NAS is often used to serve multi-media content, including photos, music, and video to other devices or over the internet. Using standard protocols such as DLNA, users can access their media stored on the home server from any room in the house. Twonky is a family of software and applications for your PC, Mac or mobile phone that finds all the digital media in your household and shares them with PCs, TVs, stereos and other devices connected to your network. With Twonky Server, you can make all of your stored digital files on your NAS free of use with your DLNA compliant home devices.

Version 7 of the TwonkyMedia Server was a major release, meaning that a lot has changed. It goes from a new look for the UI layout, to new features (folder aggregation support) and passing by minor bug fixes (Windows 8 support). Overall this means a more complete, easier to use and flexible media file manager. Twonky really connects all of your DNLA appliances and gives them access to all of your media content. Users who wish to try out the latest TwonkyMedia Server can go to the Thecus Download Centre and download the module. Owners of a V6 license will also have access to V7. Enjoy the ultimate home entertainment experience with Thecus and TwonkyMedia. You can learn more about Twonky by visiting their official website: http://www.twonky.com/

FAVI Releases a Palm-Sized Bluetooth Keyboard FAVI Entertainment, creators of innovative audiovisual products and most recently the SmartStick, introduces a pocketable Bluetooth keyboard with built-in trackpad ideal for pairing with your favorite device. The versatile accessory has Android buttons for easy access and also allows for music and video navigation via special hotkeys. The comfortable keyboard also features a built-in laser pointer perfect for presentations. The lightweight and portable FAVI Mini Bluetooth is ideal for speed, accuracy and comfort. The intuitive key layout allows for fast and accurate typing all while reducing hand/finger strain. The keyboard also includes backlit keys for use in the dark or dim lit presentation scenarios. It also connects with nearly all Bluetooth devices and should your device not have Bluetooth, a Bluetooth USB receiver is included.

"The lightweight and portable keyboard is ideal for the boardroom as well as the classroom," says Jeremy Yakel, co-founder of FAVI Entertainment "The keys are built for comfort while the trackpad allows for fluid navigation." The Mini Bluetooth Keyboard from FAVI Entertainment is the ideal partner for Kindle Fire HD as well as other tablets due to its track pad functionality which allows for intuitive mouse-like navigation. FAVI Mini Bluetooth Keyboard Features:

Familiar android buttons and FAVI's screen swipe touchpad offers fast and fluid navigation

Connects with nearly all Bluetooth devices including Kindle Fire HD, Google Nexus 7, iPad, Samsung Galaxy and Asus (TF300T-B1-BL) as well as PCs, laptops and Mac

No Bluetooth on your PC or laptop? No problemÂ…a Bluetooth USB receiver is included (stores neatly inside device when not in use)

Includes backlit keys for use in the dark

Music / Video hotkeys gives you quick access to your favorite music playlist or video collection

Touchpad features full mouse control as well as "tap to click" and page scroll

Works great for office presentations with its built-in laser pointer and PowerPoint slide buttons

Wireless Range: 50 feet

The Mini Bluetooth Keyboard from FAVI Entertainment is available now at Staples for $49.99.

Available Tags:Rockstar , Sony , Microsoft , tablet , SSD , AMD , Server , Gaming , Ubuntu , Keyboard ,

Saturday, October 20, 2012

IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 21/10/2012

Introduction

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