Which PlayStation 4 rumors ended up being true? Let's take a look...
With the official PlayStation 4 announcement about halfway over, we'd thought we'd bring to you a list of rumors that ended up being true. Without further ado, let's take a look at the rumors that panned out.
Click on any rumor listed below to be taken to the original post.
- PlayStation 4 to be powered by 8-core AMD CPU
- Leaked pictures of prototype PlayStation 4 controller
- New controller to have touch panel
- PlayStation to use x86 architecture
- PlayStation 4 to use Gaikai streaming technology
In the end it looks like most of the rumors that we posted ended up being accurate. Of course, this was just a quick look over some of the past posts--I'm sure our readers could dig up more that ended up not coming true. If you know of one off hand, let us know in the comments!
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Sony PlayStation 4 announced, features x86 CPU and 8GB of RAM
Sony have announced the PlayStation 4 today - where we've discovered it does indeed feature an x86 CPU. We're looking at an 8-core CPU, a powerful GPU, and 8GB of RAM. But, Sony aren't pushing raw specs, but instead, the 'experience' of the gamer.
The PS4's Lead System Architect, Mark Cerny, talked about the evolution of the PS4, which began development five years ago now, and was designed to connect to many services at once - which is where we are in the world right now. Hopefully we get some breakdown on specs later, which you can expect us to report to you. Keep checking back!
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Did you want to watch the HTC event yesterday but didn't get an invite? HTC has posted video of the event online
If you happened to not be in attendance of the HTC press conference yesterday because you fell ill or, more likely, didn't get an invitation, HTC has you covered. The company has released video of the event online today so that you can take a look inside and see just what you missed out on.
HTC has also chopped together a 4 minute 30 second version of highlights that includes video from the London and New York gatherings. Like most press events, the speakers hype the product with lots of unnecessary adjectives and phrases. Take a look and let us know what you thought of the event.
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LIve from the Sony PlayStation Meeting 2013
Sony are poised to launch the PlayStation 4 today, and we're going to cover it live, continue to check back as much as you can! The event is live right now in New York City. Nothing on the PS4 so far, but it shouldn't be long - I'm incredibly, incredibly excited right now - how about you?
15:42 US PST: Next-generation Final Fantasy game get your blood pumping? Well, you should get ready for it - it's coming on the PlayStation 4.
15:42 US PST: We've just seen some next-gen engine, Luminous, from Square Enix - which they hope to use for their upcoming PS4-based titles.
15:35 US PST: Square Enix are now going to show something, with their 16-year relationship with Sony continuing to be strong.
15:34 US PST: Yep, that was quite astonishing to watch - just a sample for now, but we should expect some video to post on that Panta Rei engine in the coming hour or so.
15:31 US PST: We're hearing thanks to previous-gen consoles, but now Capcam are about to usher in a new era of entertainment with the PS4. Codename Panta Rhei... it looks like we should expect some incredible graphics thanks to this new, next-gen engine.
15:29 US PST: Capcom have taken the stage, what should we expect now?
15:19 US PST: This should be quite the exciting unveiling, now we're seeing some animation of an old man's face. Another time where I'll say 'incredible'.
15:15 US PST: Now we have David Cage from Quantic Dream, the developers behind Heavy Rain.
15:12 US PST: There's no filler in this game, so you're not just playing the game to play it in order to fill time like most games - everything is very meticulously placed in the game for meaning, for the user to actually interact with it. 25 hours of gameplay is built into the game. PS4-exclusive title, once more.
15:11 US PST: The Witness is now being unveiled, an open world game that is very compact - lots of details, instead of an incredibly huge world that still ends up feeling empty.
15:08 US PST: We've had three next-gen games shown so far, and right now, you should be impressed. The graphics and frame rates are all super smooth - hopefully we see some more!
15:07 US PST: Sucker Punch's exclusive game to the PS4 is now being shown - inFamous Second Son.
15:02 US PST: This is 'true first-person' racing - which does look incredible, as you climb into a car. Wow, the little details are definitely paying off here. Let's get ready to see - I'm getting goosebumps again, this doesn't happen often to me - I don't get excited for games much.
15:01 US PST: The detail on Drive Club is looking again, incredible, and the detail is as close as you'll get to the real cars. The detail here is mind blowing...
14:58 US PST: Evolution Studios is here, with a team-based racing title - Drive Club. It has existed for 10 years as an experimental concept game - but it looks like the PS4 is the console to receive it. A truly shared experience game, where they've waited for the technology to be good enough to deliver Drive Club.
14:57 US PST: Wait for it - wait for it - we're seeing another video - Drive Club. Hmmm.
14:55 US PST: If this is all real-time, and not some trick like Sony have done previously with KillZone 2 - then we're looking at what seems like 1080p at 60fps, constant. It doesn't slow down, there is no frame rate reduction whatsoever from what I can see. Sony, you've impressed me if this is real-time.
14:54 US PST: I'm not seeing much environmental interaction on KillZone: Shadowfall, while there's tonnes of destruction within the game - it's not like Battlefield 3's Frostbite 2 engine. It does look absolutely incredible. Mind-blowing for consoles, and just lays the smack down on current-gen consoles, easily.
14:51 US PST: Shadow effects, the graphics, detail, NPCs, the draw distance, the smooth framerate... it's all here, folks!
14:49 US PST: HOLY CRAP. KillZone: Shadowfall looks absolutely incredible. I have goosebumps, people.
14:48 US PST: KillZone: Shadowfall.
14:48 US PST: We're about to see one of the first true next-gen games, KillZone 4???
14:47 US PST: Michael Denny from Worldwide Studios has just taken the stage, and now we're about to be treated to some of their next-generation games. Now introducing Guerilla Games.
14:44 US PST: The interactivity between devices, will be lived on throughout many devices. You won't just leave your game, and have to get back to your console to continue - the shared experience will continue through multiple devices, across the world. You can be on your way to work, outside of your gaming world and still be connected in some way or another. The Share button is a very big part of this.
14:39 US PST: Cloud games are big, where they could put all PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS4 games on the cloud - where you could play them within seconds, from the cloud - everything, everywhere, is a challenge Sony are putting to their teams.
14:37 US PST: Remote Play can transfer the game from your PlayStation 4 to your PS Vita.
14:36 US PST: Remote Play has been built into the architecture of the console itself, which is nice - Sony are also saying that the PS Vita is the best companion to the PS4.
14:35 US PST: Sony have teamed up with Ustream, for streaming abilities, too.
14:35 US PST: A friend can take over your game, and get you through a hard part of a game - kind of like remote administration to your PS4 controller.
14:34 US PST: The Share button on the PS4 controller is quite capable, broadcast your entire game to your friends in real-time, incredible!! But they didn't stop there, your friends can actually 'virtually' look over your shoulder in the game, capable of posting comments to your screen - or just chat with them.
14:33 US PST: We're back now using the GameTrailers site, thanks to my friend Jake for the link!
14:30 US PST: UStream's servers are being pounded right now.
14:27 US PST: And now we're back. We're going to have a few posts over the coming hours, so anything that we've missed we'll cover shortly.
14:24 US PST: Aaaand the stream goes offline...
14:23 US PST: Now we're getting the larger user experience around the games - simple, immediate, social, integrated, personalized.
14:22 US PST: Cerny is making a game, too, Knack.
14:19 US PST: PS4 sports an APU with 8 CPU cores - 2 teraflops of performance on the GPU.
14:19 US PST: Now they're showing off Unreal Engine 4 in real-time, on prototype hardware.
14:18 US PST: The new PS4 dual-shock controller has been announced, check it out below! Touchpad, Share button, and was designed with a camera in mind, tracking the position of the controller through the lightbar built into the controller.
14:17 US PST: x86 architecture has been used, and a 'highly-advanced PC GPU', 8GB of unified memory and is backed by massive local storage - nothing has been pin-pointed in storage, we should expect 500GB-1TB.
14:15 US PST: Now we're being greeted to the beginning stages of the PS4, the developers, as you would expect, are the integral part of the next-generation console from PS4.
14:12 US PST: Over the next couple of hours, we're going to be greeted to how the PS4 will change things - where we'll meet many people who will discuss the console itself. Now we're going to be introduced to - Mark Cerny, the Lead System Architect on the PS4.
14:10 US PST: PlayStation 4 is here! Gamers and developers are going to be happy with this - the future of Play, an idea with enough vision to change everything in gaming today.
14:09 US PST: Here we go, the future of Play - Sony are pushing the best franchises to be even better, to be connected much easier when being away from the console. PlayStation 4!!!!
14:07 US PST: Every part of the PlayStation is set to be more powerful, no tease of the PS4 yet - but superb engineering and technology, used through powerful hardware are being reiterated. How does the next-generation gamer want to play? The consumer is now changing Sony, and not vica versa.
14:06 US PST: Sony is pushing their vision for the future, talking about gaming experiences happening on a console, or a portable device - where they talk about the PS Vita, with it's super powerful hardware.
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Apple's stock price takes a hit after reports detailing a Foxconn hiring freeze surface
Apple's stock continues to take a hit as reports of a hiring freeze at Apple's largest supplier surface. There have been two opposing theories offered up and it seems like investors are accepting one over the other and are using it as a reason to pound Apple's stock price.
Apple's stock has decreased in value by $11.14, or 2.42 percent, in today's trading. The Financial Times offers up that the hiring freeze is a result of lower demand for Apple products. According to an external recruiter, "
Foxconn's demand for workers this year was as low as that in 2009."
Bloomberg offers up a different reason for the hiring freeze. According to the spokesperson they spoke to, "
Foxconn halted recruitment until the end of March after more employees returned from the Chinese New Year break than a year earlier."
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RumorTT: Samsung having issues with Exynos 5, may cause Galaxy S4 to come with Snapdragon
A report from the hit-and-miss online newspaper DigiTimes is saying that Samsung is having issues with power consumption and temperature on their new eight-core Exynos 5 Octa processor. This was previously rumored to be the CPU powering the next-gen flagship mobile device, though this report says this will not be the case.
These problems have apparently resulted in Samsung turning to the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. DigiTimes' report says that the CPU will be a quad-core Snapdragon 600, which is the same processor used in the new HTC One. Of course, this report could be wrong, so we'll have to wait until March 14 when it is rumored Samsung will unveil the new smartphone.
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Google releases new Google Glass video that showcases abilities
The Google Glass project is looking pretty awesome. Who wouldn't want to wear a computer on their face? To demonstrate some of the capabilities that Google Glass should have in its final iteration, Google has release a new video that showcases some of the major features:
In the video, people can be heard controlling the headset via the command "Ok Glass." After those words are said, Glass starts listening for a command such as "take a picture," "start recording," or numerous other examples as seen in the video. Project Glass continues to get more and more awesome every time we see something new.
Unfortunately, you'll have to shell out $1,500 and
win a spot to pre-order the device.
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Adobe releases updates for Reader, Acrobat that patch serious vulnerabilities currently being exploited
Even though today is a Wednesday, it has seemingly turned into Patch Tuesday as several companies have released updates to their software that patch critical security vulnerabilities. Along with Java releasing update 15, Adobe has released updates to its Reader and Acrobat products to patch a critical security flaw that is currently being exploited in the wild.
Until you update to the latest version of the software, you need to be wary of PDFs as the malware is currently using malicious PDF files to spread. The security hole is present on Linux, Mac, and Windows, though Adobe has only seen Windows computers being targeted as of now.
Users can update the software through the built-in updater (available in the Help menu, select Check for Updates) or by downloading a copy of the
Windows,
Mac, or
Linux installer directly from Adobe's website.
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Oracle has released update to Java, fixes serious security risks
Oracle has been forced to release another update to the Java plug-in due to critical security flaws present in the previous release. Java SE 7 update 15 was released yesterday, February 19, and contains patches that plug security holes that allowed Facebook and Apple to hacked. The update also features improvements in performance and stability.
The update will force users of Java SE 6 to upgrade to the latest version as long as their system can run Java SE 7. Version 6 of Java has been officially "retired" by the company and should not be used due to security risks that are present. If you still have Java installed on your system, you should update to the
latest version without delay.
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Virident announces industry's first server-side flash connectivity
Virident has announced the release of the industry's first software suite that delivers a shared server-side flash storage tier. Virident's FlashMAX connect suite creates a flash-storage management layer unparalleled in the industry.
The goal of creating shared server tiers is currently under development by several of Virident's competitors, with Micron, Fusion-IO and OCZ among the competitors looking to field shared storage solutions.
This creates extreme low latency and unconditional performance of FlashMAX II in conjunction with the manageability, shareability and high availability of a traditional SAN architecture. The new server-side software capability is tightly integrated with the underlying flash layer to create a performance storage tier optimized for databases and virtualization applications. Because storage management and flash management are working cooperatively, the suite not only ensures performance and endurance are at optimal efficiency but also yields significant benefits over alternate solutions that lack such integration.
This announcement comes hot on the heels of an agreement between Seagate and Virident for an OEM deal that provides Virident products through Seagate's channels. With Virident's growth projected at 140% over its 2012 sales this year we expect to continue to see many exciting new products from Virident in the future.
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SMART Storage Systems introduces 1.8" SAS Optimus SSD
SMART has announced the new 1.8" SAS Enterprise-Class Optimus SSD. This SAS SSD features random speeds of 100,000 read IOPS and 45,000 write IOPS. Sequential read and write speeds are 500MB/s.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this SSD is the intended market. This small form factor SSD is designed for blade servers, caching and other high-density computing environments, which typically have space constraints. Providing smaller robust solutions will address the needs of this market segment. Another impressive feature is the density, with this SSD coming in capacities of 200GB and 400GB.
The new Optimus 1.8" SAS SSD leverages the Guardianâ„¢ Technology Platform to provide the endurance and feature set required for enterprise environments. A comprehensive suite of proprietary features, the Guardian Technology Platform is comprised of FlashGuardâ„¢, EverGuardâ„¢, and DataGuardâ„¢ technologies. FlashGuard, an innovative combination of Aggregated Flash Management and Advanced Signal Processing technologies, enables commercial MLC Flash to achieve higher endurance levels, making it suitable for the enterprise environment.
DataGuard and EverGuard technologies ensure that data integrity and drive reliability are never compromised, satisfying the demanding reliability requirements of Tier-1 enterprise storage applications. Additionally, Optimus features full T10 DIF support and TCG enterprise encryption, resulting in an optimal blend of endurance, performance, reliability and value.
The result is endurance equaling 10 full drive writes per day during the warranty period of five years. SMART Storage Systems SAS SSDs are just one facet of their product line, with many different form factors and SAS/SATA SSDs to address different workloads.
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Sony set to launch PlayStation 4 this afternoon - Stay tuned to TweakTown for all the updates
Sony is soon set to make one of the most anticipated announcements in gaming history. Sony is expected to announce its next-generation gaming console, the PlayStation 4, at a press conference later today.
If you are just now hearing about the PlayStation 4, you must have been living under a rock for the past several months. While we are 99 percent sure the announcement will center on the new console, we are still unsure of some of the specs. How much memory will the unit feature? Will it support 4k resolution?
Luckily our own Anthony Garreffa will be posting live highlights from the event and hopefully putting our curiosities to rest on what hardware the PS4 gets. The fun starts at 6pm US EST or 10am AEST (Sydney time). You can watch the entire event live at the Source #2 link below.
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Hacked Gmail accounts reduced by 99.7% since 2011, says Google
For more than a decade now email has been a way of life, and as with all electronic services that become staples, hackers have found ways to get your information. Fortunately Google has found a way to all but end account hacks to its Gmail service.
Nine times out of ten, a program breaks into your email accounts with the intention of blasting out spam to both your contacts and a list of thousands of others. This is why we see so much spam in our inbox's. Gmail was not left out and the number of hacked accounts soon began to rise. As a result, Google developed a complicated handshake to ensure you are actually you, when logging into your account.
The system performs a complex risk analysis each time your account is logged into. In fact more than 120 variables have to be authenticated before the system will validate you as the correct user. In the event some of these variables do not match, Google will ask you some simple questions. This is why you sometimes get asked for your mobile phone number when logging in.
As a result of this system, Google says they have reduced the number of hacked accounts by 99.7 percent since 2011.
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Yahoo redesigns its home page, now features social stream and never ending page scroll
Today Yahoo CEO, Marissa Mayer, unveiled a redesigned Yahoo homepage, via the company's official blog. The basic layout is still quite familiar, with some changes to add in social media integration. The site has also gained an endless scroll feature that has become popular as of late.
The new front page is able to tap into your Facebook profile, and even give you recommendations from the social network. The site has also been optimized for mobile devices including tablets and smartphones.
"The new Yahoo experience works well on the go -- we've optimized it for smartphones and tablets," Mayer wrote.
"And, thanks to some under-the-hood improvements, Yahoo is also faster."
The new look is not yet live, but will begin to roll out over the next few days.
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iPad gets dedicated Audible app, iPhone version gets redesign
Audible for iPhone has been around pretty much from the beginning, but unfortunately, the iPad never saw a dedicated Audible app with a good fit for the tablet device, until now that is. Today, Audible released a dedicated app for the iPad, and gave the iPhone version a complete makeover as well.
"
More than 20 percent of Audible customers already use Audible's iPhone app on the iPad," Audible VP of Mobile Apps, Ajay Arora said in a statement. The new dedicated iPad app brings forth a better graphics experience when viewing book covers, with a look similar to what we see on Amazon's Kindle iPad app.
Audible gave the iPhone version of the app a complete overhaul, bringing in features like the ability to download book files over cellular data, something that was unavailable on the old app.
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Apple iTunes 11.0.2 released today - brings Composer View, enhancements and bug fixes
This morning users of Apple's iTunes might have noticed a small update pending. Apple released iTunes 11.0.2 today which brings forth several minor bug fixes, including one where purchased items sometimes failed to show in the user's library.
Also included in the update is the new Composer View, which as it says, shows the name of the composer of a piece of music. After updating you can enable this feature by clicking on View, then View Options, and selecting the Composer box.
The 54.2MB update is said to improve responsiveness as well when syncing playlist and large numbers of tracks. Version 11 of iTunes completely redesigned the player, including making the iOS and desktop versions feel and behave more like each other.
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Google holding contest for "Creative Individuals", winners get to pre-order Project Glass
Last summer at Google's annual tech conference, Google I/O, the company opened up the "explorer" edition of its Project Glass headset for pre-order to IO developer and early adopter attendees. At the time you had to fork over $1500 for the early access to the headset.
Google is re-opening the pre-order program for its headsets, with one caveat. You must be a "Creative Individual" and enter the #ifihadglass competition, being held by Google now. If your entry is chosen, Google will allow you to pre-order a pair of Google Glasses.
The competition is open to US residents only who are of the age of 18 or older. Applicants must impress Google in 50 words or less which explain what you would do if you had Glass. Entries must start the essay with the hashtag #ifihadglass, can include up to five photos, and a 15 second video. The pre-order will still cost you $1500 if you are chosen. You can find the competition at the source link below.
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Swedish Pirate Party threatened by lawsuit from copyright lobbyist for hosting The Pirate Bay
The battle over copyright law never seems to end; in fact, it just seems to grow larger every day. Today we are hearing word that the Swedish copyright lobby group, Rights Alliance, is threatening to sue the Swedish political group, the "Pirate Party".
Rights Alliance has issues a notice, giving the Pirate Party a week to comply with their demands of ceasing all hosting of the website The Pirate Bay, or face legal action. The group is citing a ruling from a case last year in which the Supreme Court said that host can be held liable for website's content hosted on their servers.
The Pirate Party of course has no plans on complying, saying
"The Pirate Party's activity is legal and lawful activities should not be subjected to threats of this type. It is not illegal to provide the Pirate Bay with Internet access." Some note that since the Pirate Party is a legitimate political party, any legal action taken to shut down TPB hosting can be seen as political censorship.
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CyanogenMod adds HDR camera functionality for most devices running CM10.1
Good news for those of you who run, or were thinking of running CyanogenMod, the team have just added HDR (High Dynamic Range) camera functionality for most devices running the CM10.1 build.
The new camera function has been enabled on most devices, which will capture and process images similar to how Google's Nexus 4 handles it, with it's stock Android ROM. The camera takes three images per second - one under exposed, one neutral exposed and the final one over exposed - after which it processes them together and makes the image quality 'pop' a little more than usual.
The new HDR functionality is now ready for anyone who uses the default CyanogenMod camera app. As with most custom ROMs, the new function will work with most devices, but not all. The CyanogenMod team recommends that you use some form of image stabilizer, such as a tripod. You can read more, and grab it right
here.
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GPU shipments down for Q4 2012 according to JPR
It looks like GPU shipments for Q4 2012 didn't do so well according to Jon Peddie Research's latest numbers - where they dropped 8.2% sequentially and 11.5% year-over-year. The drop in GPU shipments is being blamed on the popularity of tablets, as well as the continuing and damaging recession.
This has caused JPR to revise their compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for PC graphics from 2012 to 2016 to 3.2%, with the total shipments of GPUs in 2016 hovering at around 549 million units. Intel's shipments dropped just 2.9%, but AMD dropped by a much larger 13.6% and NVIDIA were worse, dropping by 16.7%. Market share wise, we saw Intel hold onto 63.4%, which was a gain of 3.4%, but this was at the expense of AMD and NVIDIA which dropped 1.2% and 1.73% respectively - down to 19.7% and 16.9%.
There are some breakdowns from JPR's latest report below:
- AMD's quarter-to-quarter total shipments of desktop APUs increased 0.8% from Q3 and declined 19.1% in notebooks. The company's overall PC graphics shipments slipped 13.6%.
- Intel's quarter-to-quarter desktop processor-graphics EPG shipments increased from last quarter by 3%, and Notebooks fell by 6.76%. The company's overall PC graphics shipments dropped 2.9%.
- Nvidia's quarter-to-quarter desktop discrete shipments fell 15.1% from last quarter; and, the company's mobile discrete shipments dropped 18.4%. The company's overall PC graphics shipments declined 16.7%.
- Year to year this quarter AMD shipments declined 29.4%, Intel dropped 5%, Nvidia slipped 4.6%, and VIA fell 10% from last year.
- Total discrete GPUs (desktop and notebook) fell 15.9% from the last quarter and were down 9.7% from last year for the same quarter due to the same problems plaguing the overall PC industry.
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3D-printing pen passes its Kickstarter goal in just hours
I can't state it enough times, but it looks like 3D printers are really the next big thing with the 3Doodler. The 3Doodler is a pen-style device that the creators are dubbing a "
world's first", as well as "
the most affordable way to 3D print."
The 3Doodler is quite magical, as it allows the user to draw designs into existence by simply moving it through the air - incredible. The 3Doodler uses ABS plastic that is heated, and then instantly cooled. The developers, WobbleWorks, took to
Kickstarter yesterday, breaking their $30,000 funding goal in just a few hours. The first orders of the 3Doodler should arrive later in the year, hopefully September, and we should be looking at just 5,000 of the Kickstarter-backed orders being shipped at first.
From their $30,000 goal they've passed it with flying colors - where at the time of writing, they had $344,096 pledged - over ten times their goal. If you want to buy one, you can order one now for $75 and you should receive it in October.
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SwiftKey 4 launches, brings along Flow for the ride, personal style detection also tags along
Just after SwiftKey Flow reached beta, SwiftKey 4 has launched and now includes Flow by default. So not only do we get the awesome predictive text engine from the future, but Flow Through Space, which lets users guide their fingers across the keyboard, making up the key as they go along.
The latest version of SwiftKey also adds some new features, expanding their contextual word prediction up to 60 languages, offers simpler corrections and also watches for personal typing habits to adjust all of this on the fly - incredible for such a small app, isn't it? This means that SwiftKey 4 will learn if you're a tapper, or if you're a texting pro and adjust itself to suit.
Best of all, the update is free for those who already own the smartphone or tablet versions of SwiftKey, and if not - it's currently 50% off at just $2 - down from $4.
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Before it has even been purchased by most consumers, Sony's Xperia Z has been rooted
You might not have even heard about Sony's Xperia Z, or you haven't had the time to grab one, or it's not available in your country yet - whatever the situation, the latest and greatest handset from Sony has already been rooted.
The XDA Developers forum is at it again, with the device being rooted already - how was it done? Modifying the code of a Nexus 4 root, while leveraging Teamviewer to remotely test it on a real-world device. Others have come in saying that the trick used isn't just a one-time occurrence, but should be repeatable. The hack, like most, is risky and currently lacks a recovery tool.
You can read more on it, and even try it right
here.
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Poll Results - What are you most likely to buy? (new CES 2013 products)
Our latest poll had over 4,300 people who answered, "What are you most likely to buy? (new CES 2013 products)".
We saw rather mixed results with the most votes by a small margin going to the option of a new 4k UHD television. In second place, again by a small margin, was Valve's upcoming Steam Box.
In a split third place, we saw a new desktop computer and new upcoming smartphone, were also popular options.
For the actual numbers,
go here. In our latest poll, we ask you...
"Which excites you most? (Xbox 720 or PS4)" Let us know! Go here to
vote!
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LG Display seeking resolution "through an amicable negotiation" with South Korean rival, Samsung
It looks like South Korean electronic giants LG and Samsung are solving their disputes out of court, after a patent battle between the companies started last year with Samsung filing a lawsuit claiming that LG had stolen technology secrets from within their OLED production.
LG fired back, threatening their own injunctions, but it looks like everything has calmed down and a few expensive drinks have been shared between the companies. Samsung Display have come out saying that they've dropped their injunction request, and LG have responded with the same respect - after dropping the request for an injunction seeking to ban the sale of Samsung's Galaxy Note 10.1 in South Korea, LG have said they're now seeking resolution "through an amicable negotiation".
I'm glad we have companies solving things nicely, and not pushing it all through a court - all in the public eye.
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Adaptec by PMC re-enters HBA Market with Series 7H, 7He and 6H Adaptors
Adaptec Series 7H, 7He, 6H
Adaptec has announced a new line of 6Gb/s HBA's (Host Bus Adapter) in the form of the Series 7H, 7He and 6H families. This new line of HBA's marks Adaptec's return into the HBA business, a market that Adaptec had chosen to sit out of for the past few years.
Adaptec was acquired in 2010 by PMC-Sierra, a semi-conductor developer. Soon after the merger of the two companies, Adaptec launched their 6 Series RAID controllers and adaptors. The 6 Series of controllers were designed before the resources of PMC-Sierra were brought into play. The Series 7 products are the first generation of controllers from Adaptec that reap the benefits of their merger with PMC.
Adaptec is following the Series 7 RAID controller release with their return to the HBA market. This strategic decision to rejoin the HBA market is due to the changing realities of server design. By anticipating the needs of the HBA market, Adaptec hopes to come in with new features that will resonate with their customers. Companies such as Facebook and Google are deploying their own custom-built servers into their datacenters, and the need for HBAs and slim storage solutions has become increasingly prevalent.
One of the greatest aspects of these new HBAs is the ability to pack more density into slim servers. To cram enough connectivity for the plethora of available ports onboard these small cards, Adaptec is transitioning to the HD MiniSAS specification one year early. Most companies are waiting for the 12Gb/s generation to make the transition, but Adaptec feels that this will put them a full year ahead of the competition in instituting the switch to HD MiniSAS.
This new line features the industry's only PCIe Gen3 low profile/MD2 form factor HBA with 16 native ports, and the industry's only solution to take full advantage of the PCIe Gen3 bandwidth with one card. This results in the only SAS/SATA HBA solution that is capable of 1 million IOPS with 512Byte blocks.
The features are powered by new PMC silicon in the form of the 16 native port PM8019 and PM8018 processors. These controllers provide SAS 2.0 connectivity via the PCIe Gen3 x8 bus. With sequential read and write speeds on the PCIe Gen3 bus clocked at 6400MB/s, and over 800,000 IOPS with the 4K block size, these HBA's surely will not disappoint in the speed category.
Another new feature employed by two of the Series 7He models is the MaxCrypto functionality. This provides the industry's only HBAs that feature encryption. We will cover this in further detail in the following pages.
Pricing has not been announced yet, but prices are projected to be competitive with competing solutions. Full availability for all of the product family will be in Q2 of 2013. We expect to have in some silicon for testing well before that, but first let's take a look at the entire line-up, and some of the functionalities that these controllers bring with them.
...
Read the rest in your browser!
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GIGABYTE Z77X-UD4H (Intel Z77) Motherboard Review
Introduction
Since we're roughly five months away from a massive influx of new motherboards via the Haswell platform, we're seeing companies promote the current crop of Z77 motherboards quite heavily at the moment. The latest motherboard to arrive comes from GIGABYTE and continues the line of strong Z77 based motherboards.
Recently we had a chance to look at the
Z77X-UP7 which impressed us with strong features, good performance and a fantastic look. While not for everyone, the cheaper
Z77X-UD5H could be a better option, as it won't bust the bank account open quite as much.
Today we look at an even cheaper option in the Z77X-UD4H. So what does the cheaper price tag bring to the table? Well, we can only find out by doing one thing and that's getting a closer look at the motherboard.
The first thing we need to do is look at the package and bundle before we move onto the actual board itself. We'll then head into the BIOS area to see what's going on before looking at our testbed, the overclocking side of things and finally of course the performance of the board at both stock speeds and overclocked speeds.
Package
Looking at the box it's not quite as full on as other more expensive boards with information as the Z77X-UP7 which opens up to reveal the board and a whole lot more. Looking above, though, you can see some of the main features are covered with a big push on the 3D Power and 3D BIOS features being mentioned on the front. You can also see that we've got PCIe Gen 3, Virtu MVP and SLI support.
Turning over to the back of the box you can see we get more detail on what exactly 3D Power and 3D BIOS brings to the table along with some detail on the Ultra Durable 4 side of things. As always we've got a fairly strong looking board, but until we get into the down and dirty, we won't know exactly what we're dealing with.
Being a cheaper UD4H motherboard means that the bundle side of things is a little lighter than other more expensive boards. Above you can see the manuals along with four SATA cables, SLI bridge and an I/O Panel to round everything off. Due to the nature of getting the board a little earlier before volume shipping, we didn't get a driver CD, but you will see this in the retail offerings on the street.
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