NASA's Cassini probe checks out a gigantic super cyclone on Saturn
NASA's Cassini probe sure is clocking up some serious frequent flier miles, but as the probe was circling Saturn for nine years, NASA's probe managed to capture some spectacular video of a gigantic storm on Saturn's north pole.
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AMD introduces heterogeneous Uniform Memory Access
This morning AMD announced the next big advancement concerning their APU technology. AMD heterogeneous Uniform Memory Access (hUMA) is an intelligent computing architecture that enables the CPU, GPU, and other processors to work in harmony from a single piece of silicon in a single pool of memory and seamlessly move task to the best suited processing unit.
- Bi-Directional Coherent Memory - This means that any updates made by one processing element will be seen by all other processing elements such as the CPU or GPU.
- Pageable Memory - This allows the GPU to handle page faults the same way that the CPU does. This also removes restricted page locked memory.
- Entire Memory Space - Both the CPU and GPU processes can dynamically allocate memory from the entire memory space. This means it has access to no only the physical memory, but it also has access to the entire virtual memory address space.
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Angry Birds Friends for Android and iOS arrives on Thursday
Rovio has taken to their official Angry Birds Twitter account to announce that Angry Birds Friends is coming to both iOS and Android on Thursday.
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Samsung announces the Galaxy Tab 3, their lower-end 7-inch 3G-capable tablet
Samsung have just announced their latest addition to the constantly growing Galaxy range of devices, the Galaxy Tab 3. Samsung's new Galaxy Tab 3 features a 7-inch display running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
The resolution of the 7-inch display hasn't changed from the Tab 2, with the Tab 3 offering a 1024x600-pixel display, not even matching the 1280x800 display on the Nexus 7. There's no details on price at the moment, but Samsung have said that the Wi-Fi-only Tab 3 will be made available at the beginning of May, and will be followed by a 3G-capable model in June.
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Twitter sends out memo to news organizations warning 'we believe that these attacks will continue'
Twitter has issued a memo to news organizations around the world warning them that they believe the recent attacks on high-profile news accounts will continue. "We believe that these attacks will continue, and that news and media organizations will continue to be high value targets to hackers."
The full memo, as obtained by BuzzFeed:
Please help us keep your accounts secure. There have been severalrecent incidents of high-profile news and media Twitter handles being compromised. We believe that these attacks will continue, and that news and media organizations will continue to be high value targets to hackers.
What to be aware of:
These incidents appear to be spear phishing attacks that target your corporate email. Promoting individual awareness of these attacks within your organization and following the security guidelines below is vital to preventing abuse of your Twitter accounts.
Take these steps right now:
Change your Twitter account passwords. Never send passwords via e-mail, even internally. Ensure that passwords are strong- at least 20 characters long. Use either randomly-generated passwords (like "LauH6maicaza1Neez3zi") or a random string of words (like "hewn cloths titles yachts refine").
Keep your email accounts secure. Twitter uses email for password resets and official communication. If your email provider supports two-factor authentication, enable it. Change your e-mail passwords, and use a password different from your Twitter account password.
Review your authorized applications. Log in to Twitter and review the applications authorized to access your accounts. If you don't recognize any of the applications, contact us immediately by emailing __@twitter.com.
Help us protect you. We're working to make sure we have the most updated information on our partners' accounts. Please send us a complete list of all accounts affiliated with your organization, so that we can help keep them protected.
Build a plan. Create a formal incident response plan. If you suspect your organization is being targeted by a phishing campaign or has been
compromised by a phishing attack, enact the plan.
Contact us immediately at __@twitter.com with the word "Hacking" in the subject. Include copies of suspected phishing emails.
If you lose access to an account, file a Support ticket and email the ticket number to ______@twitter.com.
Moving Forward:
Review our security guidelines to help make sure your accounts are as secure as possible.
Talk with your security team about ensuring that your corporate email system is as safe as possible. A third-party provider that allows for two-factor authentication might be a safer solution.
Strong security practices will reduce your vulnerability to phishing. Consider the following suggestions:
Designate one computer to use for Twitter. This helps keep your Twitter password from being spread around. Don't use this computer to read email or surf the web, to reduce the chances of malware infection.
Minimize the number of people that have access. Even if you use a third-party platform to avoid sharing the actual Twitter account password, each of these people is a possible avenue for phishing or other compromise.
Check for signs of compromise. Checking your email address and authorized apps weekly or monthly can help detect unauthorized access and address the problem before access is abused.
Double-check the email address associated with your Twitter accounts: https://twitter.com/settings/account
Review the apps authorized to access your accounts: https://twitter.com/settings/applications
Change your password regularly. Changing your Twitter password quarterly or yearly can reset the clock if a password has leaked.
Using a Password Manager integrated into your browser can help prevent successful phishing attacks.
Third-party solutions such as 1Password or LastPass, as well as the browser's built-in password manager, will only auto-fill passwords on the correct website. If the password manager does not auto-fill, this might indicate a phishing attempt.
Password managers make it much easier to use a very strong password. Very difficult passwords will discourage memorization, which will greatly reduce the chances of being phished.
Be certain to set a master password, since otherwise passwords may be
stored unprotected.
Don't hesitate to email us if you need assistance.
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Facebook said to be losing users in most lucrative markets
Things aren't looking so bright for Facebook ahead of their first-quarter earnings announcement. According to several different groups tracking Facebook usage, numbers are down in some of the most lucrative markets. SocialBakers estimates that Facebook has lost around 6m US-based users in the past month alone.
New media specialist Ian Maude at Enders Analysis:
The problem is that, in the US and UK, most people who want to sign up for Facebook have already done it. There is a boredom factor where people like to try something new. Is Facebook going to go the way of Myspace? The risk is relatively small, but that is not to say it isn't there.No one is saying that Facebook is heading the way of Myspace, but it looks like Facebook's massive growth is over, at least in the developed world. Facebook is still adding users in developing countries such as Brazil and India. Jefferies' analysts agree with SocialBakers, stating that user levels may have declined from peak in the first quarter.
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Opera sues Trond Werner Hansen, claims he gave trade secrets to Mozilla
Trond Werner Hansen, a former Opera employee, has been sued by the company who alleges that he took trade secrets and gave them to Mozilla. Opera is looking to receive damages of 20 million kroner, or about $3.4 million US. Of course, Hansen denies that allegations, saying he has been "wrongly accused."
Opera is of the opinion that the former employee has acted contrary to his contractual and other legal obligations towards Opera. Among other things, we claim that he is in breach of the duty of loyalty and his contractual and statutory confidentiality obligations.Hansen has been forced to return to Norway for a hearing in late August. "The lawsuit caused me to have to return to Norway, instead of pursuing my album release and other art projects in New York," Hansen said. Hansen has provided a lot of background information in this blog post about his employment and a "green browser" project that Opera failed to become interested in.
Firefox is remaining out of it, noting that they were not implicated in the lawsuit: "Mozilla is not being sued, and is not implicated in the lawsuit. Mr. Hansen worked for a time as an independent contractor and is no longer affiliated with Mozilla Corporation."
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Nintendo starts selling refurbished 3DS and DSi, offers normal one-year warranty
Looking to score a 3DS or DSi on the cheap? Nintendo has your back. Nintendo is now selling refurbished versions of the 3DS and DSi systems with the standard one-year warranty that comes with new devices. These refurbished devices are cleaned, tested, and inspected to make sure they meet Nintendo's standards.
If you're in the market for a 3DS or DSi, head over to Nintendo's store.
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Microsoft's latest Windows Phone ad makes fun of Samsung and Apple rivalry
Are you an Android or Apple? Samsung has long played on Apple fans standing in line to get the latest iPhone in its advertisements. Microsoft apparently doesn't want to be left out, especially as Windows Phone continues to make small increases in market share. The following video will soon air on US TV stations:
I feel that this ad is way more effective than Microsoft's Surface beatboxing ad that they ran a few months back. What do you think of the ad?
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SquareTrade drop tests Samsung Galaxy S4, compares to iPhone 5 and S3
SquareTrade has drop-tested the new Samsung Galaxy S4 and found that it is more breakable than the iPhone 5 of Galaxy S3. Normally device manufacturers would want to increase durability with each revision, though this is sometimes hard to do. You can see video of their drop test below:
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Ubisoft's Watch Dogs said to be releasing in mid-November
According to a Joystiq report, Ubisoft's much-anticipated game Watch Dogs will be releasing in mid-November. The report says that North America will be getting the game on November 19 and the United Kingdom will be getting it on November 22.
The UK version will reportedly be available in four different editions: Dedsec, Vigilante, Uplay, and Special Edition. Dedsec will come with a 23cm figurine, while the Vigilante will come with Aiden Pearce's cap and mask. Uplay, available through Ubisoft's digital distributioin network will reportedly come with a steelbook and the Special Edition will reportedly come with an extra single player mission. North American bundles are not currently known.
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Virgin Galactic successfully completes first test flight of its commercial space plane
Our readers seem to have quite an interest in space, and who wouldn't? As part of the commercialization of space and space travel, Virgin Galactic has successfully completed the first test flight of its space plane, which will eventually be used to take ordinary citizens into space.
After being released, the plane flew up to 55,000 feet and broke the sound barrier. Virgin Galactic expect to test the plane in space by the end of the year and plan to have real flights for everyone available starting in 2015.
Virgin Galactic Founder Sir Richard Branson:
The first powered flight of Virgin Spaceship Enterprise was without any doubt, our single most important flight test to date. For the first time, we were able to prove the key components of the system, fully integrated and in flight. Today's supersonic success opens the way for a rapid expansion of the spaceship's powered flight envelope, with a very realistic goal of full space flight by the year's end. We saw history in the making today and I couldn't be more proud of everyone involved.
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Apple lays foundation for first-ever debt sale as part of stock buyback program
Apple has laid the foundation for its first-ever debt sale. The company that has over $140 billion in cash and not a single penny of debt has decided to sell bonds in order to raise capital for its $60 billion share buyback program. It needs to raise capital because only about $45 billion of its cash is in the United States.
S&P rated Apple as AA+ for debt and Moody's rated it Aa1. Moody's analyst Gerald Granovsky:
Apple's Aa1 rating is not higher due to Moody's view that there are inherent long-run risks for any company with high exposure to shifting consumer preferences.Bankers expect Apple to issue 10-year bonds at roughly 45bp-50bp over Treasuries. Microsoft, on the other hand, recently sold 10-year bonds at 70 basis points over Treasuries.
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Twitter accounts continue to be hacked, this time Guardian has some accounts compromised
Twitter continues to be in the news and not for good things. Twitter accounts continue to be compromised left and right, though not because of a bug in Twitter's system. Often times these accounts are compromised because the owner used a weak password, fell victim of a phishing scam, or simply told someone else.
"We are aware that a number of Guardian Twitter accounts have been compromised and we are working actively to resolve this," a Guardian spokesperson said.
The Syrian Electronic Army has claimed responsibility for these hacks, much like they claimed responsibility for the recent hackings of NPR, CBS, and Associated Press handles. It's not clear how exactly the Guardian handles were compromised, though it's likely they used a similar e-mail phishing tactic.
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Microsoft demos technology designed to help game immersion
As we near the Xbox 720 unveiling on May 21, Microsoft has come out to display some new reality-bending technology that aims to help with game immersion. The technology uses projectors to display aspects of the current game onto the walls surrounding your TV. The technology is known as IllumiRoom and will likely be present on the Xbox 720.
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Blizzard announces Diablo III is now available for pre-order for the PS3
Blizzard, the company behind World of Warcraft and Starcraft, has announced that Diablo III is now available for pre-order for the PlayStation 3 console. I'm sure most of our readers will remember that Diablo III originally launched last May for the PC and suffered some major launch issues.
Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment:
We've poured blood, sweat, and hellfire into creating an epic Diablo III experience for PlayStation gamers. In addition to including all the improvements from the PC version over the past year, we've made several updates to Diablo III for play on the PS3. We got a ton of positive feedback from players who tried the game at PAX East, and we can't wait to get it into everyone's hands later this year.For more information, you can see Blizzard's full announcement here.
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Check out Lightpack, an awesome new project on Kickstarter
One of the TweakTown staff was browsing the latest Kickstarter projects and came across Lightpack, an awesome open-source project that projects colored light onto the wall behind your monitor or TV. The color is matched to what is currently being displayed on your screen, so it visually expands your screen size and aids with eye-strain commonly associated with viewing screens in the dark.
For the makers out there, Lightpack has released the designs for the PCB, bill of materials, and other needed files and designs so you can build your own at home. For the less electrically-inclined, Lightpack is offering up pre-built units if you support the Kickstarter campaign. It's almost completely funded, needing just under $10,000 more by May 31.
Check out the Kickstarter campaign here.
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OS X 10.9 to include tabbed browsing in Finder and iOS style multitasking
Apple will announce OS X 10.9 this June at WWDC and this morning we are learning of a few new features that the OS will see. The updated operating system is said to include two very sought after features. Tabbed browsing in Finder as well as tagging. The update will also bring forth iOS style multitasking and a new version of Safari.
The update, which is codenamed "Cabernet", will also see a Safari refresh that is said to improve speed and efficiency, but I suspect Google Chrome will still be the better choice in browsers. Finally the update is said to bring forth a very iOS-esque style of multitasking where background apps will be paused when not in the active window.
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Samsung reimagines Gangnam Style into some form of Bollywood awkwardness, WTF?
It's Monday and after reducing your productivity already with Notch's new game, I would like to further prevent you from getting any work done by introducing you to this
train wreck
new Gangnam Style video produced Samsung to promote its Galaxy S4 in India.
good
tragic not to share. Call me crazy, but I do not see "Samsung Style" hitting one billion views anytime soon, but stranger things have happened. I am sure we all remember the Klingon Style parody, and my personal favorite, NASA Johnson Style.
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IDC publishes report saying 6TB out of every 10TB allocated to backups
It's no secret that we love to back-up our important data. We make copies of our data at home and at work and even have systems that automate the back-up process for us through devices such as NAS' and such. So many copies that we really don't get the full scope of it until a report like the one published today by IDC comes out.
Based on the approach presented in this document, IDC estimates that in 2012, more than 60% of enterprise disk storage systems capacity may have been made of copy data. Similarly, in 2012, copy data made up nearly 85% of hardware purchases and 65% of storage infrastructure software revenue. In other words, 6TB out of every 10TB of disk storage systems capacity procured and deployed is allocated to copies of primary data.
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BIWIN to begin commercial and industrial SSD sales in the US, Japan and Russia
This morning NAND flash memory manufacturer BIWIN has announced that it will begin selling commercial and industrial grade solid state drives in the US, Russia and Japan.
"In the highly competitive world of flash memory production, quality and flexibility are two areas that BIWIN has shown a compelling track record within the industrial and commercial flash market. But the key feature of their product is not just the great specs on offer but the wide variety of customization that customers can take advantage of. This is something that traditional manufacturers are reluctant to offer.
By providing a wide range of choices of commercial and industrial grade SSDs or by designing the kind the customers need, BIWIN is not only providing products and services, but they are also offering greater possibilities."
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Authorities detain suspect in largest DDOS attack in the history of the Internet
Over the weekend Spanish authorities arrested a Dutch man who they say is responsible for the largest DDOS attack in the history of the internet. The man was said to be in his Barcelona home at the time of the arrest, and police seized several mobile phones and computers belonging to the suspect.
He is the spokesperson for a group that had previously protested tactics used by a European anti-spam group. He operates an ISP known as CB3ROB as well as web hosting company named CyberBunker. He faces charges after being linked to a DDOS attack last month that was like no other ever witnessed.
It targeted the anti-spam group Spamhaus, which maintains one of the largest spam block lists in the world.
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Top 10 TweakTown News Stories from the past week [29 April 2013]
Here are our top 10 news posts from the past week!
- AMD Radeon HD 8570 "Oland Pro" performance teased, targets 720p gamers
- Indian-based startup builds the world's first smartphone for the blind
- Zynga meets earnings targets, manages to make a profit for Q1
- Netflix says they spend $2 billion per year on content, most goes to licensing old shows and movies
- Qualcomm reports stellar earnings, revenue of $6.12bn, profit of $2.07bn
- Facebook Home sees 500,000 downloads in five days
- AMD scoops up Apple's graphics chip designer
- Nintendo releases Wii U update, brings with it faster load times and better performance
- US Cellular selling Samsung Galaxy S4 on April 30
- Google Chrome Beta for Android gets updated, features better rendering and bug fixes
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Kim Dotcom offers $500 to anyone who films US envoy while playing the Megaupload song
This morning everyone's favorite file sharing superstar, Kim Dotcom, announced via Twitter that he would pay $500 to anyone who managed to video US Attorney General Eric Holder or Vice President Joe Biden during their visit to New Zeeland next week.
While that last part may be a bit of a stretch, Holder is directly responsible for the seizure of Megaupload (as head of the Department of Justice), the US government agency that ordered the website to be taken down.
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Drop, a new game by Minecraft creator Notch, will make your productivity drop like a rock
This morning I stumbled across a new game that combines a trendy electronic beat with touch typing. The game was created by Minecraft developer Notch, and while I am unsure when it was released, it has killed the past 30 minutes of my life.
The link to the game is below at Source #1.
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EVGA GeForce GTX TITAN 6GB SuperClocked Video Cards in SLI Overclocked
Introduction
Today we get a chance to finally put the last piece of the puzzle together and find out just how SLI overclocking goes. This is something we're really excited about because when we looked at the overclocking performance of just a single card, we saw some fantastic performance gains. Not only that, when we added a second card into the mix in SLI mode, we also saw some awesome gains in performance across the board.
Today we're hoping with the combination of both SLI and overclocking we're going to be able to see some truly awesome performance. Considering the price tag that is associated with the setup, we expect nothing less. What's going to make this even more interesting is now that we've seen the AMD Radeon HD 7990 6GB officially launch, we've got a whole bunch of setups included in our graphs today. Since the launch of the new AMD dual-GPU model, we've had the opportunity to look at it in a number of ways.
We started off by checking out the performance in its reference form, and then we went into the overclocking side of things - if you have had a chance to look at that article, you'll know that it didn't go very well. While we had hoped to get a second HD 7990 6GB to find out what CrossFireX performance was like, it hasn't been possible so far. Instead, though, we paired the HD 7990 6GB with a HD 7970 GHz Edition to find out what CrossFireX performance with three GPUs was like. If you've seen that article, you would know we were impressed with what that $1,400 setup was able to offer.
With so many high-end setups looked at lately, it will be interesting to see how the overclocked SLI setup we're looking at today goes. As always, because we've already looked at the card in detail, we won't be covering it again. Instead if you want to take a closer look, we recommend you check out the standalone review we linked to above. From here we'll take a quick look at our testbed, talk about the setups that you'll see in our graphs today and quickly cover the overclocking, before we get into the performance numbers.
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Top 10 TweakTown Content from the past week [29 April 2013]
Here are our top 10 articles, reviews and guides from the past week!
- AMD Radeon HD 7990 6GB Dual GPU Video Card Review
- EVGA GeForce GTX TITAN 6GB SuperClocked Video Card Review
- Thermaltake NiC C5 Untouchable Cool CPU Cooler Review
- EVGA GeForce GTX TITAN 6GB SuperClocked Video Card Overclocked
- InWin GT1 Mid-Tower Chassis Review
- Asustor AS-604T 4-Bay NAS Review
- EVGA GeForce GTX TITAN 6GB SuperClocked Video Cards in SLI
- AMD Radeon HD 7990 6GB Dual GPU Video Card Overclocked
- Olympus Has Fallen (2013) Cinema Review
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PQI Air Bank 500GB External Wi-Fi Hard Disk Drive Review
With the market going mobile a lot of manufacturers have jumped on board creating Wi-Fi storage devices, most using the same basic design. PQI is part of this movement to mobile storage, in which they have created an entire line-up of "Air" products.
The PQI Air Bank that we will be looking over today combines a 500GB hard drive, USB 3.0, 10/100 LAN and even 802.11n into one storage device. PQI also claims that this portable storage option contains up to eight hours of battery life and maintains compatibility with Android 2.1+ and iOS 4+. The Air Bank is warrantied for a period of one year.
Looking over the aesthetics of the Air Bank, I am quite pleased with the work PQI has put into it. The drive in no way feels cheap and actually carries a bit of weight, thanks to the slice of aluminium along the sides and internal platter drive. The plastics, while being gloss black, aren't so shiny as to gather scratches and finger prints.
Performance of the drive was rather impressive. While I only used the Android app myself, I didn't notice any skips or stutters when streaming video or listening to music. While on USB 3.0 the drive is even more impressive reaching speeds upwards of 120MB/s.
Where PQI does get you is in pricing. I was able to find several eBay auctions listing the 1TB model at $229.99 and our 500GB model at $199.99, but nothing in the retail market at the moment.
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AMD Radeon HD 7990 6GB and HD 7970 GHz Edition Video Cards in CrossFireX
Introduction
One of the setups we really wanted to test is a pair of HD 7990 6GB cards in CrossFireX. Today, though, we'll be testing a setup that's actually quite an important one, especially in the case if you're already holding one of the pieces to the puzzle. With the release of the new HD 7990, we've got the ability to throw a new CrossFireX configuration into the mix. Being based on the HD 7970 GHz Edition core with just a small 50MHz drop in core speed, the similarities between the two cards are close - the most major difference being that the HD 7990 is a single PCB video card that has two GPUs on it.
While we'll of course be throwing a second card into the mix and essentially double the amount of cards we have in our system, the big thing to remember is that the maximum performance increase we'd expect to see is only around +50%, since we're adding just a third GPU into a two GPU mix that's created with the HD 7990 6GB.
Due to the fact that we've already looked at both cards in detail before, we'll simply just be moving from here onto the testbed. We'll take a quick look at the cards that will be in our graphs here today and check GPU-Z to make sure that everything looks fine.
Once we've gone through the motions we'll then get stuck straight into the performance and see just what this CrossFireX setup can bring to the party.
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Olympus Has Fallen (2013) Cinema Review
Despite his previous failure, Banning might be the only thing between not only the murder of the President of the United States, but the destruction of the country.
Written by newcomers Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt, the plot moves along at such a snappy pace, aiming to avoid the possibility that the audience might stop to analyze its unlikely nature. I mean, North Korea is a country that can't afford to fuel their defense planes, let alone make it to the continental United States. Still, there has to be a bad guy and studios can no longer afford to demonize China - now even tailoring films for the country (see Iron Man 3 and Looper), in a sign that the Eastern world is warming to Western entertainment.
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SanDisk Extreme Pro 128GB Compact Flash Memory Card Review
Compact Flash memory cards are categorized as Type I and Type II. Type I carries a 3.3mm thickness where Type II carries 5mm. The speed ratings for Compact Flash, usually seen as a "X" rating, utilize the same system used for CD-ROMs and indicates the maximum transfer rate in the form of a multiplier based on the original audio CD data transfer rate, which is 150KB/s.
The SanDisk Extreme Pro that we are looking at today carries a 667x speed rating with marketing specifications giving us 100MB/s read and write. The drive is also UDMA7 enabled and conforms to the CFA 6.0 specification, which enables TRIM and transfer speeds up to 167MB/s.
To test Compact Flash cards we utilize the same benchmarks we use for Flash Drives. These include CrystalDiskMark, ATTO and DiskBench. The card reader utilized in these test is the Vantec UGT-CR935.
The SanDisk Extreme Pro is aesthetically pleasing, with the black and red design SanDisk has used many times before in their SSD and SD card line-ups. This time though, with the card being an "Extreme Pro", they opted for a bit of gold colouring to catch your eye.
Performance was on par with marketing specifications and its speed rating of 667x. In both ATTO and CDM, we saw the card reach near 100MB/s in both read and write. Real world testing showed the card capable of 77MB/s transferring RAW image files and 81MB/s transferring full HD video. While this isn't the fastest Compact Flash card on the market, it does offer the promise of full HD video recording and is capable of extreme high speed shooting with your DSLR.
We were able to find this card at the time of writing for $819.99 at a few online stores, with others pricing it $1200 and above. This pricing appears to reflect the availability of the capacity as 64GB units sell for a much cheaper price of $284.99 with wide market presence. SanDisk backs this card with a top-tier lifetime warranty.
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TYLT PowerPlant Portable 5200mAh Battery Pack Review
The best types of reviews are when you have no idea what to expect, which is something I experienced with TYLT. I contacted them regarding their Vu Wireless Charger for my Nexus 4 smartphone, something they couldn't get to us quickly, but they asked if we were interested in portable battery packs, to which I responded with a quick 'yes'.
TYLT was founded in 2011, and have quickly released a bunch of high-quality products. They make portable battery packs, smartphone covers, cables, speakers, NFC stickers and much more. There's quite an incredible range of goodies they have built.
This means you can have an iPad or an iPhone with its own proprietary connection and plug it into this, thanks to the inclusion of charging your iOS devices over USB. This means that the PowerPlant is capable of charging pretty much all mobile devices in the world right now - nifty. It does this while strutting its stuff down the catwalk, which only helps you scream, "shut up and take my money".
How is the performance? Well, the TYLT PowerPlant packs in a very capable 5200mAh battery, which I was able to nearly fully charge my Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 devices with the PowerPlant. The Nexus 4 has a 2100mAh battery, while the Nexus 7 features a 4325mAh battery. What I was able to do, was charge my Nexus 4 from dead flat to full charge, run it down to flat again, and fully charge it once more with the juice left in the PowerPlant.
TYLT's PowerPlant isn't really meant to do this, in my opinion, it's meant to be a 'oh crap, I'm going out to dinner with my friends soon, and I forgot to charge my phone, so I'll grab my TYLT PowerPlant and charge it at the dinner table' type of device. I found the PowerPlant to be incredibly useful when traveling and keeping Google Maps open giving me turn-by-turn navigation, all without sucking my Nexus 4's battery down to nothing, like is usually the case.
TYLT currently have their products in the US, Mexico and Singapore, as well as their online store. The PowerPlant can be purchased for just $69. This is for the micro USB version. The 30-pin iOS-compatible PowerPlant is $74.99 and the Lightning-capable PowerPlant is $89.99.
TYLT have impressed me so much with their PowerPlant, the first device I've used from the company. It has me incredibly excited to test more devices, of which they have many, such as their Energi Backpack. Yes, a backpack with some incredible charging capabilities. It's the Superman of smart device accessories.
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Corsair Flash Survivor Stealth 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Review
The Corsair Survivor Stealth is a rather unique flash drive, in that it uses an entire aluminium sleeve to protect the flash components rather than a cap. The Stealth as I will call it from here on out is said to be capable of 85MB/s read and 70MB/s write and comes in three flavours -16GB, 32GB and the model we have for testing here today, 64GB. Compatibility of the flash drive extends as far as Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8 along with Mac OS X and Linux 2.6+.
One of the lesser known features of running Microsoft's new operating system Windows 8 is the native capability of USB Attached SCSI or UASP. To start my benchmarking procedure I secure erased the Corsair Survivor, as I do all drives I test.
The Stealth from Corsair is a rather unique drive as I stated in the opening comments. Corsair has taken the "Survivor" branding to the extreme, crafting the casing for the drive out of anodized aircraft grade aluminium, even adding an EPDM waterproof seal, making sure your drive stays safe in waters up to 200 meters. Durability of the drive also has high marks in our book as we actually had the chance to put the 40G shock proofing to the test, dropping the drive off our balcony at CES 2013, as you can see in the video embedded below.
Performance of the drive was surprising in the least. Marketing specifications depicted that the drive was capable of 85/70, but in our testing we blew those numbers out getting 179MB/s read and 87MB/s write in CDM.
Pricing of this drive is quite favourable as well. I was able to find this drive on the net at a very comfortable $59.99 for the 64GB model, putting the drive under 1$ per GB. If my memory serves me right, this may be the first drive under the 1$ per mark in our testing. Add to this the five year warranty Corsair serves up and the excellent durability, and come out having one of the best drives price vs. performance on the market today.
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InWin G7 Mid-Tower Chassis Review
Introduction
My hopes aren't very high for this latest submission either now as a result of the GT1 findings. With the basic idea that they took the same interior design and layout, trimmed some of what they thought were unneeded options, the basic concept is to offer a sleek and simplistic version of the same case. InWin is not the only company to take this approach, just about every company on the market has done this at one point or another. The only issue I see with this latest submission is that it is based on a chassis that already said wasn't what I think my readers would want, and pretty much already failed the first entry InWin provided. I am trying to keep an open mind, and since I already did this once, maybe there are some things I just didn't see the first time around, and possibly salvage this design. Even with all of this at play I am trying to keep an open mind, but InWin has their work cut out for them after seeing the GT1.
Today we are taking a look at the G7, which as I addressed, is very similar to the GT1. The obvious differences are that this time the chassis is much squarer, this time I received a black version, and its outward appearance is sleeker and offers a brushed aluminum like front panel to attempt to class up this chassis.
If you could see yourself using the GT1, but weren't sold on the aesthetics, the G7 mid-tower chassis from InWin may be the answer for you, but as I said my hopes aren't very high.
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AMD Radeon HD 7990 6GB Dual GPU Video Card Overclocked
Introduction
There's really not a whole lot that needs to be said from an introduction stand point. We really just finished looking at the HD 7990 6GB and we're going straight into overclocking. What we'll quickly do is talk about the overclocking below before looking at our testbed, the cards that we'll be using in our graphs today before we get into the performance.
Overclocking
Normally we fire up MSI Afterburner to do all our overclocking. Inside we found that we didn't have any voltage adjustment. That was not a huge surprise, though, considering the model has just launched. If we see it in the next few weeks, only time will tell. With that said we went straight into the core clocks to see just what we could get out of the new video card. We pushed the cores up to 1150MHz, but as soon as we started to run 3DMark 11, our system froze.We rebooted and went back to MSI Afterburner. We then upped the core clocks to 1100MHz. We completed the run with no issue, but the final score was near identical to the default run - it was actually slightly less. Doing a little bit of research I discovered that we weren't the only people to run into this problem.
Moving away from MSI Afterburner we decided to jump into the Catalyst Control Center instead and see if we had any more luck. While we don't have the same kind of range when it comes to clocks, the 1100MHz limitation on the core should be fine, especially when we don't have the ability to adjust the voltage of the core at this stage.
The results were kind of interesting and we'll discuss it in more detail as we go through our graphs. As we mentioned before, though, let's quickly take a moment to look at our testbed and the cards that will be alongside the overclocked HD 7990 6GB here today.
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EVGA GeForce GTX TITAN 6GB SuperClocked Video Cards in SLI
Introduction
Probably with no need to throw a second card into the mix due to the mind blowing performance with just a single card, we thought that we should throw a second card into the mix, anyway. Not because we need to, but because we can, and if you know us at TweakTown, you would know that's reason enough for us to do it.
The reason above is the same reason we'll take the time to overclock the two cards in SLI as well. While the GTX TITAN has sat alone at the high-end for the last few months, it's now got some serious competition from AMD in the form of the new dual GPU Radeon HD 7990.
Due to the fact we've of course already looked at the card closer in the standalone review we mentioned previously, we won't be looking at it again today. Instead we'll move from here into our testbed setup. We'll then take a look at the setups you'll see in our graphs here today before we look at GPU-Z to make sure everything looks good.
From there it's straight into the performance to see just what we're able to get out of the EVGA GTX TITAN SuperClocked SLI setup.
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AMD Radeon HD 7990 6GB Dual GPU Video Card Review
Introduction
With a $999 price tag, AMD are joining the $1,000 club that NVIDIA have been sitting in for a while with the GeForce GTX TITAN; a truly beast of a single GPU card. Out of the box the EVGA GTX TITAN 6GB SuperClocked impressed us immensely. If that wasn't enough performance for you overclocking brought with it even more performance, thanks to a strong core clock speed increase. If $1,000 wasn't enough then throwing a second card into the mix and discovering the awesomeness that a $2,000 video card setup brings in the form of SLI is truly amazing. We'll have that article online soon.
Today though we get the chance to finally see what AMD does with a $1,000 video card. Of course being a reference card means that we don't have any form of package, instead we'll just get straight into the card to see what's going on with the new model. Once we've done that we'll move onto the specification side of things and find the main details.
We'll then take a quick moment to look at our testbed before we cover the cards that you'll see in our graphs today before finally checking out the performance of the new dual GPU model.
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InWin GT1 Mid-Tower Chassis Review
Introduction
I get the concept here, too. It may take some creative looking, but with the new mid-tower InWin is delivering, there are body lines and features that could be seen as being automotive inspired. Things like a pair of headlights near the top, on the front of the chassis, an open grill to allow plenty of air to be forced through the chassis once at speed, and even a hoods cowling, if you will, placed on the top of the chassis. It doesn't add room because the air cleaner or super charger is in the way, but it does allow for airflow much in the same way as the front of the chassis does, but here there is the front I/O panel that is tucked into the surface for aerodynamic reasons, and mixed into the front of the cowling is a HDD dock.
As I have said for many years now looking at InWin cases, they are definitely hit or miss. Styling is the main thing that keeps a lot of users as either fans or haters of their cases, and there is a definite trend to the more expensive cases having more refined looks, as the more affordable solutions try to break a lot of the rules associated with what makes for a good chassis. After seeing what I did with the D-Frame, I just hope that the GT1 from InWin that we are looking at today can end on the same high note I had with the other race inspired design.
Stick with me as I cover some of the technical aspects so we can get a good look at the GT1, what it offers, and if in fact it can be held in the same sort of reverence as other racing inspired designs have done for them.
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Asustor AS-604T 4-Bay NAS Review
Introduction
Although subtle, it's easy to find the 'tributes' to QNAP and Synology in the Asustor AS-604T we're looking at today. Thankfully, Asustor managed to bring the best features from each to the new venture with QNAP-like hardware design and a simple software layer for easy configuration.
The AS-604T is one of many products introduced by Asustor in late 2012. At CES, the company gleefully shared their entire 2013 roadmap leading into 2014 and a number of products peppered the timeline. Asustor won't be a company here today and gone tomorrow. Here today and because of it NAS shoppers have another genuine builder to look at before making their purchasing decision.
Our first sample from Asustor is a four-bay, full feature NAS. The most heavily contested and fastest growing segment in the consumer space with very good products already on the market from QNAP, Thecus, Synology and a number of low cost units that we can't justify giving the full feature tag make up this 4-bay market.
Asustor did pick a very good time to enter the market. New features like HDMI output and smart phone control further increase the functionality while pulling small, quiet NAS products into the living room. A new door opens on the consumer side while existing enterprise functions come deeper down to the small business market, iSCSI and virtual storage come to mind.
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EVGA GeForce GTX TITAN 6GB SuperClocked Video Card Overclocked
Introduction
While the model has been out for a little while now, it was only recently that we got a chance to look at it, so for that reason, there's going to be a couple of articles that focus on it. Outside of the standalone review we did yesterday, we'll today be looking at the same video card overclocked by ourselves to see just what kind of performance we're able to get out of this high-end beasty GPU.
Once we're done with this article today, we have been fortunate enough to receive a second GTX TITAN, and intend to not only test the SLI capabilities, but then take the time to see what we're able to do with SLI overclocking.
All this high-end 3D performance goodness then gets topped of the with impending release of the new dual GPU behemoth coming from AMD in the form of the Radeon HD 7990. Of course there's not a whole lot we can say about that model at the moment due to NDA restrictions, but everything will come to light soon enough.
Because we've already looked at the EVGA GTX TITAN 6GB SuperClocked in detail, we won't be covering the card again. If you want to take a closer look at it we recommend that you head over to the original review, which is linked above. Instead we'll move from here into a quick look at our testbed. We'll also take the time to cover the cards that will be in our graphs today before we finally look at just how we went with overclocking before getting stuck into the performance side of things.
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Thermaltake NiC C5 Untouchable Cool CPU Cooler Review
Introduction
There are two groups with two coolers in each group of the non-interference cooling (NiC) offerings from Thermaltake. There are the NiC F3 and F4 for starters, and these offer PWN controlled fans with wire fan clips, and an exposed heat pipe cooler between the pair of fans of the F4, where the F3 comes with only one fan. Another thing separating them is the TDP where the F3 is rated for 160W and the F4 is rated for 180W. On the flip side there are the more aggressive solutions with the NiC C4 and C5. Here again there are raised TDPs and the C4 is rated for 220W while the C5 is rated for 230W, and both C-series coolers have two fans on them. This time the fans are slid into some very cool fan shrouds, and as for the cooler, we are now looking at a finely polished base with heat pipes now soldered into the two piece base assembly.
Today we are taking a look at the best of the best from this assortment of coolers, the NiC C5. You would think that a cooler rated with a 230W TDP would have to be monstrous and take up most of the top half of the motherboard, but Thermaltake is trying to flip that idea and deliver something much more user-friendly. Since we have the basic idea of what goes into the NiC line of coolers, we know clearance is top priority, I will be covering that, but there are a few nuances in this design that really made me sit and think, that is really "trick" for a cooler design, and I am surprised a lot of coolers haven't went this way before, but with the new mind behind this design, I can see there are good things to come from Thermaltake in their near future.
Let's dive in now and take a closer look at the new NiC C5 CPU cooler.
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Top 10 TweakTown Content from the past week [22 April 2013]
Here are our top 10 articles, reviews and guides from the past week!
- Consumer (Samsung and OCZ) vs. Enterprise (SMART Optimus) SSD Performance Analysis
- SMART Storage Systems CloudSpeed 500 Enterprise SSD Review
- Case Smithing: Personalized Acrylic Etching and Engraving
- ASUS VivoBook S500C Touchscreen Ultrabook Laptop Review
- Enermax Triathlor FC 650-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze Power Supply Review
- Sony Xperia Z Smartphone Review
- MSI GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2GB Boost Twin Frozr Gaming Overclocked Video Card Review
- Enermax Ostrog Giant Mid-Tower Chassis Review
- Rosewill Fortress 750-Watt 80 PLUS Platinum Power Supply Review
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EVGA GeForce GTX TITAN 6GB SuperClocked Video Card Review
Introduction
EVGA wasn't able to give us a full retail package for the cards we have on hand today, instead just the cards. It's not a huge deal, but it of course means that we won't be looking into the package of the card - we'll simply be getting straight into the card.
Once we've taken a closer look at the card we'll then move onto checking out what's going on with the overclock that EVGA is offering because as you can see in the title we're dealing with a SuperClocked model here today.
Once we've done that it's all a fairly standard affair as we move into a quick look at our testbed, talk about the cards that you'll see in our graphs here today, and finally get stuck straight into the performance side of things where we can finally discover what this monster single GPU option from NVIDIA is capable of.
There's really not much more that needs to be said and to be completely honest I'm more interested in quickly taking a look over the card itself and getting into the performance side of things as we work on building our database of video card setups tested over the coming weeks.
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Mach Xtreme MX-ES 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Review
When I was initially contacted by Mach Xtreme to have this sample sent over, we discussed the possibility that this drive may be the first SLC based flash drive we have tested. Since then I have looked back at all my previous articles and found that there was, in fact a previous drive that used single layer cell NAND and that was the Lexar Triton we reviewed just a month back. That is just one out of the five we have seen, leading us to the conclusion that SLC drives aren't all that common anymore, being replaced by MLC and TLC counterparts.
The MX-ES is the latest flash drive to come out of the Mach Xtreme camp and if we are judging the "book" by its cover than you wouldn't think this drive is anything special. The MX-ES aesthetically looks like a "generic" flash drive, but what it has going for it internally is another story. Before we dig further into the review we must go over the OS compatibility of the drive and its included warranty. For this we find Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8 along with Mac OS X listed. Warranty of the drive is set at five years.
One of the lesser known features of running Microsoft's new operating system Windows 8 is the native capability of USB Attached SCSI or UASP. To start my benchmarking procedure I secure erased the MX-ES, as I do all drives I test.
Aesthetically the MX-ES is a "sleeper", much like that Honda Civic down the road with a turbo charged 600HP engine. Sure, if you were looking at this drive on the store shelf then you would know it has SLC NAND as Mach Xtreme displays it on the packaging with proud bold lettering, but the drive alone doesn't flaunt what's inside.
It's a widely known fact in this day and age that SLC NAND is superior in almost every facet. It carries higher P/E cycles, 100K compared to 10K for MLC and the paltry 5K for TLC, lower power consumption and increased write speeds. All of this technology will be found inside this flash drive from MX-Technology.
As far as performance is concerned, the MX-ES was capable of marketing specifications as you saw in this review, while not being the fastest drive in our testing, with its SLC NAND configuration you do get much more durability and thus longer life.
Pricing of this drive at the time of writing is set at $59.99. If you compared this to the Lexar Triton which uses the same internal materials and is priced higher at $65.99, then it's easy to come to the conclusion that the MX-ES is the best consumer drive with enterprise durability.
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Rosewill SilentNight 500-Watt 80 PLUS Platinum Power Supply Review
Introduction
The Rosewill SilentNight 500W is a fanless 500W power supply designed for those seeking a lower wattage, highly efficient unit with zero sound. If this sounds familiar to you, it might be due to use covering several fanless units in the past. The Kingwin Stryker 500W is one power supply that comes to mind for most and that is because it is identical to that of this unit. Both are from Super Flower and we expect to see almost identical results from the Rosewill. I've personally used the Kingwin Stryker in my HTPC for over a year now and not only is it 100% silent as advertised, but it has performed flawless as well.
Specifications, Availability and Pricing
Rosewill lists the SilentNight with an MSRP of $179.99, but it is currently listed for $159.99 on Newegg. Shockingly, this is the same price that the Kingwin Stryker 500W is going for. Nobody seems to have the SilentNight in stock and Rosewill let me know they expect it to be available again in May. Rosewill backs the SilentNight 500W unit with a five year warranty.
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Oblivion (2013) Cinema Review
Whilst on a routine repair mission, a long outdated NASA craft crash-lands with human survivors - including a pilot, Julia Rusakova (Olga Kurylenko); a familiar face who haunts Jack's dreams. Soon, it will be apparent that there is far more behind the war than was ever revealed.
As with the accusations of 'style over substance' leveled at the Tron sequel, one could easily make the same claims of Oblivion, however despite some faults, that isn't one of them.
Oblivion's true faults lie in a disjointed script which flirts with mystery and simplicity in its first half, clearly delineating the rules of the films universe, before turning them upside down.
Similar to Daft Punk providing the amazing score for Tron: Legacy, French electronic outfit M83 provide the musical accompaniment, albeit less memorably than the former. Still, it's an interesting score and one that can stand alone successfully in its own right.
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Enermax Ostrog Giant Mid-Tower Chassis Review
Introduction
With the newest Ostrog design, the changes outside delivers customers a familiar front bezel with the outer ring of mesh around the bays and lower section of the bezel. There also is a raised front section on the roof of the chassis that incorporates the front I/O panel, but even this is redesigned. The side panels are different too, as this time they are pressed outward to allow for more space behind the panels. Internally you lose an optical bay drive, but gain an easily removable section of the HDD cage to allow for longer video cards. Really, at every turn, no matter where you look, there are changes to be found with this new design.
The slightly wider, less elegant, but more aggressive mid tower we are looking at today is the Enermax Ostrog Giant. While it isn't larger in stature, the redesign does take giant steps from the original concept, and offers customers something a bit unexpected. To help out this chassis, that same ring of mesh that stayed in the Ostrog series, well this time you have a color option. You can get a black chassis with a blue mesh ring, and a pair of 140mm blue LED fans in the front to match, or you can get the version we were sent, which is the red mesh ring with complimentary colored LED lighting in the front.
Enermax has been a little hit and miss lately with some of the cases I have seen; it was discussed at CES, and now is my first chance to see if anything was done. So if the introduction image has you intrigued, hang out and continue reading as I dish out what the Enermax Ostrog Giant mid-tower chassis offers in features as well as price.
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SuperSSpeed S301 Hyper Gold SLC Enterprise SSD Review
Introduction
SuperSSpeed is a regional ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) that also markets SSDs under their own flag. SuperSSpeed and their parent, Richmax Technology, also have deep roots as NAND distributors. This provides them a bulk pricing advantage to sell Intel 25nm SLC-powered SSDs at prices lower than many thought possible.
One of the redeeming characteristics of the LSI SandForce SF-2281 controller is that it offers a modular building block that allows manufactures to easily create and sell their own SSDs. The SuperSSpeed S301 was initially a regional product from Hong Kong, but with some influence from TweakTown's Chris Ramseyer, our Consumer Storage Editor, the SuperSSpeed has made its way to American shores as well.
It is important to note that LSI SandForce SF-2281, typically utilized in consumer applications, is employed in the S301. The SF-2582 and 2682 are the SandForce enterprise controller variants, but the reliable SF-2281 responds very well to the use of SLC NAND, even removing much of the performance penalty incurred with incompressible data.
The SuperSSpeed S301 and its SF-2281 controller feature beefy stats, with 550/520 MB/s of sequential read/write speed. The S301 is no slouch in the IOPS category either, rated for 80,000/60,000 IOPS in 4K random read/write.
With the high pricing of SLC NAND pushing it out of many datacenter applications, we were surprised to find this SSD competing with client MLC SSDs at the comparatively low price point of $2.00 per GB. The high price of SLC NAND is not always at the heart of the exorbitant pricing of most SLC products. SLC SSDs also tend to have other features, such as enhanced firmware for end-to-end data protection, and capacitors for power fail protection, that drive up costs. By stripping away these features, SuperSSpeed is able to deliver an SLC SSD at a competitive price point.
We have been noticing a trend towards the deployment of consumer MLC SSDs into datacenter applications to realize upfront benefits in acquisition costs. The concept of users taking a more value-oriented approach to SLC SSDs certainly is not entirely out of bounds. For users with heavy workloads that would typically require a higher endurance solution than enterprise-class MLC SSDs, it would not be too far of a jump to deploy a consumer SLC product.
The SuperSSpeed S301 competes in the consumer market, but today we are pulling no punches, taking it against the current leaders in the enterprise SSD market.
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Far Cry 3 PC Review
In Far Cry 3 you take control of Jason Brody, a young college kid with rich parents enjoying life to the max on an island paradise when things go awry. Jason and his friends are captured by pirates and the infamous Vaas. Taken for ransom from their wealthy parents, Jason manages to escape with his brother and from there the story becomes that you as Jason must rescue your friends, but also as you build acquaintances on the island, decide how you want the future to be for those people. There is a point where the story just becomes boring and formulaic unfortunately, but until then it's one of the best stories of this generation.
As expected based on the first two games, Far Cry 3 puts you in a massive open world with side missions and main story to complete. One of the key facets of the title is exploration and the game significantly rewards you for exploring. Whilst there are scripted elements to some of the missions, sometimes it's just interesting to wander about the island and see what the enemy and other NPCs are doing. One example was we were closing in on an enemy kill, only to see a crocodile jump out of the water to take him alive. If someone else was to go to that exact spot, it may not happen because those sequences are not scripted.
For example, if you get some shark skins, you can craft a new pouch which improves your inventory level - something which is a lot more interesting to do than just buy a new pouch. You can pick up leaves and plants to help you concoct medicine to heal Jason. At no real point in the game are you forced to buy things. For example, one area which encourages exploration is the local stores. If you manage to take over the local radio tower, the shops will give you free weapons as a reward whilst that tower is not held by the enemies. It's a really interesting mechanic that rewards exploration in a manner that is tangible rather than just 'let's see this entire island'.
For the most part the missions are also enjoyable to play as well. There are over thirty campaign missions with quite a number more side missions to complete. To complete Far Cry 3 without doing side missions will take you about 10 hours and so it is a fairly meaty game when you compare it to most releases. The game does contain fast travel once you have visited a location although sometimes it is better to just explore and see the world on offer.
What Far Cry 3 manages to achieve is a believable world. This island could be a real world thing (although it's not), and the developers have clearly put a lot of work into building a fantastic world for the game. It has the crazy professor and the tribal warriors to complete the mix. But what takes it to the next level is the various fauna milling about the place. You can be swimming quietly in the rivers or ocean and the next minute a shark or crocodile attacks. The first time this happens you will literally jump in your seat and it's generally over before it even starts. You can imagine this is how it happens in the real world as well with most victims attacked before they even know it's happening.
On the PC at least, Far Cry 3 is a visual tour de force and one of the best games graphically we have ever played. If you have the hardware and video card to push this to the max you will see a visually stunning world with amazing graphics. Tone the graphics done a little and the game still shines even on older hardware, so it is clear Ubisoft has done its job in optimizing this game for fairly run of the mill systems as well. This is something that the original Far Cry game was criticised for not doing.
The game also features a co-operative multiplayer portion for up to four players to take part in. It is set six months before the actual events of the single player campaign and so in many ways is its own story. Introducing co-operative into such an awesome, open world game is something that Ubisoft had to do to take this game to the next level. With a length of about six hours, you certainly get your money's worth even though it's not the main campaign.
Far Cry 3 started out with a great E3 presentation that put the hype levels through the roof. Usually when this happens games significantly let us down, but in this case Ubisoft has delivered. No doubt they felt the pressure of such an awesome opening with Vaas and our main character, but instead of crumbling, they produced what is sure to be one of the best games of 2012.
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Hitman: Absolution Xbox 360 Review
This game became Kane & Lynch which had middling success in both sales and critical format. So six years later we have the return of Agent 47 and it's not without changes. Absolution completely changes up the series in many ways and we still aren't sure if all the changes and decisions made were the right ones.
Absolution picks up with Agent 47 being tasked to kill his agency handler Diana. She has gone rogue and has been selling secrets to enemies of the agency so his final contract becomes her. The agency has produced another agent from a child, Victoria with Diana on her deathbed asking 47 to protect her at all costs. This is what the story primarily revolves around; the protection of Victoria and escaping from the agency that 47 once called home. From the outset this shows just how much of a departure Absolution is to the regular format with previous games tasking 47 with contracts to fulfil for the agency.
This is only apparent on some of the levels. On many levels within the game there are no targets and instead it is 47's goal to reach another area to continue the story. As well as this there are times where the game takes control from you and performs kills in cut scenes. For a series which has focused so much on clean quiet kills from a gameplay perspective, to have this happen is frustrating. There are some sections in the game where quiet kills just cannot occur.
This is where you will like this game or not. Whilst in the past each mission was one huge environment for 47 to traverse and come up with sneaky ways to take out the target, in this game you are instead tasked with basically getting from point a to point b. Hitman in many ways becomes a third person shooter with the amount of sandbox missions able to be counted on less than two hands. Given that there are 20 missions overall in the game, this is a bit disappointing.
However, on those levels which do give you the freedom to explore and come up with various ways to take out the targets, the game absolutely shines. Previously seen at E3, the King of Chinatown level is one such example where there is many different ways to take out the target such as poisoning fish or blowing up a car. And it is these missions that you will revisit over and over again to try and come up with different ways to end the mission without being seen.
As well as the actual targets each mission contains a number of challenges to complete. Sometimes these challenges are to take out the targets in various different ways whilst other times it can be tasks such as finishing the mission only using 47's suit. Given that you very often traverse areas where you should not be, doing this is harder than it sounds.
Many of the elements we have seen in previous titles have again come back. You can still take the disguises of other characters although this is a bit harder than last time around.
Enemies will spot that you are not one of them quite easily and so it becomes a case of still having to focus on stealth even when blended in. To aid with this, 47 now has an instinct ability which allows you to see enemies through walls and walk near enemies in disguise without being spotted. You gain more instinct by performing quiet kills and tasks.
One of the more frustrating elements of Absolution is the change from limited save games to checkpoints. Instead of being able to save at any point in the game (within a limited number), you now have to track down and find checkpoints in the level. They are generally off the beaten track and this can be very frustrating especially on the tougher levels. The checkpoints also do not get retained if you leave your game which we have no idea why IO Interactive decided that was a good idea.
On the visual and environmental side of things the game is generally impressive. Whilst there is quite a variety to the locations that you will visit during your time with the game, it is not as varied as it was in Blood Money with some locations being visited more than once. Some of the missions are quite large in size whilst others are almost corridors only. It goes without saying the larger missions are the ones where 47's abilities can really shine. One thing that is true is that in general IO Interactive has used the environments to the best of their abilities with 47 being able to perform numerous environmental based kills on his targets.
Multiplayer comes in the form of contracts mode and in an ironic twist this system is much closer to that of the older games. You can either build or download contracts from other users and basically you are dropped into a world and have to kill targets silently to fulfil the contract. As you do so you gain money which can be used to upgrade your weaponry in multiplayer. This is an interesting take on multiplayer and we hope that users really embrace this system because it's entirely possible this could give the game a lot of legs.
Hitman: Absolution is a game that made us think about how we review games in many ways. Should we review a game based on what the name is on the box, or what the content actually is. Of course the latter is the answer, but we can't help but feel that this is not the greatest Hitman game. It's significantly different to other Hitman titles, but it's also not a bad game. If you come into the game expecting Blood Money 2 you will be disappointed, but if you look past this you will find a competent Hitman game that has just enough elements of its predecessors to ensure you should play as 47 again.
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Assassin's Creed III: Liberation PlayStation Vita Review
However, with the release of a new platform, the PS Vita, Ubisoft decided to give the portable space another crack with the AC series and have come out with mixed results. Liberation is not necessarily a bad game, but there are some areas which can be quite infuriating to play.
Liberation for the first time introduces a female character as the main lead. You play as Aveline, the black daughter of a rich businessman in the 1700's. A result of infidelity, Aveline lives with her step mother and father in New Orleans as one of the wealthy and famous. However, Aveline wants to rid the world of slavery, especially for her people and sets about trying to bring down the tyranny which existed in the time. Set in the 1700's, the game takes place during the same timeline as that of the main console game, and to get the most out of the story, you need to play both.
This is probably the most interesting change to the franchise because it means you often have to change your clothing to complete tasks. Having to change clothing to complete a task can be a tad tiresome (especially when it's not clear which clothing you should be wearing), but all the same the addition enhances the franchise.
As well as the main city, you will also visit the bayou of New Orleans which gives you the opportunity to partake in tree climbing and jumping. Ripped directly from the console game with Connor you can at will climb trees and often have to when completing assassination tasks. The game controls well and it's very obvious when you can and cannot climb trees. The Bayou has a very Metal Gear Solid 3 feel to it - a large, lush jungle full of crocodiles and other animals that can hurt Aveline. The main difference being that Aveline does not need to eat animals to survive.
The structure of the game takes on that of its console big brothers. The game includes nine sequences to complete which is a little on the short side and you will have this game down in around six to eight hours depending on how good you are at it. There is no difficulty setting so once you finish it, that's it really.
There are a number of side tasks to complete and there is a meta game where you can control a shipping company to gain money, but really in the grand scheme of things, you can ignore these and easily complete the game. One of the interesting elements is that the story you get if you just play the main missions is not the actual story. To get the real ending you need to take out a particular hidden character in each sequence.
[img]2[/img]
One of the biggest bugbears we have with the game is the PS Vita controls. The main controls themselves are fine, but when the developer is trying to shoe horn in the touch mechanics of the game, it just starts to break. For example, the game will at times ask you to put the Vita camera near a bright light. It took us a while to find a light that would give the Vita what it wanted, and there was no indication at all whether we were getting closer or not.
There are also other sections of the game which use the back touchpad such as paddling a canoe. There is nothing wrong with trying to include Vita specific controls, but when they work like they do in Liberation (it's a lucky dip as to whether your motions will be picked up), it would have been best to leave them out.
The environments that the game is set in are impressive for a handheld product. The city of New Orleans is beautifully represented by period buildings and the actual city itself is quite large, but nowhere near what you find in the console games of course. The split of the bayou and the city is an interesting feature with both environments having graphical problems as well as also some impressive sections. Voice acting on the system is impressive especially for a handheld and whilst the soundtrack can become repetitive, it suits the game and setting well.
There is no doubt that Assassin's Creed III: Liberation is the most impressive handheld version of the series yet. Ubisoft has used some of Vita's power well, but also included some utterly frustrating mini games based on the touch and camera features. It is on the short side and that means it's not really suitable as something for a long distance trip, but for short spurts on the way to work, it works almost perfectly.
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Top 10 TweakTown Press Releases from the past week [29 April 2013]
Here are our top 10 posted press releases from the past week!
- ASUS Announces ROG Xonar Phoebus Solo Sound Card
- WD 3.5-INCH SAS WD XE HARD DRIVES OFFER FLEXIBILITY, EXTENSION OF DATACENTER HARDWARE INVESTMENTS
- RAZER CONNECTS GAMERS WORLDWIDE WITH RAZER COMMS
- ORIGIN PC Launches The Record-Breaking AMD Radeon HD 7990 DUAL GPU Graphics Card
- TP-LINK Delivers Affordable Gigabit Switches for SMBs
- SGI InfiniteStorage Gateway Brings Intelligent Virtualized Data Management to Conquer Massive Data Growth
- Samsung Australia Introduces the GALAXY S4
- SAPPHIRE Starts Shipping HD 7990
- ASUS Introduces the Radeon HD 7990 Dual-GPU Graphics Card
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QNAP Releases Turbo NAS TS-x21 and TS-x20 Series for Home Users
QNAP Systems, Inc. today announced the release of the Turbo NAS TS-x21 and TS-x20 series for home users and home offices. The new models in the TS-x21 series are equipped with 2.0 GHz CPU, 1GB DDR3 RAM, and the TS-x20 series with 1.6 GHz CPU, 512MB DDR3 RAM. Both series deliver superior performance for daily routines in file storage, sharing, and data backup, and serve as ideal media centers for storing and sharing huge multimedia files.
The TS-x21 and TS-x20 series feature the brand-new Turbo NAS operating system QTS 4.0. The new QTS 4.0 integrates multi-window operations into the web-based user interface, adds cross-device file synchronization, several smart mobile apps, and more. In an era where almost everyone has at lease one mobile phone or tablet device, the QTS 4.0 fulfills people's needs of mobile data access and synchronization, and storage for huge quantities of data. What's more, the QTS 4.0's multi-window user interface introduces users to an unprecedented NAS management experience. In addition, the multimedia applications and multi-tasking designs not only increase management efficiency but also transform home entertainment.
Multi-window operations
The QTS 4.0 offers innovative desktop design to compliment smooth working efficiency. The multi-window design allows multi-tasking concurrently, and enables users to switch between each task to increase productivity. The QTS 4.0 intelligent desktop also includes a quick Start menu to quickly find desired applications, smart Dashboard with overview of system status, drag-and-drop icons to create desktop shortcuts or group shortcuts, multiple desktop to extend desktop work space, the smart Toolbar, and so on.
Cross-device file synchronization
Nowadays almost everyone has multiple devices such as mobile phones, tablet computers and desktop computers. The combination of Qsync and the Turbo NAS fulfills seamless file synchronization, enabling users to get the most recent files with their computers and mobile devices. It is useful for frequent travelers who wish to manage files and always wish to have the most recent files on each device. Qsync provides multiple ways of file synchronization and group file sharing, greatly enhancing the flexibility of collaboration.
Smart mobile apps
Users can easily access the Turbo NAS through mobile apps. The Qfile app allows remote access to the Turbo NAS and sharing files stored on the Turbo NAS. File uploading, downloading and management with Qfile is easy. The new Qfile function "auto upload from photo gallery" enables users to take photos with a mobile device and have the photos automatically uploaded on to the Turbo NAS. It works as a real-time backup for precious photos. The new Qfile HD app is specifically designed for iPads with an enhanced user interface. The Qmanager app is useful for remotely monitoring and controlling the Turbo NAS's system status, services, downloading and backup tasks anytime, anywhere.
Integrated multimedia entertainment
- The Turbo NAS provides versatile multimedia applications and acts as a media hub at home. The support of DLNA and AirPlay allows users to enjoy a TV experience in diverse ways. The rich applications make it easy and convenient to collect, manage and share huge collection of photos, music, and videos, enriching home entertainment.
- QTS 4.0 key features include:
- Intelligent desktop: multi-window, quick Start menu, smart Dashboard, drag-and-drop icons, multiple desktops, personal wallpapers, and smart Toolbar with desktop preferences, online resources, quick search, event notifications, event notifications, external device and background tasks;
- File Station: supports photo thumbnails, photo setup with properties and privileges, moving files from local computers to File Station by drag-and-drop, recycle bin categorized by shared folders;
- Photo Station: provides a new user interface, customized virtual slideshow by dragging and dropping photos, auto-sorting photos in a timeline, and photo tagging, photos and videos backup with Smart Import;
- Music Station: provides new user interface and lyric editing;
- Media Library: supports file transcoding;
- HappyGet: as a third party application that supports backing up YouTube videos, Facebook photos, and Vimeo videos;
- Surveillance Station Pro: provides new user interface, cross-browser support on PC with IE, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox;
- App Center: provides more than 80 install-on-demand apps to increase diverse applications on the Turbo NAS;
- myQNAPcloud.com: a new QNAP membership portal for managing registered Turbo NAS devices, accessing published NAS services, and quickly linking to start.qnap.com for online system setup without using a CD;
- Qsync utility: creates a specific "Qsync" folder for users to simply drop files into, and automatically synchronizes the files to all of the devices that are linked to the Turbo NAS, with multiple ways of file synchronization and group file sharing;
- QAirplay: supports browsing videos and photos stored on the Turbo NAS and playing on the TV via AirPlay-enabled devices;
- Qfile/Qfile HD: supports auto upload from photo gallery;
- Qmanager: supports remote setting for Wake on LAN and user permission for the Turbo NAS.
- TS-x21 series - tower unit, available in 4, 2, 1-bay, 2.0 GHz CPU, 1GB DDR3 RAM, SATA HDD/ SSD, hard drives hot-swappable (TS-421, TS-221), 2X USB 3.0, 2X Gigabit LAN ports (TS-421), 1X Gigabit LAN port (TS-221, TS-121), LCM panel (TS-421);
- TS-x20 series - tower unit, available in 4, 2, 1-bay, 1.6 GHz CPU, 512 MB DDR3 RAM, SATA HDD/ SSD, hard drives hot-swappable (TS-420, TS-220), 2X USB 3.0, 2X Gigabit LAN ports (TS-420), 1X Gigabit LAN port (TS-220, TS-120).
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Monster Digital Debuts Overdrive 3.0 Solid State External Drives
Monster Digital, a leading innovator and developer of advanced memory and storage solutions, is introducing its first line of external Solid State Drives (SSD), which make the jump to SSD technology even easier for professionals and consumers to adopt for additional computer storage needs.
Simply put, Overdrive 3.0 is the fastest and easiest way to add storage to your computer. Inside the laser etched stainless steel enclosure is an advanced, high-speed, solid state drive that is available in four storage capacities of 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB and 1 TB for the suggested retail prices of $179.99, $299.99, $599.99, $1399.99 respectively.
The Overdrive 3.0 series is the future of digital storage, and with speeds about 4x as fast as a traditional external hard drive, backups are easy, and the quickness is astounding. Since there are no moving parts, the drives are incredibly quiet, and durable, so if one is inadvertently dropped, aside from a potential cosmetic blemish, there are virtually no worries when it comes to your precious data stored inside. Configured to work with either PC or Mac, the drives are ready to go to work straight out of the box. All Overdrive 3.0's include a 3-year warranty for your protection.
"As solid state technology continues to grow, we've found ourselves adapting to the future needs of both the professional and the everyday computer user. We've introduced a professional drive tested under the harshest conditions for the people who need them most, while making sure we considered the needs for the educated consumer who is about to make the jump to SSDs," says Monster Digital CEO Jay Tandon about the release of the Overdrive 3.0 series, adding "these products are already in-use with photographers, recording engineers and musicians and are Monster Digital's answer to the need for reliability, speed, and convenience for the professional. MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and Ultrabook users are also embracing the Overdrive 3.0 series, enhancing those device's already robust abilities. It's clear that Overdrive 3.0 is our most well rounded, and proven storage device we've introduced yet, and we're proud to say its Monster Digital's new flagship product."
If you are ready to give your computer the extra capacity it needs, and feel it's time to step into solid state technology for your storage solutions, the super slim, super fast, Overdrive 3.0 external SSD by Monster Digital is your clear choice. The drives are available now at Adorama, Crutchfield.com, DataVision, Fry's Electronics, Guitar Center, J&R, Micro Center, TigerDirect.com and other fine retailers. Check monsterdigital.com for the most up to date retail partners near you.
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NuForce Releases the NE-650M In-Ear Headphones
NuForce, Inc., a leader in professional and consumer audio gear, introduces its NE-650M earphones as the latest addition to the critically acclaimed NE-600 series. The NE-650M earphones provide a high-efficiency design employing an even greater level of performance than previous models in a series already noted for exceptional bass.
Each earpiece houses an 11mm driver and an aerodynamic acoustic porting system that provide a harmonically correct tonality, a deeply layered soundstage and superb acoustic isolation. The NE-650M Earphones include a hands-free microphone with button for call answering and music playback control.
Features
- Advanced-technology extra-large drivers
- High-efficiency acoustic design
- Excellent bass impact
- Self-untangling flat OFC wire
- 5 sets of ear tips
- Driver Size: 11 mm
- Impedance: 16 Ohm
- Frequency Response: 20 to 20 kHz
- Connector: 3.5 mm 4-pin iPhone compatible-plug
- Weight (without packing): 12.5 grams
- Length: 43.3 inches
Suggested retail price for the NuForce NE-650M is $44.95. Shipping will begin on April 22th, 2013.
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Western Digital Announces Q3 Revenue Of $3.8 Billion
Western Digital Corp. today reported revenue of $3.8 billion, hard-drive shipments of 60.2 million and net income of $391 million, or $1.60 per share for its third fiscal quarter ended Mar. 29, 2013. On a non-GAAP basis, net income was $514 million or $2.10 per share. In the year-ago quarter, the company reported revenue of $3.0 billion, net income of $483 million, or $1.96 per share, and shipped 44.2 million hard drives. Non-GAAP net income in the year-ago quarter was $619 million, or $2.52 per share.
"Strong execution by our HGST and WD subsidiaries drove outstanding results in the March quarter as we continue to capitalize on the secular growth of digital data," said Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer. "Overall industry demand was in line with our expectations. In our business, we saw strength in enterprise, stable performance in client and consumer electronics, and some anticipated seasonal softness in Branded Products."
The investment community conference call to discuss these results will be broadcast live over the Internet today at 2 p.m. Pacific/5 p.m. Eastern. The live and archived conference call webcast can be accessed online at investor.wdc.com.
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Corsair Obsidian 350D Premium Micro-ATX Chassis Launched
Corsair, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components, today announced the Obsidian Series 350D High Performance Micro ATX PC case. Available with a solid or windowed side panel, the Obsidian Series 350D brings unprecedented expansion and cooling options to smaller, more portable, high-performance PCs.
Pricing, Availability, and Warranty
The Obsidian Series 350D will be available in May from Corsair's worldwide network of authorized retailers and distributors. The suggested retail price in the US is $99.99 USD for the solid side panel version and $109.99 for the windowed version. The cases are backed by a 2-year warranty.
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SMART Storage Systems and Diablo Technologies Enter Partnership to Deliver New Ultra-Low Latency Memory Channel Storage
OTTAWA, Canada and NEWARK, Calif. - SMART Storage Systems, Inc., an innovative enterprise solid-state drive (SSD) technology provider, and Diablo Technologies, Inc., a proven innovator in memory system interface products, today announced an exclusive relationship to combine SMART Storage Systems' award-winning Guardian Technology Platform with Diablo's Memory Channel Storage (MCS) to usher in a new era of Flash storage. The development and marketing partnership will result in a new class of ultra-low latency (ULL) SSDs and system accelerators, transforming enterprise server, virtualization and cloud environments.
"Flash technology is a key building block in the enterprise, with the caveat that greater performance, higher capacity and more cost-effective solutions are required to fuel specific needs of applications like data analytics and the full promise of cloud computing," said Jeff Janukowicz, Research Director for Solid State Storage at IDC. "Advances in system design, as is anticipated through this partnership, will enable volume deployments and NAND Flash to transform the enterprise data center."
The combination of MCS and the Guardian Technology Platform will provide systems with dramatic improvements in latency, transaction throughput, IO bandwidth, density, scalability and operating cost over a wide range of enterprise-level deployments when compared to Flash-based designs using PCIe or SAS/SATA-based SSDs. The new ULL SSDs are expected to provide 50 percent higher transaction rates with 80 percent lower latency in database caching and OLTP applications. For virtualized environments, the MCS-Guardian system solution is expected to enable 10X more virtual machines per server while reducing DRAM requirements by over 70 percent.
"SMART Storage Systems was the logical partner for us in this development effort. SMART Storage Systems specializes in meeting enterprise requirements for quality, endurance and performance using the most cost-effective Flash media, and its Guardian Technology Platform has harnessed the physics of NAND Flash to make new Flash applications possible," said Diablo founder and CEO Riccardo Badalone. "Our partnership with SMART Storage Systems will accelerate Memory Channel Storage product innovation and fuel new deployments of Flash storage in enterprise data centers, which are currently restricted by traditional CPU/Flash interfaces and the cost limitations of providing enterprise-grade NAND Flash."
Under the terms of the agreement SMART Storage Systems and Diablo will jointly develop the new ULL SSD product. The product will be exclusively sold by SMART Storage Systems and will be jointly supported by the two companies' world-class customer support teams.
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Ashampoo Photo Commander 11: The photo suite that does it all
(Oldenburg, Germany - April 24, 2013) With Ashampoo Photo Commander 11, German software manufacturer Ashampoo releases a comprehensive yet affordable image editor and processor that offers a myriad of new features over its predecessor. This includes the useful new backup function that creates image backups and restores your images to their original states with a single click - fully automatically. Ashampoo Photo Commander has become ever more popular largely due its easy handling despite the huge set of features. "We were able to include many improvements in Ashampoo Photo Commander 11. It truly does an outstanding job at organizing, presenting and sharing your photos." says chief product developer Nikolaus Brennig.
- New: Ashampoo Photo Commander 11
- Windows image editor to organize, present and share photos
- New: Photo backups, a fully-automated backup mechanism to preserve and restore previous image states
- New: MiniMap, to quickly scroll within large images through mouse dragging
- New: Live-Preview for image effects
- New: Import MPO/JPS 3D images
- New: Effect Pen, to draw effects into images with pixel precision
- Price: $49.99 ($19.99 for owners of a previous version)
- Link: http://www.photocommander.com
Ashampoo Photo Commander 11 is the all-in-one editing solution for your photo collection. It covers the following areas:
1. Manage and organize
Sort, move, copy and rename large photo collections in a flash. Use tags to add keywords and other additional information to your image files and batch-convert/rename/redate any number of photos at once. Huge image archives frequently contain duplicate files. Ashampoo Photo Commander 11 can safely filter out duplicate photos. Moreover, the program now supports Adobe XMP metadata and 3D photos in MPO/JPS formats.
2. Edit and improve
Multiple useful tools to edit and optimize images are located under Quick-Fix. Adjust contrast/color/skin settings, crop files (rectangle and freehand), straighten images, remove red eyes, use the repair pen to remove scratches, apply various effects, rotate and mirror your photos or use the many other tools - Ashampoo Photo Commander 11 handles every task with ease. Use the new auto-detect feature to remove scratches and other image elements or add your own objects such as texts, arrows and callouts. Version 11 now also features an effect pen that enables you to apply individual effects with pixel precision. This includes effects such as Sharpen/Unsharpen, Blur, Bulge, Tilt-Shift, Tiles and Frame.
3. Create and share
The third major program component features tools to creatively present your photos, e.g. as collages, and share them with friends and family. Select from various templates and create web photo albums, calendars, collages, panoramas, photo mixes and slideshows. Share your work in just a few clicks via email or upload them to Facebook, Picasa or Youtube.
Better than ever with dozens of new features in multiple program areas Ashampoo Photo Commander has become synonymous with powerful image editing and easy handling for various fields of application - at an affordable price. Ashampoo Photo Commander 11 is available for $49.99 at http://www.photocommander.com. Owners of a previous version may purchase the upgrade for $19.99.
Please download the trial version of Ashampoo Photo Commander 11 here:
DOWNLOAD ASHAMPOO Photo Commander 11
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ASUS Introduces the Radeon HD 7990 Dual-GPU Graphics Card
ASUS today announced the Radeon HD 7990 graphics card, a dual-GPU offering derived from 28nm AMD Radeon graphics processors. With twin GPUs based on AMD Graphics Core Next technology and 6GB GDDR5 video memory, the ASUS Radeon HD 7990 easily handles the most demanding DirectX 11.1 PC games in ultra settings and resolutions above 1920 x 1080.
It is also ready for ultra HD 4K video, delivering the finest graphics performance and the convenience of a standard 2-slot height. With two GPUs factory-paired on the board, customers only require one free PCI Express 3.0 slot without needing to use AMD CrossFireX multi-GPU bridging.
The ASUS Radeon HD 7990 delivers the power of two HD 7970 GPUs, totaling 4096 Stream processors and 256 texture units. Customers can fine-tune its performance with GPU Tweak, a user-friendly utility with a highly approachable interface.
In seconds, customers may adjust GPU core and video memory speeds and voltages, graphics card fan speed, and power consumption targets (or thresholds). Multiple profiles for different games can be created and saved, all with instant ease and no learning curve.
Big 6GB GDDR5 video memory and DirectX 11.1 optimization
For dedicated gamers, the ASUS Radeon HD 7990 presents an ideal power platform. Its fast 6GB GDDR5 memory enables highest-resolution textures and utmost visual fidelity. Customers enjoy more immersive experiences while the full benefit of PC gaming is realized and games run as intended with no compromises.
The ASUS Radeon HD 7990 supports Windows 8-based DirectX 11.1, the newest version of the Microsoft API. The card has the power and compatibility to deliver the latest effects and technologies, including advanced tessellation and shader tracing, resulting in the most realistic games available to date.
The ASUS Radeon HD 7990 ensures full readiness for upcoming standard-setting games, and includes eight hit titles in the box:
- Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix)
- Hitman: Absolution (IO Interactive/Square Enix)
- Sleeping Dogs (Square Enix)
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Eidos/Square Enix)
- Crysis 3 (Crytek/EA)
- Far Cry 3 (Ubisoft)
- Far Cry: Blood Dragon (Ubisoft)
- BioShock Infinite (Irrational Games/2K)
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Club 3D Announces its Radeon HD 7990 Graphics Card
Club 3D unveils today the heir of our first Radeon HD 7990. This card already crushed the competition in terms of sheer power, performance and awesomeness. But now we present its successor, the even faster Club 3D Radeon HD 7990. As the world's fastest and most advanced graphics card, it descends from generations of AMD Radeon Graphics cards that wore the same crown. And with a heritage like that, you know what you're getting: an unparalleled experience wherein gaming is everything... but not the only thing. All hail the new king.
Compared to the previous Club 3D Radeon HD 7990, which was already a stellar performer and has a track record for being the fastest graphics card in the world for some months in 2012 and 2013, the new Club 3D Radeon HD 7990 offers even better performance while being quieter, cooler and more energy efficient. It's almost impossible to imagine but even that top of range product left room for the improvement shown in this iteration. It's clear that these improvements enable better performance than any other graphics card available in the market today and at the same time operates with less noise and using less power.
You deserve to play the world's most demanding AA game titles like Crysis 3 at the highest resolutions and maximum detail settings, never settle for less! The HD 7990 offers two of the world's fastest GPU's in a single graphics card offering 4096 stream processors of raw power.
This enables smooth game play even in 5760 x 1080p resolution.
Design
The Club 3D Radeon HD 7990 with the dual slot, three variable speed 80mm low noise fan blade design combined with high performance heatpipes allows cooler running temperatures under load, which results in quieter operation, and increases overclocking and performance potential.
The metal back plate significantly improves the pcb strength and reduces electrical noise.
AMD GCN Architecture
Designed to push not only the boundaries of DirectX 11 gaming, the GCN Architecture is also AMD's first design specifically engineered for general computing. Equipped with 64 compute units (4096 stream processors), each containing a scalar coprocessor, AMD's 28nm GPUs are more than capable of handling workloads-and programming languages-traditionally exclusive to the processor. Coupled with the dramatic rise of GPU-aware programming languages like C++ AMP and OpenCL, the GCN Architecture is truly the right architecture for the right time.
AMD Eyefinity Technology
Step beyond the confines of a single monitor and embrace the true potential of PC gaming with the ultra-high resolutions of AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology on the Club 3D Radeon HD 7990.
Supporting multiple independent display outputs simultaneously, AMD Eyefinity technology delivers innovative graphics display capabilities enabling massive desktop workspaces and ultra-immersive visual environments for the ultimate panoramic computing experience.
For more information, visit the product page.
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EK Working on a New Water Block for AMD's Radeon HD 7990
EK Water Blocks, premium water cooling gear manufacturer, is working on a new water block for the latest, most powerful gaming pgrahics card in the world - the AMD Radeon HD 7990, codenamed Malta.
The upcoming EK-FC7990 SE water block will directly cool both GPU, RAM as well as VRMs (voltage regulation module) as water will flow directly over these critical areas thus allowing the graphics card and it's VRM to remain stable under high overclocks. EK-FC7990 SE water block will also features a very high flow design therefore it could easily be used in liquid cooling systems using weaker water pumps.
In the mean time we are pleased to announce our EK-FCS10000 full-cover water block, originally designed for AMD FirePro S10000 server graphics card, is compatible with the new AMD Radeon HD 7990 Malta graphics card.
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PowerColor Announces its Radeon HD 7990 V2 "Malta" Graphics Card
TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphic cards, today officially announces PowerColor HD7990, codenamed Malta, ready to fulfill all enthusiastic users with critical demand. The new HD7990 is powered by dual GPUs, and features 4096 stream processors and 8.2 TFLOPS compute power, deliveries massively parallel computing power for graphics.
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SAPPHIRE Starts Shipping HD 7990
April 24th 2013 - SAPPHIRE Technology has just announced that it will start shipping the HD 7990 - the fastest graphics card available based on the highly acclaimed graphics GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture from AMD.
AMD's GCN architecture and driver suite is optimised to display the greatest image quality in gaming and this latest card delivers the highest performance yet - and the fastest frame rates in even the most demanding games. It also provides enhanced performance in a wide range of applications using the stream processing capabilities and specific hardware features of this graphics architecture. Typical examples include Video encoding and decoding, compression and multiplexing for media distribution, and video conferencing as well as accelerating specific supported applications.
The HD 7990 comes with the greatest game bundle ever*. As part of AMD's Never Settle Reloaded campaign, the bundle includes access codes to eight of the latest and most exciting games, including BioShock Infinite, Crysis3, FarCry3, and TombRaider.
The SAPPHIRE HD 7990 starts shipping from April 24th 2013.
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ORIGIN PC Launches The Record-Breaking AMD Radeon HD 7990 DUAL GPU Graphics Card
April 24, 2013, 12:00 A.M. EST, Miami, FL - ORIGINPC announces the launch of the new AMD Radeon HD 7990 dual GPU graphics card on their award-winning desktops for gamers, artists, professionals and hardware enthusiasts. Powered by AMD's Graphics Core Next Architecture, the AMD Radeon HD 7990 features an astounding 8.6 billion transistors, 4,096 stream processors, 6GB DDR5 memory and up to 8.2 teraflops of computing power. With support for ULTRA HD 4k gaming, 6 displays per card and its record-breaking benchmark performance, the AMD Radeon HD 7990 provides the best gaming experience to date that can now be enjoyed on all ORIGIN desktop systems. ORIGIN PC is also offering AMD's brand new gaming bundle that features 8 of the most popular AAA titles with the purchase of a single AMD Radeon HD 7990 graphics card.
The new AMD Radeon HD 7990 Graphics Card features:
- 4096 Stream Processors With 6GB GDDR5 Memory
- Professional ORIGIN PC GPU Overclocking
- AMD Crossfire Technology for up to Quad GPUs
- Triple Ultra-Quiet Axial Fans With a Full Card-Sized Heat Sink To Disperse Heat
- AMD Eyefinity Technology supporting up to 6 displays per card
"ORIGIN PC customers are always craving the latest technology and we are delighted to launch the world's fastest graphics card on our line of award-winning desktops." says Kevin Wasielewski, CEO/Co-Founder of ORIGIN PC. "The performance of the 7990 enhances the way you experience games with Ultra HD gaming support that brings extremely highly detailed world's to life on your ORIGIN PC."
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Samsung Australia Introduces the GALAXY S4
SYDNEY, Australia - Wednesday 24th April, 2013 - Samsung Electronics Australia has announced the hotly anticipated GALAXY S4 will go on sale from Saturday, April 27th 2013 for RRP $899, with pre-sales commencing from Wednesday, 24th April 2013. At an exclusive event held at the Opera House, Samsung confirmed Australia will be one of the first countries in the world to sell the GALAXY S4.
The Samsung GALAXY S4 is slimmer yet stronger compared to the GALAXY S III, with less to hold yet more to see. The phone offers a highly finely crafted design encompassing a large screen size and battery, minimised bezel; all housed in a light (130g) and slim (7.9mm) shape. Two colour options are now available - Black Mist and White Frost.
The GALAXY S4 boasts a 802.11ac Wi-Fi adaptor and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity. It will be available in Australia with immediate 4G LTE compatibility across Telstra, Optus and Virgin Mobile 4G networks. It will be available on Vodafone's 4G network from June 2013.
Meaningful Moments - Gives Greater Enjoyment
The GALAXY S4 has a Full HD Super AMOLED display to showcase images in exceptional detail. Its 5-inch large screen has 441ppi for stunning viewing quality. The Samsung GALAXY S4 also utilises Corning's new Gorilla Glass 3, making it a durable travel companion for all of life's adventures.
Equipped with a 13 megapixel rear camera, the GALAXY S4 also boasts a 'Dual Camera' function that allows simultaneous use of both front and rear cameras. When capturing moments, users can choose from a variety of frame effects which blend the two pictures naturally and also adjust the size of the small picture inside the big one. Users can select 8 different ways to combine the two photos taken by the front camera and the rear camera.
The new 'Story Album' function allows photos taken by the GALAXY S4 to be automatically gathered and sorted out according to your timeline, geo-tagging information, or a specific event to create a photo album.
True Connections - Brings People Together
Samsung GALAXY S4 enables true connections with the people in our lives. With its 'Group Play' function, GALAXY S4 users can enjoy music, photos, documents and games with those around them without even requiring a Wi-Fi, AP or mobile signal. This feature enables GALAXY S4 users to connect directly with other GALAXY S4 users to share, play and co-create content and entertainment instantly. Its 'Share Music' option allows users to have the same song playing on multiple GALAXY S4 phones in sync to create a party atmosphere.
The GALAXY S4 is designed to bring people closer together by breaking down language barriers. It makes international travel a joy, with 'S Translator' which provides translation, using text or voice translation on applications including email, text message and ChatON. This translation feature is possible both from speech to text and text to speech and helps ensure that you can rely on the correct information whilst abroad.
Effortless Experience - Makes Things More Convenient
The GALAXY S4 is designed to ensure that tasks are effortless with innovative features that detect your face, voice and motions to enable screen control with no need for finger touch activation.
'Samsung Smart Pause' enables you to control the screen by where you look. When you are watching a video, the video pauses when you look away then it starts right up again when you are looking directly back at it.
'Air View' allows users to hover with their fingers to preview the content of an email, S Planner, image gallery or video without having to open it. You can even see a magnified view on the internet browser, or a phone number saved in the speed dial on the keypad. With 'Air Gesture', you can change the music track, scroll up and down a web page, or accept a call with a wave of your hand.
Empowered Living - Take Control of Your Quality of Life
The GALAXY S4 helps empower your life by keeping you up-to-date with health and wellbeing information using the new 'S Health' application. The combination of sensors built within the device systematically and automatically monitors your health, surroundings and so much more to help you in your efforts to improve your quality of life. Also, users can easily track their health efforts using food diary, exercise diary and sleep monitor. (Certain functions are enabled by specific accessories.)
Another feature which was designed with your wellbeing in mind is 'Samsung Adapt Display' which provides an optimal viewing experience, customised for each type of application, and 'Samsung Adapt Sound' offers an optimal level and type of sound, personalised for each user.
Samsung Apps & Content
Samsung's dedicated Australian team is working with local and global content producers to bring the very best apps and content to Australian consumers.
The GALAXY S4 will include 'Samsung Hub', which allows users to search and purchase video, games, books and learning contents from one store, with one single sign in.
Australians are increasingly switching towards music streaming. 'Samsung Music Hub' is a streaming service built specifically for GALAXY smart phones, GALAXY tablets, Samsung Smart TVs and web. GALAXY S4 consumers will receive a one month Premium trial.
The Samsung GALAXY S4 also comes with popular premium voice-guided navigation with Navigon by Garmin, offered free.
Samsung WatchON is an exciting new service from Samsung that launches on the GALAXY S4. Samsung WatchON will offer two services to create a truly rich TV & Video On Demand experience across both the Samsung GALAXY S4 and our new Samsung Smart TVs.
The first service called ON TV is a TV discovery service that turns the GALAXY S4 into a next generation TV remote control. All 34 Australian free-to-air TV channels are integrated enabling users to browse what's on TV, see programme recommendations from friends via social networks, search for favourite shows and set programme reminders. ON TV will be live from the end of May.
The second service is called Movies and TV Shows. This service offers a choice of Video On Demand services from major Hollywood studios, local content partners such as Quickflix and Catch Up TV services such as Plus 7 and will be available from July.
Extending the TV experience is the Samsung Smart View application. This application available from early May will enable users to clone what you're watching on your TV on your GALAXY S4.
Foxtel GO is scheduled to launch on the GALAXY S4 from June and out across our Smartphone and Tablet range. It allows users to take their Foxtel experience out of the living room. This app will be available for download from Samsung Apps.
A Launch of Operatic Proportions
The GALAXY S4 was launched on Tuesday April 23rd at the iconic Opera House, marking the start of Samsung's new partnership with one of the world's most recognised and celebrated buildings.
The exclusive partnership positions Samsung as the Opera House's first ever Principal Partner, in a multi-million dollar, three-year collaboration that will be celebrated by handing over the canvas of the Opera House sails to the public for the first time. In a celebration of the new partnership and on the night of the GALAXY S4 global launch, fan-generated content was projected onto the Opera House sails, creating a once in a lifetime opportunity for select Australians to see their images on the most famous canvas in the country.
Arno Lenior, Samsung Electronics Australia Marketing Director, said; "As a global leader in technology and innovation, Samsung's vision is to facilitate discovery for all Australians through our products and content. Our partnership with the Opera House literally brings this vision to life and forms the heart of our relationship. The potential audience for all the Opera House's incredible work is every Australian in the country. We want to help make this a reality. At Samsung we passionately believe technology can better people's lives, and bringing the Opera House's best in class arts and education content to more Australians than ever is our ultimate goal with this sponsorship."
Pricing and Availability
GALAXY S4 is on sale from Saturday, 27th April for a RRP of $899 (for the 16GB variant) from the Melbourne and Sydney Samsung Experience Stores, the Samsung GALAXY Glasshouse on the Opera House Western Broadwalk, as well Telstra, Virgin Mobile, Optus and Vodafone. Pre-sales begin from Wednesday, 24th April 2013.
The Samsung GALAXY S4 will be available in Australia with the Quad-core 1.9 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Series 600 processor.
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TP-LINK Delivers Affordable Gigabit Switches for SMBs
CITY of INDUSTRY, CA (April 19, 2013) - TP-LINK, a global provider of networking products, has delivered a series of gigabit Ethernet switches that break new ground for price and performance for any business looking to upgrade their LAN.
These L2 Managed Switches allow an office infrastructure to provide Ethernet connection to computers. With the PoE functionality, the TL-SG3424P is an efficient and cost-effective choice for small business networks to work with wireless access points, surveillance cameras, VoIP phones and other PoE supported devices. It eliminates cable clutter by using the existing power lines to transfer both power and data.
The combination of performance, features, energy-saving capabilities and attractive price make the cost per port for gigabit switching affordable for SMBs who need to resolve network traffic bottleneck, use more ports on the network than a traditional router has available, and tap the maximum amount of speed their network can pump out. The TP-LINK JetStream switches are priced up to 66% less than like devices (based on a comparison of switches sold at Amazon.com).
TP-LINK Jetstream 24-Port Gigabit L2 Managed PoE Switch with 4 SFP Slots (TL-SG3424P) Highlights:
- ACL, 802.1X Authentication, Port Security, IP Filtering, Storm control, DHCP Snooping, IP Source Guard and DoS Defend provide robust security strategy
- L2/L3/L4 QoS and IGMP snooping to so voice and video are always clear, smooth and jitter free.
- SNMP, RMON, WEB/CLI/Telnet Log-in bring abundant management policies and faster set-up and configuration with less downtime
- Equipped with 8 PoE+ supported ports to transfer data and power over a single cable
- Works with IEEE 802.3af/at compliant devices, expanding home and office networks
- Innovative energy-efficient technology reduces power output by up to 75%
- Plug and play design, no configuration required
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RAZER CONNECTS GAMERS WORLDWIDE WITH RAZER COMMS
SINGAPORE - April 23, 2013 - Razer, the world leader in high-performance gaming hardware, software and systems, announced the open beta release of Razer Comms, an all-in-one communications solution for gamers.
Razer Comms uses complex audio algorithms and an ultra-fast server infrastructure to deliver precise, crisp and clear communication with no timeouts or lag spikes, and it features advanced noise reduction and echo cancelation, a boon to millions of PC gamers worldwide.
Razer Comms originated as an internal project built on the spare "10 percent passion time" of a couple of engineers. After receiving many fan requests to make it widely available, Razer Comms has now become a fully supported project with a designated team working on it.
"As a gamer, it gets pretty annoying switching between multiple clients all the time when playing and talking with your friends," says Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder, CEO and creative director. "Razer Comms offers a way around that challenge. By connecting gamers globally through a versatile software solution without any additional costs for the user, Razer Comms is a way for us to give back to our passionate fan base."
Razer encourages every user to continue submitting feedback to help determine the most sought after features and improve Razer Comms further. For more information on Razer's latest free-to-download software, including how to submit ideas, go to http://www.razerzone.com/comms.
About Razer Comms
Razer Comms is a free all-in-one communications solution for gamers, offering crystal-clear VoIP and versatile instant messaging with group chat capabilities. Built with advanced in-game overlay functionality and cross-game chat support, Razer Comms allows you to get in touch with your friends without compromising your gameplay. This is how gamers were meant to communicate.
Price: Free to download
Availability:
- English - Now
- Spanish - Q3
- Simplified Chinese - Q3
- French - Q3
- German - Q3
- Crystal clear VoIP Comms
- In-game UI overlay displaying chat and incoming VoIP
- Channels easily created and managed for real-time discussions
- Push-to-Talk functionality for fast and effective communication
- Game Launcher for quick game access at startup
- Server-based infrastructure prevents exposure of personal IP address
System Requirements
- 1.7 GHz Processor,
- 512 MB Ram,
- DirectX 9 level Graphics card,
- Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8
- Internet Connection
For more information about Razer Comms, please visit http://www.razerzone.com/comms.
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SGI InfiniteStorage Gateway Brings Intelligent Virtualized Data Management to Conquer Massive Data Growth
FREMONT, CA. - April 22, 2013 - SGI (NASDAQ: SGI), the trusted leader in technical computing, today announced the introduction of SGI InfiniteStorage Gateway, a virtualized data management solution, which reduces the runaway costs and complexity organizations face when managing exponential data growth.
SGI InfiniteStorage Gateway reduces the dependency on high-cost primary storage by creating a virtualized storage fabric that can include disk, tape, object and cloud storage. While appearing to users and applications simply as online data, SGI InfiniteStorage Gateway offers IT administrators the ability to keep data protected and online at a fraction of the cost of primary storage systems. The system automatically places data on any or all storage devices and locations based upon what works best for the access requirements and data protection policies.
"As data growth has continued to sky-rocket, IT organizations increasingly face the problem of infrastructure fragmentation, and the fact that their most expensive primary storage arrays are often used to house mostly inactive data," said Laura DuBois, program vice president, IDC Storage Systems, Software and Solutions. "Data management is not only about the performance of active data today. It also must provide a seamless long-term strategy for all data that keeps costs at a minimum and reduces IT administrative burden without impacting users."
Since the 1990s, SGI's technical computing customers have pushed the envelope of multi petabyte infrastructures spanning media, life sciences, manufacturing and other data-intensive industries. In 2012 alone, SGI deployed to its customers nearly 600 petabytes of storage in aggregate. SGI InfiniteStorage Gateway brings the technology and experience of these very large deployments into a factory-integrated appliance that is easy to deploy, easy to manage and easy to use.
"SGI has over 21 years of experience in managing the most valuable digital assets of hundreds of the largest and most complex data environments on earth," said Jorge Titinger, CEO of SGI. "With the introduction of SGI InfiniteStorage Gateway, we are able to bring this powerful solution to a wider market, who are now running into these same Big Data management problems."
SGI InfiniteStorage Gateway is deployed as a factory-integrated solution in the 4U SGI MIS storage server, powered by Intel Xeon processors. SGI InfiniteStorage Gateway is designed to be plug and play, connecting into existing network infrastructures and appearing to users and applications like a conventional storage device.
SGI InfiniteStorage Gateway includes up to 276 terabytes of onboard capacity. As that local capacity begins to fill, data is virtualized with any of multiple different storage choices to enable the entire storage fabric to scale to massive proportions. The Gateway leverages technology used in deployments with over 100 petabytes in data capacity, and approaching nearly two billion files. Several SGI customers have large virtualized data environments with this technology that have been online with uninterrupted online access to data for more than 20 years.
Virtualized tiers can include tape, Zero-Watt Disk or MAID, and object storage. This will also enable hybrid environments that can include public and private cloud storage architectures. The choices enable a cost-optimized storage infrastructure to be deployed into to the fabric, depending on the performance and retention requirements for varying portions of an organization's data. Users and applications never see where the data resides - nor do they need to worry. To them, all data is online and available at all times.
Availability
SGI InfiniteStorage Gateway will be available in June.
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Top 10 TweakTown Press Releases from the past week [22 April 2013]
Here are our top 10 posted press releases from the past week!
- SP/Silicon Power Launches an Ultra Slim Portable Hard Drive Diamond D20 - Elegantly Slim, Brilliantly Light
- ORIGIN PC Announces The Ultimate Desktop Chassis Supporting Up To 4-WAY SLI Liquid-Cooled TITANs
- HighPoint Launches Industry's First 20-drive, single Mini-SAS port RAID HBA Solution
- Habey Intros PRO-6820 Fanless Core i7 Quad-Core System with 6 GbE Interfaces
- ASUS Taichi 31 with Dual 13.3-inch Displays Now Available
- APLEX Introduces Low Power Consumption BOX PC
- Dell Announces Latitude 3330 Notebook for Schools
- Scythe Releases the Ashura CPU Cooler
- Intel Reports First-Quarter Revenue of $12.6 Billion
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ASUS Announces ROG Xonar Phoebus Solo Sound Card
ASUS today announced the ROG (Republic of Gamers) Xonar Phoebus Solo 7.1 PCI Express gaming sound card with precise positional audio and lifelike immersion for gamers. Xonar Phoebus Solo continues to exhibit the previous Xonar Phoebus hardware excellence, including clear 118 dB signal-to-noise ratio, a powerful 600 ohm headphones amplifier, Dolby Home Theater V4, and DTS UltraPC II surround sound.
The ROG Xonar Phoebus Solo sound card features an EMI shield and exclusive ASUS Hyper Grounding technology that significantly reduce the detrimental effects of the electromagnetic interference present inside all desktop PCs. Hyper Grounding technology brings the considerable motherboard expertise of ASUS to audio products, with a multi-layer PCB and high-quality power supply that help eliminate electrical noise from nearby components, resulting in cleaner, less distorted audio. Together with the high-fidelity PCM1796 digital-to-analog converter, the ROG Xonar Phoebus Solo delivers clear and crisp sound with a 118dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), which means gamers will hear and experience every audio detail.
Many gamers play wearing headphones to avoid disturbing others and ROG Xonar Phoebus Solo is one of the few soundcards to use the top-flight TPA6120A2 with 600ohm impedance for superior sound clarity. Xonar Phoebus Solo also features Dolby Home Theater V4 audio enhancement for cinematic surround sound both with external speakers and headphones. Support for the new DTS UltraPC II audio technology also ensures superior audio quality for every PC application, including gaming, movie-watching and even internet telephone calls.
Dedicated game profiles and Xonar Phoebus driver update
Genre-optimized game audio profiles allow gamers to choose from four different audio presets with ROG Xonar Phoebus Solo. Profiles for first person shooters, real time strategy, role playing and racing stimulation games mean gamers can enjoy audio tuned specifically for the game their playing.
Existing ROG Xonar Phoebus users can also enjoy upgraded audio gaming with the new genre-optimized gaming audio profiles and DTS UltraPC II suite via the Phoebus driver update.
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WD 3.5-INCH SAS WD XE HARD DRIVES OFFER FLEXIBILITY, EXTENSION OF DATACENTER HARDWARE INVESTMENTS
IRVINE, Calif. - Apr. 22, 2013 - WD, a Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC) company and a world leader in storage, today announced a new 3.5-inch SAS hard drive solution for legacy datacenter storage systems with the release of a the WD Xe, 2.5-inch, 10,000 RPM SAS hard drive, now available mounted in a 3.5-inch WD performance adapter. Shipping immediately, the WD Xe hard drives provide best-in-class performance, low power consumption, and an easier upgrade path for existing 3.5-inch storage systems.
"Delivering up to 50 percent higher capacity, similar or better maximum sequential performance, higher reliability and up to 67 percent lower power consumption versus 3.5-inch,15,000 RPM drives, the new WD Xe drives are the answer for data center server and storage solutions needing a transition strategy," said Rich Rutledge, senior vice president of WD's datacenters business unit. "IT managers now have a worry-free migration path to the latest enterprise performance drives from WD, while preserving their chassis and solution investments."
WD Xe 2.5-inch SAS hard drives in 3.5-inch performance adapters feature:
Highest performance in its class - WD Xe delivers ultra-fast 6 Gb/s transfer rates, best-in-class sequential
data rate of 204 MB/s, and outstanding random I/O performance;
Low power consumption - This 3.5-inch SAS drive delivers up to 67 percent lower power versus 3.5-inch
15,000 RPM drives, which can result in substantially lower total cost of ownership (TCO) while increasing
capacity and reliability;
Form factor - 2.5-inch drive mounted in 3.5-inch performance adapter for ease of upgrade and ultra-cool
operation;
Dual port, full duplex connectivity - Offers higher reliability, performance and data availability by eliminating
single points of failure, designed for high-availability datacenter systems;
NoTouch ramp load technology - The recording head never touches the disk media ensuring significantly
less wear to the recording head and media as well as better drive protection in transit; and
Industry's highest reliability rating - 2 million hours MTBF.
Price and Availability
The WD Xe SAS enterprise hard drives in 3.5-inch performance adapters, shipping in capacities ranging from 300 GB to 900 GB, (models: WD3001HKHG, WD6001HKHG, and WD9001HKHG); are available through select distributors and resellers. Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for the WD Xe hard drives in performance adapters range from $229.99 to $599.99 USD. WD Xe drives are covered by a five-year limited warranty. More information about WD Xe enterprise hard drives and limited warranty terms may be found on the company's website at http://wd.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=10.
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Intel Reports First-Quarter Revenue of $12.6 Billion
Intel Corporation today reported first-quarter revenue of $12.6 billion, operating income of $2.5 billion, net income of $2.0 billion and EPS of $0.40. The company generated approximately $4.3 billion in cash from operations, paid dividends of $1.1 billion, and used $533 million to repurchase 25 million shares of stock.
"Amidst market softness, Intel performed well in the first quarter and I'm excited about what lies ahead for the company," said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO. "We shipped our next generation PC microprocessors, introduced a new family of products for micro-servers and will ship our new tablet and smartphone microprocessors this quarter. We are working with our customers to introduce innovative new products across multiple operating systems. The transition to 14nm technology this year will significantly increase the value provided by Intel architecture and process technology for our customers and in the marketplace."
Q1 Key Financial Information and Business Unit Trends
- PC Client Group revenue of $8.0 billion, down 6.6 percent sequentially and down 6.0 percent year-over-year.
- Data Center Group revenue of $2.6 billion, down 6.9 percent sequentially and up 7.5 percent year-over-year.
- Other Intel Architecture Group revenue of $1.0 billion, down 3.9 percent sequentially and down 9.0 percent year-over-year.
- Gross margin of 56 percent, down 2 percentage points sequentially and down 8 percentage points year-over-year.
- R&D plus MG&A spending of $4.5 billion, in line with the company's expectation of approximately $4.6 billion.
- Tax rate of 16 percent.
Intel's Business Outlook does not include the potential impact of any business combinations, asset acquisitions, divestitures or other investments that may be completed after April 16.
Q2 2013:
- Revenue: $12.9 billion, plus or minus $500 million.
- Gross margin percentage: 58 percent, plus or minus a couple percentage points.
- R&D plus MG&A spending: approximately $4.7 billion.
- Amortization of acquisition-related intangibles: approximately $70 million.
- Impact of equity investments and interest and other: approximately zero.
- Depreciation: approximately $1.7 billion.
- Revenue: low single-digit percentage increase, unchanged from prior expectations.
- Gross margin percentage: 60 percent, plus or minus a few percentage points, unchanged from prior expectations.
- R&D plus MG&A spending: $18.9 billion, plus or minus $200 million, unchanged from prior expectations.
- Amortization of acquisition-related intangibles: approximately $300 million, unchanged from prior expectations.
- Depreciation: $6.8 billion, plus or minus $100 million, unchanged from prior expectations.
- Tax Rate: approximately 27 percent for each of the remaining quarters of the year.
- Full-year capital spending: $12.0 billion, plus or minus $500 million, down $1.0 billion from prior expectations.
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ASUS Announces PA249Q ProArt Series LCD Monitor
ASUS today announced the PA249Q ProArt Series LCD Monitor, a professional 24-inch display that is factory pre-calibrated for uncompromised color precision, straight from the box. The PA249Q ProArt Series LCD Monitor has a native 1920 x 1200 resolution with 16:10 aspect ratio and features AH-IPS (Advanced High-Performance In-Plane Switching) display technology for a bright and vibrant image with 178-degree wide viewing angles. The PA249Q also features ASUS Smart Contrast Ratio, and ASUS QuickFit Virtual Scale and Splendid Video Intelligence technologies for enhanced image quality.
The ASUS PA249Q ProArt Series LCD Monitor is pre-calibrated at the factory for unmatched color accuracy and features independent six-axis color control with outstanding color space reproduction - 99% Adobe Wide Gamut RGB, 100% sRGB and 120% NTSC. In addition, the PA249Q supports 10-bit 'deep color' for more natural transitions between different hues. The PA249Q also features a brightness rated at 350cd/m² and an 80,000,000:1 ASUS Smart Contrast Ratio for enhanced image contrast.
Next-generation AH-IPS display technology
The ASUS PA249Q ProArt Series LCD Monitor is LED backlit and features AH-IPS (Advanced High-Performance In-Plane Switching) display technology for reduced energy consumption, superior color accuracy and increased backlight transmission for an overall brighter image.
A host of exclusive features allow professional users to get the best results. Exclusive ASUS QuickFit Virtual Scale displays on-screen guidelines for an actual-size preview of images prior to printing, while ASUS Splendid Video Intelligence technology automatically adjusts display settings to give the best visual quality for the kind of image being displayed.
ASUS QuickFit Virtual Scale and Splendid Video Intelligence, along with other monitor options, are accessed via a user-friendly five-way control on the monitor. The PA249Q also features two user-customizable shortcuts for frequently used monitor controls, removing the need to navigate the full on-screen menu system for functions such as brightness control.
Comprehensive video inputs with picture-in-picture support
The PA249Q ProArt Series LCD Monitor has DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI-D and D-Sub ports, and can display content from two video inputs at the same time. Picture-in-picture mode displays content from a second input in a window in one corner of the screen, while picture-by-picture mode splits the screen down the middle to display content from two separate sources side-by-side.
The PA249Q also features a four-port USB 3.0 hub for convenient pass-through connectivity at speeds up to 10 times that of USB 2.0 with compatible devices. The monitor is mounted on a versatile stand with full tilt, swivel, pivot and height adjustment.
ASUS ProArt Series monitors garnered accolades at the 2012 Good Design Awards and 2013 CES Innovation Awards.
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Western Digital Announces SmartWare Pro Utility
WD, a Western Digital company, and a world leader in storage solutions for the connected life, today unveiled WD SmartWare Pro, an easy-to-use software tool that gives customers the power to back up their files to any USB external hard drive or the cloud using their personal Dropbox. Additionally, in the event that a file is deleted, lost, or a previous version of a file is needed, WD SmartWare Pro makes it easy to quickly restore and retrieve backed-up data.
WD SmartWare Pro is simple to set up with an intuitive installation interface that lets customers get up and running in just a few simple clicks. Once the software is setup and the drives are connected, WD SmartWare Pro visually presents customers' files and folders in a control center where they can manage multiple external hard drives and their Dropbox account. WD SmartWare Pro is compatible with WD products such as My Passport and WD Elements portable hard drives, as well as external USB drives from other manufacturers. Additionally, WD SmartWare Pro works seamlessly with WD network attached storage drives such as My Book Live.
File restoration and retrieval is quick and easy with WD SmartWare Pro. If customers accidentally delete an important file or need to get an earlier version of a file, WD SmartWare Pro helps customers retrieve the file in seconds with the easy-to-use "retrieve interface" and the software can be configured to save up to 25 older versions of a file. Customers can navigate the retrieve interface to restore all the backed up files or select a particular file or folder to restore.
"The growth of digital content has continued to increase exponentially and our goal is to provide a simple and comprehensive way to ensure peace of mind that all of our content is safely backed up," said Jody Bradshaw , general manager of WD's consumer storage solutions. "WD SmartWare Pro not only accomplishes secure backup of important photos, videos and files, but ultimately makes it easier to preserve precious digital memories."
Price and Availability
WD SmartWare Pro is currently available as a free 30-day trial at http://www.wdstore.com. After the 30-day trial a standard license, valid for use with up to three computers, is available for a special promotional price of $19.95 US. A premium license, valid for use with up to ten computers, is available for a special promotional price of $39.95 US. Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) is $29.95 US for the standard license and $49.95 US for the premium license.
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Dell Announces Latitude 3330 Notebook for Schools
Dell today launched the Latitude 3330, designed to help schools and educators teach tomorrow's leaders while providing excellent value school districts. The new laptop offers the robust computing features required to maximize learning productivity, compatibility with Dell's existing solutions and services for education and support for personalized learning opportunities in the classroom.
A snap to deploy, the Latitude 3330 easily integrates into a school's existing IT infrastructure, speeding up time to classroom and saving time and money. It's sleek, lightweight, and sturdy design stands up to the demands of even the youngest of students, fits easily on classroom desks and in backpacks and moves easily from classroom to classroom or home and back. The new laptop offers no compromise performance with full laptop productivity and all day battery life with a 6-cell battery.
Dell developed the Latitude 3330 to increase student access to technology and work in as many IT environments as possible. The new laptop fully supports Microsoft Windows 8, Windows 7, and Linux Ubuntu, giving students the ability to produce, consume and share information, as well as leverage common learning applications and software to personalize their learning experience during the school day and at home.
Built on the trusted reputation of Dell's Latitude line, the new laptop has a 13.3-inch anti-glare screen that minimizes the scrolling required of smaller screens, an HD 720 webcam, and WiDi support for virtual classroom collaboration. The Latitude 3330 is available with a broad choice of storage technology ranging from proven standard hard drives to high-performance SSD for maximum durability and quick system response time. Equipped with VGA, HDMI, USB3.0 and optional USB docking, the new laptop can connect easily to the majority of desk environments and room infrastructures for smooth presentation, teaching and maximized learning time.
The newest Dell Mobile Computing Cart solution, also announced today, is available in managed and unmanaged options and enables secure storage, charging and transport for easy mobility. It is designed to accommodate a variety of form factors and screen sizes, including Dell tablets, Ultrabooks, laptops and up to 30 Latitude 3330s. The managed cart option allows for remote management and IT updates, ideal for managing a fleet of systems between multiple campus locations.
Superb security and manageability
Dell offers tailored solutions options for cost effective security, management, and end-user productivity. Dell Data Protection | Encryption, available on the Latitude 3330 in the coming months, enables secure employee or student collaboration with a single, easy to-manage solution for data encryption across devices, removable media and in public cloud storage. With DDP|E, a school district's data encryption needs can be remotely managed using a single console and compliance is simplified with a one-touch present policy, ideal for safeguarding confidential student and employee data.
Additionally, the Latitude 3330 comes with a complete set of automation tools to help IT administrators tackle the time consuming tasks of deployment, monitoring and updating systems with superior efficiency. Dell's deep integration with industry-leading consoles, such as Dell KACE and Microsoft System, enables better deployment, quicker configuration and easier management of updates.
Availability and Pricing
The Latitude 3330 is available in late April 2013 and starts at $419. The Dell Mobile Computing cart is also available in late April and starts at $1899.99 for the unmanaged configuration and $2799.99 for the managed configuration.
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