IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 23/05/2013

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 23/05/2013

TweakTown

RumorTT: Samsung working on fingerprint scanning technology?
According to SamMobile who got their hands on a leaked firmware for the Galaxy S3, Samsung is working on some sort of fingerprint scanning technology. SamMobile draws this conclusion because of some specific image files found inside the firmware. While it does suggest that some sort of fingerprint technology may be on its way, it doesn't say exactly what it will be used for or how.

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Another strange thing about this rumor is that the files reportedly come from a Galaxy S3 firmware. Unless Samsung did some modification to a Galaxy S3, it's highly unlikely that they'd be including this into a firmware destined for a device that doesn't feature a fingerprint reader. Rumors have also circulated that Apple will be including a fingerprint reader on its next iPhone.
It's time for a bit of speculation: what do you think the images above indicate? What is Samsung working on? Let us know in the comments!

RumorTT: Next iPad to be 33% lighter, thinner due to new touchscreen technology
Another day, another Apple rumor. This latest rumor says that the upcoming iPad will be around 33 percent lighter and also thinner thanks to new touchscreen technology. The latest rumor comes courtesy of Digitimes who cites upstream supply chain insiders. Trial production is said to start in July.

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The iPad is said to be losing the weight by switching to a new GF Ditto (GF2) design. The current iPad makes use of a G/G touch structure that requires two panes of glass. The new DF2 technology only requires one layer of glass, which reduces the weight and thickness of the display assembly.
This will reportedly slim the iPad by around two-tenths of a millimeter, a rather small amount. The bezel is also reportedly slimmer than previous models. As with all rumors, take this with a grain of salt.

Call of Duty: Ghosts reveal trailer posted up online, pre-order now available
If you followed our Live Coverage of the Xbox One reveal, you'll know that I was quite excited by Call of Duty: Ghosts, specifically the inclusion of dogs. During the Xbox event, Activision/Infinity Ward showed of the world premiere trailer for Call of Duty: Ghosts. That trailer has now been published to YouTube:

Pre-orders were also put up with the trailer at Call of Duty's website. As expected, the game will set you back right around $60, which is the going rate for an Xbox 360 game. Pre-orders for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 version are not currently available.
Watch the trailer above and let us know what you think of the game!

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Xbox One will not feature support for Xbox 360 games, will play original Xbox games through emulation
Bad news for those who have a large Xbox 360 game library: the new Xbox One will not feature backwards compatibility for Xbox 360 games. According to Xbox Live VP Marc Whitten, there will be zero backwards compatibility, mostly due to the fact that the architectures are completely different.

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No, there's not. The system is based on a different core architecture, so back-compat doesn't really work from that perspective.

Not only will Xbox 360 discs not work, any Xbox Live Arcade game built for the Xbox 360 will need to be rebuilt to support the new platform. However, the Xbox One will support many titles from the original Xbox through emulation. Furthermore, Microsoft has no plans of discontinuing the Xbox 360 meaning you'll be able to buy a new one should yours break for the foreseeable future.

Samsung's Galaxy Mega phablet to hit shelves in July for $460
Samsung is looking to take the phablet market to the next level when its Galaxy Mega hits shelves in the UK this July. While one would think that the Mega would house at least the same level of hardware as the Galaxy S4, the Mega will actually feature less than impressive internals.

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The massive 6.3-inch screen is only capable of displaying at 720p while the front and back cameras are only 8MP and 1.9MP, respectively. Not all is lost though, the Mega will feature Android 4.2.2 and a 3,200mAh battery.
The Mega is expected to launch the second week of July and will retail for a reported Â£469.99.

HTC One to get Android 4.2.2 update in just a few weeks
A developer for HTC has leaked info on an Android update for the HTC One smartphone via Twitter this morning. The HTC One is said to be getting an update that will bring it up to Android 4.2.2 within the next few weeks.

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The so called "notorious insider" @LlabTooFeR let slip that the Jelly Bean update will be available at the "end of this month, or beginning of the next".
HTC has yet to confirm this update, but with other sources confirming that 4.2.2 updates for the Galaxy S3 and other smartphones are coming soon, I feel that this rumor could be one of the few that come true.

ScienceTT: NASA looking to bring Star Trek replicator to life, funding 3D printer capable of printing food
"Tea, Earl Grey, Hot" It's the classic line from TV's Star Trek: The Next Generation, where Captain Picard walks up to the Replicator in his living quarters and orders a cup of tea. While some have likened that scene with the consumer level 3D printers of today, we are still unable to replicate food from thin air. NASA is looking to change that.

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With 3D printers growing cheaper and more popular by the day, it only makes sense for NASA to investigate the use of RepRap style 3D printers for making a hot slice of pizza, right? Mechanical engineer Anjan Contractor received a $125,000 grant from the agency to build a prototype 3D printer with the aim of automating food creation.

The idea behind the project is to take a RepRap Mendel 3D printer and convert the extrusion head to print a mixture of "nutrients" that will form the basis of the food product you wish to eat. Contractor says the nutrient cartridges will have a lifespan of 30 years, making them stable enough for space travel. The project will begin with a proof of concept test where he will print chocolate and the plan is to ramp up from there.

Will IllumiRoom illuminate today's Xbox event? Some sources say that it will
Despite rumors that Microsoft's new IllumiRoom is not ready for demo, we just might see the new technology make an appearance at today's Xbox event after all. Gaming site CVG is reporting that a demo will be shown off at the event that is scheduled to begin at 1PM today.

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IllumiRoom is Microsoft's next big thing in gaming. It appears to project an extended view of the game onto the surounding walls of the room your TV is in to provide a truly immersive experience. We saw this new feature being shown off at CES earlier this year, but rumors quickly surfaced saying that it would not make an official debut until Q4 this year at the earliest.

While we are still unsure if IllumiRoom will make an appearance today, we know for a fact that the new Xbox will be unveiled today and we will be providing up to the second coverage in the form of a Live Blog, as well as news posts as they happen. Stay tuned to TweakTown for all the Xbox news today!

The next-gen Xbox event happens this afternoon! Our live blog will start at 1pm ET
We're nearly here - and yet, my excitement is continuing to build - the next-generation Xbox from Microsoft is to be unveiled mere hours from now. The entire news staff of TweakTown will be all over the Xbox event, covering it with a live blog and news posts.

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The event kicks off at 1pm ET, so be sure to check back this afternoon for your next-gen Xbox details. What are you hoping to see? Here are some of our thoughts on the next-generation console from Microsoft, but I'd like to be totally surprised, and to see Microsoft go up and above the PS4 announcement with some incredible games and details on the console. Hopefully we get to actually see the console, not like the PS4 event.

SanDisk does it again, advances their industry-leading second-generation 19nm manufacturing tech
SanDisk have announced today that they have begun customer sampling of flash memory products based on their 1Ynm process technology, which is the company's second-generation 19nm manufacturing technology.

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This achievement is quite incredible, as it takes their memory cell size from 19nm by 26nm to just 19nm by 19.5nm. Even though we're talking uber small here, it is a 25% reduction of the memory cell area, allowing SanDisk to continue "leading the industry in building smaller, more powerful flash memory products".
The benefits of SanDisk's advancements in their manufacturing technology will pave the way for higher capacity SSD's, with lower manufacturing costs. Consumers and businesses will all benefit from this, which we should begin to see the benefits of going into the future. You can read more about SanDisk's industry-leading technology here.

Samsung's Galaxy S4 is the world's best smartphone... according to Consumer Reports
It wasn't long ago that Samsung reported they were set to sell their 10 millionth Galaxy S4, but it seems Consumer Reports is jumping on the 'Galaxy S4 is awesome' bandwagon, by stating that the Android-powered smartphone from Samsung is the world's best smartphone.

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Consumer Reports found that "the S4 delivered top-notch performance in the most critical areas of our tests, including the camera". They also thought the Galaxy S4's display was impressive, stating that it "is sensitive enough to use with gloves on - handy during cold weather". Consumer Reports also praised the S4's multi-tasking abilities, saying that watching videos whilst checking e-mail on the S4 was impressively quick.

RumorTT: Samsung could shift to Intel processors for the Galaxy Tab 3
Samsung are reportedly working on a new Galaxy Tab tablet, which could actually be more interesting than previously thought. We've heard previously that the Galaxy Tab 3 would feature a 10.1-inch 1280x800-pixel display, rocking a 1.5GHz dual-core processor inside.

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We also expected 1GB of RAM, a 3-megapixel camera, a 7,000mAh battery and Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean for software. But, now there's reports that peg the Galaxy Tab 3 to feature an Intel processor, with results spotted on the GLBenchmark that hint that the upcoming 10.1-inch slate from Samsung would feature a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Atom Z2560 processor backed up by a PowerVR SGX 544 MP3 GPU.
Up until now, Samsung have used ARM-based processors in their smart devices, so this would be a gigantic change if Intel were to tap some of that sweet Intel silicon for their upcoming products.

Microsoft's in-house TV project is The Music Room, a user-driven show
Microsoft are merely hours away from unveiling their next-generation Xbox, where the company is going to unveil a two-part show for Xbox Live subscribers that will have the XBL subscribers given a chance to choose how the show ends.

The Music Room is what we'll see, which will allow for user feedback, or polling, to help the guide the show's finale. Laura Jackson will host the show, with Carl Barat who was formerly with the Libertines will be a guest. Performers will be featured, with Swim Deep and Everything Everything. The show starts on May 29, as Microsoft's first in-house production for the Xbox.

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The Last of Us will feature PS4's 'play while download' feature on the PS3
Naughty Dog are nearly ready to unveil The Last of Us to the world, a game that launches simultaneously on Blu-ray and as a download through PSN on June 14. If you choose the download method, then you can only play the game once it has downloaded 50%.

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The PlayStation 4 will have this feature, where it will allow you to play the games as you're downloading them. PS3 gamers will get a tease of this PS4 feature with The Last of Us, but the PS4's method will be far superior thanks to its dedicated hardware that is used for background downloading and processing.

Apple escaped $44 billion in taxes according to Senate investigators
Apple are in the news once more, with Senate investigators accusing the iPhone maker of piecing together a complicated system to hide billions of dollars in international profits from both US and foreign tax collectors.

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What puts Apple in hot water is a report that has been released ahead of Apple CEO Tim Cook's inaugural Capitol Hill appearance on Tuesday, which alleges that Apple took advantage of numerous US tax loopholes and avoided taxes of up to $44 billion in offshore, taxable income between 2009 and 2012 - something that Apple rejects completely. The Senate investigation also charges, for the first time, that Apple's established foreign entities don't have tax-resident status there, or anywhere else.
Apple conducts most of their international business in the European country in order to use the lower tax rates, according to the congressional report. The Senate have said that Apple's tax conduct isn't exactly legal, but they aren't looking at the situation with compassion, pressing against Apple for their tax avoiding tactics.
Apple has hit back saying that they have contributed more than their fair share of jobs to the United States economy, as well as pumping money into the US treasury. Apple's prepared testimony states that Apple "pays all its required taxes, both in this country and abroad" and that they do not use "tax gimmicks".

HP Envy TouchSmart 4 Touchscreen Ultrabook Laptop Review

Introduction

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We've got one of HP's touch-enabled Ultrabooks in the lab today. The Envy TouchSmart 4 is a 14-inch, touch-enabled Ultrabook inspired by Intel that is a bit easier on the wallet than some of the other Ultrabooks we've recently had through our lab.
Is HP's Envy branding all that it is cracked up to be? Or is the Envy TouchSmart 4 not worth our attention? During our testing, you'll want to pay attention to some of ASUS' budget offering as they will be most in line in terms of comparison.
Without further ado, let's dive in and see if the Envy is worth our envy.

Specifications, Configurations and Pricing

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Our HP Envy TouchSmart 4 review unit is equipped with a capable Intel i5-3317U processor. This dual-core is of the low-voltage variety, meaning it features a TDP of just 17 watts. TurboBoost 2.0 enables this processor to dynamically clock up single-threaded performance, while remaining cool and power efficient at idle.
Coupled with the 3317U is 4GB of DDR3 RAM. 4GB of RAM follows my general rule-of-thumb of 1GB per thread available. Graphics are provided via Intel's somewhat capable HD4000 integrated graphics processor, which is the de facto Ultrabook graphics processor.
The screen is a rather low-resolution, touch-enabled panel. Cranking out 1366x768, the display comes in at 14 inches, making the low resolution more bearable. It's certainly more touch-friendly than the smaller 1080p Ultrabooks we previously tested.
Storage is provided by a spinning 500GB hard drive, meaning boot times and program loading will be affected versus systems installed with a faster SSD drive. On the converse, however, users have more storage available to them to hold media. Windows 8 64-bit is loaded onto the HDD as Windows 8 provides the best touchscreen compatibilities.

Packaging

The packaging has seen more than its fair share of shipping journeys to other reviewers and was beat up beyond recognition. For that reason, pictures of the packaging will not be included.
... Read the rest in your browser!

Lexar Professional 128GB Compact Flash Memory Card Review

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Once a parent company of Cirrus Logic, and later gobbled up by the Micron machine, Lexar Media as its now known is a top tier provider of NAND flash based products ranging from USB flash drives to Compact Flash memory cards.
The product we will be looking over today falls into the Compact Flash category, labelled the Lexar Professional. This drive with its speed demon rating of 1000x carries specifications that allow a minimum sustained read speed of 150MB/s utilizing the CFA 6.0 UDMA7 spec, and is said to support 1080p Full HD video as well as 3D video from today's high-end DSLR cameras.

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Looking over the packaging, Lexar has leveraged the gold coloring and large print "Professional" to make it stand out on retailers' shelves. Along the bottom we find the 1000x speed rating listed next to the capacity, which for our sample is 128GB. You will also find the CF membership logo as Lexar is an executive member of the association and all of their products are certified.

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Opening up the packaging we found the card packaged in a plastic retainer with paperwork regarding a necessary firmware update for card readers to support UDMA7.

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Looking over the card itself we find the design on the packaging has been translated to the card. The use of gold is common among manufacturers looking to catch the consumer's eye with their top-tier offerings. We saw the same concept used in our review of the SanDisk Extreme Pro.

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The back of the card gives the end-user space to record what data is on, or has been written to the card.

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The interface used on the Lexar Professional is Type I 50 Pin.

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Internally the Lexar uses a 32 x 4 NAND configuration, each package is branded Micron and is asynchronous.

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The NAND controller used in the Lexar is the Silicon Motion 2236, a 4 channel controller with Global Wear Levelling capabilities to extend the life on the NAND.
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 SanDisk ImageMate AIO.

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Our first look over the card shows its storage capacity of 119GB formatted in the exFAT file system.

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Running the Lexar Professional through ATTO Disk Bench in its FOB (Fresh out of Box) state we achieved 150MB/s read and 104MB/s write.

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CrystalDiskMark results were slightly quicker with the drive showing 150MB/s read and 126MB/s write.

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Looking over our chart above, while being rather empty at this stage, we see the speed comparison between 667x and 1000x rated drives in real-world applications. In the RAW image format we see a 16MB/s difference between the two speeds and that is closely followed by the 20MB/s difference we seen in MP4. JPEG results are very close with just 7MB/s between the two.
The Lexar Professional Compact Flash is as visibly appealing as a card can get. The gold touches would, in my mind, catch your eye in the store, enough to at least get you to pick it up off the shelf and take a closer look. This is where you would read the marketing Lexar has strategically placed on the packaging, more specifically its UDMA7 capability and 1000X speed rating.
With so many brands of cards on the market, it is certainly difficult for manufacturers to differentiate themselves. Lexar has done a great job with this, first marketing there card properly and then living up to the performance specifications. As we seen in our testing the Professional did quite well in our real-world testing, and even the synthetics to be honest. One thing that I would point out is the 150MB/s is marketed as sustained read speed and not write speed. So you won't necessarily see anything more than the 100MB/s we reached in ATTO using this card in your camera, and that's if your camera is one of the more modern DSLRs that support UDMA7.
Pricing of the Lexar Professional Compact Flash in the 128GB capacity we received is $659.99 at the time of writing. Lexar covers this and all there compact flash products with a limited lifetime warranty.

What do TweakTown awards and ratings mean? Click!

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ASRock Promises Improved WiFi with A-Style: 2T2R Dual Band 802.11ac WiFi + Bluetooth v4.0
TAIPEI, TAIWAN, May 20 , 2013 - Take a good minute to reminisce all the joy and fun you had on the internet. Good times, I tell you. Then take another solid minute to recollect those dark depressing moments when the connection was either slow or unstable. Images turning into rectangles with red crosses, laggy videos that took forever to load, downloads that tragically failed at the last few seconds, and it all seemed like the world was coming to an end. Rest assured that ASRock is bringing better Internet connections to the upcoming Intel 8 Series motherboards with A-Style: 2T2R Dual Band 802.11ac WiFi + Bluetooth v4.0!

802.11ac WiFi is a new wireless computer networking standard that provides high-throughput wireless local area networks on the 5GHz band with data transferring speeds up to 867Mbps, a whopping 289% speed boost compared to the former models with 2T2R 802.11n WiFi. Besides the new WiFi, some models will also come with a new ASRock Wi-SD front tray which includes 4 USB 3.0 ports and an SD 3.0 card slot.

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For more product information, please visit :
http://www.asrock.com/microsite/intel8/

HGST Launches The Highest Capacity Hard Drive For The Mainstream Mobile Market
LONDON, 21 May 2013 - HGST (formerly Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and now a Western Digital company, NASDAQ: WDC) continues to push technology innovation by offering the highest storage density (MB/mm3) of any hard disk drive (HDD) today. The new Travelstar 5K1500 is the industry's first 9.5mm, 1.5TB mobile hard drive and features the industry's highest capacity in a standard 9.5mm design. Built on HGST's proven platform for quality and reliability, the Travelstar 5K1500 delivers high shock protection, low power and solid performance to meet the growing demands for a variety of market segments, including notebooks, external hard drives, gaming consoles and all-in-one desktop PCs.

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The HGST three-platter Travelstar 5K1500 offers 50 percent more capacity than currently shipping 1TB 2.5-inch 9.5mm HDDs and 200 percent more capacity than single-disk 500GB 7mm or 5mm 2.5-inch HDDs, making them ideal for capacity-hungry devices. With better PCMark Vantage and PCMark 7 performance than currently shipping two-platter HGST 5,400RPM models, all Travelstar 5K1500 drives ship with a 32MB cache buffer and 6Gbps SATA interface.
Smaller than current 15mm or 12.5mm 2.5-inch HDDs, the Travelstar 5K1500 drive features a standard 9.5mm form factor for simple integration into many traditional system designs. This allows OEMs and system integrators to take advantage of its huge capacity, 0.5 watt low power idle and 5,400RPM performance to deliver new high-capacity, power-efficient systems for longer battery life in notebooks and other unplugged applications. With only 2.5 bels idle, the 1.5TB Travelstar 5K1500 drive is also whisper quiet. The new Travelstar 5K1500 family offers the best operating shock at 400G/2ms and non-operating shock at 1000G/1ms to protect against bumps and rough handling in mobile environments. A dual stage actuator is included for track miss registration improvements for greater data integrity and reliability. All Travelstar drives use halogen-free components to support the "green" computing initiatives that are of increasing importance to today's end users.
"Contrary to popular belief, the mobile hard drive market is not being replaced by SSDs. We continue to invest in and serve both the traditional 9.5mm and 7mm thin and light HDD mobile markets as they offer the best cost-per-GB, performance and proven product reliability for high-capacity, mainstream, Ultrabook and A/V content creation notebook markets," said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing at HGST. "HGST continues to have a strong share in the 2.5-inch market and the new Travelstar 5K1500 hard drive is the latest addition to our broad line of 5,400 and 7,200 RPM 2.5-inch drives, giving OEMs, ODMs and integrators an opportunity to grow and differentiate their product lines."
"The PC continues to be an important productivity platform for content creators, who represent an echelon of users that value high-capacity portable storage," said John Rydning, research vice president for hard disk drives at IDC. "HGST's new mobile 1.5TB hard disk drive in a standard form factor for notebook PCs provides the highest capacity solution available today for users seeking more storage capacity inside their notebook PC."
The new 1.5TB Travelstar 5K1500 is also available in an Enhanced Availability (EA) model, which brings together a host of features such as high capacity, durability and low power for blade servers, network routers, video surveillance and other systems needing 24x7 access to data. The Travelstar 5K1500 drive helps system designers, integrators and IT managers build and maintain their storage systems, achieving greater storage density in the same 2.5-inch footprint, while maximising performance, and improving data integrity in "always-on" applications in lower-transaction environments.
Availability
Travelstar 5K1500 drives are expected to ship in June. The EA model, and the optional self-encrypting Travelstar 5K1500 model, which is designed to meet the Trusted Computer Group (TCG) Opal Storage Security specification, are expected to be available in 3Q 2013.

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