IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 6/21/2013

Thursday, June 20, 2013

IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 6/21/2013

TweakTown

Steam beta code hints at game sharing feature
There's some news floating around that Valve could soon offering game sharing through Steam according to the latest Steam Beta. A NeoGAF forum member has unveiled three lines of code that suggest Valve will offer this game sharing feature through Steam in the future.

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This would allow a Steam gamer to loan their game to a friend, which would be an awesome feature to add to Steam. The code lists two UI messages to the owner and the borrower of the game, which appear to imply that only one person can play the game at one time, which is fine by me - the ability to loan games through Steam is something unique, and very cool of Valve. More details:

"SteamUI_JoinDialog_SharedLicenseLocked_OwnerText" "Just so you know, your games are currently in use by %borrower%. Playing now will send %borrower% a notice that it's time to quit."
"SteamUI_JoinDialog_SharedLicenseLocked_BorrowerText" "This shared game is currently unavailable. Please try again later or buy this game for your own library."

ExtremeTech has taken it a step further by stating that Valve will make an official announcement in the coming weeks or months, something we here at TweakTown we'll be waiting for with excitement.

Google takes a sip of Starbucks, offers Starbucks' free Wi-Fi users trial offer for Google Play Music All Access
Sitting at Starbucks sipping on a coffee while enjoying their free Wi-Fi? You'll now be shown a free trial offer which will give you access to Google Play Music All Access. The deal started this week, which saw the two companies partnering up to connect Starbucks' free Wi-Fi offer promotional deals to content on Google Play.

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Starbucks will now be displaying an advertisement for Google Play Music All Access, where they will be promoting features of Google's music service and offering a click-through for a free trial. Clicking through will offer up a full browser page where you'll see the full features of the service, offering a 30-day free trial. It also offers the same $7.99 discounted price when signing up before June 30, but doesn't offer this deal beyond Starbucks customers.

Half-Life 3, Left 4 Dead 3 and the next-gen Source 2 engine teased on Valve's Project Tracker
So, Valve Time have gone elbows deep into project management and bug tracking software, Jira, finding evidence of multiple internal projects at Valve. This includes Half-Life 3, Left 4 Dead 3 and Source 2, as well as many other games.

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Valve left a metaphorical window open to Jira, which allowed people to access Valve's internal tickets, but were quick to shut it down of course - Valve Time, were able to turn on Bullet Time, and save some of this information for us to all get lady boners over. There's evidence for Half-Life 3 which includes a mailing list of 42 people, but Valve have given the HL3 project around 300 people to get down and dirty with.
Left 4 Dead 3 is mentioned, which suggests a third outing in the Left 4 Dead franchise is in development. The next nugget is Source 2. We know this is in development, and I've theorised that Valve will unveil Source 2 on their Steam Box, along with Half-Life 3, Left 4 Dead 3 and other games. Check out Valve Time's post for more information.

ReportTT: HTC One Mini to come to AT&T in the US
It looks as though AT&T customers will be able to get the HTC One Mini. The HTC One, or the larger brother of the One Mini, has been heralded as the best Android smartphone to date. The Mini will hopefully follow in the footsteps of its big brother and continue to provide a premium Android experience with a slightly smaller screen.

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The HTC One Mini is reported to feature a 4.3-inch display with a resolution of 720x1280. It will also feature a dual-core processor and UltraPixel camera. It's rumored to be launching in August. According to a report that cites a source close to HTC, AT&T will be getting the smaller Android handset whenever it debuts.

Microsoft will pay you up to $100,000 for finding bugs in Windows 8.1
Are you a good bug finder? You might be able to collect a nice paycheck from Microsoft. Microsoft has offered up $100,000 as a top prize for finding an exploit that allows you to bypass the protections built into Windows 8.1. The time frame for this bounty program is ongoing and requires a truly novel exploitation technique.

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Microsoft has offered up an additional $50,000 if you provide defensive ideas along with the Mitigation Bypass bug, bringing your grand total to $150,000. This time frame is also ongoing.
Microsoft isn't just concerned with Windows 8.1 security. They have also offered up 30 days to submit critical vulnerabilities found in Internet Explorer 11 Preview on Windows 8.1 Preview. This period will go from June 26 to July 26, 2013. Qualifying bugs are worth up to $11,000.
For more information, check out Microsoft's post on the bounty programs.

MakerBot acquired by Stratasys
MakerBot, one of the hobbyist 3D printer manufacturers, has been acquired by Stratasys, a major global player in the professional 3D printing market. Stratasys makes 3-D printers capable of printing objects as solid as plastic injection molded objects with incredible resolution.

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MakerBot, meanwhile, produces lower cost options for those who want 3D printing at home. MakerBot isn't going away and will likely benefit from this merger. According to the company's blog post, "MakerBot's mission remains the same and will continue to operate as a separate subsidiary within Stratasys, once the transaction is complete."
We're excited to see what will come of this merger. Hopefully we will see cheaper, better 3D printers that are easier to use.

Sony pulls PlayStation 3 update that bricked some consoles
Sony has pulled the PlayStation 3 update 4.45 after it caused a "small number" of machines to be bricked. Sony is unsure of why this happened but is investigating the issue. Meanwhile, Sony encourages users to wait for an official fix rather than trying to fix it themselves.

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This could put a damper on the positive press that Sony has been receiving after E3 from the media and gamers alike. One gamer wrote, "You'd think they test these things out, right?" Unfortunately for gamers, Sony has limited resources and time to test updates. Considering it has only affected a "small number" globally, it's unlikely they would have caught it, even with extensive testing.
Sony will hopefully find the problem--and a fix for those affected--quickly. Until then, Sony asks that you wait for an official fix and adds that it "apologizes for the inconvenience."

ReportTT: Microsoft almost acquired Nokia, talks have now broken down
According to a Wall Street Journal report, Microsoft and Nokia were close to striking a deal that would see Microsoft acquiring Nokia's device business. According to sources familiar with the matter, talks were taking place as recently as this month, though they are unlikely to be revived after Microsoft walked away.

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The two companies were reportedly close to an oral agreement over the acquisition before talks broke down. The deal would have likely made use of Microsoft's off-shore cash piles that amount to nearly $66 billion. This would have been great for Microsoft because it would have incurred a massive tax bill to bring the cash home.

Facebook enables photo comments, allows you to reply to a status with a picture
Trolls, arm your picture stores, Facebook has just unleashed native photo comments. This means you'll now be able to reply directly with that hilarious or trolling picture instead of linking to an outside source. The change will initially roll out to web users, though we expect it to make it through all platforms.

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The roll out started today, but that doesn't mean that you will have the ability right away. It's rather simple to reply with an image: in the usual "Write a comment..." box, there is a new little camera icon on the right. Simply click that and pick an image to attach to the comment.
Facebook has an event scheduled for tomorrow, but it's not exactly clear what they will unveil. Facebook's recently introduced #hashtags and this newly released photo reply will certainly add to Zuckerberg's speech, but they certainly aren't the next "big idea." Stay tuned to TweakTown tomorrow to learn just what Facebook is planning.

Analyst expects BlackBerry to sell 14 million devices this year
RBC analyst Mark Sue expects BlackBerry to sell 14 million BlackBerry 10 devices in 2013. This is an increase in the firm's previous predictions for BlackBerry sales. In addition to increasing their forecast for this year, RBC has also boosted their estimates for Q1 2014 to 3.5 million from 2.75 million.

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While these sales numbers pale in comparison to the latest Galaxy or iPhone, it does show that the device is doing alright. Sue expects BlackBerry to be able to reach "near-term profitability." BlackBerry still has just around 3 percent of the market, but it could be making a successful turnaround, something not all companies are capable of doing.

RumorTT: Analyst believes next iPad mini won't feature a Retina display
Contrary to rumors from the rumor mill, at least one analyst believes that the next-gen iPad mini will not feature a Retina display. He believes that the Retina-equipped iPad mini will be coming sometime in 2014. The analyst in question is Richard Shim from NPD DisplaySearch.

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Taking a critical eye towards his predictions, a few problems appear. Since we're already in the second part of 2013, it seems unlikely that Apple would launch a major upgrade to the iPad mini in early 2014 as predicted. It also seems like a large oversight for Apple to neglect the iPad mini.
We'll see sometime in the fall whether or not Apple will be equipping the iPad mini with a Retina display. As always, take this with a grain of salt.

Oracle patches 40 security issues in latest Java fix
Java is notoriously full of security holes, with several being exploited earlier this year and sending Oracle scrambling to patch them up. Oracle's latest Java patch brings with it fixes for some 40 security holes. Because of all of the security patches, Oracle recommends that you apply the patch as soon as possible.

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34 of those major security fixes are in the client distribution of Java 7. Of those 34, eleven were given the highest security risk score from Oracle's Common Vulnerability Scoring System. This patch is important to apply as all but three of the exploits are exploitable over the network without any authentication.
Eric Maurice, Oracle's Director of Software Assurance:

Oracle recommends that this Critical Patch Update be applied as soon as possible because it includes fixes for a number of severe vulnerabilities. Note that the vulnerabilities fixed in this Critical Patch Update affect various components and, as a result, may not affect the security posture of all Java users in the same way.

Microsoft does 180 on Xbox One DRM, drops 24 hour requirement, other changes
Microsoft has decided to reverse course on their controversial DRM requirements that have drawn heavy criticism from gamers and the media alike. Microsoft has confirmed reports by other media outlets that the 24-hour check-in policy has been dropped, along with various other changes.

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Microsoft probably explains it best:

Last week at E3, the excitement, creativity and future of our industry was on display for a global audience.
For us, the future comes in the form of Xbox One, a system designed to be the best place to play games this year and for many years to come. As is our heritage with Xbox, we designed a system that could take full advantage of advances in technology in order to deliver a breakthrough in game play and entertainment. We imagined a new set of benefits such as easier roaming, family sharing, and new ways to try and buy games. We believe in the benefits of a connected, digital future.
Since unveiling our plans for Xbox One, my team and I have heard directly from many of you, read your comments and listened to your feedback. I would like to take the opportunity today to thank you for your assistance in helping us to reshape the future of Xbox One.
You told us how much you loved the flexibility you have today with games delivered on disc. The ability to lend, share, and resell these games at your discretion is of incredible importance to you. Also important to you is the freedom to play offline, for any length of time, anywhere in the world.
So, today I am announcing the following changes to Xbox One and how you can play, share, lend, and resell your games exactly as you do today on Xbox 360. Here is what that means:
An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games - After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.
Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today - There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.
In addition to buying a disc from a retailer, you can also download games from Xbox Live on day of release. If you choose to download your games, you will be able to play them offline just like you do today. Xbox One games will be playable on any Xbox One console - there will be no regional restrictions.
These changes will impact some of the scenarios we previously announced for Xbox One. The sharing of games will work as it does today, you will simply share the disc. Downloaded titles cannot be shared or resold. Also, similar to today, playing disc based games will require that the disc be in the tray.
We appreciate your passion, support and willingness to challenge the assumptions of digital licensing and connectivity. While we believe that the majority of people will play games online and access the cloud for both games and entertainment, we will give consumers the choice of both physical and digital content. We have listened and we have heard loud and clear from your feedback that you want the best of both worlds.
Thank you again for your candid feedback. Our team remains committed to listening, taking feedback and delivering a great product for you later this year.

While not completely ending all concerns, Microsoft has taken a big step towards regaining some of the gamers they alienated with the DRM announcements. There is still quite a bit to learn as it is always possible game studios could implement their own DRM. We will continue to learn more ahead of the Xbox One launch.

New camera technology could help enable better sports coverage
Technology to track fast moving objects is currently being developed by researchers at the University of Tokyo. This new technology promises to revolutionize sports coverage as it is able to quickly track fast moving baseballs, soccer balls, and footballs. Researchers have started field trials to see if it will perform as well outside as it has in the lab. If successful, this technology could be broadcast ready in just two years.

The system uses lenses and mirrors combined with a fast-tracking system to keep the ping-pong ball in focus and centered in the frame. It follows the movement rather than trying to predict it. This same technology could also be used in conjunction with a projector. The projector could, well, project an image onto the item being tracked, potentially turning your ping-pong ball into an emoji.

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GameStop sells out of Xbox One pre-orders
GameStop has officially stopped accepting pre-orders for the upcoming Xbox One because they have hit their limit. What's interesting about this is that it shows that Microsoft may not be having too much of an issue selling the Xbox One, despite numerous issues raised by the media and still unanswered by Microsoft. GameStop is still taking pre-orders for the PlayStation 4, however.

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So, is the Xbox One truly that hot of a commodity? It would appear that it's not. Microsoft has given way fewer allocations to the individual stores than Sony has given PS4 allocations. For instance, one store that received just 16 Xbox One units also received 60 PlayStation 4 units. It's not clear whether Microsoft is facing supply issues or if they are attempting to make the illusion that the Xbox One is popular.
If you are interested in getting the Xbox One, GameStop will no longer accept pre-orders unless they receive a larger allocation. You might want to get your pre-order in with someone who still has units while they still have those units.

Lenovo launches ThinkPad S531 Ultrabook, only with Ivy Bridge CPUs though
Lenovo has just announced its latest Windows 8 Ultrabook and is targeting it at the small business market. The ThinkPad S531 is a 15.6-inch screen notebook that features a unique single unified hinge that allows it to lie flat at 180 degrees.

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The display is not touchscreen, however users will have to interact with the OS using the five button glass pad below the keyboard. Unfortunately the S531 features Intel's third-generation Ivy Bridge processor and no models available with the current generation Haswell CPU line.

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It does have USB 3.0 connectivity and available docking system, as well as an optional fingerprint reader. The keyboard is backlit with Windows 8 specific shortcut keys, as well as being spill resistant. This means you will no longer have to panic when accidentally tipping over your morning coffee.

Kim Dotcom: All Megaupload servers deleted back in February, with no prior warning
This morning Kim Dotcom has taken the Twitter to report that the US government and Leaseweb have deleted the entire collection of Megaupload files that were hosted on Leaseweb servers. This equates to millions of personal files being deleted without warning and without cause.

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Kim Dotcom says that petabytes of pictures, backups, personal and business files were all deleted back in February without prior warning to him or his lawyers. "This is the largest data massacre in the history of the Internet," Dotcom wrote on Twitter.

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Dotcom's lawyers have repeatedly asked Leaseweb not to delete the Megaupload servers while court proceedings were pending in the US as that data was essentially evidence in the massive case against Dotcom. His counsel even went as far as asking the DOJ to release some of Megaupload's frozen assets so that they could buy all the servers containing the Megaupload data, unfortunately they refused and now all of Dotcom's evidence is gone.

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I am a firm believer in the US justice system. Everyone is supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, but it is impossible to argue the case if you have no evidence to back your claim of innocence. In my opinion, if this were any other case, the servers would have been locked down, and nothing deleted until the trial was over.

HTC unveils Butterfly S smartphone with Ultrapixel camera in Taiwan
This morning HTC unveiled a new Android-based smartphone dubbed the Butterfly S. HTC says that the new phone is built around uncompromised performance, as well as modern design cues, with usability in mind.

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Featuring a full HD 1080p 5-inch Super LCD 3 display, the Butterfly S packs in a 1.9GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor, as well as 2GB of RAM. The phone also features HTC's 4-megapixel camera with Ultrapixel technology. A 2.1-megapixel camera is also present on the front of the device to aid in taking all those selfies.

The Butterfly S features a 3200 mAh battery, which HTC says will deliver 3.5 days of continuous music playback. The device runs Android Jelly Bean, but it is unclear if it is version 4.2.1 or 4.2.2 of the firmware.
The phone will hit Taiwan in July and there is no word yet on if it will be coming to the US, UK or Australia in the future.

Latest Sony PS3 patch update is bricking consoles - do not update to version 4.45
Sony recently released a firmware patch for its PlayStation 3 console. Normally this is not too noteworthy, but this latest patch is rendering the consoles dead in the water. Sony has taken the patch down, but just in case do not download any update or patches with a version number of 4.45.

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The patch was originally supposed to add support for turning off achievements and trophy notifications, however after updating and rebooting, many users found that their PS3 would no longer boot into the main menu of the console. A smaller portion of users reported that they were not able to even turn off the box after the update and the only option was to pull the power cable.
Sony has released a statement to address users who have been affected by the problem:

"We are aware of reports that the recent PlayStation 3 system software update (version 4.45) has caused the XMB to not display on a small number of PS3 systems. We have temporarily taken 4.45 offline and are investigating the cause of the problem. We will announce when the system update is available for download as soon as possible. We apologise for the inconvenience."

Crittercism launches Fathom Mobile Command Center, puts the control of your apps in your hands
Crittercism have just launched their new Fathom Mobile Command Center, which can help companies in many ways. With the growing digital lifestyles that not only consumers live in, but businesses have to build to sustain those consumers, the behind-the-scenes app development and maintenance headaches also grow.

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This is where Crittercism is here to help with their new platform that will improve companies' mobile app strategy for the long-term. Fathom is the first solution that is capable of monitoring and reporting how third-party services and network conditions affect the performance of iOS and Android. In order to help companies manage the performance of their iOS- or Android-based apps, Fathom provides powerful tools that allow these companies to not only understand, but address these performance issues within any consumer, business-to-business or employee-facing application.

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Crittercism's new Fathom Mobile Command Center will show each factor affecting app performance for each individual app session where an issue is encountered. This provides, as you can imagine, a huge understanding to mobile teams and developers who are looking to improve to overall app experience - be it consumers, or business partners, or both. Mobile teams can then use Fathom to monitor app performance in real-time, which is a nice touch.
Here are some of the key features of the Fathom Mobile Command Center:

Cloud Services: Provides visibility into third-party services and APIs that interact with mobile apps so IT operations and engineering teams can understand issues and edge cases.
Network management: Total visibility into server-side issues that can lead to app-delays, including latency and throughput.
Diagnostic drilldown: Allows teams to tie diagnostic data back to an app's network data, and provides the ability to isolate issues by Device, Carrier, OS, and Network Type (Wi-Fi vs Cellular). Additionally, teams can filter app network data by diagnostic data.
Network Breadcrumbs: Gives visibility into end-user activity and a diagnostic breakdown to isolate performance issues. Teams can easily recreate performance issues via user traces that show both user behavior as well as an app's interactions with its network.
Endpoint Analysis: Allows teams to track down misbehaving API endpoints, analyze metrics such as latency, request and data volume, and response codes. Provides the ability to isolate endpoint metrics by both network status and diagnostic data.

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Crittercism, is huge - and it was only until I started to do some digging about the company for this post that I discovered that they are in 500 million mobile devices across the world, providing APM (App Performance Management) for some of the world's biggest companies, including Disney, eBay, LinkedIn, Netflix, Nike and more.

John McAffee releases instructional video on how to uninstall McAffee antivirus software, probably NSFW
In today's installment of WTF, John McAffee has just released a video that instructs users on the proper way to uninstall McAffee antivirus software from their PCs. In true form McAffee appears just as we all picture him, a sort of Huge Hefner / Jeff Bridges mashup. The only thing missing from the video is a performing troupe of meerkats dancing in the background.

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During the video, McAffee takes several jabs at the company he founded many years ago as he reads several fake emails which rant about how crappy the software has become. McAffee has a "lab tech" known as Bartholomew attempt to walk you through the uninstall process while the host spends some quality time with scantily clad women and controlled substances. The video below is highly NSFW due to language, drugs and scantily clad women.

As you saw, the only possible way to uninstall McAffee Antivirus is to pull out a gun and shoot the PC. Of course we here at TweakTown could never condone such
a horrid act of installing McAffee
silliness. Do not shoot your PC, do not smoke bath salts, and do not take John McAffee's advice on anything. Take the video only for what it is worth in comical value, and install a reputable antivirus software such as BitDefender.

Intel discontinues several popular SSD products, its 25nm flash going away
It looks like Intel finished 25nm flash production, and as a result, several popular products are getting the axe.

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Affected products include the 313 Series, 520 Series, 525 Series and the enterprise 710 Series.
The Intel 710 was replaced by the new DC S3x00 Series, but the news leaves a big gap in Intel's consumer SSD lineup. The Intel 335 Series (2.5" Form Factor with 20nm flash) currently ships in 180GB and 240GB, no 480GB part is currently available.
The Intel 525 Series and 313 Series are mSATA products, 313 Series for cache and 525 Series for OS/storage. Intel's new NUC form factor needs an mSATA SSD, so we expect Intel to announce new mSATA products based on 20nm flash soon.

RumorTT: Steam could allow game sharing between friends
Game sharing has become quite the hot topic lately with both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 having thoughts on how to do it and still turn a profit. As always, the true innovation begins in the PC gaming world. Steam is apparently looking into a process that would allow you to share your purchased PC games.

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In the latest Steam beta release, a short section of code has been spotted that discusses a "Shared Game Library" which appears to allow other steam users to use your games. However, you are only allowed to share the game with one other user and that person can only play the game when you are not playing it.
What happens if I want to play my game but my friend is playing it? Well that is quite simple, if you attempt to load a game which is being played by another user, Steam will send them a message letting them know that you want to play and since you are the owner they should stop and let you play. Below I have pasted the short snippet of code that has led to all the speculation.

"SteamUI_JoinDialog_SharedLicense_Title" "Shared game library"

"SteamUI_JoinDialog_SharedLicenseLocked_OwnerText" "Just so you know, your games are currently in use by %borrower%. Playing now will send %borrower% a notice that it's time to quit."

"SteamUI_JoinDialog_SharedLicenseLocked_BorrowerText" "This shared game is currently unavailable. Please try again later or buy this game for your own library."

Large 3D 'holograms' created, will be used to aid medical student training
Two London-based junior doctors have developed a system that can be a great visual aid to medical students. They have demonstrated a 3D graphic of a kidney measuring 4m (13 ft) to demonstrate renal function at a "test lecture" last week. It was one of a series of hologram-like animations they are developing. The effects were developed by Dr Kapil Sugand, who works at St George's Hospital and Imperial College London, and Dr Pedro Campos from St George's Hospital.

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The animations are not true holograms, but are rather based on an illusion called Pepper's Ghost which uses glass or foil combined with special lighting techniques to make objects appear in mid-air. The images are all animated and can be controlled by the lecturer. Three projectors are used to generate the full colour images on stage and they are designed to be used in a large auditorium.
The doctors said they wanted to make it easier for students to absorb the large amount of detail necessary to pass their exams. Medical students can attend up to nine hours of lectures per day and typically study for six years in order to qualify. "Research in educational sciences has shown the attention span of the average student is 20 to 30 minutes, but standard lectures are at least an hour," Dr Sugand told the BBC. "The human body is a very complex machine. It's very difficult to comprehend and appreciate how a kidney or liver functions, for example, from Powerpoint slides."

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While a "holographic" human body has previously been trialled in an anatomy class at Imperial College, it was not intended for a mass audience, said Dr Sugand. "This could be a way to teach surgical procedures to a large group of trainees quite easily," he added. The two doctors have spent Â£10,000 building up a small library of 3D animation lecture aids - including a sequence which outlines the various effects of malaria on different parts of the human body. Funding came from the universities where they work, and also Dr Campos's parents. Technical problems prevented the first test - scheduled for last Wednesday - from working, but an event later in the week was more successful.
The response from first year medical students at St George's, University of London, was positive. "We spend a lot of time looking through textbooks and listening to lectures to try to get our heads round the subjects and I think this would make a lot of medical areas easier to understand," said Hannah Barham. Andrew Salmon added: "As a concept it's fantastic, but I don't think it will replace the traditional kind of lecture at the moment though as it's not as customisable."
Dr Sugand acknowledged that the animations were intended to be an extra tool, and would not be a substitute for using dead bodies. "Nothing can substitute dissecting a cadaver - it is the optimal and most traditional way of learning anatomy," he explained. "But multimedia has become a way of complementing, not replacing, that process."
The university which hosted the event however, said that the project was not ready to be rolled out yet. "The cost would be prohibitively expensive," said a spokesman for St George's, University of London. "It's more a proof-of-concept at this stage."

Wi-Fi Alliance launches Wi-Fi Certified program for 802.11ac
This morning the Wi-Fi Alliance launched its Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ac certification program, and we sat down with them to talk all things 802.11ac. Before we get into the interview, lets cover what the Wi-Fi certified program is, and why it is needed. In today's world, we are seeing more wireless data being generated than ever before, and current Wi-Fi standards simply can not keep up.

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This massive overload in Wi-Fi data is the direct result of several factors including: always-connected devices such as smartphones, tablets, notebooks, and even household appliances such as TVs, audio systems, and even refrigerators and laundry machines. This is where the Wi-Fi Alliance comes into play. They are the party responsible for certifying that 802.11ac chipsets meet the stringent standards and requirements to push connected devices to the next level.

Building on the high-performance foundation of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ac products deliver whole-home coverage at two or even three times the speed of older Wi-Fi products and handle demanding applications such as Ultra HD and 4K video, multimedia, and rapid file transfer with ease.

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Wi-Fi Certified ac products arrive at a time when Wi-Fi use has exploded and adoption of demanding applications is on the rise. Recent polling conducted by Wakefield Research on behalf of Wi-Fi Alliance reflects a number of relevant trends:

The number of Wi-Fi devices in U.S. households has doubled over the past five years.
There is an average of four devices now connected to the home Wi-Fi network during peak usage times.
Sixty percent of U.S. respondents indicated they are using Wi-Fi for multimedia applications more now than they were three years ago.
Among young people (18-24 years of age), Wi-Fi is more essential than traditional forms of entertainment - 69 percent of respondents in that age group said that a Wi-Fi outage would be more disruptive than a television outage in their home.

We have all heard of the new 802.11ac standard by now but do most of us really know what makes it different over the 802.11n devices most of us are currently using at the moment? The Wi-Fi Alliance says that "Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ac products bring additional capacity, performance, and robustness to support the connected applications of today and tomorrow, at home, in public places, and in enterprise networks alike. The certification program, based on technology defined in the IEEE 802.11ac standard,takes Wi-Fi capabilities to new levels of performance:"

Higher data rates - Networks based on Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ac can deliver data rates up to more than double those of a typical Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n network. For users, this means a network can support simultaneously streaming multiple HD-quality videos to multiple devices.
Greater capacity - More devices can be simultaneously connected to a Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ac network without reducing performance.
Reduced latency - Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ac products can deliver a higher-quality user experience with applications such as gaming or streaming music, where even the slightest delay can have a detrimental impact.

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Wi-Fi Certified 802.11ac operates in the 5GHz range which provides twice the bandwidth that 802.11n's 2.4GHz used. The Wi-Fi Alliance says that most ac products will be dual-band to not only ensure backwards compatibility with the older 802.11 b/g/n standards, but to effectively double the capacity of the device. This is achieved by the 802.11ac device being able to use the less crowded 5GHz channel for the more speed hungry task while the 2.4GHz channel can handle all of the normal activities.
"Consumers have an insatiable appetite for rich, connected experiences,"said Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO of Wi-Fi Alliance. "Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ac advances the ability of Wi-Fi to satisfy that appetite by increasing capacity and improving performance,thus paving the way for new products and services that provide a great user experience."
Industry analysts, including ABI Research, are predicting that shipments of dual-band Wi-Fi chipsets, including Wi-Fi Certified n and Wi-Fi Certified ac, will surpass the 1.5 billion unit mark by the end of Q4 2014. This is not just another hardware update, this is a mass migration to new technology that will be capable of feeding our hunger for speed. As our smartphones become more feature rich, and video content moves to Ultra HD resolutions, we will need the extra bandwidth just to be able to perform the most simple of task such as streaming a video from Netflix over to our smart TVs.

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The Wi-Fi Alliance says that Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ac mobile devices, tablets, laptops, consumer electronics products and networking gear will be available in the second half of this year. Enterprise environments and industrial applications will follow the consumer product adoption, and will also benefit from higher performance for data intensive applications.
The Wi-Fi Alliance has released the names of the first Wi-Fi CERTIFIED ac products which form the test suite for the certification. They are as follows:

Broadcom BCM4706 5G Wi-Fi Communications Processor
Broadcom BCM4360 5G Wi-Fi Single Chip MAC/PHY/Radio
Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260
Marvell Avastar 88W8897 AP Reference Design
Marvell Avastar 88W8897 STA Reference Design
Mediatek Dual Band 802.11ac Reference Access Point
Mediatek Dual Band 802.11ac Reference STA
Qualcomm VIVEâ„¢ 802.11ac 3-stream Dual-band, Dual-concurrent Router
Qualcomm VIVEâ„¢ 802.11ac 3-stream, PCIe Client
Realtek RTL8197D+RTL8188AR+RTL8192CE AP/Router
Realtek RTL8812AE HMC card

We have already seen 802.11ac begin to slip into production devices with companies like Apple loading up the new MacBook Air models with ac as well as routers, laptops and other devices from companies like ASUS, Linksys, and Netgear. Hopefully we will have some 802.11ac hardware in the near future to bring you some real-world test results. Keep an eye on TweakTown for all of the latest news on this exciting new Wi-Fi Certified standard!

G.Skill TridentX PC3-23400 8GB Dual Channel Memory Kit Review

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While Corsair has chosen to launch a new series of RAM in the form of the Vengeance Pro which has done a good job of impressing us with its PC3-14900 and PC3-19200 16GB kits, if you're looking for something even faster, we might just have the modules for you today from the folks at G.Skill.
G.Skill hasn't opted for a new series and instead is using the most recent series that was launched during the middle of last year - the TridentX series. We've looked at a couple of kits under this series and they've all done a pretty good job. Today, though, we're looking at the fastest TridentX kit to date.
The TridentX kit we're looking at today isn't just the fastest out of the box kit we've seen from this series, but the fastest out of the box kit, period. Taking a look at the kit you'll notice nothing you haven't really seen before, if you've had a chance to look at the TridentX series before. You can see we've got the black heatsink with the red fin across the top. Of course we also love the fact that G.Skill (like Corsair) has opted for the black PCB, which looks fantastic against the heatsink design.

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If we take a quick look at both sides you can see that they're fairly similar with the G.Skill TridentX logo on both sides. Of course one side has the TridentX name slightly covered with a sticker that gives us a run down on some of the main specifications in regards to the modules.

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Looking above you can see the F3-2933C12D-8GTXDG model number and some of the main details. PC3-23400 translates to a massive 2933MHz DDR and is the fastest out of the box kit we've had to date. Before that the fastest kits we had seen came in at 2800MHz DDR. One of those kits came from Corsair, while the other came from Kingston.
Due to the high speed out of the box we're dealing with more relaxed timings, which come in at 12-14-14-35-2T @ 1.65v. Along with the more relaxed timings, we're also dealing with an 8GB kit, instead of the usual 16GB. This again tends to be a bit of a trade-off that is seen on higher speed kits. We're hoping to see 2933MHz DDR 16GB kits soon.
With the memory installed, it was time to head into the BIOS and fire up the XMP profile. While this is the fastest kit we've tested to date, with what we had heard from people at Computex, getting this speed shouldn't be an issue with the new i7 4770K. We set the XMP profile, hit F10, said to save the changes and rebooted. Straight away we booted without a single issue. We got straight into Windows and below you can see everything was running correctly.

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Under AIDA64 we ended up with Read / Write numbers of 29,070 MB/s / 25,337 MB/s, Copy speed of 25,495 MB/s and latency of 41.6ns. The results look good, but we need to just cover them compared against the Corsair kit we looked at recently. The lower clocked PC3-19200 Corsair Kit actually managed to come out with stronger read times at stock. What was interesting, though, was when we overclocked the kit, we went from around the 35,000 MB/s mark down to 26,000 MB/s. Above you can see that our read speeds on the G.Skill kit are above that.
While the copy speed of both kits are quite similar, the write numbers have improved by a decent chunk, and latency has been reduced by 3.5ns, which is a decent reduction. We won't deny that at the moment the RAM performance numbers are a little all over the place. To be completely honest, we've even seen our CPU numbers a little all over the place when it has come to our motherboard testing. As we've already mentioned a few times, though, as we test more and more boards and RAM and move through more BIOS updates, we hope the consistency comes together better.
With stock testing done, it was time to move onto the overclocking. With such a high out of the box memory clock, we didn't know how we would go moving much higher. The first thing we tried was the 3000MHz DDR divider. We hit F10 and rebooted, but unfortunately didn't have any luck, as our system refused to boot back up.
We headed back into the BIOS and started to mess around with the timings and voltage a little. We moved to 1.71v with no luck and also moved to a 13-15-15-35-2T setup, but again we didn't have any joy getting our system to boot up again. It just seemed no matter what, 3000MHz DDR wasn't going to boot for us on this particular kit. We're not too sure if this was our CPU or the memory kit itself.
From what we know 3000MHz DDR should be achievable on a lot of processors, but we know that our overclock on the particular CPU isn't the best, so it's possible that our IMC isn't the strongest either. Saying that, we're already on the hunt for a stronger CPU in both the clock and the IMC department, as we know that 3000MHz+ DDR kits are already coming to us for testing.

As always we tried the next best thing which was BCLK adjustment. Because there's not a whole lot of room from 2933MHz DDR to 3000MHz DDR, we continued not having any luck in that area. Finally we did the only thing we could do and that was mess around with the timings a little bit to see if we could get them running a bit more aggressively.
The first thing we did was move to a 1T Command Rate. We hit F10 and rebooted with no problems. With that working fine, we headed back into the BIOS to see if we could do anything with the rest of the timings. We didn't expect much since we moved to 1T already, but of course it was all worth a try.
In the end we tried 11-13-13-35-1T, 11-14-14-35-1T and 12-13-13-35-1T, but all of these timing settings wouldn't post. We also tried to bump the voltage up to 1.71v again, but continued not having any luck. In the end we settled with the 12-14-14-35-1T setup, which can be seen below.

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Under AIDA64 we ended up with Read / Write numbers of 29,194 MB/s / 25,420 MB/s, Copy speed of 25,793 MB/s and latency of 41.2ns. Across the board you can see the reduction to the 1T command rate gave us a slight boost in all areas. Nothing huge, but a little jump is seen across the board, including a reduction in the latency.
Before we finish up we always like to head back into the BIOS and overclock our CPU to see just how much performance we can get out of the particular kit. So far, though, we've noticed that overclocking our CPU has done little to added performance. While we saw on the previous Z77 platform that overclocking the CPU brought a decent boost in some areas, the latest Z87 chipset doesn't get the same benefits, at least at this stage of the game.
So heading back into the BIOS we adjusted our CPU multiplier up to 46x and increased the voltage in the necessary CPU areas. Looking below you can now see our i7 4770K comes in at 4598.4MHz or pretty much a flat 4.6GHz even.

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Under AIDA64 we ended up with Read / Write numbers of 29,146 MB/s / 25,465 MB/s, Copy speed of 26,081 MB/s and latency of 40.6ns. As we've seen with our other testing, overclocking the CPU does very little for extra performance. You can see a bit of fluctuation or a slight improvement in some areas, but nothing that really stands out when it comes to transfer rates. The one area that continues to see a slightly improvement, though is the latency, which is now under 41ns.
When it comes to looking at the performance of the G.Skill kit here today, we must admit that it's been the most consistent when it comes to the numbers. Saying that, though, it's important to note that we didn't move away from the stock MHz, something we've done with our other kits. Instead we only worked on the timings and the CPU speed.
This is a really nice kit of RAM, but we can't deny the simple fact that it's not going to be for everyone. While 2933MHz DDR shouldn't be an issue for most people on the new Haswell platform, most will probably find that they'd prefer a 16GB kit over this 8GB version - especially when you consider the $399.99 price tag that is associated with this particular kit.

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While you also do get the dual fan cooling solution, the simple fact is that $400 for an 8GB kit of RAM is a lot of money. At the same time, if you're after something that's fast out of the box and has the ability to run 1T, then this is a fantastic option. Especially when you see people achieve well over 3000MHz DDR with this particular kit when paired with a Haswell CPU that carries a strong IMC.
G.Skill, as always, has put together a really nice kit of RAM, but speed comes at a cost. Not only do you pay big dollars, you're also taking a hit in the amount of RAM that you'll have in your system. Most people will probably more than likely prefer to go with a kit that's a little slower, but carries twice the capacity. Of course though, there's always those who just want to have blazing fast RAM, and G.Skill have those people covered here.

What do TweakTown awards and ratings mean? Click!

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ASRock Z87E-ITX (Intel Z87) Mini-ITX Motherboard Review

Introduction

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I've always been quite the Mini-ITX fan. With the last few generation of motherboards, a Mini-ITX based board didn't mean you had to sacrifice large amounts of performance. Mini-ITX boards are often just as fast as their bigger brothers. At the same time they tend to come in at a slightly cheaper price because they have less on it due to the size.
Today we're taking the time to have a look at our first Z87 Mini-ITX motherboard and it comes from our friends at ASRock who tend to be one of the first companies to offer motherboards based on this format. The two main things we want to find out today is what the out of the box performance is like and how the Mini-ITX form factor affects our overclocking ability, if at all.
We haven't had the best luck with our particular 4770K CPU to date and we're sure that overclocking on this Mini-ITX board isn't going to be quite as strong. There's a few things we've got to do before we get into the overclocking side of things.
So, saying that, let's gets into the package of the board and roll on through to the performance side of things, which we'll look over the next few pages.

Package

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Being quite a small box we never get a ton of information. You can see the front has the brand and model number along with a couple of logos. Turning over we get a bit more detail in regards to what's on offer. You can see some of the main features shown including Intel Ethernet, Premium Gold Caps, DrMOS, Digi Power and 6-Power Phase design.

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Moving inside the box we've got a fairly standard affair with a pair of manuals and driver CD. You can see the main I/O back plate, four SATA cables and a DVI to VGA connector. We've also got a wireless antenna included in the bundle.
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Seagate NAS HDD (ST4000VN000) 4000GB HDD Review

Introduction

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For the longest time I ran a set of four Seagate Barracuda 7200.12's in my NAS here in the lab. These drives served me very well up until last year, when they were replaced by the purpose built WD Red NASWare drives. Now though Seagate has entered the purpose built drive market with the NAS HDD.
When you are in the market for a shiny new HDD, it's of utmost importance to take a few things into consideration including the purpose of the drive, the capacity you're looking for, and the most important, what environment the drive will be subjected to. I say the environment as the most important because drives like the NAS HDD are purpose built to run 24/7 in hot environments like that of a 1 to 5 bay NAS appliance. Drives like the previously reviewed Desktop HDD .15 are made for just that, your desktop PC, where there is a bit more airflow.
Now you may be saying to yourself, "this NAS HDD is just the Desktop HDD .15 with fancy firmware", and to an extent that could be true. Both drives utilize the same four platter design, with areal density at 625GB/ sq. in and the same 1*10^14 BER, but Seagate has added a few more improvements to the NAS HDD as well. Technology like Dual Plane Balance and Seagate's patented NASWorks Error Recovery Control increase the drives durability and vibration tolerance for the 24/7 environment of small NAS appliances. It's not just some fancy marketing talk.
If this isn't enough for you, the Load/Unload cycles for the NAS HDD have been doubled to 600,000 over the 300,000 found in the Desktop HDD .15, and adding to this the Power-On Hours, which sit at 8760, four times more than the Desktop HDD. Power consumption figures have also taken a dive with typical operating power going from 7.5 watts to 4.8 watts in the NAS HDD. The same is true for the idle and standby power as well where the Desktop HDD consumed five watts at idle and 0.75 watts in standby, the NAS HDD uses just 3.95 at idle and 0.5 in standby.

Specifications, Pricing and Availability

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Taking a look at the specifications for the NAS HDD by Seagate, we find the cache listed as 64MB. Closely following this is the Max Sustained Transfer Rate of 180MB/s with the Power On to Ready at ... Read the rest in your browser!

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