ASUS Z87-Plus Review
ASUS Z87-Plus Review
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OCC E3 2013 Awards
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Barnes & Noble CEO Leaves Company; Rest of Executives Shuffle Positions
Book retailer Barnes & Noble is doing some shuffling of its upper management, with CEO William Lynch resigning today. He also resigned as director of the company, which shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to see Lynch step away from both. Barnes & Noble then announced more executive moves, with Michael P. Huseby being appointed CEO of the Nook Media division and president of B&N proper. Vice president Allen Lindstrom is promoted to CFO, while Kanuji Malhotra, VP of corporate development, is now the VP of Nook Media. It's a bit of a shuffle, but most are stepping into a bigger role with B&N. Chairman Leonard Riggio thanked Lynch for his past three years as CEO, which saw the company emerge as a rival to Amazon's e-reader/tablet business. As for Lynch, he appreciated the opportunity to be Barnes & Noble's CEO over the last three years, and that he's looking forward to all future innovations from the company.
Source: Barnes and Noble
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More DLC to be Created For Borderlands 2
In a recent interview with the Nerdist podcast, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford said that the company is working on more DLC for the popular FPS Borderlands 2. The final DLC for the first season pass was recently released, which may indicate that there will be a full season two of DLC. Pitchford added, "So everyone has this expectation that those would be the four DLCs and then that’s it. We’re going to do more. We’re going to do some other things. We don’t have details yet about it exactly." He finished the interview by revealing that the company is working on a new IP for the next generation Xbox One and PS4.
Source: IGN
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Understanding Why Electrons Move the Way They Do
If you pour a bucket of water down an incline, you would expect any material engulfed by the water to flow down the incline with it. When dealing with an electric current and electrons though, the reverse can happen, and researchers have been unable to explain why for years. Now those at MIT have found an answer that is not what some would expect.
To study the phenomenon the researchers placed a thin film of a ferromagnetic material between a platinum base and a layer of an oxide material. When a current was put through the composite material, the magnetic domains of the electron in the ferromagnetic material were found to move against the current. The researchers then repeated the test exactly, except that the metal tantalum replaced platinum and now the domains moved with the current. This suggests the asymmetric flow of the domains is not dependent on the ferromagnetic material they are in, but on the metal next to it. Such behavior is called a chiral effect, meaning it is dependent on direction, and this is the first time it has ever been demonstrated with magnetic domains.
The researchers have also found that the force on the magnetic domains to flip, which is necessary for the writing of data, can be multiplied by a factor of 10,000. Such an effect could be used to enhance magnetic data storage devices to the point of out-competing other, modern memory systems.
Source: MIT
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Hardware Roundup: Monday Edition
We're on to a new week already, and that means some reviews and articles for you to check out. There's a look at the Inno3D iChill GTX 760 that features an impressive factory overclock and a custom cooler with three fans. It should be ideal at keeping everything from getting too hot while you're aiming for an even higher overclock. We also have a review on the Corsair Obsidian 350D case, which brings the series down to the MicroATX format. It could be just what you need for a stylish case for that new computer. To round things out, there's a look at an interesting case mod that has an interior dedicated to watercooling. It's one you'll just have to see to fully grasp its beauty.
Video Cards
Inno3D iChill GTX 760 @ Madshrimps
Cases
Corsair Obsidian 350D MicroATX @ Benchmark Reviews
Miscellany
Case Mod Friday: Pipe Fusion @ ThinkComputers
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All of the Latest ECS Motherboards are Overclocker Friendly
ECS has built the ability to overclock your CPU into all of its latest Intel motherboards. The three chipsets that are compatible with the Intel 8 Series, including H87, B85, and H81 will allow users to push the limits of their components by "simply adjusting the CPU Ratio in BIOS settings." This method should provide a very simple way for users to squeeze every last bit of performance out of their systems.
Source: Press Release
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Apps Accessing Private Data on iOS Devices Discovered
Something many people are used to and take advantage of on PCs is the ability to customize and control almost everything, such as installing software to protect your privacy. Mobile devices however are more closed environments, so your privacy can be in greater danger. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have recently discovered just how great a danger your personal information is on iOS devices.
Regardless of if you use iOS or Android devices, smartphones and tables can hold a great deal of information about you, including location information and contacts. Ideally this information is always going to be protected from prying eyes, but reality is rarely ideal. In March 2012, the researchers released ProtectMyPrivacy (PMP) an app for jailbroken iOS devices that monitors what data other apps access, and can block the transmission of that information. Since then some 130,000 users have downloaded PMP and roughly 99% have been supplying anonymous information on the behavior of 225,000 other apps. Processing the reports reveals that 48.1% of those apps access the device's unique identifier, which can be used to track your behavior, with 13.2 % access location information and 6.2% looking at your address book. While all of the phones in the study were jailbroken, the researchers point out that most of the apps were acquired from the Apple App Store.
While the anonymous reports say that almost half of the tested apps access the identifier, the researchers have found that sometimes it is not the download app doing it, but an associated app, such as an ad library. The researchers did submit a lite version of ProtectMyPrivacy to the Apple App Store, for those with locked iOS devices to download, but it was rejected.
Source: University of California, San Diego
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Solvent Made into Superconductor
Before it can power our devices, an electrical current has a long distance to travel, and the cables that carry it do a decent job, but are not perfect as they have some resistance. Superconductors however have no resistance and can conduct a current without any loss, so researchers around the world are trying to understand how this is possible, to then apply them to power grids. A team of researchers, led by those at Washington State University, have recently discovered a new superconductor that may shed some light on how they operate.
Something common to all superconductors is the need for low temperatures; sometimes temperatures barely above absolute zero. At this energy level, the material will transition into a superconducting state, but exactly what happens can vary from material to material. In the case of carbon disulfide, a solvent the researchers were working with, at 6.5 K and a pressure of 500,000 atmospheres, the molecular structure rearranges itself to vibrate, allowing electrons to travel without resistance.
While such a low temperature and high pressure would make carbon disulfide useless for technology, its potential is in what we can learn from it. Further study of this unconventional superconductor could lead to the discovery of others, which may operate at room temperature and pressure.
Sources: Washington State University and Carnegie Institution
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