IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 9/25/2013

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 9/25/2013

TweakTown

Riot Games has been named third best medium-sized workplace in the US
CNNMoney has called Riot Games the third best medium-sized business in the US. The League of Legends creator was donned with the 'award' from a global research and consulting firm called Great Place to Work.

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Great Place to Work assembled its list of top businesses with less than 1,000 business, with candidates being chosen for their "unique cultures" and environments on the same level as CNNMoney's 100 Best Companies to Work For compilation. Riot Games employs 846 people, of which some were plucked at random to talk about Riot Games' culture and programs.
Riot Games' statement reads: "This process gave us the opportunity to share Riot culture and stories, but also gave us a chance to take cultural inventory of where we're at and where we still need to go."

LG unveils the Vu 3, keeps its 4:3 aspect ratio
LG has just unveiled its Vu 3 smartphone, which will be the main competitor to the Galaxy Note 3 from Samsung. The Vu 3 is an interesting device, as it keeps its 4:3 aspect ratio, making it more square rather than tall or wide.

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The LG Vu 3 features a 5.2-inch IPS display that has a resolution of 1280x960. Inside the Vu 3 is some great hardware, with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800, 13-megapixel rear-facing camera and LTE-A support. The Vu 3 launches on Friday in Korea, in black, white or mint colors. There's no availability at the moment for the US and Europe, but we should expect that in the coming weeks and months.

Want to create or compare governments? Google's Constitute is for you
Google has just announced the launch of a new project it calls Constitute, a website that organizes all of the world's constitutions in one easily searchable and user-friendly interface. The website allows users to filter charters by the date that they were created and indexes both basic details and policies.

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This new service offered by Google is a very important service just for the fact that it makes every constitution in the world easily readable, something that many countries make very hard to find. I am sure that there are more than a few political science majors out there who are viewing this new website as a true godsend and thanking Google for making their research much easier.

T-Mobile's Motorola Moto X phones get update that improves camera
Google released an update today for its flagship smartphone, the Moto X. The update greatly improves the performance of the phone's rear-facing camera. The update comes after several major sites criticized the camera's performance in their reviews, but thankfully Google took note and adjusted things accordingly.

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The software update improves on the camera's exposure, color accuracy, and focus speed, all of which took major hits in the press. Unfortunately at the moment, the update is only being pushed out to phones on T-Mobile's network, but it is widely expected to roll out to other carriers quite soon. In addition, the update increases the touchless control accuracy and fixes choppy audio that some users have been experiencing while in voice calls.

Google says it will begin banning most Chrome plug-ins in Jan. 2014
Browser plug-ins are one of the largest security vulnerabilities facing today's computers, and Google aims to remove this issue from their Chrome browser once and for all. Starting in January 2014, Google will begin banning all of the most widely used browser plug-ins and will insist that developers begin using programming methods that use standards built directly into the web.

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Most of the plug-ins featured on Chrome use the Netscape Plug-In Application programming interface, a technology that was state-of-the-art more than 10 years ago. Plug-ins should not be confused with much safer Add-Ons, which Google distributes through its Chrome Web Store. Fortunately, plug-ins such as Microsoft's Silverlight, Unity, Java, Flash, and Facebook Video will be white listed in the ban, so most of your services should continue functioning normally.

HighPoint ships RocketU 1144C, world's fastest USB 3.0 controller
Earlier today, HighPoint announced that it has began shipping the RocketU 1144C, which it says is the world's fastest USB 3.0 controller. The USB 3.0 controller card is powered by HighPoint's per-port performance architecture and a fast PCI-E 2.0 x4 host interface that is combined with UAS technology, which is responsible for this controllers abnormally fast speeds.

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The RocketU 1144C delivers unprecedented levels of performance when paired with UAS capable storage devices, such as the RocketStor 5422 USB 3.0 Storage Dock. UAS (USB Attached SCSI Protocol) enables USB 3.0 devices to store and process multiple commands in parallel; significantly reducing wait time and streamlining data transfers. The speed and efficiency advantages provided by UAS technology are ideal for multi-tasking and performance-hungry applications.
HighPoint's third generation 4-Port USB 3.0 HBA provides all of the same features as previous 4-port HBA's.
Customers using the RocketU 1144A and RocketU 1144B can upgrade directly to the RocketU 1144C - just swap out the card and you are good to go! No complicated installs or driver updates required!
The RocketU 1144C the industry's best all-in-one USB 3.0 upgrade - take full advantage of the dramatic performance boost delivered by UAS enabled storage while simultaneously adding full support for all industry standard USB 2.0/3.0 devices to any PC!

HighPoint per-port Performance Architecture: 4x Dedicated 5Gb/s USB 3.0 Ports

UAS Enabled - 30% performance Boost over non-UAS configurations!

New Compatibility Breakthrough: Supports all Industry Standard USB 3.0 / USB 2.0 Devices!

Performance Companion for RocketStor 5422: Industry's fastest USB 3.0 Storage Dock!

Mellanox announces release of MetroX Solutions technology
Today, Mellanox announced the immediate release of its MetroX TX6100 solution that enables InfiniBand and Ethernet RDMA connectivity between data centers. Mellanox says that "MetroX allows for rapid disaster recovery and improve utilization of remote storage and compute infrastructures across long distances and multiple geographic sites."

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"A common problem facing data-driven researchers is the time cost of moving their data between systems, from machines in one facility to the next, which can slow their computations and delay their results," said Mike Shuey, HPC systems manager at Purdue University. "Mellanox's MetroX solution lets us unify systems across campus, and maintain the high-speed access our researchers need for intricate simulations -- regardless of the physical location of their work."
Purdue University recently deployed MetroX TX6100 over six kilometers to connect their computational clusters to storage facilities thus providing access to its remote-based supercomputers and allowing Purdue University to organize limited access to data center space more efficiently resulting in higher facilities utilization.
Mellanox says that its MetroX technology is commonly used for internal data center long reach connectivity as well as between nodes up to ten kilometers apart. "The demand for long-haul interconnect technologies continues to increase as organizations deploy remote, agile systems," said Gilad Shainer, vice president of marketing at Mellanox. "Mellanox's MetroX RDMA systems provide the highest performing interconnect solution over long distances."

Weekend iPhone sales top more than 5 million according to Apple
Over the weekend, Apple managed to sell more than 9 million units of its new iPhone 5S and 5C. The sales announcement came earlier this morning in an official statement from the Cupertino-based company and boasts that this weekend's achievement tops the 5 million unit sales last year of Apple's iPhone 5.

weekend_iphone_sales_top_more_than_5_million_according_to_apple

Unfortunately, is not clear if the iPhone 5S sold more units than the iPhone 5C as Apple is keeping that information to itself. Industry analysts widely expect that the 5C sold more units due to its cheaper price tag. Additionally, Apple said that over 200 million devices have been updated to iOS 7 since it was released to the public on September 18.

Google's Gmail service experiencing outages, said to be fixed soon
Throughout the day, Gmail users have been experiencing spotty performance issues as well as downtime when trying to access their email. Sluggish load times and delayed receipt of emails are the major nuisances, while some users, including myself, were unable to access the service altogether several times throughout the day.

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Google has confirmed that as many as 50 percent of users may have been affected by the performance issues and service disruptions, which appeared to start around 2:05PM Eastern Time. Google says that they are working diligently to return things to normal and as of this posting, all of my issues seem to have been resolved.

Oppo releases new N1 Android-based smartphone with hinged 13mp camera
Early this morning, Oppo launched its long awaited N1 smartphone. While the phone may never make it to the US, it does host several unique features that are cool enough that I have to write about it. The N1 is a 5.9-inch Android-based phablet that features a quad-core 1.7GHz processor and a 3,610mAh battery.

oppo_release_new_n1_android_based_smartphone_with_hinged_13mp_camera

These specs are fairly common for mid- to high-end phones at the moment, but what sets it apart from all the rest is its 13-megapixel f/2.0 camera that is able to rotate over 206 degrees. This camera eliminates the need for a front facing low-quality camera and enables users to take high-quality self-portraits from almost any angle. Oppo says that the N1's camera has been tested and passed over 100,000 rotations, which equals seven years of life expectancy if used 40 times per day.
Additionally, the N1 is the first smartphone to feature CyanogenMod installed from the factory, making Oppo the first manufacturer to collaborate with the company since Cyanogen, Inc., was formed. The new N1 is expected to retail for $570 in China and will be available in either 16GB or 32GB configurations.

BlackBerry goes private in sale to Fairfax Financial for $4.7 billion
BlackBerry's long and tumultuous journey appears to finally be over after the company announced that it will be taken private by Fairfax Financial Holdings. The announcement was just made and the deal is said to be valued at $4.7 billion.

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BlackBerry will agree to pay shareholders nine dollars per share in cash, which is actually more than it is currently trading at. The consortium being led by Fairfax Financial will complete due diligence on BlackBerry's books until November 4, during which time BlackBerry can entertain and accept other offers if it chooses to.
Fairfax Financial is said to be seeking financial backing to complete the buyout from Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, and BMO Capital Markets. BlackBerry's decision to go this route was the direct result of a recommendation made by a special committee appointed by its board to seek alternate sales options. Unfortunately, this announcement comes too late to save the jobs of over 4500 employees that the company plans to lay off before the end of the year.

LSI Delivers Maximum VDI Density with WarpDrive Products
LSI Corporation announced they are working closely with VMware to deliver breakthrough desktop density for VMware Horizon View deployments. VDI can be a challenging environment for the storage infrastructure with its 'bursty' random write workloads. For HDD-based solutions, be they SAN, NAS or direct attached storage, these workloads closely mirror the absolute worst-case scenario for an HDD. Throwing more spindles at the problem isn't the best of solutions, as this leads to drastically over provisioned storage resources to tackle a problem that can be addressed with a simple slip-in solution that provides lower power consumption and exponentially better latency performance.
Many administrators mistakenly think that throughput and IOPS can address every performance challenge, but the secret to maximum performance actually falls to the latency of the storage solution.

lsi_delivers_maximum_vdi_density_with_warpdrive_products

Enter the LSI WarpDrive, which brings a healthy helping of flash and places it as close to the processor as possible, delivering massive performance improvements with a minimum of configuration. Above we can observe the VSImax rating of 280 obtained before the system maxed out the CPU.In collaborative testing with VMware Horizon View using a single LSI Nytro WarpDrive application acceleration card, the WarpDrive comfortably delivers concurrent support for 200 active virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) workloads on a two-node cluster with no storage latency.

lsi_delivers_maximum_vdi_density_with_warpdrive_products

VDI environments can present performance challenges from a multitude of angles. Many companies simply test the bootstorm environment, which is an important aspect of VDI performance, but there are many more use-cases in the day-to-day management and use of VMware that can benefit from flash acceleration.
Here we see that the time to deploy linked clone pools can be drastically reduced.

lsi_delivers_maximum_vdi_density_with_warpdrive_products

VDI environments benefit more from low latency than sheer IOPS, and here the WarpDrive delivers with 150 desktops per ESXI node.
What is most amazing about these results is that the CPU became the bottleneck before the WarpDrives ran out of steam, meaning that with optimized infrastructures there is the possibility of even more performance than demonstrated in this test. Of course, it always boils down to TCO. The benefits of a flash solution are numerous, from the lowered power consumption, the small form factor and the removal of a whole layer of devices associated with the deployment of a SAN or NAS. The LSI Nytro WarpDrive delivers enough endurance to provide long-term acceleration, and the addition of compression technology provides maximum performance in VDI environments.

RumorTT: Microsoft will release Surface Mini this holiday season
According to recent reports, Microsoft is planning to release an eight-inch tablet later this year, which will be named the Surface Mini. Rumors say that the tablet will feature a QUALCOMM ARM-based processor and will run Windows RT 8.1.

rumortt_microsoft_will_release_surface_mini_this_holiday_season

The Surface Mini is expected to be priced somewhere between Apple's iPad Mini and Google's Nexus 7, and I expect it will fall somewhere right in the middle around $299. The tablet was expected by some media to launch earlier this morning at the company's Surface 2 event, but as far as I can tell it was not even mentioned.
Microsoft did, however, launch a newly refreshed Surface Pro 2, which features an energy sipping Intel Haswell processor that is said to extend battery life by 60 percent. Additionally, the company announced the Surface 2, which runs Windows RT 8.1 and is powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor.

Valve unveils SteamOS, an open source, free OS for the living room
Last week we broke the news that Valve was prepping for three big announcements this week surrounding its Steam gaming platform, and today the company released its first announcement by unveiling a new operating system. The new SteamOS is a free, open-source operating system that is designed around steam and built on Linux.

valve_unveils_steam_os_an_open_source_free_os_for_the_living_room

Valve says the new OS is capable of running on "any living room machine" which presumably means custom-built HTPCs, Laptops, and almost certainly the mystical Steam Box many industry insiders expect to be launched during one of the company's next announcements on Wednesday or Friday. Unfortunately Valve did not clue us in on an actual release date, but did say that the new OS would be available for download "soon."
"As we've been working on bringing Steam to the living room, we've come to the conclusion that the environment best suited to delivering value to customers is an operating system built around Steam itself," Valve stated. "SteamOS combines the rock-solid architecture of Linux with a gaming experience built for the big screen. It will be available soon as a free stand-alone operating system for living room machines."
Valve is not stopping at gaming with SteamOS though, the company says that the new OS will present for new exciting features including in-home streaming, which will allow users to load their game on their PC and stream it to the TV via the home network, as well as Movies, Music, and TV. Additionally, Steam Family Sharing is supported and there are rumors that a Spotify streaming app will be present as well.
"Steam is not a one-way content broadcast channel, it's a collaborative many-to-many entertainment platform, in which each participant is a multiplier of the experience for everyone else," Valve stated. "With SteamOS, 'openness' means that the hardware industry can iterate in the living room at a much faster pace than they've been able to. Content creators can connect directly to their customers. Users can alter or replace any part of the software or hardware they want. Gamers are empowered to join in the creation of the games they love. SteamOS will continue to evolve, but will remain an environment designed to foster these kinds of innovation."

BlackBerry to sell off its fleet of private jets worth millions
Earlier this year amidst its growing financial troubles, BlackBerry announced its plans to sell off its two Dassault Falcon medium-range private jets. The two smaller jets would be replaced by a a long-range Bombardier Global Express Jet. The Bombardier would cost the company roughly $25 million at a time when the company was already struggling financially.

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Fast-forward to the past week when BlackBerry announced that it would be leaving the consumer market space as it planned to lay off 4,500 employees. Today the once king of smartphones announced that it will be selling all three of its private jets, including the two Dassault's that it never managed to get rid of after the Bombardier arrived several months ago. Analysts are suggesting that all three jets could be worth a combined $50-65 million, but that depends on the planes condition, and current market value.
"Several years ago, the company bought two medium-range Dassault aircraft," BlackBerry said in a statement. "Earlier this year the company decided to sell both planes and replace them with one longer-range aircraft. The company considered several options and selected a used Bombardier aircraft, which was eventually delivered in July. In light of the company's current business condition, the company has decided to sell that aircraft along with the two legacy aircraft and will no longer own any planes."

HP and NVIDIA open new research lab, will build faster computers
HP and NVIDIA have announced a collaboration that has led to the two companies opening up a joint research facility in Grenoble, France. The new R&D facility that will help software vendors and developers solve high performance computing challenges by using the latest technology from both companies.

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The new research and development lab is built around 10 HP Proliant SL250s, SL270s and ML350P Generation 8 servers, all which feature integrated NVIDIA Tesla GPUs. NVIDIA is calling this server CPU and GPU mashup "GPU Computing" and says that it improves performance by handing off compute-intensive task to the GPU while the rest of the code is passed through the CPU.
"The goal of the collaborative centre was to enable solution improvements and spur the adoption of HP systems based on NVIDIA Tesla GPUs for HPC," Philippe Trautmann, EMEA sales director HPC for HP. "HPC systems require huge amounts of compute resources to achieve their expected performance, as well as the expertise to integrate them."

Microsoft unveils the Surface 2 which runs Windows RT 8.1
Microsoft also announced its Surface 2 slate today, which is powered by NVIDIA's Tegra 4 SoC. Its bigger brother, the Surface Pro 2 is powered by a full Intel fourth-generation Core processor.

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Microsoft wants to see people get more productive on the Surface 2, instead of consumption-only devices like the iPad. It seems as though Microsoft was just as excited about the Surface 2 as it was for the Surface Pro 2, which is great. The Surface 2 is both lighter and thinner than its predecessor, and it also comes in silver, too.

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The display has been increased to 1920x1080, which is a great bump for the tablet over its predecessor. Microsoft says it has "increased the CPU speed dramatically" on Surface 2. The Surface logo is on the rear of the device, instead of the Windows logo, just like the refreshed Surface Pro 2.
Panos Panoy, the Vice President of Surface, says that Windows 8.1 is the center of Surface 2, and that "the power of 8.1 comes to life in full in this product." He added that "it doesn't slow down, there's nothing that slows it down."

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Microsoft announces the Surface Pro 2, packs Haswell processor
We've been hearing about the Surface Pro 2 tablet from Microsoft for quite a while now, and while that $1 billion write down on the Surface RT may have hurt the Redmond-based giant, that hasn't stopped them from delivering quite the upgrade to the higher-end Surface Pro 2 today.

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Microsoft's Vice President of Surface, Panos Panay, took the stage at its NYC event today to unveil the second-generation Surface slates, of which have been under development for over 18 months now. Panay says that the Surface Pro 2 "is literally faster than 95 percent of laptops today." The graphics performance on Surface Pro 2 has been increased by 50%, too.
The kickstand on the Surface Pro 2 has been greatly improved and there is no more Windows logo on the rear of the device, just the Surface branding. The Surface Pro 2 operates cooler, quieter, and includes more battery life - much more battery life. Microsoft has said the Surface Pro 2 features up to 75% more battery life than its predecessor.

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microsoft_announces_the_surface_pro_2_packs_haswell_processor

We also have the Surface Pro with Power Cover, which provides 2.5 times the battery life of the original Surface Pro 2. Inside the Power Cover is a 30w battery.

AMD's upcoming Radeon R7 260X leaks in new photographs
Earlier this morning we saw AMD's Radeon R9 290X leak in a series of photos and benchmark test, but that was not the only upcoming GPU to surface in leaked images. AMD's Radeon R7 260X has also appeared in some newly leaked photographs that show off a uniquely designed ducted cooling solution.

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amd_s_upcoming_radeon_r7_260x_leaks_in_new_photographs

The R7 260X is an upper mid-range graphics card that is said to be based off of the "Bonaire" silicon that is featured in the company's Radeon HD 7790 high-in the GPU, but as TechPowerUp reports, it is more likely that the card is based on the "Curacao" architecture given the PCB and component layout on in the photo below. AMD is hosting a press event in Hawaii this Wednesday the 25th and is widely expected to launch its Hawaii-based GPUs. Our own Shawn Baker will be on hand covering the event so stay tuned.

amd_s_upcoming_radeon_r7_260x_leaks_in_new_photographs

Galaxy S4 catches fire in mans pocket, explodes shortly after
Manolo Rodriguez isn't happy with his Galaxy S4 after he heard it sizzling in his chest pocket, before it exploded. He said: "I tried to reach for the phone and pull it out, but it was too hot. So I retracted my hand, closed the zipper and then unzipped the center one so I could get my jacket off."

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Rodriguez was in a Goodwill store at the time, where he threw it to the floor. The Galaxy S4 ended up burning right through his jacket, getting so hot that it singed the floor and Rodriguez's fingertips. He added: "If I had been talking on the phone or something, it could have exploded in my face. It could have been worse."
Rodriguez has hired an attorney, where he hopes to see Samsung recall the 20 million+ Galaxy S4's in the wild. While he wants, Rodriguez purchased himself an HTC One.

Apple underestimated Asian demand for the gold iPhone 5S
It looks like you could be waiting a while to get your mits on the gold-colored iPhone 5S, as Apple has reportedly underestimated the demand for the Asian desire for all objects and products that are gold.

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Business Insider reports that from the 5th Avenue Apple Store, most of the crowd were of Asian heritage looking for that precious gold iPhone 5S. The Wall Street Journal reports that only the black iPhone 5S was available in China when it launched. 25-year-old Lian Jiyu, said he wanted the iPhone 5S instead of the iPhone 5C because the 5S is the first iPhone to be offered in gold, he said: "I don't care what's inside the device. Chinese people like gold."
The gold iPhone 5S sold out across Asia within 24 hours, and won't even be available in the US until October because of a massive backlog in web orders.

Crytek wants to use real-world street map data for game environments
Crytek has challenged software makers, pushing them to create a program that would use open source street map data in order to render in-game world environments, which would save countless man hours creating the worlds we all play games in.

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The concept is now in use at the IC tomorrow's digital innovation games content, which offers up to £25,000 to five businesses to create an innovative applications that meets certain objectives, provided by big companies including Google, Sony, Intel and Crytek. Crytek's Technical Director of R&D, Jake Turner, said: "Why do we have to use people to make a city when there's consistent open source street data out there which is very detailed, it's got buildings, lights, it's got streets - material data. Why can't we just press a button and instantly see that?"

BlackBerry pumps the brakes on BBM rollout for Android and iOS
On top of BlackBerry having serious issues, and diving out of the consumer market and letting 4,500 people go, its BBM rollout for Android and iOS has now been put on hold. The Canadian phone maker has said that leaked versions people were using were having "issues" and that they are hard at work to getting it released.

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Prior to launching BBM for Android, an unreleased version of the BBM for Android app was posted online. The interest and enthusiasm we have seen already - more than 1.1 million active users in the first 8 hours without even launching the official Android app - is incredible. Consequently, this unreleased version caused issues, which we have attempted to address throughout the day.
Our teams continue to work around the clock to bring BBM to Android and iPhone, but only when it's ready and we know it will live up to your expectations of BBM. We are pausing the global roll-out of BBM for Android and iPhone. Customers who have already downloaded BBM for iPhone will be able to continue to use BBM. The unreleased Android app will be disabled, and customers who downloaded it should visit http://www.BBM.com to register for updates on official BBM for Android availability.
As soon as we are able, we will begin a staggered country roll-out of BBM for Android and continue the roll-out of BBM for iPhone. Please follow @BBM on Twitter for the latest updates and go to http://www.BBM.com to sign-up for updates about BBM for Android and iPhone. These issues have not impacted BBM service for BlackBerry.

More Android 4.4 KitKat teases, redesigned messaging, dialer apps
We saw a tease yesterday of the new status bar with gray icons in Android 4.4 KitKat, but now we have another look from 9to5Google, which gives us a closer look at the redesigned stock apps on Android 4.4.

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more_android_4_4_kitkat_teases_redesigned_messaging_dialer_apps

You can see from the images above that we have the Messaging app, and the Dialer app, which both look quite nice in their updated form. Controls for the Messaging app have been shifted to the top right of the app, and the Dialer app gets a much more streamlined look, with a nice blue color scheme. We should expect Android 4.4 KitKat to arrive mid next month on the rumored Nexus 5 handset.

Patriot FUEL+ 3000mAh Mobile Rechargeable Battery Review

I've reviewed two of Patriot's FUEL+ Mobile Rechargeable Battery's now, the first of which was the 9000mAh model, and the second being the 6000mAh model. Today we have the 3000mAh model, which is more of the same in Patriot's unstoppable FUEL+ line of batteries.
The 3000mAh model is quite different, even at first glance, with the box being smaller, and the charger itself significantly smaller. We can see here it's in the same of a lipstick container (what am I saying? what do I know about lipstick!) meaning that it's small.

patriot_fuel_3000mah_mobile_rechargeable_battery_review

patriot_fuel_3000mah_mobile_rechargeable_battery_review

We have some shots of the front and back of the box, above. Outside of the box, we have the Patriot FUEL+ 3000mAh Mobile Rechargeable Battery itself, an Owner's Manual, and the microUSB cable to charge the device with (and to charge your smart devices with, too).
Newegg has the Patriot FUEL+ 3000mAh Mobile Rechargeable Battery available for $34.99, which is a steal. Let's get on with the review!

patriot_fuel_3000mah_mobile_rechargeable_battery_review

The 9000mAh model was obviously the champion in Patriot's FUEL+ line, but the 3000mAh model does have its place. It's much smaller, as you can see from the various shots below, and much lighter. Where the 9000mAh model would not be something you'd carry around with you, I found myself taking the FUEL+ 3000mAh model with me in my pocket.

patriot_fuel_3000mah_mobile_rechargeable_battery_review

It stood out of course, but at least it was charging my device for me. The 3000mAh charge inside of it is enough to charge most smartphones on the market, but you'd be pushing it with a Samsung Galaxy Note II for example, which has a 3100mAh battery.
You would be able to charge it up to 90-95% or so, which would be fine. I find the best use for mobile chargers is to plug them in when you're travelling or not using the device, such as driving, and then take it off when you need to get out of the car. That way, your device is at least charging up for 30-60 minutes, which can pump ~30-40% back into the device's battery.
I used my Google/LG Nexus 4 smartphone, which has a 2100mAh battery. I drained my N4 down to 10%, letting the FUEL+ 3000mAH Mobile Rechargeable Battery do its thing, and within an hour or so, I had a fully-charged Nexus 4 and a little bit of juice left in the FUEL+ charger.

patriot_fuel_3000mah_mobile_rechargeable_battery_review

I think the perfect case for the 3000mAh model would be for when it can be thrown in a small bag - such as a woman's handbag, for example. My wife used the Patriot FUEL+ 3000mAh battery a few times, where she could just plug it into her smartphone and drop the FUEL+ charger into her handbag.
While she was driving (or shopping), her smartphone was charging, but it was light enough for her to leave the cable plugged into the FUEL+ charger, and use while it was sitting in her handbag. This is a perfect case for the FUEL+ 3000mAh charger, where it is small and light enough to be plugged in, charging your device, while you use it.
Patriot has a top-to-bottom kick-ass line of mobile rechargeable batteries in its FUEL+ line, and I have not yet found a better alternative. Patriot - keep up the good work, and get to work on a 10,000mAh+ model, please!

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Vantec EZ Swap EX Hybrid Mobile Rack Review

vantec_ez_swap_ex_hybrid_mobile_rack_review

Today, I have in house, what in my mind is one of the best devices to come out of the factories at Vantec. Now you all know Vantec for its successful NexStar line-up, but in addition to those devices, Vantec has been creating hot swap solutions for ages. Their latest takes two technologies and melts them into one device, the Hybrid Mobile Rack or EZ Swap EX.
With the EZ Swap EX, Vantec has taken the next step offering a 3.5 inch case mountable rack with the full complement of SATA III and allowed for the device to be docked by the slimmer and portable 2.5 inch enclosure that carries both SATA and USB 3.0 connections.
This allows for your backup storage solution to be mounted in your PC for quick backups at home, and then removed for you to take it on the go and accessed through USB 3.0. The EX Swap EX is compatible with all modern Windows operating systems, along with Mac OS X 10.6+. Warranty for the EZ Swap Ex is listed at one year.

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The scope of delivery for the EZ Swap includes the installation guide and SATA power to Molex power adapter. Then we have the rack itself in the upper left and next to it the portable enclosure.

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A closer look at the mobile rack shows the slot in which the smaller enclosure slides in, and to the right an eject button.

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On the back you can see the Molex or floppy power connector, as I call it, and the SATA connection is to the right.

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Here we have the portable enclosure, in size it's comparable to most external drives that I have seen from ADATA, WD and Seagate.

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On the backside of the enclosure you will find the USB 3.0 connection, and to the left the hot swap SATA connections for the mobile rack.

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Here we installed our 256GB Neutron from Corsair into the EZ Swap EX enclosure.
To test the capabilities of the EZ Swap EX, we utilized our Corsair Neutron 256GB SSD on our Z77 chipset based motherboard.

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In this configuration, we have the Neutron installed in the portable enclosure, which we have then docked into the mobile rack. As you can see, we haven't suffered any loss of performance by using the dock.

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Above, we have the results from the USB 3.0 testing. Here, just using the portable enclosure through USB 3.0, you can see the EZ Swap did quite well at 356 MB/s read and 366 MB/s write in both sequential and large block random read/write.
Like I had stated in the beginning, I feel this is one of the best product to come out of Vantec in quite a while. Having the ability to take your storage with you on the go and dock it when you're at home is a great feature, and one I myself could use on a daily basis.
The build quality of the mobile rack is exceptional with it most of the construction done with steel. The portable enclosure, made from plastics could use some strengthening, but overall is done well.
Performance, as any of you can see above, is quite good. In both aspects of testing, we came up with some pretty good numbers. It was also good to see no performance loss from using the device.
Pricing at the time of writing is set at $39.99 for the full kit at many online retailers. There is also the option to add portable enclosures to your order for an additional cost of $28.99 per unit.

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Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) Blu-ray Review

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In 1990, the year before his death, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry told the L.A. Times "there's a good chance that when I'm gone, others will come along and do so well that people will say, 'Oh, that Roddenberry. He was never this good." Casual audiences might agree, but for the many lifelong Star Trek fans, J.J. Abram's franchise revival opened an interesting aside for a franchise fast approaching 50 years of age, but hardly represents a return to form for the core Star Trek ethos; its philosophical ideals and the promise of a brighter future - in direct contravention of a film entitled Into Darkness.
Three years on from 2009's franchise reboot, whose plot created an alternate timeline allowing the film to take certain liberties with established canon and morph into its own version of Trek, J.J. and company return with Into Darkness.
Following a suicide blast at Starfleet HQ and subsequent aerial attack resulting in the murder of Starfleet commanders masterminded by turncoat Starfleet agent John Harrison (Benedict Cumberpatch), the Enterprise crew headed by Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) are re-commissioned to mount a mission to kill Harrison on Kronos, the Klingon home world. Kirk refuses to accept orders at face value and decides to take Harrison hostage. After a brief battle, Harrison unexpectedly gives himself up, willingly boarding the Enterprise as a prisoner. Unfortunately, it's quickly revealed that neither the mission, nor Harrison are quite as expected, when the crew of the Enterprise finds itself in the middle of a much larger plot and grave danger.
For the uninitiated, Star Trek circa 2013 is an entertaining science fiction adventure, which commands viewers' attention right from the opening scenes. But saddling itself with the name Star Trek automatically attaches 50 years of baggage, and that does this film no favors. The truth is, this modern incarnation of the franchise has little in common with it older siblings. Star Trek has always gladly worn its heart on its sleeve with the epitaph of 'thinking man's sci-fi', but ruminating about the plot only reveals the numerous holes that riddle the script, not least the mind messing alternate timeline, which try as I might to explain to my non-fan girlfriend, really struggled to do.
In true J.J. Abrams fashion, there's a few surprises, but perhaps the worst kept is that of the true identity of the mysterious John Harrison - he's Khan Noonien Singh from both the Original Series episode 'Space Seed' and the feature film The Wrath of Khan. But Khan was never an Englishman, nor does Benedict Cumberpatch even remotely resemble Ricardo Montalban. Try explaining that to newcomers - and that's the whole problem with the film. It tries to be all things to all people and it just doesn't make a lick of sense. Why try and shoehorn Trek lore into a film and then not even attempt to make it cohesive? For every cameo by a tribble or inflection of a classic phrase, we have another franchise contradiction or out of character motivation.
Having been tapped to direct Star Wars Episode VII for LucasFilm, it seems that J.J. Abrams will now slink off from the franchise that he's revealed he was never a fan of, leaving the gates open for someone else to take the reins. I can only hope that that person will stay true to the core ethos of Star Trek, rather than continue to churn out what amounts to, admittedly entertaining, but otherwise generic science fiction action, trading on the basis of Star Trek's branding.

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Video
Star Trek Into Darkness is presented in the original aspect ratio of 2.40:1, encoded with AVC MPEG-4 compression. Note that some scenes were originally filmed with IMAX cameras in a 1.43:1 aspect ratio, those of which are cropped on this Blu-ray.
Filmed with a variety of camera and lens systems and finished in a 2K digital intermediate, Star Trek Into Darkness looks as fantastic as one would rightly assume, even if you have to occasionally wince over the hugely excessive lens flare that Abrams so adores.
Resembling a Mac store in space, the production design is as sumptuous as ILM's visual effects are impressive and this translates very well to the small screen. Occasionally, some images are a little soft, but as this mirrors the theatrical experience, I'm convinced it's intentional. Otherwise the image is very crisp and detailed, and certainly a sight to behold. It's a bit disappointing that we don't get the mattes opened with an increase to the vertical resolution from IMAX scenes, but perhaps we might get this later down the track.

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Audio
Star Trek Into Darkness is presented in Dolby TrueHD 7.1 at 24 bits.
A far cry from the more dated entries in the Star Trek feature film canon, Into Darkness utilizes all the tricks of modern sound mixing, making for one hell of an impressive surround sound experience.
It's certainly easier to pin point the deficiencies in the track, compared to what it does right. But even so, I'm rather struck for complaints. This is an incredibly effective and encompassing track, which from the opening chords of Michael Giacchino's bombastic updated theme song alludes to. Bass performance is tight and strong and resonates where appropriate.
As is the norm with TrueHD tracks, audio here is mastered at a lower level than DTS HD-MA tracks, which may require a minor volume adjustment.

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Extras
Star Trek Into Darkness comes to Blu-ray with more than a hint of controversy - in short, production company Bad Robot produced a bunch of extra features and then shopped them around to specific U.S. retailers as exclusives, making obtaining the definitive collection of extra features nigh impossible. Worse, Australia doesn't even have the chance to participate and thus totally misses out. In a global market, this just doesn't cut it. Bad Robot. Very Bad Robot. Still, let's take a look at what is here.
The package is made entirely up of Eight Featurettes, which retain a standard style and editing structure which run approximately 41 minutes in length. Highlights include the Creating the Red Planet short, debatably the best on the set, which runs through the initial concepts and make up designs, which went into to making the film's opening a memorable one.
Attack On Starfleet is concerned with the visual effects and live action stunts of Khan's air attack sequence, while The Enemy of My Enemy had me throwing things at the screen whilst watching the filmmakers justify the inclusion of the Original Series villain.
Sadly missing are any Theatrical Trailers, which I understand are present on one of the U.S. exclusive Blu-ray sets.

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