IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 10/2/2013

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 10/2/2013

TweakTown

Sharp's Aquos Phone Xx pushes the boundary on boundaries
It looks like Sharp could be back on the radar with its Aquos Phone Xx, which pushes the screen right to the boundary of the phone. The Aquos Phone Xx pushes 80.5% of its 5.2-inch front to screen real estate, which leaves very little bezel.

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The Xx is just 70 x 132 x 9.9mm, so we're in phablet territory here. The Sharp Aquos Phone Xx is a 4G LTE-capable smartphone, which features a 1080p display, 2.2GHz Snapdragon 800 SoC, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, a 2,600mAh battery, a 16.3-megapixel rear-facing camera with f/1.9 lens, and features a water-resistant frame.
Sharp will launch the Aquos Phone Xx in Japan soon, with no word on whether it is going to take a swim across the pond and arrive in any other countries.

Another day, another Nexus 5 leak, the clearest look yet
Today brings us the closest look at the Nexus 5 yet thanks to yet another leak on Google's soon-to-be flagship smartphone. We should expect some nice specs on the Nexus 5, too.

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A 4.96-inch screen is expected and 1920x1080 resolution, as well as 4G LTE support finally, and a 2,300mAh battery. A 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 SoC will be the heart and soul of the Nexus 5, but it will be joined by 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal flash storage, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera backed up by a 2-megapixel front shooter and 4G LTE support, which is something that the Nexus 5 simply needs, as this was one area that the Nexus 4 lacked.

VorpX lets countless games be used on Oculus Rift, costs just $40
Oculus Rift is incredibly awesome, but it is quite limited when it comes to fully supported games. VorpX has stepped in, unleashing its software which is still in beta, which opens up the world of virtual reality to countless new games.

VorpX works with huge games like BioShock Infinite and Mirror's Edge, but best of all, it works with Battlefield 3. None of these games are built to work with the Rift headset, so there are some workarounds that the team of VorpX has used. This includes clicking in and holding down your middle mouse wheel which will let you "edge peak."

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Edge peak allows you to look freely at the edges of your field of view, instead of moving within the game world by moving your head, and the Rift. The list of compatible games with Rift thanks to VorpX is huge, and I'm quite excited to test out a bunch of them this week.

Ex-Microsoft privacy adviser doesn't trust MS after NSA PRISM leaks
Caspar Bowden worked for Microsoft between 2002 and 2011 as its Chief Privacy Adviser, but now says he doesn't trust Microsoft's security after he read the stories about the NSA PRISM system after NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden stepped up with the leaks.

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Bowden was in control of the privacy policy for 40 countries that Microsoft operated in, but strangely he didn't have anything to do with the United States side of Microsoft's privacy. Bowden says he was simply unaware of the PRISM data-sharing network when he was with the software giant. He said "I don't trust Microsoft now," where he added that he now uses open source software that allows him to peer into the underlying code.
The former privacy adviser to Microsoft said that the NSA PRISM system was undermining democracy by sharing citizens' private information with the UK's GCHQ and intelligence agencies in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. He added: "The public now has to think about the fact that anybody in public life, or person in a position of influence in government, business or bureaucracy, now is thinking about what the NSA knows about them. So how can we trust that the decisions that they make are objective and that they aren't changing the decisions that they make to protect their career? That strikes at any system of representative government."

GTA Online launches tomorrow, prepare for packed servers
The next 24 hours is the best time to be a gamer in the existence of the human race, with both the Battlefield 4 Beta and GTA Online launching in the same 24 hour period.

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GTA Online launches at 7am Eastern, and is free for anyone who already owns Grand Theft Auto V. Rockstar has provided some guidelines for GTA Online, so that players are ready for some fun. The developer isn't exactly sure when GTA Online will launch, but it should be early tomorrow morning:

Access to Grand Theft Auto Online is free with your copy of Grand Theft Auto V. On October 1st there will be a small downloadable Title Update released on PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE. Upon installation of that Title Update, direct access to begin GTA Online will be unlocked in your GTAV game menu. You will be able to jump right into GTA Online via the 4th (bottom) slot in your GTAV character wheel. We've received many questions asking for a specific confirmation of what exact time GTA Online will be available but of course this is contingent on both Title Updates becoming available on each console's network. As a general timeframe, we do expect the Title Update to become available on PSN and Xbox LIVE starting around 7AM ET tomorrow morning, and your best bet is to stay tuned throughout the day here at the Rockstar Newswire and by following us on Twitter and Facebook where we will be keeping everyone updated.

MSI's new GP Series of notebooks feature SteelSeries keyboards
MSI has just unveiled its GP Series of notebooks, which all feature SteelSeries keyboards to our surprise. There are three different models within the GP Series, the GP70 and two GP60 models.

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The GP70 features a 17.3-inch 1600x900 display, an Intel Core i5-4200M "Haswell" processor, 1TB HDD, a 6-cell 90W battery, and an MSRP of $949.99. The GP60 2OD-072US sports an Intel Core i7-4700MQ "Haswell" processor, 15.6-inch 1920x1080-pixel display, 750GB 7200RPM HDD, 6-cell 120W battery and a $1,049.99 price tag.

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The final notebook in the new GP Series from MSI is the GP60 2OD-052US which features an Intel Core i5-4200M "Haswell" processor, 15.6-inch 1366x768 display, 750GB HDD, 6-cell 90W battery and an MSRP of $899.99. All three GP Series of notebooks feature Windows 7 Home Premium, 8GB of DDR3L 1600MHz RAM, Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0, an SD card reader, two USB 3.0 ports and two USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI 1.4 output, 720p-capable webcam and of course, the SteelSeries keyboard.

Samsung has sold over 40 million units in its Galaxy Note lineup
The Galaxy Note range of phablets from Samsung has been uber successful, after most in the industry didn't think a smartphone that big could really make it. Samsung broke tradition, and it worked, handsomely for them.

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It looks like Samsung is seeing great success from the Galaxy Note range of smartphones, with the South Korean giant confirming it has sold over 40 million Galaxy Note handsets across the world. This includes over 10 million Galaxy Note units, and over 30 million Note II devices. This doesn't include the Galaxy Note-branded tablets, and is exclusive to the Galaxy Note smartphones.

Samsung to make its three top smartphones work with Galaxy Gear soon
Something that should not even be news and should just be 'the way it is' is the fact that Samsung has announced that its Galaxy S III, S4 and Note II smartphones will work with its Galaxy Gear smartwatch this year.

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The South Korean giant will launch its Galaxy Gear this week, so it's perfect timing for this announcement. When Samsung announced its Galaxy Gear, it said it would only work with a single smartphone: the Galaxy Note III, which no one in the US owns yet. The Note III launches in the US on the same day as the Galaxy Gear smartwatch.
Samsung will push out updates later this year to make the Galaxy Gear smartwatch work with its Galaxy S III, Galaxy S4 and Note II smartphones. I really don't understand why Samsung didn't build support in for its flagship devices, considering there's tens of millions of them out there.

Xi3's PISTON PC launches on November 29, costs $1,000
If you've got $1,000 to spend this holiday season and didn't want to pick up the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, then you might want to consider Xi3's super-small modular gaming PC, PISTON.

The Xi3 PISTON features a 128GB SSD by default, 12 USB ports, patented modular motherboard design, an AMD Trinity quad-core processor clocked at 3.2GHz, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, and an AMD Radeon HD 7000-Series GPU. A second HDD can be installed, and thanks to Xi3 providing support for Windows, Linux and Unix, this means you can install SteamOS onto the PISTON, making it a quasi-Steam Box.

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On top of the 12 USB ports, we have three display outputs: miniDisplayPort, HDMI and DisplayPort which supports up to 4K resolutions. If you pre-order the PISTON now, you will receive it before, or on November 15 compared to the street date of November 29.

Toshiba's TV division in trouble: 50% reduction in staff soon
It looks like another Japanese giant is experiencing trouble, with Toshiba looking to reduce its TV staff by up to 50%. The company will also stop production at two of its three overseas factories before the end of this fiscal year.

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Toshiba has said it will also increase outsourced production to 70%, up from 40%, and reduce the amount of its global staff in the TV division by 3,000 with two-thirds of these positions held overseas. Toshiba hasn't penciled in which two factories would be closed, but we should find that out soon enough.
Toshiba has been experiencing losses in its TV division for over two years now, which is blamed on a slowdown in Europe and a drop in domestic demand for its TVs. I'm sure the huge competition from Samsung doesn't help, either.

Apple's next-gen iPad to look like the iPad mini
One thing that the iPad mini has going for it is its sleeker, more refined look. So it would make sense that Apple would use the design and style from the iPad mini on its upcoming fifth-generation iPad.

SW-Box has what it believes to be a shell of the upcoming fifth-gen iPad, which looks very similar to the iPad mini. You can see it in the video above, which compares the fourth-generation (the current model) next to the upcoming fifth-generation iPad, and on the right, the iPad mini. We have a thinner bezel around the screen, which has its benefits and downsides, as well as the slate-grey shade which is similar to the iPhone 5 colors.

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Internally, we don't know what to expect, but I'm guessing we'll see the A7 chip make an appearance, as well as the TouchID fingerprint scanner which has been teased on the upcoming refreshed iPad mini 2 slate.

Android KitKat leaks show the Nexus 5 featuring wireless charging
A newly leaked log file from Android 4.4 KitKat is suggesting that Google's upcoming Nexus 5 smartphone could include an exciting new feature. If the leaked code (around 1,330,000 lines total) is correct, the new Nexus 5 will indeed feature a full HD resolution of 1920x1080-pixels.

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More interesting, however, is a little snippet of code that alludes to the the Nexus 5 sporting a fancy new wireless charging feature that could see the removal of a USB port all together. While I feel that the removal of the port would be a bad idea, I really hope that this kicks off a new era of wireless charging and that all of the next-gen phones will remove the tether and break into the realm of cord free charging!

Sony's Xperia Z1 "f" appears in newly leaked photo, 4.3 inches, 20mp
Earlier today, an image surfaced online of what appears to be a smaller, yet powerful version of Sony's flagship, the Xperia Z1. The pictured Xperia Z1 f is said to be a much smaller version of the Xperia Z1 that still packs all of the features that make the Z1 such an attractive phone.

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The device is said to feature a 4.3-inch display, but will retain the quad-core 2.2GHZ Snapdragon 800 processor seen in its bigger brother. Additionally, the report suggests that the Z1f will keep the 20.1-megapixel imaging sensor that made the Z1 an overnight success. Some industry insiders are even suggesting that the Z1f will be released in several colors, including: pink, yellow, blue, white, and black. No hints have been made on when the Z1f might launch, but I would expect sometime around November.

Twitch lands $20 million in series C funding thanks to Thrive Capital
Twitch.tv, everyone's favorite social video game footage sharing site, has just announced that its series C round of funding has been a massive success. The company managed to raise $20 million thanks to efforts led by Thrive Capital, Take-Two Interactive, and WestSummit Capital.

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At the moment, Twitch sees more than 45 million monthly visitors, and with the upcoming release of next-gen consoles, we expect to see that number rise significantly. While no mention has been made with how the company will use the funds, we would imagine that some of it will go towards beefing up its servers, as well as improving on its services offered to gamers who live stream their gameplay to the site.

A Reuters' poll suggest the PS4 will outsell the Xbox One this fall
If a newly released poll is any indication of current market trends, Sony's PlayStation 4 is more desired as a holiday gift than its rival, Microsoft's Xbox One. Reuters recently commissioned Ipsos to conduct a poll on which next-generation console consumers would purchase during the holiday season.

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The poll consisted of almost 1300 people, of which 26-percent said that they would be purchasing a PS4 in preparation for the holidays this year. Only 15-percent said that they would be purchasing an Xbox One. When Reuters broke the poll down to age demographics, a whopping 41-percent of those under 40 years of age said they would buy a PS4 while only 27-percent indicated that they would be picking up an Xbox One. No info was given on how many people indicated that they would buy both consoles.

RumorTT: Grand Theft Auto V to hit PC hard drives on November 22nd
Since the first hints of GTA V hit the wires, the tech media world has been buzzing with rumors that the game may never launch on the PC platform. Unfortunately as time progressed, that rumor began to look more and more like reality. The PC gaming community even launched a Change.org petition based around bringing GTA V to PC, which gathered more than 500,000 signatures.

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Fortunately it appears that all of our worries and pleas to Rockstar, may have been answered. The website gta5tv.com posted a report over the weekend that suggest the fastest selling game in history, will infact be making a deput on the PC. The launch date is said to coincide with the Xbox One launch date of November 22nd, and apparently the information came straight from the source itself, Rockstar Games.
If you take a step back and look at some recent rumors and leaks, it seems like a November launch is really going to happen. This is good news for PC gamers everywhere as the PC will be able to showcase the most expensive game ever made, in a whole new light. GTA V will look amazing on the PC, and is said to feature 2K graphics and will run on DirectX 11.

John McAfee has a solution to our NSA spying problems, will cost $100
John McAfee, modern day eccentric millionaire and founder of McAfee Antivirus, announced over the weekend that he has devised a plan to block the illegal--and legal--spying from the NSA once and for all. McAfee outlined his plan on Saturday while speaking at an event in San Jose, California.

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The big plan involves a device created by McAfee which he calls "D-Central." The gadget is essentially a wireless networking hub that allows smartphones, tablets, laptops, and any other Wi-Fi connected device to access what is basically a darkweb-like network that blocks mainstream intrusion from the government. The D-Central device would retail for $100 or less and McAfee says that he has been planning the device for several years now.
D-Central will provide not only a private (darkweb) connection, but will provide a public one as well and can be used to share files, chat, and research without ever unveiling your identity. McAfee said that the device has a range of about three blocks, and at the moment D-Central "is round in shape" and features "no screens". A working prototype is said to be just six months away and McAfee is actively searching for partners to help with development. Anyone looking for more information can hit up the source below to check out the official D-Central website.

Top 10 TweakTown News Stories from the past week [30 September 2013]
Here are our top 10 news posts from the past week!

Crytek's Ryse still runs at 1600x900, CEO calls it Full HD experience
We reported not long ago that Ryse was going to be running at 1600x900 and then upscaled to 1920x1080, which looks to now be fully confirmed by German developer, Crytek.

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What is weirder, is that the studio seems fine with it, and so does CEO and President of Crytek, Cevat Yerli. Yerli has confirmed that Ryse renders at 1600x900, and upscales to 1080p. He specifically said on his Twitter account: "#Ryse there is not one single downgrade compared to E3, promised! Only UPGRADES in the final push towards finalling phase! Its FULL HD XP!"
It does get worse, as Yerli then tweets "#Ryse runs at 1600x900 for best perf&res, we apply our upscaler for AA, framebuffer native 1080p. SAME as E3 XboxOne! No change, No compromise!" Well, I'd consider a full 320 pixels wide and 180 pixels high missing, a huge compromise. Yerli believes this is "native 1080p" which scares me... as it is far from running at native res if there's upscalers involved.

RumorTT: Apple needs Samsung for nearly half its A8 manufacturing
Samsung is still being relied on for the production of Apple's A7 processor, which is found in the iPhone 5S, but now it looks like the South Korean giant is still required by Apple, but this time for its next-gen A8 chip.

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The Korea Economic Daily claims that Samsung will manufacturer between 30-40% of Apple's A8 chips, with TSMC will manufacturer the rest of the A8 chips. Apple did want TSMC to be the only manufacturer, but obviously this won't be happening. There has been challenges associated with the building of 20nm chips, which led Apple to knock on Samsung's door yet again.

Google to acquire a bunch of ex-BlackBerry engineers
BlackBerry is quite quickly circling the sink, ready to be sucked into it, but before then it looks like Google is acquiring a bunch of ex-BlackBerry engineers.

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Reuters reports that Google's Motorola Mobility division is setting up a new hub in Waterloo, Ontario - BlackBerry's hometown. The company is looking to take in people who have backgrounds in engineering and computer science. Even with BlackBerry starting to fade, Waterloo is a massive hub of talent thanks to the University of Waterloo's top-notch computer science program.
The Engineering Director at Motorola Canada, Derek Phillips, has told Reuters that Motorola is looking to "get just as many people who are interested to come out and hire as many people as we can."

Top 10 TweakTown Content from the past week [30 September 2013]
Here are our top 10 articles, reviews and guides from the past week!

Seagate to Demo Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording Storage at CEATEC 2013
Seagate Technology plc, a world leader in storage solutions, today announced that it will be demonstrating its next generation heat assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology at CEATEC 2013. Pushing the boundaries of magnetic recording, Seagate's revolutionary HAMR technology is poised to power an astounding 20 Terabyte drive by as early as 2020.
"The world is generating an astronomical amount of data annually and that data needs to be stored. We are approaching the limits of today's recording technology and with HAMR technology, Seagate is on track to continue to increase areal density delivering hard drives with the lowest cost per gigabyte and reaching capacities of 20TB by 2020," said Mark Re, Seagate's chief technology officer.
Currently shipping leading-edge shingled magnetic recording technology (SMR), Seagate will continue to push the limits of storage capacities with HAMR in an effort to fulfill the insatiable global demand for storage fueled by cloud and mobile usage. Critical for continued improvement in areal density, HAMR increases storage capacity by heating the medium with a laser-generated beam at the precise spot where data bits are being recorded. When heated, the medium becomes easier to write and the rapid subsequent cooling stabilizes the written data. The result of this heat-assisted recording is a dramatic increase in the recorded density.
HAMR, combined with self-ordered magnetic arrays of iron-platinum particles, is expected to break the limit of magnetic recording by more than a factor of 100 to ultimately deliver storage densities as great as 50 terabits per square inch. To put this in perspective, a digital library of all books written in the world would be approximately 400 TB - meaning that in the very near future conceivably all such books could be stored on as few as 20 HAMR drives.
Seagate's next-generation HAMR technology will be incorporated into a 2.5-inch enterprise drive, spinning at 10K RPM. Designed with enterprise in mind, HAMR fueled drives will be ideal in a blade server environment.
Seagate HAMR demonstrations will take place, during CEATEC 2013, on Tuesday, October 1st through Saturday, October 5th, 2013 at Makuhari Messe in Tokyo, at the TDK booth (Hall-1-3) during normal operating trade show hours.

REVOLUTION X't - Enermax's Brand New Power Supply Series
Enermax launches the brand new REVOLUTION X't power supply series. The series comes in four different wattage output levels for users to choose from, ranging from 430W, 530W, 630W to 730W; modular flat and flexible cables are used across this whole new series. REVOLUTION X't series is also 80 PLUS Gold certified and meets the ErP Lot 6 2013 requirements. In addition, the DC-DC ZERO DESIGN allows this series to fully supports the latest Intel Haswell CPUs.

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REVOLUTION X't series is capable of producing a respectable 92% peak efficiency @ 230Vac; and 90% @ 115Vac. The latest 5Vsb design takes over 50% the efficiency of the 5Vsb rail under a load of 45mA, helping the system achieve 2013 ErP Lot 6 requirement (less than 0.5W at standby mode). Additionally, the ZERO LOAD, DC-DC voltage stabilization design allows the Intel Haswell CPU to work under the C6/C7 state while maintaining a stable power output.

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100% Flexible Flat Cable Management
REVOLUTIOIN X't is equipped black flat cable. This not only allows the user to be able to match the interior case color, but easy cable routing/arrangement. As a result, a better inner case space to reduce clutter and promote airflow within the PC and improving overall cooling performance.
High Efficiency and Energy Saving
REVOLUTION X't uses patented Twister Bearing 13.9cm fan; the patented bearing is an advanced magnetic bearing designed for maximum product durability (MTBF 100,000 hrs) and super silent performance in conjunction with a built-in intelligent thermal sensor to auto-determine the best fan speed.
What's more, REVOLUTION X't has the HeatGuard function, allows a 30 to 60 Sec. delayed cooling fan shutdown and enables the excessive hot air to be extracted from the system and to maximize the overall system lifetime.
Enermax insists in using the best quality components. REVOLUTION X't series uses the best quality Japanese primary electrolytic capacitor ensuring the best product stabilization. The powerful 12V rail provides outstanding compatibility for power hungry high-end GPU while retaining superb power efficiency. REVOLUTION X't also designs to work under high-ambient @ 40C/104F while maintaining continuous and stable power output. In terms of safety measures, REVOLUTION X't comes with advanced protection circuitries to ensure utmost user experience, including: OVP (Over Voltage), OPP (Over Power), OTP (Over Temperature), SCP (Short-Circuit) and SIP (Surge and Inrush current). The additional CordGuard design also helps the user fixing the AC cord to avoid accidental shutdown of your PC.
REVOLUTION X't will be available in October 2013, MSRP: $109.99 (430W); $119.99 (530W); $129.99 (630W) and $139.99 (730W). For more information, please visit the Enermax website.

Top 10 TweakTown Press Releases from the past week [30 September 2013]
Here are our top 10 posted press releases from the past week!

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