IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 16/04/2014

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 16/04/2014

TweakTown

Oculus VR founder says TVs 'won't be feasible' in the next 10-20 years
Oculus VR's founder, Palmer Luckey, sat down with Maximum PC recently, where he had some interesting things to say about the future of traditional viewing displays, and big-screen TVs.

Luckey talked about the resources required to build, ship and sell TVs, adding that the model "just won't be feasible". He continued: "Why in the world would you buy a 60-inch TV that, even if it were dirt cheap for that, it's still going to cost a lot to ship it and make it from raw materials. A VR headset is going to be much better and much cheaper and you can take it anywhere".
Some of the benefits of a large TV is that you can get a bunch of friends, or family members, to sit around and watch the same content. Luckey says that VR will soon be capable of doing that, where he adds: "It's all a matter of how good VR has to be. Eventually, VR is going to be good enough - someday, as good or as close to real life. If you want to simulate sitting in a room watching a TV, you'll be able to do that".

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AMD's next-gen Radeon R9 390X teased, codenamed Bermuda
We've only just seen the announcement of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan Z, and the proper release of the AMD Radeon R9 295X2 dual-GPU card, but now we're hearing about AMD's next-generation single GPU, the Radeon R9 390X.

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If the rumors are true, the Radeon R9 390X has a codename of Bermuda, with a family name of Pirate Islands. The Pirate Islands-based GPUs will be baked onto AMD's 20nm process, succeeding the Volcanic Island GPUs we all know and love today. The Radeon R9 390X would be quite the beast, featuring 4224 Stream Processors, 264 Texture Units (TUs), 96 ROPS, a Core Clock of around 1GHz, Memory Clocks hitting 7GHz or so, and a super-wide 512-bit memory bus.
Comparing this against the Radeon R9 290X which is already powerful, the R9 390X will trump it, easily. The R9 290X for comparison sake had 2816 SPs, 176 TUs, 64 ROPS, and similar core and memory clocks depending on the card (third-party cards can overclock very high).

Square Enix shuts its Mumbai, India studio down, six people laid off
MCV is reporting that Square Enix has just shut the doors on its Mumbai, India-based offices. Former Square Enix India Vice President, Atul Vibhandik has confirmed the news.

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The studio opened its doors in 2013, employing six people - all of which have been laid off. The Mumbai-based studio didn't produce any games at all. The news of the Mumbai office closing its doors come hot on the heels of Square Enix President Yosuke Matsuda stating on April 1 that the company wanted to shift focus from global markets, to concentrate its efforts in JRPGs.
Matsuda said: "Regardless of whether they're for smartphone or console, there's a difficult element to developing global titles, so we'll be making them without focusing too much on the 'global' aspect. For example, in the past, when we developed console games with a worldwide premise, we lost our focus, and not only did they end up being games that weren't for the Japanese, but they ended up being incomplete titles that weren't even fit for a global audience".

Artificial blood production on an industrial scale isn't far away
In something that feels like it's right out of HBO's 'True Blood,' we're looking at a future of artificial blood, mass manufactured on an industrial scale - in the near future.

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Wellcome Trust is behind the research, with scientists working on getting to the point of reaching a trial stage of using artificial blood made from human stem cells. Principal researcher, Marc Turner, has said that his team has made red blood cells that are capable of being used in a clinical transfusion. Professor Turner has talked of a technique to culture red blood cells from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells - cells that have been taken from humans, and 'rewound' into stem cells.
From there, biochemical conditions that are similar to what happens inside of the human body are recreated to induce the iPS cells to mature into red blood cells - best of all, in the universal blood type O. Prof Turner explains: "Although similar research has been conducted elsewhere, this is the first time anybody has manufactured blood to the appropriate quality and safety standards for transfusion into a human being".
Where it gets even more interesting, is that the trial should be completed by late 2016, or early 2017. This technique could lead to a world of limitless type-O blood, free of disease and compatible with every patient who requires blood. Professor Turner continues: "Although blood banks are well-stocked in the UK and transfusion has been largely safe since the Hepatitis B and HIV infections of the 1970s and 1980s, many parts of the world still have problems with transfusing blood".

Hustle yourself a copy of American Hustle on Blu-ray
To celebrate this week's release of American Hustle on home video formats, our friends at Roadshow Home Entertainment have supplied us with copies of the film on Blu-ray to give away to five lucky readers. The 2013 motion picture was released to great critical acclaim, especially of its ensemble cast starring Jennifer Lawrence and Christian Bale, and scored ten Oscar nominations.

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To go into the running to take one copy home, simply answer the following question in 35 words or less:
How would you invest $2 million of embezzled money?
To enter, simply 'like' this post and share via Facebook or Twitter and send your answers, along with your postal address to ben at TweakTown.com before the competition closes on April 18th. The total prize pool is approximately $119.85.

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American Hustle is available on Blu-ray + UltraViolet, as well as DVD + UltraViolet combo pack from Australian retailers on April 16th.

Google updates Glass, ditches video calls, but improves photo browsing
Google is pushing out an update to Glass, which will see some improvements, and the removal of the function to video call people. Google removed the video call function from Glass as the feature didn't meet Google's "high standards".

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The search giant says that around 10% of Glass users were using the video call function, so in light of this, the Glass team made "the hard decision to remove video calls from Glass until the experience is better". Onto the updates, where Glass will not bundle photos together - this is really important, as your timeline can be completely cluttered with photos.
The latest update to Glass will bundle all of your photos, videos and vignettes into a single bundle for each day. For someone like me who takes lots of photos and videos per day, my timeline is constantly cluttered - news to my wearable ears!

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While video calling abilities have been removed, Hangouts on Glass is still there - with the ability to snap photos and send them to friends, or group chats in Hangouts. There's also a new voice command menu that sorts itself by frequency and recency, as well as a new ability to easily send Google feedback from your Glass unit. Google has also teased that there are some other yet undisclosed features with the latest update, something that the company will share with the world soon.

Is 4K not enough for you? How about 8K? Detail so high you can feel it
During the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show in Las Vegas just recently, Japan's public broadcasting organization, NHK, showed off an 8K test. This test, according to Mashable, was "so dense with detail that the human eye will not detect additional resolution".

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NHK was showing off some footage that included a Japanese fireworks display, a short film by a performing arts troupe, a fashion show, and footage from a soccer game between Brazil and Spain. Mashable editor Josh Dickey said that this footage looked "real" and that it was "spectacular". Dickey talked more about the 8K footage: "The clarity and depth of field truly is uncanny, yet the picture had none of the harsh edges, strange light and "video" vibe of other super-HD displays and high frame-rate demos I've seen. It's somehow cinematic; yet you can focus in on any face in a large crowd and make out every feature at varying distances. It really is like being there".
He continued: "3D is already wobbling off to international markets, and if something like 8K ever catches on here, it won't help it. During the fireworks display footage, birds that fly into the shot had me thinking some sparrows had gotten into the place. Stereovision would be overkill". When will 8K penetrate more into the market? Well, the displays and TVs have no current ETA as we need broadcasts and movies to catch up.
NHK will blast out its first 8K test broadcasts in 2016, but as usual, sports will take the lead. The Tokyo Olympics will see NHK helping out, where the Japanese broadcaster will be covering and broadcasting throughout most of Japan. NHK will also be filming the World Cup in Brazil over the summer with its beautiful 8K Cube camera, which is the size of a breadbox.

ASRock teases next-generation Intel CPUs for Computex 2014 in June
ASRock is already teasing the next generation of Intel CPUs and motherboards, inviting press to its 9 Series Motherboard launch during Computex 2014. ASRock is holding the session on June 4, just as the event kicks off.

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The company will be launching its new 9-series of motherboards, as well as its "latest product features" and exclusive product information to ASRock's closest friends in the media. You can be sure we'll be covering the event itself, and all of the new 9-series products that will be launched at Computex 2014.

Breaking news: Google acquires drone company, Titan Aerospace
For weeks now it has appeared that Facebook would be swooping in and buying up drone manufacturer, Titan Aerospace, but today Google has apparently beaten Facebook to the punch and picked up the company itself. While no price has been mentioned on how much the deal cost Google, it does mark the third company of this type that the Mountain View-based company has added to its stables.

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"Titan Aerospace and Google share a profound optimism about the potential for technology to improve the world. It's still early days, but atmospheric satellites could help bring internet access to millions of people, and help solve other problems, including disaster relief and environmental damage like deforestation," said a Google spokesperson.
Google says that it will utilize technology from Titan Aerospace, its Project Loon, and Makani Airborne, a wind turbine company it acquired last year, to work on a solution that will bring unbiased, and unfiltered internet to developing and war-torn countries around the world. "Titan Aerospace and Google share a profound optimism about the potential for technology to improve the world," Google said. "It's still early days, but atmospheric satellites could help bring internet access to millions of people, and help solve other problems, including disaster relief and environmental damage like deforestation."

Windows Phone 8.1 developer preview now available to download
Today Microsoft released the developer preview version of Windows 8.1 to the world and any user who is part of the Windows Phone developer program can download the update now. The developer preview version of Windows Phone 8.1 allows developers to get their first taste of Microsoft's Siri-like virtual assistant, Cortana.

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Users who register as a developer under the App Studio and create a new project will have access to the update, as well as those who registered under the Windows Phone Developer program and paid the $19 fee. Finally, any Windows Phone that is "developer unlocked," will be able to download Windows Phone 8.1. While Windows Phone 8.1 will bring a lot of new features to Windows Phone, Cortana is most certainly, the most anticipated.
Cortana is a virtual assistant that functions via voice commands just like Siri and Google Now, and is said to provide a more detailed and contextually relevant result based on a special "notebook" file Cortana keeps on your past queries. Microsoft hopes to draw in additional customers from its Halo fanbase as well thanks to the Cortana name given to the assistant.

T-Mobile ends overage fees, company urges competitors to do the same
T-Mobile confirmed today it will no longer charge subscribers a penalty if they go over their data plan limits, and anyone that goes over their data plan will just have speeds throttled.

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"Overage fees are flat out wrong," said John Legere, T-Mobile president and CEO in a press statement. "Charging overage fees is a greedy, predatory practice that needs to go. Starting in May for bills arriving in June- regardless of whether you're on Simple Choice, Simple Starter or an older plan, we're abolishing overages for good. Period."
T-Mobile also urges phone owners to sign a Change.org petition to pressure AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint into dropping overage charges. Sprint welcomes customers to join its "Framily" plan, while AT&T and Verizon still hit customers with overage charges - which can easily rack up the phone bill even higher - and should be curious to see if they publicly respond.

Mobile phone industry still uncertain about mandatory kill switches
Around 145 million Americans currently own smartphones, according to comScore, though there is a lucrative black market for stolen phones.

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A recent survey found 83 percent of consumers believe a kill switch would help reduce theft, while 93 percent of those surveyed don't want an added charge for a kill switch feature.
"My research suggests that at least half of smartphone owners would in fact reduce their insurance coverage if the Kill Switch reduced the prevalence of cell phone theft," said Dr. William Duckworth, Creighton University Heider College of Business, in a report. "Overall, it seems clear that Americans want the Kill Switch and that an industry-wide implementation of the technology could significantly improve public safety and save consumers billions of dollars a year."
Smartphone kill switches could save customers upwards of $2.6 billion per year, though the idea of a mandatory shutoff ability isn't popular among wireless carriers and smartphone makers.

Twopcharts says 44% of all twitter accounts were never used
Some new stats have been publishes by a third party company called Twopcharts looking at Twitter. At last count, twitter has about 974 million users, but it's less clear how many of those accounts are still in use. Twopcharts has offered up some numbers that claim twitter is much less active than the 974 million user number might suggest.

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The stats that Twopcharts had gathered claim that 44% of those twitter accounts have never made a single tweet. That means that 44% of twitters accounts have never been used. The company goes on to claim that only 126 million of twitters accounts have sent a tweet in the past 30 days.
Twitter is tight lipped about its stats for the most part and doesn't like to talk about user retention. What twitter has said in the past is that it has 241 million average monthly users as of December 31 2013. Twopcharts also claims that 391 million twitter accounts have 0 followers and about 232 million haven't followed a single twitter user themselves.

Alpine CarPlay console landing this fall, will be an aftermarket first
Alpine has announced that it will be launching the aftermarket's first CarPlay unit for cars this fall. Alpine is calling the CarPlay device a console, not a car stereo. I'm not sure what that means, presumably it will have car stereo functionality like CD player and an FM tuner.

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Specifications and features are unconfirmed at this time. The Alpine CarPlay console will reportedly sell for $500 to $700 without installation fees figured in. The device will be the first aftermarket way to add CarPlay support to your car. Some new cars from GM, Ford, and other automakers are expected to come from the factory with CarPlay support this year.
CarPlay allows you to plug your iPhone into the car and see content from its screen on the car's screen. In this case, the apps from your smartphone and the screen itself would be visible on the Alpine unit's screen. You would be able to launch apps and other content using touch on the screen of the console.

HTC One M8 with plastic case rumored for launch next month
The HTC One M8 has been around for a while now and has proven to be one of the more popular smartphones HTC has launched in recent memory. The device launched late last month and prices have started to come down a bit on the smartphone. Amazon started offering a special with a new contract last week that allowed buyers to get the M8 for $150.

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For those who don't want a contract, buying a phone outright and unlocked is the way to go. The M8 is quite expensive if you go that route costing around $680 unlocked. That is a lot of money for a smartphone no matter how you cut it.
A new rumor making the rounds suggests that next month a new version of the One M8 will hit the market with a key change to significantly reduce the cost. The change is said to be eliminating the aluminum case of the current version in favor of a plastic case.
With the plastic for case on the M8, the price of the phone is tipped to be $483 unlocked. That is a big discount for switching to plastic for the case and is a change that many people would gladly agree to in an effort to save money. Other than the plastic case, the new version is said to be identical to the current HTC One M8.

Laser communication system heads to ISS for testing this month
Later this month a SpaceX cargo ship will take off and head towards the ISS to restock the orbiting platform with food and other gear. Among the other gear that will be aboard the spacecraft is the NASA Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science platform also known as OPALS.

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OPALS is a laser system that is intended to significantly increase the speed of communications between the Earth and the ISS. The system is said to be an upgrade for the ISS sort of like replacing your dial-up internet connection at home with DSL. Basically, this laser is giving the ISS broadband.
NASA JPL scientists say that right now, deep space communications happen at speeds of 200 to 400 Kbps. With the OPALs system, communications can happen at up to 50 Mbps. Future deep space communications systems will push the communications speed from Mars up to 1 Gbps. That will allow for faster and easier streaming of HD video.

Missed our SSD Webinar with SanDisk? No worries, watch it here now!
Last week our own Chris Ramseyer and Paul Alcorn, our storage editors, joined SanDisk to host a live SSD webinar to the advantages to running a solid state drive.

The webinar is embedded above. We hope you enjoyed the webinar, and if you're watching it for the first time, please enjoy it.

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If you have any extra SSD related tech questions, feel free to ask them below in the comments.

Sprint WeGo lets parents know where kids are and stay in contact
Part of having kids is letting them become independent enough to go palces on their own. That is tough for a parent because they need to know where kids are at all times for safety reasons. Sprint has announced a new device that is specifically made to let parents keep up with kids and help kids feel safe.

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The device is called the Sprint WeGo and it is a small handheld mobile phone that supports texting and talk. WeGo offers kids limited SMS texting options to keep them from talking to people the parent doesn't know without permission. The device will alert parents via text or email if the phone exceeds a pre-set speed, if the panic alarm is pulled, or when SMS messages are received.
WeGo also has on demand GPS functions that let the parent track their child on a map at anytime from a PC, Android device, or iOS device. Scheduled find services keep an eye on the kids to make sure they are where they are supposed to be at a specific time. The mobile device is shatterproof and can survive drops up to 12-feet high and is water and dust resistant too. WeGo can be purchases for 24 monthly payments of $9.99 and has 1000 talk minutes and 1000 text messages.

Top 10 TweakTown News Stories from the past week [14 April 2014]
Here are our top 10 news posts from the past week!

Apple to update its iPad, MacBooks, and release its iWatch this year
If a prediction from KGI Securities analyst, Ming Chi Kuo is anything to go by, we should expect Apple to begin its new product roll out starting toward the second half of Q3 2014.

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From this, we should expect quite the slew of new devices, including upgrades to iPad mini and iPad Air, two new iWatch smartwatches, two 'all-new design' iPhones - in 4.7- and 5.5-inch sizes, an upgrade to Apple TV, an all-new design ultra-slim MacBook coming in at 12 inches, and a new Retina-capable MacBook Pro.
As for the much-rumored iTV from Apple, this has reportedly been pushed back into 2015. The analyst also says that the previous rumors of the bigger, 'iPad Pro' 12.9-inch slate arriving, will not happen. Instead ,the new iPads will see Apple's A8 processor baked in, as well as the Touch ID fingerprint sensors.

Apple to release an all-new design iPhone this year, 5.5-inch model
We've heard so many rumors that Apple would release a new iPhone this year, while other rumors point to two new iPhones to be released from the company. Well, now we have KGI Securities analyst Ming Chi Kuo predicting that the company will release two 'all-new design' iPhones, coming in 4.7- and 5.5-inch variants.

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The 4.7-inch iPhone would be released sometime in Q3, where we should see it unveiled toward the end of September - but then there's the case of the second iPhone. This iPhone would be much bigger, sitting at 5.5 inches, and would be released toward the end of this year. There's not much known about this 'all-new design', but I'm expecting a big departure from what we're used to from the iPhone - and it's about damn time.
Considering we already had a "newly designed" from the ground up with the iPhone 5, what was all of that about when Apple did that? After five years of no changes to the iPhone, we had a big change. But now that Samsung has become an almost unstoppable threat for the company, Apple has been forced to go back to the drawing board it seems. Gone are the days of marketing videos pushing that you can use the iPhone with just one hand, and that any other phone that makes you do this is inferior.
Apple shifting gears and releasing not one, but two flagship devices is an interesting move. It is something I think we've needed to see from the company for quite sometime, and even at the end of this year - it might be too late. Not only does the physical phone need an 'all-new design', but iOS needs a huge revamp if it wants to truly compete with Android.

NASA requests help for new battery technology in its spacecraft
Batteries feel like one of the least upgraded devices, but are featured in virtually all electronic devices. NASA, as advanced as the US space agency may be, needs some help designing and making new batteries for its travels into the dark beyond.

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NASA is now asking public institutions and companies to submit their proposals for battery alternatives, where it will want to see a new low-level energy cell design. This will include chemistry and packaging, as well as advanced devices that would really outperform the current lithium cell-based batteries.
The US space agency will hand out cash awards to the four most promising candidates, from the first phase of its selection process. NASA might not even find the new power source it is looking for, and if that's the case, maybe it should look at working with Tesla, failing that - Tony Stark?

Google sees Android KitKat adoption slower than Jelly Bean
Google isn't seeing massive adoption rates no Android 4.4 KitKat, even though the updated mobile OS is capable of working on more devices than the OS it succeeded on. KitKat's adoption rate is sitting at a lower point than Jelly Bean was when it first launched.

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Chitika's number crunching abilities see that Android 4.4 KitKat is on around 10% of devices, six months after it was launched. After six months of Jelly Bean being available, it was on 14% of devices. Chitika explains: "[L]ooking beyond the device type breakdown, on a wider scale, KitKat has not progressed quite as quickly as Jelly Bean in North America from an adoption perspective. We previously observed Jelly Bean users generating 13.6% of North American Android Web traffic approximately 24 weeks following its debut on the Nexus 7. This overall number is 10.1% for KitKat as of this study, close to 22 weeks following its release on the Nexus 5".
Chitika has analyzed just North American numbers here, with its ad impressions blasting onto tens of millions of US and Canadian Android-based devices between March 31, and April 6, 2014. When it comes to the US, around 61.8% of devices are running a version of Jelly Bean. 20.3% of traffic is coming from Gingerbread-based devices, while Ice Cream Sandwich sits on 21.3% devices.

Samsung's region locking on the Galaxy S5 is harsh
Samsung may have just launched its new Galaxy S5 in over 125 countries around the world, but if you want to use a Galaxy S5 from one country in another - region locking has been stamped into the new flagship smartphone.

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Samsung now requires a user to make a five-minute phone call on the Galaxy S5 with a local SIM card before the device can be used with SIM cards from other regions. A warning message on the European version of the Galaxy S5 reads: "This product should be activated with a SIM card issued from a mobile operator within Europe. (as defined EU/EEA, Switzerland and the following Non-EEA countries Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (F.Y.R.O.M), Monaco, Montenegro, San Marino, Serbia and Vatican City.)"
The South Korean electronics giant adds: "To use SIM cards from other regions, a cumulative call over five minutes must first be made with the SIM card from European operators". This isn't something that Samsung is doing to hurt its consumers, but it is trying to stop "grey" imports of its products, which will stop it from bleeding unnecessary lost profits around the world.

Kinect-powered Xbox One game will see gamers chugging real life soda
There's a game coming to the Xbox One called Soda Drinker Pro, made by Will Brierly, that will see gamers versing each other in challenges that will see you chugging bottles of soda.

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Soda Drinker Pro works with the Kinect on the Xbox One, with various levels exclusive to Microsoft's console, one of them called "Drinking Soda Through Time". The game will run at 1920x1080 at the full 60FPS, where Brierly said: "It's important. We need a pixel perfect experience with complete fluid dynamics".

Thunderbolt 2: Ready for Windows with the ASUS ThunderboltEX II

ASUS is ready for Thunderbolt 2

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When Thunderbolt technology was released to the public in 2011, many of us brushed off the technology like it was Betamax and wouldn't weather the storm. Despite the fact that the technology in its original form was capable of two times the speed of USB 3.0, many thought, including myself, it was another Apple technology much like Firewire was for many years. I mean, when was the last time you, as a PC user, plugged in a Firewire device?
Of course, it is very true that the original Thunderbolt lacked maturity for Windows users, and perhaps that did set the technology back in user's minds. Then again, it typically takes a few years for manufacturers to trust a technology and begin development of devices.
Perhaps having a partnership between Apple and Intel behind the technology is what has kept it alive for this long to begin with. Alas, Thunderbolt has made it three years into its life and we now have Thunderbolt 2, a much more mature technology ready for Windows operating systems.

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Thunderbolt 2, formerly known as Falcon Ridge, isn't too much of a change from the original Thunderbolt. What Intel did was enable channel aggregation giving you the full 20Gbps over one cable, and of course, it's backwards compatible with Thunderbolt devices, but you will need to have your Thunderbolt 2 devices forward in the daisy chain to mitigate performance loss.
In its most basic form, Thunderbolt is external PCI Express, PCIe 2.0 x4 to be exact. Now this gives us the theoretical throughput of 20Gbps that is advertised, but thanks to 8b/10b encoding, we can expect to lose 20 percent of our peak throughput, leaving us with 16Gbps or 2GB/s.
... Read the rest in your browser!

Top 10 TweakTown Content from the past week [14 April 2014]
Here are our top 10 articles, reviews and guides from the past week!

Linksys WRT1900AC 802.11ac Smart Wireless Router Review

Introduction

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From 2002 to about 2007, I don't think I knew anyone that didn't use a WRT54G router from Linksys; the classic design concept that lived previously on the 802.11b routers was transitioned over to the 802.11g router, and one of the most stable wireless platforms was born. Since then, things have changed. Cisco dumped Linksys, and the company was picked up rather quickly by Belkin and has since been reborn into a company going back to its roots.
Nowhere is this roll back more prominent than in the product we are looking at today, the WRT1900AC. This new wireless networking solution from Linksys is the company's top-tier offering for those that want the ultimate in terms of stability, performance, and range.
Features of this high performance router include a 1.2GHz dual-core ARM based processor with 256MB of DDR3 memory complimenting the 128MB of flash Linksys has put onboard. Dual band capabilities of 600Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and 1.3Gbps on the 5GHz band are complimented by the four antennas placed on the unit to provide diversity, where the router will use the three best antenna signal rates to transmit and receive data.
Read on and let's see how it performs.

Pricing, Availability and Specifications

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MSRP of the Linksys WRT1900AC wireless router is listed at $279.99 with a one-year warranty. Availability of the router is slim at this point, but you may be able to find it at several stores in the USA.
... Read the rest in your browser!

Adventure Time: The Complete Third Season (2012) Blu-ray Movie Review

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Adventure Time: The Complete Third Season (2012)

After surpassing 50 episodes from the first two seasons, the tone and tenor of Adventure Time should be clear to all who have caught even a few minutes of the colorfully zany animated offering, which is loved equally by kids and adults alike for its 'out there' plots and bizarre humor.

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Revolving around the young boy Finn (voiced by Jeremy Shada) and his shape shifting canine companion Jake (voiced by John DiMaggio), Adventure Time follows their endeavors in a strange, post-apocalyptic landscape, filled with weird and wonderful denizens and eclectic characters, including the twisted Ice King (voiced by Tom Kenny) and the sometime love interest Princess Bubblegum (voiced by Hynden Walch). The third season includes a further 26 twelve minute episodes that are easy to enjoy, but a little harder to comprehend--but I'm not sure that's the point.
It's perhaps worth noting that this disc, just like its season predecessors, are exact duplicates of the U.S. release discs produced by Cartoon Network partner Warner Bros.

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Video

Adventure Time: The Complete Third Season is encoded with VC1 MPEG-4 compression and presented in the intended aspect ratio of 1.78:1.
Despite its relative simplicity, the animation of Adventure Time shines ably in high definition. A bright and bold color palette that can only be described as eye popping, with good contrast (albeit probably a nudge too high), serves to heighten the bizarre forms on screen. Similar to the first two seasons, the deficiencies of the series are mild, with the odd occurrence of aliasing on some of the sharper lines. I didn't notice any macro blocking; indeed the compression seems rather good taking into account the inclusion of around five hours of HD footage on just one disc.
Overall, this is a perfectly fine transfer, which suffice to say blows the standard definition DVD and television broadcasts away.

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Audio

Adventure Time: The Complete Third Season is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 at 192 kbps.
It's a bit of a shame that the show is only afforded a stereo soundtrack, not even provided in a lossless format, but it's hard to be too disappointed. This is a perfectly acceptable track that does have a reasonable, even surprisingly aggressive surround presence once Pro-logic mode is engaged on a home theatre receiver. Whilst a dedicated low frequency track is not included, most surround systems will derive an adequate amount of bass information that can be directed to a subwoofer.
Again, I'd like to eventually hear Adventure Time with a full 5.1 soundtrack, but until that day eventuates, I can't imagine many die-hard fans skipping this Blu-ray release because of it.

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Extras

I was a little disappointed by the supplements offered on the first and second season Blu-rays, so I'm certainly pleased to see a more, shall I say, traditional set of bonus featurettes that actually give an inside glimpse on the production of the show--even if it is painfully fleeting. Let's take a look.
First up are Audio Commentaries for each and every one of the 26 episodes, which feature a range of participants, including creator Pendleton Ward along with an assortment of writers, animators, and producers. Whilst some fans might be a little disappointed that those behind the series are a little saner than you might think, there is some fun to be had here, even if you'll be hard pressed to get through every episode.
Next is an eight minute How an Idea Becomes Adventure Time featurette, which sits down the creative minds behind the show for a rapid fire discussion on the show and how episodes are nutted out. I still choose to believe in a more romanticized version of events.
Finally, we have the innocuously named Alternate Intro by Screen Novelties, which is actually a very cool one minute long version of the main titles re-created in Lego.
PRICING: You can find the Adventure Time: Season 3 Blu-ray for sale below. The prices listed are valid at the time of writing but can change at any time. Click the link to see the very latest pricing for the best deal.
United States: The Adventure Time: Season 3 Blu-ray retails for $24.96 at Amazon.
Canada: The Adventure Time: Season 3 Blu-ray retails for CDN$29.97 at Amazon Canada.
Australia: The Adventure Time: Season 3 Blu-ray retails for $34.99 AUD at Mighty Ape Australia.
New Zealand: The Adventure Time: Season 3 Blu-ray retails for $34.99 NZD at Mighty Ape NZ.

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Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Nintendo 3DS Review

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Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney

It's fair to say that the Professor Layton and Ace Attorney franchises have been one reason why the DS and 3DS systems have been so popular over the course of their lifetimes. Both requiring thinking and puzzle solving, they are the perfect game for the casual gamer to pick up and play on a long commute or whilst having a relaxing time at home. Someone at Level 5 thought it would be a top idea to put the two franchises together into one game, and so we lead to today where one of the most popular games in Japan has made it to the west.
Both franchises have their strengths and weaknesses, but when combined, can they overcome their problems or is it just a ragged mess? Thankfully, it's one of the better 3DS games we have played, with a few caveats.
The storyline picks up with Layton visiting London with his series sidekick Luke and Phoenix also being in town for a legal convention. The two cross paths when trying to assist a female who they find wandering London town. However, all is not right with this female, and through a course of events, they end up in Labrynthia, an alternate world where a character known as The Storyteller dictates what happens. From here it is up to Layton and Wright to combine to solve the overall puzzle of the town and free themselves and their friends from its foes.

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When this game was first announced, the anticipation was that it would basically be the player being tasked with solving a number of lateral thinking or visual puzzles before then going to court and fighting out a few battles. In no surprise whatsoever, this is exactly what we have with this game and in some ways this is a bit disappointing. There is no point in the game where the puzzles of Layton intersect with the court case; instead, the Layton part of the game replaces the 'investigation' phase of the Phoenix Wright games with Layton able to find hint coins and solve puzzles to unravel the stories. If you are a fan of both games, however, you will think this is absolutely brilliant.
But if you are not, this may be a bit disappointing. We don't know why we couldn't have had a lateral thinking puzzle in the middle of the cases, but instead it feels like two very different silos playing out one after the other. The storyline does bring the characters together, but the gameplay really does not. It does allow you to focus a lot more in the cases on the evidence being provided, and the hint coin being available from Layton during the cases is a masterstroke that should be carried over to the mainline Phoenix Wright series.

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The other issue is that these games have always been known for their visual novel style, and this rings true again in the combined title. However, it does mean there is a lot more exposition than usual and this leads to a lot of lengthy dialogue sequences which can drag. There are some sections where it is more than ten minutes before you get another crack at a puzzle or case section and, for a portable game, that is quite annoying when commuting, for example.
Moving beyond the issues with the game, you find a very solid title that really has encapsulated what makes the two franchises feature such awesome portable games. Gaining the correct objection is just as satisfying as solving a difficult puzzle, and this is a game that will make you think. Although, we did find that on both sides of the game the puzzles/cases seemed a little easier than usual. One major change on the Phoenix side is that you often have to cross-examine multiple witnesses to the case during the same sequence.
This has allowed a new mechanic to be developed where you have to keep an eye on how the other current witnesses are responding to the current testimony and try and catch them out. It works well, and the game gives you an aural hint as to when this is required.

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Like in the Layton games, you earn Picarats based on how quickly you can solve a puzzle and these unlock items when the game is finished. As well as this, you get around five chances to make mistakes during a case before game over, so the risk/reward system of both games has been ported to this new title and again it works well.

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The controls of both games also flow well to this title with the stylus the dominant weapon for both characters and, along with this the visuals of both franchises, suit each other as well. Even though you are jumping between what really amounts to two games, the visual style does not miss a beat, and the anime style cutscenes present really are some of the best seen in the franchises to date. Voice acting is done well with the soundtrack backing up the current mood of the game well.
Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright is a game that many may not have predicted, but it has turned out to be a fantastic title. Combining the series has had its issues, such as too much dialogue being present and the lack of Layton puzzles being available during the cases, and they were a bit of a missed chance, but overall the two characters fit the game well. It wouldn't surprise us to see these characters in tandem again based on this first title, and as a start, this is a quality, solid release that really anyone who likes a good puzzle would do well to pick up.
PRICING: You can find the Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright 3DS Game for sale below. The prices listed are valid at the time of writing but can change at any time. Click the link to see the very latest pricing for the best deal.
United States: The Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright 3DS Game retails for $62.15 at Amazon.
Canada: The Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright 3DS Game retails for CDN$53.10 at Amazon Canada.
Australia: The Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright 3DS Game retails for $49.99 AUD at Mighty Ape Australia.
New Zealand: The Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright 3DS Game retails for $74.99 NZD at Mighty Ape NZ.

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Top 10 TweakTown Press Releases from the past week [14 April 2014]
Here are our top 10 posted press releases from the past week!

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1 comment:

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