IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 23/04/2014

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 23/04/2014

TweakTown

Assassin's Creed franchise has sold over 73 million copies
By now you're probably aware that Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed franchise is a big seller, but just how many copies has the franchise sold? 73 million sold, according to Ubisoft's website.

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The game joins Ubisoft's other "worldwide best-selling franchises" list, which includes Far Cry, a few of the Tom Clancy titles, and more. Assassin's Creed has six titles under its belt, after it debuted back in 2007, on top of eight additional games on browser and portable platforms. Second behind Assassin's Creed is something you wouldn't have guessed - Just Dance - which has sold 48 million copies.
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell has sold 30 million copies, Rainbow Six with 26 million and Ghost Recon with 25 million. Assassin's Creed: Unity is also on its way, which will hit PS4, Xbox One and PC later this year.

Feds create custom teams to target cybercrime, security fraud
U.S. Attorney Zach Fardon has shaken things up and cybercrime and securities fraud will lead to coordinated and better organized attempts to crackdown on crime. Similar to other government officials, Fardon understands the need to combat cybercrime, including assigning someone to the role of cybercrime deputy chief, to investigate organized cybercrime efforts.

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However, Chicago has a tremendous issue with street-level crime, and Fardon has been criticized for not focusing enough on those issues.
Trying to battle against cybercrime has proven to be a difficult battle, with a mix of reckless users and rather confusing local, state, and federal guidelines. Each state has different methods to investigate and prosecute cybercrime, though it's often too late, at the expense of innocent users that may have had their identity or debit and credit card information stolen.

GitHub co-founder calls it quits after alleged discrimination claim
Today GitHub announced that its co-founder and president, Tom Preston-Werner has resigned his position with the company after accusations of discrimination proved to be untrue. In March, a former female enginner, Julie Ann Horvath, accused GitHub of gender discrimination, and claimed that the work environment was centered around a "boys club" that she could not seem to join. GitHub hired a third-party company to hold an independent investigation into the claim. No evidence of any discrimination was found.

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"The investigation found no evidence to support the claims against Tom and his wife of sexual or gender-based harassment or retaliation, or of a sexist or hostile work environment," GitHub CEO and co-founder Chris Wanstrath wrote in a blog post. "However, while there may have been no legal wrongdoing, the investigator did find evidence of mistakes and errors of judgment."

LeakedTT: 3rd Generation Intel Thunderbolt to support 40Gb/s transfers
Intel's Thunderbolt technology is amazing in its current state, but some newly leaked details show just how much more amazing Thunderbolt can get. A new leak has surfaced on a Chinese technology site that shows that Thunderbolt 3 will be two times as fast as the current Thunderbolt 2 standard.

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If true, the leak states that Thunderbolt 2 will feature a bandwidth of 40Gb/s thanks to PCIe 3 support. Furthermore a 50-percent reduction in power consumption will be achieved by the new hardware as well. A new connector will be on board that will allow system charging up to 100 watts, and the entire PCB will measure in at just 3mm thick. It is important to note that this information should come as a grain of salt, and count on these numbers being lower in real-world practice.

This video of a quad-copter flying through a firework show is amazing
Let's face it, quad-copters are quickly becoming the hottest trend in tech, and the amazing shots they are affording us are more than spectacular. A new video has surfaces that shows a DJI Phantom quad-copter flying right into the middle of a fireworks show and gives us a view from above like never before.

One would expect that anyone flying a $1300 quad-copter would keep it far away from explosions as possible, but that does not seem to be the case here. The pilot even manages to fly right inside the sphere of sizzling fireballs without taking any damage at all. This gives me a whole new idea on what to do this 4th of July with the quad-copter I am currently building.

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Apple adds Lifetime, History Channel and A&E to Apple TV
Today Apple announced that it has expanded its Apple TV offerings to include several top channels from the A&E network. Apple TV users now have access to the Lifetime, A&E and History Channel apps but there is a catch. To view shows from these channels, Apple TV owners will also have to be active subscribers to a cable package that features them, specifically from DirecTV, Verizon FiOS, and Cablevision Optimum.

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Today's additions are part of a larger build up of content that Apple has been pushing for the last few months in an effort to compete with Roku and Google's Chromecast. Unfortunately Apple TV content is still very limited, and with deals being made that force people to subscribe to cable to use features on the set-top box, I think that Apple TV will still remain in the niche market of Apple champions.

The Batman: Arkham game series is getting its own animated feature
The animated features division of DC Comics has announced that it is working on an animated feature that is based around Rocksteady Studios' hit game, Batman: Arkham Origins. The Short animated feature will be called Batman: Assault on Arkham, and will feature voice overs by Kevin Conroy, Troy Baker, C.C.H. Pounder, and Martin Jarvis, the voice actors who make the Batman: Arkham series so good.

This animated feature is part of a larger initiative by DC comics to bring out series that its fans want to watch. This is similar to how Marvel has done with the animated features that are released between its blockbuster movies to help fill in the gaps. DC comics says that it will release two features per year, with Batman and Superman being the first two series to get animated features.

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AT&T to introduce fiber in 100 U.S. cities
AT&T unveiled its roadmap which indicates that the U.S. based telecom and internet service provider plans to implement fiber network up to 100 cities and municipalities nationwide. This will be available for consumer and businesses.

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"We're delivering advanced services that offer consumers and small businesses the ability to do more, faster, help communities create a new wave of innovation, and encourage economic development," said Lori Lee, senior executive vice president, AT&T Home Solutions. "We're interested in working with communities that appreciate the value of the most advanced technologies and are willing to encourage investment by offering solid investment cases and policies."
AT&T's 'U-verse' GigaPower fiber network will be having plans where it can deliver speeds up to 1 Gigabit per second. It will also provide access for its Total Home DVR services as well.
Some of the cities that will have this service are Atlanta, Augusta, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Fort Worth, Fort Lauderdale, Greensboro, Houston, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, Oakland, Orlando, San Antonio, San Diego, St. Louis, San Francisco, and San Jose.

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AT&T didn't provide any timelines or dates, but assured that the company is exploring 25 metro areas for fiber deployment.

Want to feel old? The Nintendo Game Boy is 25 years old today
Twenty-five years ago today, Nintendo released a handheld gaming unit that would change the world and drive AA battery sales through the roof. The Nintendo Game Boy first launched in Japan today back in 1989, and its dull green and grey display amazed gamers and techies of the day. Retailing for $89.99 the Game Boy required four AA batteries and provided more than 10-hours of game-play before needing to change batteries.

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The Game Boy saw more than 300,000 sales in Japan in just two weeks after its launch, and more than 40,000 on the first day of sales in the US. Over the next decade and a half, the Nintendo Game Boy line of handheld gaming units sold more than 118.69 million units total. Today those numbers are still massive when compared to smartphone sales, and are a testament to how much love the Nintendo Game Boy received in the 90s and early 2000's.

AMD refreshes its 'Never Settle Forever' Game bundle program
AMD has refreshed its 'Never Settle Forever' game bundles which includes games for AMD Radeon R7 Series to even AMD Radeon R9 295 x2. At the same time, AMD will also be including entry-level GPUs for its game bundle programs: R7 250x, R7 250 and R7 240 GPUs.

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The newer buyers of AMD Radeon cards can receive up to three free games that AMD provides via the card's AMD Radeon Reward Coupon. As they have done so in the past, the choices of games paired with the respective video cards are divided into Gold, Silver and Bronze.
One of the games that will be added is Square Enix's upcoming title 'Murdered: Soul Suspect'.
Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, Graphics Business Unit, AMD said,"We're happy to introduce this next chapter for our highly successful 'Never Settle Forever' program, delivering on the promise we made a year ago with our Unified Gaming Strategy."
Square Enix's executive producer Naoto Sugiyama said,"With 'Murdered: Soul Suspect', we're looking forward to continuing the tradition of collaboration between Square Enix and AMD. Murdered: Soul Suspect. We're dedicated to bringing world-class experiences for PC gamers and look forward to the launch of our game in AMD's 'Never Settle Forever' program."
Square Enix's Murdered: Soul Suspect will be bundled with Radeon Gold and Radeon Silver rewards pack. AMD is also now including titles from indie game developers and is bundled in 'indie pack'. The titles are as follows:

"The Banner Saga", developed by Stoic Studio and published by Versus Evil
"Dyad", developed and published by ][, (Right Square Bracket Left Square Bracket)
"Guacamelee!", developed and published by Drinkbox Studios
"Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack", developed and published by Drinkbox Studios

The latest card lineups for Reward levels and benefits are as follows:

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Netflix plans to bump streaming subscription prices for new members
New Netflix subscribers will have to pay an extra dollar or two for the online video site's streaming services, according to company officials. Current subscribers will have a "generous time period" where prices will remain $7.99 per month, a price that was initially rolled out in 2010.

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"These changes will enable us to acquire more content and deliver an even better streaming experience," Netflix said in a shareholder quarterly letter. In addition, CEO Reed Hastings said increased prices is necessary to add more original programming, additional movies and TV series, though it seems unlikely many Netflix subscribers will resist the price hike.
The company added 4 million new customers during Q1, and surpassed $1 billion in quarterly revenue. Netflix now has 36 million subscribers in the U.S., with more than 48 million users worldwide.

Pirate Bay hits 10 million torrent milestone, proving its longevity
The Pirate Bay officially processed its 10 millionth torrent upload, a major milestone that even led site programmers to modify code to ensure an extra digit wouldn't wreak havoc. The current Pirate Bay database has more than 3 million torrents available for users to choose from, with duplicates, fake content, and piracy issues sometimes leading to torrents disappearing from the database.

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A pirated video from "InteimateLesbians" had the honorary distinction of being the 10 millionth upload on The Pirate Bay - and while not all uploaded content is still available - it's a tremendous milestone for a company that has been under intense copyright and public scrutiny for years.
The Pirate Bay currently has 10,000 uploads per day, and it will probably take less than two years to hit the 20 millionth upload milestone.

Fearing legal issues, The Sports Torrent Network has shuttered
A police warning has led to the closure of The Sports Torrent Network, a popular file sharing website with more than 20,000 members. TSTN often linked to soccer, NHL hockey, Formula 1 races, and other popular European sporting events, though didn't want to suffer the wrath of potential legal issues from the British government and copyright holders.

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In addition to thousands of dollars in fines, site operators also could have faced up to 10 years in prison if found guilty for copyright-related crimes.
"Pipcu has the lawful right to pursue action against you and against the thesportstorrentnetwork.co.uk website in order to prevent, detect and disrupt criminal activity," according to a warning issued by the City of London Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit.
Police authorities and copyright holders are targeting online video and torrent sites directly, instead of trying to drag individual users into court.

Toshiba debuts the world's fastest UHS-II microSD cards
Today, Toshiba announced the launch of the world's fastest microSD cards. The new Toshiba microSD UHS-II 32GB and 64GB microSD cards were built with 4K2K video in mind, and are capable of achieving maximum read speeds of up to 260MB/s and write speeds up to 240MB/S making them the fastest microSD cards on the planet.

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To gain maximum performance users will need to purchase the new UHS-II 32GB microSD card from Toshiba, with the larger 64GB card boasting a slower speed of 140MB/s read and 130MB/s write. None-the-less, these new UHS-II cards perform more than 2.7 times faster than their previous UHS-I counterparts. Toshiba says that it will begin shipping samples to smartphone and device manufacturers soon, and the retail launch will take place later this year.

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Researchers warn that military satellite systems at risk of hacking
Researchers have found severe vulnerabilities in satellite systems manufactured by some of the largest military contractors, which could lead to military operations being disrupted and interruption of flight-safety communications.

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The IOActive security consultant group found vulnerabilities in software and ground-based satellites made by US, UK, United Arab Emirates, and Japanese satellite manufacturers.
"CERT-UK is aware of the report and expects all vendors to work to patch security vulnerabilities they are informed of," according to a British cabinet office spokesperson in a statement to the Guardian. It is important that organizations know what technologies they use and check that they are updated regularly in order to receive critical security patches."
Earlier in the year, the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security and based at Carnegie Mellon University, noted a security vulnerability that could allow satellites to be exploited.

Ford shows off 2015 Mustang GT line lock feature
Ford is getting ready to launch the all-new 2015 Ford Mustang soon and this is one of the most significant redesign of the Pony car since it was introduced. For the first time, all models of the Mustang will have independent rear suspension. Ford is also giving the car some new tech on the inside as well.

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We know that the Mustang GT will have launch control to help people launch the car without excess wheel spin. We also know that the car will have the first factory line lock in the industry. A line lock is a feature that locks the front brakes of the car so the driver can do a burnout.

Line locks have been around for a long time, but typically, you have to add them in the aftermarket. Ford's tool will let the driver step on the brake pedal and only lock the front brakes when activated. The driver can then use the right foot for the throttle and do a burnout until the tires roast off the car if they want. Ford says that this feature is for the racetrack only, but you can bet it will be used for parking lot or driveway burnouts around the world.

Weibo reveals ASUS' Z97 Motherboard lineups
Information about ASUS motherboard with upcoming Intel Z97 Chipset was leaked in a China based website. According to the information, ASUS is preparing to release six new motherboards with LGA 1150 socket.

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The motherboard models are Maximus VII Hero, Maximus VII Gene, Z97 Sabertooth Mark 1, Z97 Deluxe, Z97-WS and Maximus VII Ranger.
The information also provides the specifications and features that ASUS have implemented on the respected models of the motherboards. As one would expect, the enthusiast class motherboards will be with an array of overclocking features.

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TweakTown image weibo_reveals_asus_z97_motherboard_lineups

The Maximus VII Hero has overclock buttons and has 3 PCIe 3.0 x16 which can perform in x16, x16, x8 bandwidth. Therefore's also 3 PCIe 3.0 x1 slots and a M.2 PCIe SSD interface. There is a total of 8 SATA 6Gb/s ports, a USB 3.0 header and 4 DIMM slots. It requires power from an 8 PIN connector for the CPU.

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The Maximus VII Gene is an m-ATX form-factor motherboard with up to two PCIe 3.0 x16 slots. In essence, its more of an m-ATX version of the Maximus VII Gene. There's also a third Maximus series motherboard with the Intel Z97 chip- The Maximus VII Ranger which will provide 'mid-range' offerings.
The Sabertooth Mark 1 will is paired with its TUF fortifier shielding and its trademark thermal armour plating.
The Z97 Deluxe is coming with a different gold tone, along with its array of implementations such as 16 Phase DIGI+ VRM, six SATA 6Gb/s ports, 1 SATA-Express port, one M.2 connector, dual gigabit ethernet, WLAN, USB 3.0 ports and three PCIe 3.0 x16 slots.
ASUS didn't give much information about the Z97-WS motherboard, but hopefully ASUS should be able to provide with all the required information about this motherboard and more about the rest of its lineups.

Samsung Galaxy S 5 available at MetroPCS without contract
Anyone looking for a new smartphone without having to get a contract may be familiar with MetroPCS. MetroPCS is a pre-paid carrier and it has monthly plans that are significantly cheaper than normal providers. MetroPCS has announced that it has now added the Samsung Galaxy S5 to its line of smartphone offerings.

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You have to buy the smartphone outright to begin with, and it's not cheap. The Galaxy S5 costs $649 plus tax. The upside is that you can cancel your plan anytime you want and service with unlimited talk, text, and data starts at $40 monthly.
If you have somehow missed the details of the Galaxy S5 smartphone, the device supports 4G LTE connectivity on the metroPCS network and has a 5.1-inch Super AMOLED screen. It also has a 2.5GHz quad-core processor and a 16MP front camera. The S5 also has a fingerprint scanner and integrated heart rate monitor.

Nokia and Microsoft to finalize acquisition deal on April 25th, 2014
In just four days, one of the biggest names in mobile communication will cease to exist as we know it for ever. Today Nokia announced that it would be finalizing the acquisition deal with Microsoft on April 25th. This deal began back in September of 2013 when Microsoft announced that it had begun the acquisition of Nokia's Devices and Services division for $7.2 billion, and would take over Nokia's mobile phone business in 2014.

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"The completion of this acquisition follows several months of planning and will mark a key step on the journey towards integration. This acquisition will help Microsoft accelerate innovation and market adoption for Windows Phones. In addition, we look forward to introducing the next billion customers to Microsoft services via Nokia mobile phones," Microsoft said in a statement.
Microsoft says that in the deal, it will acquire all of Nokia's Devices and Services division, the Nokia.com website, all of Nokia's social media assets, and Microsoft will take on all the employees in Nokia's Chief Technology Office as well as 21 employees in China. Microsoft will not take possession of Nokia's South Korean manufacturing facility though despite previous reporting that it would.

NASA SpaceX Dragon resupply mission to ISS launched Friday
NASA was set about this time last week to launch a resupply mission to the ISS with lots of supplies and scientific gear onboard. Among that scientific gear was the laser communications platform I mentioned before. Before the rocket carrying the Dragon capsule could launch, a leak was discovered that postponed the launch.

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NASA had hoped that the launch would take place last Friday, and it did. NASA has announced that nearly 2.5 tons of science investigations and cargo lifted off from Cap Canaveral Florida at 3:25pm EDT on Friday. The launch of the mission marked the third SpaceX cargo delivery to the ISS on its $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract.
NASA says that the cargo on the Dragon will support more than 150 experiments aboard the space station. One of the more notable items aboard the Dragon capsule was the legs for Robonaut. The Falcon rocket carrying the Dragon capsule jettisoned five small CubeSats on its way into orbit as part of a test for small and cheap satellites. Dragon will return to Earth on May 18 bringing with it 3500 pounds of science gear, tools, hardware, and crew supplies.

Goccia fitness tracker weighs a bit more than a penny
The Goccia fitness tracker is on Kickstarter right now trying to raise $50,000 to come to market. The project has raised over $48,000 so far with a few days to go before the project ends. The Goccia device is a wearable fitness tracker that is billed as the smallest and simplest out there.

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It is certainly small at about the diameter of a dime and a bit heavier than a penny. The small size means you don't have to wear it on your wrist like most fitness trackers. It can be worn on a sleeve or other location thanks to its small size.
Goccia is able to track multiple sports and changes modes automatically. It will work for walking, running, hiking, sleeping, biking and more. Goccia is waterproof and lasts up to two weeks per charge. It synchronizes data with a smartphone app when you lay the tracker on the front camera of your iPhone or iPad using LED transfer technology. It needs no Bluetooth to suck the battery down faster. It will cost you $60 to get a Goccia with delivery expected in May 2014.

Top 10 TweakTown News Stories from the past week [21 April 2014]
Here are our top 10 news posts from the past week!

Apple TV 1G iTunes connectivity issues reported
Reports are making the rounds that owners of the first generation Apple TV are having problems that are keeping them from connecting to iTunes. Users are reporting on the support forums for the device that performing standard fixes like reboots and restoring aren't fixing the connectivity issue.

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The issue started about the same time iPhone users on iOS 6 reported they could no longer access FaceTime. Apple's fix for that issue was to tell people top upgrade to a newer version of iOS. Apple has yet to say officially when or if the first generation Apple TV device will be fixed.
Speculation suggests that since the issue for the original Apple TV and the iOS 6 issue started at the same time, a common root cause for both problems may exist. Speculation also suggests that the issue has to do with Apple server updates to patch Heartbleed vulnerabilities. The original Apple TV hasn't been sold since 2010. Apple will almost certainly fix this issue rather than leave those who have purchased Apple TV set top boxes in the cold.

Take home a copy of Homefront in our latest Blu-ray giveaway
To celebrate this week's release of HomeFront 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 written by Sylvester Stallone boasts an all-star cast of Jason Statham, James Franco, Winona Ryder and Kate Bosworth.

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To go into the running to take one copy home, simply answer the movies tag lines question in 35 words or less:
How far would you go to protect your family?
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 25th. The total prize pool is approximately $199.75

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HomeFront is available on Blu-ray + UltraViolet, as well as DVD + UltraViolet combo pack from Australian retailers on April 23rd.

LinkedIn now has over 300 million members, mobile is important
LinkedIn continues to grow, where it has just announced a massive milestone: 300 million members. A more surprising nugget of news from the company is that most of this massive growth comes thanks to mobile.

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Mobile users are expected to represent 50% of all global traffic later this year, showing that mobile is unstoppable. LinkedIn took to its blog to show that members in regions like Costa Rica, Malaysia, Singapore, Sweden, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom already use the service more on their mobile devices, than they do on their desktops or notebooks.
Each and every day LinkedIn is seeing an average of 15 million profile views, 1.45 million job views, and 44,000 job applications throughout 200 countries on mobile alone. Out of the 300 million LinkedIn users, 100 million of those are based in the US. These figures represent registered users, and not monthly active users.
As of late 2013, there were 187 million monthly active users, so while this is a new milestone, it's not worth popping out the champagne and calling up Guinness World Book of Records.

Project M.A.R.V: The Multi-Rotor Aerial Reconnaissance Vehicle, Part 2

GPS Data Logging

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When I decided to build a multi-rotor, I knew I that I wanted to track its flight path, as I would be flying several hundred yards once I had the FPV setup going. I spent weeks searching for and reading up on small-scale GPS Data Loggers that were simple to use and easy to program. Then one day, I stumbled upon an article on Make.com that was exactly what I was looking for, and I had everything already on hand to build it.

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You might remember a review I did on the TinyCircuit's Arduino-compatible development kit a few months back. Turns out that the hardware used in the Make.com article utilized this same hardware, and was in fact, written by the founder of TinyCircuits. So with hardware in hand, and the code pre-existing, I had a quick head start to get this small sub-project off the ground.

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Included in the kit I received was a fully functional micro-GPS shield that was not much larger than a quarter, an SD card shield, and an Arduino. When stacked together, the entire package is about 1-inch cubed, which makes the stack the perfect size for attaching to RC aircraft. With everything I needed to develop my GPS logger, I sat down at my bench to get the party started.
The GPS data logging project I found on Make.com was designed to track the author's cat, but the code I needed to get my project off the ground would do the job whether it was tracking a cat or tracking the flight path of my quad copter.

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The TinyDuino series is pretty cool because you have a full Arduino Pro / Pro Mini packed onto a board the size of a quarter. I won't go into great detail about the boards and what makes them so special, but if you would like further information on them, check out the full overview I wrote that is located here on TweakTown. Below is a list of everything you need to create a simple GPS Data Logger of your own using the TinyCircuits hardware. You can find all of the code and needed files on the Github Repository I made for this sub-project. I will eventually update the QuadCopter repository to include these files as well.

TinyDuino
TinyShield microSD
TinyShield GPS
TinyShield USB & ICP
TinyDuino Mounting Kit
3D Printed Case
Code
Class 4 or higher 4GB microSD Card

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There really is not much to building the GPS Data Logger other than stacking the shields in the correct order, uploading the code to the Arduino, and then getting outside and logging some data. The stack should be built-in the following order. The bottom most board should be the TinyDuino, which should then be followed by the TinyShield microSD board. Up next would be the TinyShield GPS, which is followed by the TinyShield USB and ICP.

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I chose to power my GPS Logger using an 18650 powered USB cellphone charger instead of the CR2023 or JST methods that the TinyDuino also supports. If you chose to go this route, you will need to arrange your stack with the TinyShield USB & ICP board placed between the TinyDuino and TinyShield GPS; I chose this route because I had several spare USB cellphone chargers laying around.

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With everything stacked together, let's prepare the TinyDuino for coding. Plug a microUSB cable into the TinyShield USB & ICP board, then select the appropriate USB port that the TinyDuino is now connected to. Once the correct port has been selected, we need to set the Arduino IDE to recognize the correct Arduino-compatible board. Since we are using a TinyDuino, we need to select Arduino Pro or Pro Mini (3.3V, 8MHz) w/ ATmega328. Once finished, we should be ready to import some test code to the TinyDuino to test that everything is working correctly.
Before we upload any code, we will need to make a minor change to the SoftwareSerial library in the Arduino IDE. You will need to replace the SoftwareSerial.cpp and SoftwareSerial.h Library files with the ones found in the GitHub repo for this tutorial. Replacing the files is quite easy, and you simply need to navigate to Arduino>libraries>SoftwareSerial and rename the existing files to SoftwareSerial_cpp.bak and SoftwareSerial_h.bak and then download the new files into this directory.
Now that that is complete, let's upload some test code to make sure that everything was configured correctly and the TinyShield GPS module is sending raw NMEA data to the Tiny Duino. Upload the code that is embedded below (also found in the Git repo titled GPS_Test_Firmware.ino and then open the serial terminal in Arduino and set the baud rate to 9600. You should see some weird strings that look like the pasted code below the GPS Test Firmware code.

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TweakTown image project_m_a_r_v_the_multi_rotor_aerial_reconnaissance_vehicle_part_2

If the data that appears in the serial terminal does not look like this, then you will need to re-upload the SoftwareSerial files and upload the test code again.
Now that everything is working fine, we need to upload the actual GPS Data Logging code to the TinyDuino. I have pasted the code below, and remember to insert a properly formatted microSD (read how to do this here) card into the TinyShield microSD.

TweakTown image project_m_a_r_v_the_multi_rotor_aerial_reconnaissance_vehicle_part_2

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Top 10 TweakTown Content from the past week [21 April 2014]
Here are our top 10 articles, reviews and guides from the past week!

AMD Radeon R9 295X2 8GB and R9 290X 4GB Video Cards in CrossFireX

Introduction of the AMD Radeon R9 295X2 8GB and R9 290X 4GB in CrossFireX

TweakTown image amd_radeon_r9_295x2_8gb_and_r9_290x_4gb_video_cards_in_crossfirex

The other day, we got a chance to check out the brand new AMD Radeon R9 295X2 8GB, and found ourselves extremely impressed with what the company was offering us.
If you've got the money, want the power, and don't have an issue with dual-GPU setups, then the new R9 295X2 8GB is a video card that you're going to want. If the $1,500 setup wasn't enough for you, the $2,000 setup we've got on hand today might be just what you're after.
With our trusty AMD R9 295X2 8GB on hand, we've teamed it up with the much-loved HIS R9 290X 4GB to create a very mean and very expensive CrossFireX setup that should push out some serious performance. Due to the fact that we've already looked at both cards in a great amount of detail, we won't be covering the cards individually today.
Instead, we'll simply be moving on to our Test System Setup where we cover the cards in our graphs today alongside our test system equipment. More importantly, though, we'll also be taking a moment to look at GPU-Z to make sure everything is up and running as it should be.
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Top 10 TweakTown Press Releases from the past week [21 April 2014]
Here are our top 10 posted press releases from the past week!

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