IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 9/29/2014

Sunday, September 28, 2014

IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 9/29/2014

TweakTown

2016 is 'year of the zettabyte', with 1ZB equal to ~1.1 trillion GB
Seagate's Twitter account just blasted something both truly exciting, and incredibly terrifying: the first real tease of the zettabyte. Seagate posted XO Communications' infographic on the Zettabyte, or ZB.

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To put things into perspective, 1ZB is around 1.1 trillion GB - yes, 1.1 trillion gigabytes. The infographic, above, says that according to Cisco's Visual Networking Index, the "world will cross the Zettabyte threshold of data transferred annually via the Internet by the end of 2016". To put things into an even scarier perspective, 1PB (Petabyte) is 1024TB (Terabyte), and 1EX (Exabyte) is 1024PB, so 1ZB is an insane 1024EB, which is just scary.
What is driving this Zettabyte amount of data? Internet video, with around 55% of Internet video expected to chew up 99% of all Internet traffic in 2016. The remaining 44% is split between web/data with 23%, and file sharing with 21%.

BlackBerry bounces back, posts better-than-expected Q2 results
The tubes of the Internet have been filled the new two new iPhones, #BendGate, the Galaxy Note 4 coming soon, and so much more in the mobile world, so BlackBerry doesn't get the headlines that its biggest competitors do.

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Well, the company has just posted better-than-expected Q2 results, but still managed to lose $207 million for the three-month period. Even with the huge loss, it's still an improvement from the previous quarter, where the company posted a loss of $965 million. After one-time items, such as charges for laying off employees and other restructuring efforts, the company said the loss was around $11 million, or $0.02 per share, beating Wall Street's forecast of $0.16 per share.
Revenue for Q2 sat at $916 million, which is represented as 46% hardware, 46% services and 8% in software and other revenue. During the three-month period, BlackBerry said it sold approximately 2.4 million smartphones to end users, which included shipments made, and recognized before Q2. BlackBerry's Executive Chairman and CEO, John Chen, said: "Our workforce restructuring is now complete, and we are focusing on revenue growth with judicious investments to further our leadership position in enterprise mobility and security".
The company has also seen an increased in its BlackBerry Messenger users, with the second quarter seeing 91 million monthly active BBM users, up from 85 million in the previous quarter. BlackBerry also used $36 million in cash during the quarter, compared to $255 million in the previous quarter, with cash holdings sitting nicely at $3.1 billion.

Samsung teases 3.2TB PCIe-based SSD, capable of 3GB/sec reads
The largest Samsung SSD available is sitting at a huge 1.6TB, but not anymore - the company has just unveiled its enterprise-class SM1715, which cranks this up to a gigantic 3.2TB.

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Samsung's new SM1715 SSD is a PCIe-based device, using a PCI Express 3.0 port, based on NVMe technology. The new drive also features Samsung's new 3D V-NAND technology, where storage chips are placed on top of one another, and not next to each other, with the storage chips connected through a very thin, high-speed connector called TSV, or Thru Silicon Via.
This new technology paves the way for increased read/writes, with sequential read speeds on the new SM1715 at a huge 3000MB/sec, or 3GB/sec and writes sitting at an equally-impressive 2200MB/sec, or 2.2GB/sec. Random read speeds on the drive are at 750,000 IOPS, while writes are at 130,000 IOPS. Samsung will also make the SM1715 available in 1.6TB, as well as the 3.2TB behemoth.

GoPro Hero4 Silver Edition to feature touch LCD on its back
We are getting closer to the rumored reveal of GoPro's next-gen Hero camera, with two versions to reportedly be unveiled soon: Hero4 Black, and Hero4 Silver Edition. The two cameras will have differences between them, with upgrades on their predecessor, and some downgrades, too.

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Starting with the Hero4 Silver Edition, which will sport a touch LCD on the back, which was previously an accessory you had to purchase separately. The sensor inside of the Hero4 Silver Edition is capable of shooting 4K video, or 3840x2160 at 15FPS, 2.7K at 30fps, 1440p at 48fps, 1080p at 60fps, 960p at 100fps, and 720p at 120fps. It will also take 12-megapixel still shots, and is waterproof at up to 40m (or 131 feet).

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The Hero4 Black Edition is pretty much the same, but it ditches the touch LCD on the back for upping its 4K shooting capabilities to 30FPS, up from 15FPS. With the rumored unveiling date of the new Hero4 cameras being October 8... the same date that HTC is said to be unveiling its new action camera.

Samsung has more staff than Apple, Microsoft and Google... combined
Most would think that Apple or Google would have the most employees under its belt, but it is Samsung, by a long shot. Ars Technica has compared Samsung's filing with it's biggest competitors - Apple, Google, Sony and Microsoft - to find that Samsung hires a mammoth number of people, even compared to its biggest competition.

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Samsung hires 275,133 people according to the report, while Sony comes the closest with 105,000 staff. Microsoft comes in third with 99,000 employees, Apple with 80,300 staff coming in fourth, and Google in at fifth with 47,756 employees. Ars Technica did a real deep dive into the filing, finding that Samsung had 40,506 software engineers as of 2013, which is a massive 45% increase over 2011.
Google on the other hand, has only 18,593 software engineers, which shouldn't surprise you. Google makes countless services which billions use, where Samsung may sell hundreds of millions of handsets and other devices, but most wouldn't know a piece of Samsung software apart from TouchWiz on an Android-based device.

Apple being sued for violating 13 of SanDisk's patents
Apple is being sued by two parties, Ireland's Longitude Licensing Ltd and Luxembourg's Longitude Flash Memory Systems S.a.r.l., with their joint patent infringement lawsuit against Apple alleging the company is in violation of 13 counts of patent infringement that cover virtually all of Apple's iDevices.

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The plaintiffs are using former SanDisk patents that they now hold, partnering up with Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc., to help them increase the value of their IP. The following Apple devices are included in the lawsuit: Apple iPad, Apple iPad 2, Apple iPad (3rd Generation), Apple iPad (4th Generation), Apple iPad Air, Apple iPad mini, Apple iPad mini with Retina display, Apple iPhone, Apple iPhone 3G, Apple iPhone 3GS, Apple iPhone 4, Apple iPhone 4S, Apple iPhone 5, Apple iPhone 5C, Apple iPhone 5S, iPod Touch 2G, iPod Touch 3G, iPod Touch 4G, and iPod Touch 5G".
The lawsuit itself involves the flash technology and memory on the massive list of iDevices, which could land Apple in some hot water. For the full legal mumbo-jumbo, Patently Apple has you covered.

Valve releases Steam Music Player, original soundtracks also available
Valve is moving more and more outside of your sole gaming PC, with the announcement of Steam Music Player for all Steam users. The company has also launched a new sale with six of its games in the Half-Life universe, and their original soundtracks.

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Steam Music Player was announced earlier this year, which allows gamers to use Steam to player music from their computer, playing their own tunes while gaming away. When it comes to the soundtracks for some of your Steam games, these albums will show up in the Steam Music library. Part of the Steam Music launch has Valve dropping 75% off of most of the titles in its Half-Life universe.
You can get 75% off the following Valve titles: Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal and Portal 2. Better yet, the soundtracks for all of those titles, and the one for Free to Play, which is the Valve-created DoTA 2 documentary, are all available for free. This offer expires on October 1 at 10AM PT.

Ryse: Son of Rome hits PC next month, loses its microtransactions
Ryse: Son of Rome was an Xbox One exclusive title from Crytek, the developer who made Crysis, are releasing the game on PC on October 10. Crytek have announced today that the PC version will ditch the microtransaction structure that it featured in the Xbox One version, which should please PC gamers.

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When Ryse launched on Xbox One, in-game microtransactions allowed gamers to boost their characters with in-game currency, something that could be achieved with playing the game more, or real-world money. Crytek has also said that the PC version of Ryse will feature all four DLC packs that were released as add-on content for the Xbox One version, which includes Survival mode, new multiplayer maps, and other bonuses.
Crytek are providing increased graphical options for Ryse on PC, as well as support for 4K. Ryse launches with Steamworks support on October 10, so we don't have long to wait, but are you interested in this gory hack-and-slash game from Crytek?

European airlines allow passengers to make in-flight phone calls
Passengers flying the European skies could very soon be able to use smartphones, tablets, and other portable electronic devices anytime while onboard a flight, according to new research guidelines. Individual airlines will be able to choose what type of devices can be used - based on aircraft type and other factors.

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"We're basically opening the door where, in theory, you'll be able to continue making your phone call through the gate throughout the flight... like you would on a train," said Ilias Maragakis, European Aviation Safety Agency spokeswoman.
There has been concern that using certain electronics would interfere with transmission signals, but airlines must certify that wouldn't be a problem. The EASA allowed devices to be on as long as they were switched to "airplane mode," but additional research indicated the rules could be altered even more.

Apple releases iOS 8.0.2, but some Australian users complain of issues
After apologizing to customers for releasing - and quickly pulling - the Apple iOS 8.0.1 update, the popular company has released iOS 8.0.2. The second firmware update for iOS 8 fixes problems users reported having when they upgraded their devices to 8.0.1, which was pulled very shortly after release earlier in the week.

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Despite the fix, some users in Australia are complaining of mobile connectivity and Touch ID problems - which are two problems the 8.0.2 update was supposed to fix for all users. Only time will tell if these issues are isolated to Australia, or if Apple has released another dud.
The iOS 8.0.2 update is available for iPhones dating back to iPhone 4s, along with tablets back to the iPad 2.

PSA: Only nine people have bent iPhone 6 Plus smartphones, says Apple
We've been all over the #BendGate issue with the bending, or warping iPhone 6 Plus smartphone from Apple, which is bending from sitting in consumers' pockets. But don't worry, Apple has now finally replied, saying that only nine people have contacted them with problematic iPhone 6 Plus'.

The Cupertino-based iGiant has said that their iPhones are designed, engineered and manufactured to be both beautiful, and sturdy. Both of the next-gen iPhones feature a precision engineered unibody enclosure that is constructed from machining a custom grade of 6000 series anodized aluminum, which is tempered for extra strength.
Apple continues its PR campaign against #BendGate, adding that its phones feature stainless steel and titanium inserts to reinforce high stress locations, as well as using the strongest glass in the smartphone industry - yet, it's not enough to stop bending iPhones. Apple adds that it chooses these high quality materials and construction methods very carefully for both their strengh, and durability. Apple also performs rigorous tests throughout the entire development cycle, which includes 3-point bending, pressure point cycling, sit, torsion and user studies.

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From the first six days on sale, Apple says that just nine consumers have contacted them about a bent iPhone 6 Plus, but the company failed to mention if they were doing anythign with the issue right now. With over 10 million new iPhones sold in the past week, we should be hearing about #BendGate, and not just a "we haven't heard many complaints, but this is how we make the iPhone" PR statements from the company.

Shamu poses for the camera, next-gen Nexus is a bigger Moto X
We're getting closer and closer to the reveal of the Android L-powered Nexus X, or Nexus 6, from Google, with the latest tease of the smartphone below.

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As it stands, it's known as Shamu, the codename for Google's new Nexus. It looks like a bigger Moto X smartphone, and even bigger than LG's 5.5-inch G3 smartphone. We have an LED flash ring on the rear, surrounding the sure-to-be-powerful rear-facing camera. We should expect it to be unveiled as the Nexus 6, featuring a 5.92-inch 2560x1440, or QHD display.

QuakeCon 2015 dated, will take place between July 23-26, 2015
Can you believe that next year marks the 20th anniversary of QuakeCon? QuakeCon 2015 has been officially announced, and will take place between July 23-26, 2015 at the Hilton Anatole, in Dallas, Texas.

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QuakeCon tickets are free once again, and will be made available at a later date. Bethesda bills the show as "North America's largest BYOC (Bring-Your-Own-Computer) LAN party" but there will also be other games previewed by the company, other activities, panels, tournaments, and more. At QuakeCon earlier this year, Bethesda showed off an exclusive look at the new Doom.

Samsung Gear VR's content will be controlled by Oculus
Samsung is soon to launch its Gear VR device, alongside the Galaxy Note 4 smartphone, but what about the software and games that will float onto Samsung's first VR device? That will be controlled by Oculus.

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First, you'll need the Galaxy Note 4 smartphone, followed by (of course) the Gear VR headset itself, and finally, in order to get it all working, the software will be coming from Oculus. Oculus' vice president for Mobile told Polygon: "On Gear VR, there will be an Oculus store and that's how you'll get Gear VR applications". This means that there is no way for developers to release games through the Google Play, or other Android stores for Gear VR. Cohen added: "No. You'll need to go through Oculus storefront for mobile VR".
While this might sound strange, it gives Oculus the control to keep the quality of the content at a much higher grade. Second, it provides Oculus, and Facebook, with profits from the sales, in the same way Valve takes a cut of profits from each game sold on Steam. Cohen added: "We'll have a lot more details about this later, but it's going to be something that's very developer friendly. Our goal is to be the platform, to provide the tools that developers need, and to bring the users in," he stated. "And that it will be as painless as we can make it".
Speaking of Valve, Oculus has hired Jason Holtman, who used to work for Valve on Steam, Cohen said: "He's learned a lot of great lessons, and he's brought them to Oculus to make sure developers are very happy".

Xbox One is bombing in Japan, sales are worse than Xbox 360 launch
Well, it looks like Microsoft isn't having the success it wanted to in Japan with the recent launch of its Xbox One console. In its first four days on sale, there were 25,674 consoles sold.

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Comparing this to the number of Xbox 360 consoles sold when it launched in 2005, which sold over 60,000 consoles in just two days. On its second week on sale, there were just 3,015 Xbox One consoles sold in Japan. Comparing this to the homegrown Sony PlayStation 3 and 4, the PS3 sold twice as many, while eight times as many PS4s were sold.

Samsung pulls laptop sales in Europe, including its Chromebooks
Samsung has withdrawn from the European laptop market, pulling its Ativ notebooks and Google Chrome-powered Chromebooks. Overall, the PC market has struggled as smartphones, tablets, and phablets take over - and the laptop market has also suffered. For Samsung, the company continues to have great success utilizing Google Android on its smartphones and tablets, which is where future focus will remain high.

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"We quickly adapt to market needs and demands," Samsung said in a statement. "In Europe, we will be discontinuing sales of laptops including Chromebooks for now. This is specific to the region - and is not necessarily reflective of conditions in other markets. We will continue to thoroughly evaluate market conditions and will make further adjustments to maintain our competitiveness in emerging PC categories."
Sony spun off its VAIO laptop business to completely separate itself from the declining sector.

Boston University preparing to develop cloud-based smart-city grid
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has given the Boston University Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering funding to help design a cloud-based "smart-city" platform. The so-called Smart-city Cloud-based Open Platform & Ecosystem (SCOPE) could one day help improve social services, transportation, energy, public safety, and other infrastructure for Boston residents.

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The state of Massachusetts has a large number of colleges and universities, along with a booming tech sector, which helps spur innovation. If successful, similar programs could be launched in major metropolitan areas throughout the United States, as cities, counties, and states try to operate on mismanaged - and sometimes out of control - budgets that only balloon further.
"The SCOPE project highlights the collaborative efforts between the state, industry and academia that help make Massachusetts the leading innovation state," said Governor Deval Patrick. "Through our Massachusetts Big Data Initiative, we've made open government a priority, opening data sets across multiple state agencies, improving access by researchers and the public."

Microsoft France President confirms Windows 9 unveiling next week
Microsoft is expected to announce Windows 9 during a September 30 press event, which was unexpectedly confirmed by Microsoft France President Alain Crozier during a recent speech to employees. A "Windows Technical Preview" should become available shortly after the event, with numerous leaked images and details about the not-so-secret OS already available.

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During the recent chat with employees, Crozier used the phrase "Windows 9" instead of the code word "Threshold" when discussing the upcoming OS.
Microsoft has an accelerated operating system roadmap, especially as users were unimpressed with Windows 8/8.1 - an operating system that was supposed to highlight touch capability - but instead left many users frustrated.

After years of problems, F-22 Raptor finally flying combat missions
As the United States continues another complicated military and political battle in the Middle East, the problem-plagued F-22 Raptor is seeing its first tour of combat. The radar-evading F-22 Raptor didn't conduct attack missions in Iraq or Afghanistan, but is now being used to conduct airstrikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) in Syria.

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The Lockheed Martin-developed aircraft is a single-seat fighter jet able to evade radar - but at a $190 million cost per aircraft, it's rather expensive - with almost 200 fighter jets manufactured. After years of budget problems and delays, including an oxygen-related issue in which pilots reported in-flight oxygen deprivation, the U.S. Air Force looks ahead to using the aircraft for future strikes.
"The flight of the F-22s delivered GPS-guided munitions, precision munitions targeting only the right side of the building," said Lt. Gen William Mayville, during a recent presentation how the aircraft is being used to fight ISIS terrorists in Syria. "And you can see that the control - the command and control center where it was located in the building was destroyed."

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Miss a car payment? Technology prevents drivers from moving vehicles
Much of the attention related to car technology is focused on in-car features to woo potential buyers - but not the technology that could prevent a vehicle from starting. A harsh lesson for those people late on car payments, as lenders are using technology to prevent vehicles from moving until payments are made.

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Subprime auto loans have increased over the past five years - 25 percent of car loans in 2013 were made to people with credit scores at or below 640 - so vehicle lease holders want to try to protect themselves if payments aren't made. The starter interrupt device provides lenders the ability to remotely disable locks, along with track vehicles via GPS.
However, customers have complained that their vehicles have been shut down for payments just a few days late - or randomly shut down while waiting in traffic - further igniting a car technology debate.

DirecTV shareholders support AT&T acquisition, as feds consider deal
Satellite provider DirecTV shareholders have reportedly agreed to an acquisition by AT&T, as 99 percent of votes from 77 percent of shareholders support the deal. The $49 billion mega deal will give AT&T an avenue to better compete against Verizon in paid television, with the deal expected to close sometime in Q1 or Q2 of 2015.

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"We appreciate DirecTV shareholders' approval and look forward to continuing our work with the various regulatory agencies reviewing the deal to gain their approval as well," an AT&T spokesperson recently noted.
AT&T already utilizes its own Uverse TV service, but DirecTV has a larger reach nationwide due to regional restrictions.

Polaroid going after GoPro with its $99 Cube HD-action video camera
Old-school camera company Polaroid has fought for relevance over the years, and has invested in research and development of modern technologies. The company hopes its Cube, a 1080p action sports video recording device with a $99 price tag available next month, will help spur interest in its porftfolio.

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"GoPro has done an incredible job building a new category in the digital imaging space," said Scott Hardy, Polaroid CEO, in a statement. "But when we look at that market, we think it can be much bigger by not just targeting the professional and amateur and aspirational thrill-seekers but going after more of the lifestyle."
For action sports participants, having something like a Polaroid Cube instead of a GoPro might not be the worst idea - and could help force GoPro to continue to innovate. The low price, half the price of the entry-level Hero3 device currently priced at $199.99 MSRP, should prove to be helpful.

War against cybercrime leads to boost in university research efforts
As the threat of organized cyberattacks continue to rise at a rapid pace, the fight to combat these types of costly cyber intrusions can be extremely difficult. Over the past five years alone, there have been more than 236 million reported data breaches suffered by companies.

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There are a growing number of university research labs focused on helping train the next generation of cybersecurity experts. Just one dozen colleges and universities currently provide degrees in cybersecurity, and the University of Southern Maine hopes to become lucky number 13.
"There is somebody trying to come over the wall in every business, every entity, every enterprise, every day," said Charles Largay, University of Southern Maine technology solution executive, in a recent interview. "We show them the kinds of things that people do to get ahold of critical information. Then you can defend against it. If you don't understand how it's happening, how do you stop it?"

Samsung advertises Galaxy Note Edge as 'Curved. Not bent' on Twitter
Samsung has finally come out with something on the whole #BendGate issue with Apple's new 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, taking to Twitter with a simple tweet teasing its Galaxy Note Edge, with the tagline: "Curved. Not bent. #GALAXYNoteEdge".

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It's a sweet piece of marketing, something that Samsung has jumped onto quite quickly. Not only is it able to take a stab at Apple over its bending iPhone, which I personally think Apple needs to address, now - it is also showing off its upcoming Galaxy Note Edge smartphone. Touche, Samsung, touche.

NVIDIA announces its beautiful new SLI LED bridges
If you're rocking an NVIDIA GeForce GTX SLI setup, what better way to make it stand out from the crowd than with the new SLI LED bridges that the company unveiled during its GAME24 event.

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The new SLI bridges come in three flavors: 2-way SLI, 2-way spaced SLI, and 3-way SLI. The 2-way SLI LED bridges are priced at $29.99, while the 3-way SLI bridge will set you back $39.99. The SLI bridges are designed to work with all modern GeForce GTX cards that support SLI. NVIDIA specifically mentions the following cards: GeForce GTX 770, GTX 780, GTX 780 Ti, GTX TITAN, GTX TITAN Black, GTX 970 and GTX 980.

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There's one big caveat though, NVIDIA has built these beautiful SLI bridges for reference GPUs, so they might not work on the crazy third-party cards. You'll need to make sure that your custom-cooled GeForce GTX card will work with these new bridges before jumping on-board.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) Cinema Movie Review

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

One of the more, shall we say, improbable franchises of all time, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles started out as a craze based off the back of a comic book in the late 1980s, spawning multiple TV shows, three live action movies, a CG animated movie, and billions in toys, video games, and lucrative licensing rights. Through it all, the franchise has exhibited exceedingly strong resilience, perhaps more so that it deserves. So what makes the franchise tick and more than twenty years five on, does it have what it takes to survive in the world of today?

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A dangerous gang known as the 'Foot Clan' is terrorising the citizens of New York, and intrepid, but unrespected reporter April O'Neil (Megan Fox) is attempting to blow the lid off the threat. But when she comes into contact with four turtles following a Foot Clan attack, she puts her job on the line to get past resistance from her higher up skeptics.
When O'Neil discovers she has more than a passing history with the turtles, she becomes a target for the Clan and its leader Shredder (Tohoru Masamune) who just might be in collusion with rich industrialist, masquerading as city hero, Eric Sacks (William Fichtner).

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Confession time. I was ready to pour the hate on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Pretty much all the promotional materials and every trailer I had seen was uninspiring at best and cringe inducing at worst. Plus the involvement of Michael Bay as the film's producer and the casting of Megan Fox as the savvy April O'Neil did nothing to help its own cause.
But, by the end Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had almost won me over. Almost. Don't get me wrong, it's the equivalent of cinematic belly button fluff and instantly forgettable, but throughout the mercifully brief (90 minute) run time, I was generally entertained, the 3D was generally good and I distinctly remember only wanting to stab myself in the face just once. Well, probably twice. But still.

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A far cry from the original 1990 motion picture (and especially its sequel The Secret of the Ooze - memories), the updated turtles are convincingly animated, with all the trimmings of modern day CG, even if the buffed up designs move precariously away from the classic models with non threateningly bulbous noses and wide set mouths. They spout the same goofy dialogue (although I don't remember it being so cringing), with the same surfer dude voices. The re-jigged origin story is borderline offensive to long term fans, but you need to keep in mind that the original was hardly Shakespeare. April O'Neil still wears a yellow jacket in a nod to the original, albeit suitably sexed up. So I guess the formula is mostly there.
Probably the character that fares the worst is Shredder. Far from being a scary villain, he's about as threatening as a paper cut, complete with a plot to bring evil to New York which is as ham fisted as anything Krang could come up with. That's a thought. Where is that brain in a jar? I guess they're keeping him for the sequel. Speaking of which...

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With the pronouncements of doom repeated loudly and often before release, the success of the film has already prompted Paramount and Nickelodeon Pictures to greenlight a sequel. Let's face it; I'll probably be there, if only to check its pulse. But to be honest I'd be just as keen to watch the original animated show on DVD on a lazy Sunday afternoon. But I guess it validates what Megan Fox about fans complaining, before turning up anyways. I guess that says a lot about modern day summer blockbusters, which are seemingly content to shoot for mediocrity. It might just get across the line but there's no escaping the fact that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is wholly mediocre. If it's any consolation, it could have been a lot worse.

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MSI GeForce GTX 980 4GB Twin Frozr V Gaming OCed Video Card Review

Introduction of the MSI GTX 980 4GB Twin Frozr V Gaming OC

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It doesn't matter what form it's in, we've been extremely impressed with NVIDIA's newly launched GTX 900 series. One model that really impressed us, though, was the MSI GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Gaming OC, thanks to its impressive performance right out of the box, and an even more impressive price point that it was launched at. I said that this card would be a real issue for AMD, and a week later, I continue to think that as AMD appears to stand still.
Outside of the reference GTX 980 4GB, I also had a chance to take a look at the ZOTAC AMP! Omega Edition, which carried a really nice overclock out of the box. Today we're looking at our second MSI GTX 900 based card in the form of the MSI GTX 980 4GB Twin Frozr V Gaming OC. Due to the fact we've already looked at quite a strong pre-overclocked card in the ZOTAC, I figured it was time to kick it up a notch and finally see what overclocking is like.
Since day one, the chatter about overclocking these new models has been exceptionally favorable. However, until today, outside of the out-of-the-box overclocks that both MSI and ZOTAC offered, I haven't had a chance to see just what kind of overclock could be achieved first-hand. Well, that is all about to change with this MSI card. With the help of our favorite overclocking software, MSI Afterburner, we will all be able to find out exactly how these new models overclock.
To date, this will probably be one of our fairest GTX 980 4GB reviews due to the fact the whole time we have been reviewing these models, the only R9 290X 4GB included in our charts was our heavily overclocked HIS. The HIS was overclocked via the same software and voltage bumps ability that will be granted here today with the MSI card. So, let's not delay any longer, and find out exactly what MSI has got going on here.

Package - What comes inside the box

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TweakTown image msi_geforce_gtx_980_4gb_twin_frozr_v_gaming_oced_video_card_review

Looking at the front of the box, you can see the design is pretty much identical to that of the GTX 970 version we looked at the other day. We've got the MSI, FNATIC, and G Series logos across the top, the model number in the middle, and some of the main features mentioned across the bottom. Of course, the big feature listed is that Twin Frozr V cooler. Here you can also see the card carries 4GB of GDDR5, and is an OC Edition card.
Turning the box over, you can see we've got a bit of a blurb across the top, but the majority of the highlights focus around the new Twin Frozr V cooler, which carries the upgraded Torx Fan, SuperSU Pipe, and Hybrid Frozr technology to make the card silent when possible. You can also see mention of the GAMING App, and some of the main features are listed across the bottom.

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Looking inside of the bundle, you can see the Quick User Guide, along with a leaflet on some of the other gaming series products offered by MSI. We've also got our standard Driver CD and DVI to VGA connector, along with a six-pin PCIe to eight-pin PCIe connector to round things off.
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4GB Video Cards in SLI

Introduction of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4GB in SLI

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To say that we're impressed with what the new GTX 900 series from NVIDIA would be an understatement. While the GTX 980 4GB did a fantastic job of impressing us with some fantastic performance at an aggressive price point, it was the MSI GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Gaming OC that really stood out, due to its performance at an even more impressive price point.
It's clear that NVIDIA know exactly what they want to do coming into the 2014 holiday season, and that is ultimately get your money. At launch, we got a pair of GTX 980 4GB cards that we had planned to run in SLI as quickly as possible. With a couple of retail versions coming in, though, and our first GTX 970 4GB in the form of the MSI we just mentioned, the SLI article had to take a back seat for a couple of days.
Having got those few cards out the way, it was time to finally throw the two cards together to see just what kind of performance we could get out. With a recent price drop to the AMD R9 295X2 8GB, the $1,000 market becomes a whole lot more interesting. The Radeon R9 295X2 8GB sees a price point of around $999, while a pair of GTX 980 4GB cards are going to cost you around the $1100 mark.
Since we've already looked at the GTX 980 4GB in detail and the fact that we're dealing with a reference card that has no bundle, we'll be going from here into our test system setup. The main thing we want to know, though, is that SLI is indeed working. So with everything said and done, let's get into it and see just what we've got on our hands here today with this $1100 setup.
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Seagate 6TB Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4 RAID Analysis

Introduction

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The continued data explosion has necessitated a mix of new and old technologies to address the increasing pressure on IT departments to handle a massive influx of data. Tape has spent fifty years in the datacenter, but it is still a mainstay for bulk backup of archival data. Moving data off to slow storage tiers is usually a good fit for cold and low-value data. Other, more unconventional methods, such as Blu-ray archival, have even made an appearance to provide economical archival storage alternatives.
Shuffling cold data off to slow archival tiers is an easy fix, but storing large amounts of active data has been the biggest challenge in the datacenter. Until recently, the rate of HDD capacity increases have slowed, leaving the undesirable option of simply continuing to scale up to meet storage demands. The 6TB Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4 (evaluated here) is a welcome sight for those facing the challenge of meeting the demand for increased data storage capability. Instead of scaling storage up by adding more racks of 4TB HDDs, administrators can now simply slip in new 6TB drives to realize an instant 50% capacity boost.
Storing data in parity RAID sets has only become more painful as HDD capacity has grown. Excessive rebuild times can drag into days, or even weeks in extreme cases, and can nearly mathematically assure the eventuality of a bit error during rebuild. The reality of scuttling entire arrays during rebuild led the exodus from RAID 5 to RAID 6. Unfortunately, both RAID techniques suffer performance penalties, and the extra layer of protection from RAID 6 only exacerbates performance issues.
A slew of innovative techniques have sprung up to ease the transition to larger volumes, among them object storage and advanced erasure coding. These innovative techniques represent the path forward for large capacity arrays, but the current implementations have performance implications of their own. There will be a slow uptake until more refined object storage and erasure coding techniques, such as SSD metadata caching, become mainstream. Object-storage Ethernet based-HDDs are also waiting in the wings, such as Seagate's Kinetic architecture, which offers the bonus of drive-to-drive data migration, among other benefits.
The Seagate v4 supports RAID Rebuild. RAID Rebuild is part of the SAS standard now supported by RAID controller vendors. RAID Rebuild enables communication between the drive and the RAID controller to perform surgical rebuilds in lieu of rebuilding the entire array. The enhanced speed of the Seagate v4 also helps speed the rebuild process.

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Another attractive feature of the Enterprise Capacity v4 is its conservative power specifications. The v4 remains very competitive on a Watts-per-TB basis, despite an incremental increase in power consumption. Keeping data readily accessible is always going to incur a TCO overhead, but enhanced sleep and idle states delivered via Seagate's PowerChoice Technology help minimize the blow for sporadic workloads. We will include more details about PowerChoice on the following page.
A simple eight-drive array can now offer an impressive 48TB of capacity, and the Seagate v4 is available in 6Gb/s SATA and 12Gb/s SAS versions to accommodate varying requirements. The challenges of parity-based RAID has led to increasing use of RAID 10 in the datacenter because it does not suffer the same rebuilding pains. Today we are forgoing presentation of the results of our RAID 5 testing, which was well within expectations, to highlight performance in RAID 10 and RAID 0 environments. Let's dive in, and take a look at the results of our testing.
PRICING: You can find the Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4 (6TB) 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 Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4 (6TB) retails for $472.49 at Amazon.
Canada: The Seagate Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4 (6TB) retails for CDN$730.97 at Amazon Canada.
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Audiofly AF180 In-Ear Monitors Headphone Review

Introduction

For those who aren't aware of Audiofly, it is a brand out of Australia that makes some seriously amazing headphones. The company works with musicians during the development of its products to ensure it meets the needs of those who are working on audio each and every day, to ensure its products are the absolute best they can be.
Audiofly mixes this top-of-the-line engineering with a classic design, for some beautiful headphones. The company has drivers that are customized for "insane detail" as it puts it, with super strong "CORDURA" fabric cables, hybrid speaker configurations for warmth and clarity, as well as clearer microphone technology.
The company is relatively new, being founded in 2011, but have quickly become a force to be reckoned with in the audio industry. When the company reached out to me about reviewing their flagship AF180 in-ear monitors, I wouldn't be able to resist myself.

Specifications, Pricing and Availability

The AF180 in-ear monitors are part of Audiofly's Performance Series, with three other models sitting beside them. Starting with the AF120, AF140 and the AF160, the AF180 is the pinnacle of Audiofly's in-ear monitors.

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Audiofly has engineered four armature drivers into the AF180s, something that the company says is "geared for unparalleled speed and clarity". The cable itself is something that I've never quite experienced before, and while I've had my fair share of braided cables, the materials that Audiofly have made the cable from is nothing short of amazing.
The company has a super light twisted cable with its CORDURA fabric which reinforce most of the cable. This means that you're not going to get a damaged cable after taking it around and using it for months and months on end.
When it comes to pricing, Audiofly are aiming for the true enthusiasts with its AF180s, with a price of $549.95 AUD. Audiofly sells its audio products throughout the world, but the AF180s aren't found everywhere. Amazon has the AF120 listed, but not the AF180s for example.

What's In The Box

When looking at the box, you know you have a quality device that you're about to use - especially when you've just slapped down $550 - but it's once the box is opened and you get into the goods that you know that you've got something truly amazing in your possession.

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TweakTown image audiofly_af180_in_ear_monitors_headphone_review

The front of the package shows off the AF180s, and that they are dual driver in-ear monitors. We have more information on the front, teasing that there is a leather storage wallet included, something we're going to take a look at shortly.

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There's a magnetic flap that keeps the front peeled to the box, but you can peel this back to reveal the inside of the packaging. On the left we have some information on the company, on the right, we have the Audiofly AF180s.

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A closer look at the package, where we can see the leather storage wallet, and the AF180s above it.

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Once everything is out of the package, we can see that we have some instructions, a manual, the AF180s and the high quality leather storage wallet.

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TweakTown image audiofly_af180_in_ear_monitors_headphone_review

Here we have a closer look at the leather storage wallet, which is nothing short of awesome. It feels great in the hand, looks high quality, and will keep your expensive AF180s nice and safe.

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Here we have a few up close and personal shots of the AF180s. The color scheme used by Audiofly is gorgeous, with a beautiful blue and black theme that really plays well with the design of the in-ear monitors.

TweakTown image audiofly_af180_in_ear_monitors_headphone_review

Here we have an up-close look at that super light twisted cable with its CORDURA fabric.

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TweakTown image audiofly_af180_in_ear_monitors_headphone_review

These final two shots are using the macro lens on my camera, to get an even closer look at the high-quality leather storage wallet that Audiofly includes in the packaging for the AF180s.
PRICING: You can find the Audiofly AF180 In-Ear Headphones (Stone Blue) 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 Audiofly AF180 In-Ear Headphones (Stone Blue) retails for $850.00 at Amazon.
Canada: The Audiofly AF180 In-Ear Headphones (Stone Blue) retails for CDN$785.43 at Amazon Canada.
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Alpenfoehn Brocken 2 CPU Cooler Review

Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

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While it may have made more sense to bring forth this cooler prior to the Brocken ECO, we chose to base order of review on an economic scale. Up to this point, Alpenfoehn has really impressed us with the value of their coolers, but today we move into a different league in three aspects of this latest cooler. First, there is a whole new level of "bling" to this design. There is also the fact that we have moved from 92mm and 120mm fans into 140mm fans with even more air flow. The third aspect is that we are now past that magic $50 mark that separates easily affordable, into a vast array of options in the $50-$79.99 range of coolers. With so many coolers already doing well in this price range, Alpenfoehn has a hard road ahead of them competing with similar coolers we have already tested over the years.
This cooler has a great pedigree that goes back to the original Brocken made back in 2009. This cooler we are about to see released around two years after the original Brocken, so it is a shame it took so long for us to get together with Alpenfoehn. Back when this cooler was released, the competition on the market was much less fierce, with the big players of that time being the Thermalright Silver Arrow, or something like the Thermaltake Frio Extreme. While we cannot go back in time and access all of these coolers for a grudge match, we can put it up against all of the coolers we have on our charts today. In doing so, we can see if all of these $100 cooler options are really worth it, or, as saw with our D-14 revisit, if things may not have changed that much at all in the last couple of years.
Today we will be looking at the Brocken 2 from Alpenfoehn. We are hoping to see a few things from the Brocken 2. First, we are hoping this cooler is quieter than our previous samples from Alpenfoehn. We are also hoping this cooler looks much more appealing to a more sophisticated build. Finally, if this cooler is such a huge seller for Alpenfoehn, performance has to be part of the equation as well. With how well the much smaller Brocken ECO cooled with 120mm fans, we do have high hopes for the Brocken 2. Let's hope the association between cost per cooler and increase in performance continues as we see Alpenfoehn's bestselling cooler fully exposed.

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While we do wish Alpenfoehn took a bit more time to list the specifications in a bit more detail, again they seem to cover the basics that most coolers are measured by in a customer's mind. First, we are given the in-house part number of the Brocken 2, and then we see the dimensions and weight. The dimensions of this cooler are 146mm of width, and 100mm of thickness, including the 25mm thick fan, and without adding in the curve of the fan frame, the Brocken 2 measures in at 163mm in height. We found the curve of the fan frame adds quite a bit of height to this cooler, in the magnitude of 20mm more height, due to the mounting hardware. Going a bit deeper than that, we found forty-six 0.30mm thick aluminum fins in two sections that are both capped with a 0.90mm thick nickel plated aluminum top plate. The remainder of the fins are left in their natural aluminum state. This cooler pulls the heat from the base via five 6mm diameter heat pipes that use the same Gapless H.D.C. layout as the ECO showed us, and has the fin stacks pressed onto the nickel plated heat pipes. Then, the fan (or fans) are employed to remove the heat from the cooler stacks.
Speaking of the fan(s), the Brocken 2 comes with a more generic looking Wing Boost 2 140mm fan. This is a much slower fan, which produces a maximum of 1100 RPM, and 109 cubic meters of air per hour. Converting that over to CFM, we find that this fan will push 62.4CFM of air flow, which is not too bad at all for cooling a fin stack of this size and density. We were also sent the retail version of this fan, which does differ slightly in appearance from the fan included with the Brocken 2, but shares all the same fan speed and performance specifications as the one in the box. The inclusion of this second fan will allow us to see the out of the box performance of this cooler, and also test it in a push/pull configuration. This should give us a good idea of what the Brocken 2 is fully capable of.
Of course, just like the previous two samples from Alpenfoehn, the Brocken 2 is not available on this side of the pond. Searching for it on the other side of the pond is very successful actually, and we found it listed and ready to ship there for the price of £38.99, which is not that bad of a price. For those of you without a currency calculator, that is roughly $65 U.S. dollars to obtain the Brocken 2. On paper, we hope to find ourselves very pleased with the level of performance we should get; however, sometimes things don't play out as well as you had hoped. This may be just one of those instances, so read on to find out.
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Sharkoon Announces Skiller PRO Gaming Keyboard
Sharkoon launched the Skiller PRO gaming keyboard. The Skiller PRO Illuminated Gaming Keyboard is the latest version of our popular Skiller keyboard and offers in the Pro version even more features for gamers. The blue illuminated keyboard in a 3-block standard layout, including multi-key rollover support, also offers six macro, three profile as well as nine multimedia keys. The stabile keyboard has a weight of about 888 grams; the lifetime of the keys is over 10 million keystokes.

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TweakTown image sharkoon_announces_skiller_pro_gaming_keyboard

With the included software individual programming of the keys can be easily made. For example, macros, macro-loops, keystrokes, delay times as well as media, internet and mouse functions can all be used. Furthermore, the Windows key can be disabled and the functions of the WASD keys can be interchanged with the arrow keys. Planned actions can be performed in the game even faster through the conveniently accessible macro key. Programming is very easy and thanks to the on-board memory individual settings can be used on any PC system. In addition, three individual profiles can be stored in the keyboard and each can be activated by a special key. Also customizable is the backlight illumination: By 10 percent increments up to the maximum brightness, breathing mode or completely deactivated. A total of nine multimedia keys provide a more comfortable use of various Windows functions, such as volume control or play/pause.

TweakTown image sharkoon_announces_skiller_pro_gaming_keyboard

TweakTown image sharkoon_announces_skiller_pro_gaming_keyboard

The keyboard connects via its 150 cm long, textile sheathed cable with a gold-plated USB plug. Packaging includes a set of anti-sliding rubber stands.
End customers will find the Sharkoon Skiller PRO Illuminated Gaming Keyboard available for the suggested retail price of 26.99 euros from authorized retailers.

Samsung Starts Producing 3.2-Terabyte NVMe SSD Based on 3D V-NAND
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has started mass producing 3.2-terabyte (TB) NVMe* PCIe solid state drives (SSDs) based on its 3D V-NAND (Vertical NAND) flash memory technology, for use in high-end enterprise server systems. The new NVMe PCIe SSD, SM1715, utilizes Samsung's proprietary 3D V-NAND in an HHHL (half-height, half-length) card-type form factor, to offer 3.2TB of storage capacity -- doubling Samsung's previous highest NVMe SSD density of 1.6TB.

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"Beginning with mass production of this new V-NAND-based NVMe SSD, which delivers the highest level of performance and density available today, we expect to greatly expand the high-density SSD market," said Jeeho Baek, Vice President, Memory Marketing, Samsung Electronics. "Samsung plans to actively introduce V-NAND-based SSDs with even higher performance, density and reliability in the future, to keep its global customers ahead of their competition."
The SM1715 is an upgraded version of Samsung's XS1715 in terms of drive performance and reliability. That 2.5-inch XS1715 was bestowed a 2014 Flash Memory Summit Best of Show Award earlier this year for being one of the Most Innovative Flash Memory technologies.
The newly introduced 3.2TB NVMe SSD provides a sequential read speed of 3,000 megabytes per second (MB/s) and writes sequentially at up to 2,200MB/s. It also randomly reads at up to 750,000 IOPS (input output operations per second) and writes randomly at up to 130,000 IOPS.
In addition, the 3.2TB SM1715 features outstanding reliability with 10 DWPDs (drive writes per day) for five years. This provides a level of reliability that enterprise server manufacturers have been requesting for their high-end storage solutions.
The SM1715 comes in 1.6TB and 3.2TB versions, adding more NVMe options to a 2.5-inch NVMe XS1715 lineup that includes 800GB and 1.6TB versions.
Since 2013, Samsung has introduced a range of industry-first 3D V-NAND-based SATA SSDs for PCs and data centers. Now, it is rolling out the SM1715 to accelerate the transition to the NVMe interface in the premium server sector, while expanding its 3D V-NAND SSD business to offer drives with more than 3TB of storage.

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