IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 1/19/2015

Zuckerberg: VR still 'very rough,' but sees it as important trend
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg gambled on the future of virtual reality when Facebook purchased Oculus VR, and admits it will take time for VR to make a major impact. Facebook spent $2 billion to acquire Oculus VR last year, as the company continues to move forward with hardware development.

"It's extremely early stage and the early stuff is very rough still, but I think that's going to be a really important trend," Zuckerberg recently said regarding virtual reality and augmented reality, speaking during a question and answer session in Colombia.

Zuckerberg also believes VR could help eventually replace smartphones and PCs one day, though development will have to evolve. "We're really excited about that as well. We're building that with Oculus which I think is by far the leader in virtual reality and it's going to be very exciting to see how that develops."


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The Razer Hydra and the Oculus Rift have been combined for music
Bryon Mallett has designed something a little different to most current VR applications - he's combined the Razer Hydra sensor an Oculus Rift and some magnetic gloves in unison to help develop a fully-digital music composition device.

Through the utilization of Ableton Live, a popular music production program, Mallett has also fitted his magnetic cloves with bend sensors, meaning every surface displayed in his system is fully digital - enabling him to press buttons and turn nobs to finely tune his works of art.

Named Pensato, this new technology is based around the software's Session View, which is aimed at live performance. Not only can you push and twist as mentioned above, but Mallett has programmed in special gestures, enabling him to complete more complex tasks.

Unfortunately it's not perfect - yet. We're not quite in a Star Wars or Mass Effect 3D-imaging age just yet, however the potential, concept and backbone is there - we can't wait to see what can be developed when a team of highly-paid artist and coders get to work on projects like this.

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Aussies beware - CASA warns of drone rule reinforcement after debacle
Quadcopters are starting to hit the mainstream market in force, thanks to their recently lowered pricing, ease of flying for beginners and various camera opportunities including GoPro recording or First Person View (FPV) flying - as seen below mounted on normal two-winged, one propeller R/C aircraft.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has issued a warning this holiday season, stating on their Twitter that pilots should be aware that they must "remember to keep 30m away from vehicles, buildings & people." This comes after a Melbourne man ended up crashing his drone in the middle of a police operation and almost taking down an officer with it.

Little-known to most, if you're looking to use a quadcopter for commercial filming purposes, you must actually obtain an official license - with only a handful of people holding these nation-wide, so I'm told.

If you want to read up on the CASA rule-book, you can do so via their official website.

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GGF LAN took to the Lian Li DK-02 desk chassis
Stuffed full with a myriad of different technology brands all tied together with an awesome watercooling rigid tubing design, Stuart Tonks from GGF LAN has produced another beastly modded system. Set out in two parts, this Lian Li DK-02 desk chassis is once again, set to impress - fully featured on GGF's website along with a very cool loop filling video.

Packed with three ASUS GTX 780s, plenty of SSDs for quick-access storage and powered by a pair of Cooler Master V power supplies, the whole system is capped off by the Bitspower cooling system filled with red colored coolant.

Part A of the build contains:

Motherboard - ASUS Maximus VII Formula

CPU - Intel I7 4770k

Memory - 4x4GB Avexir Blitz 1.1 DDR3

SSD - 1x Kingston 120GB Fury HyperX SSD

SSD - ROG Raidr 240GB PCIE

GPU - 2x ASUS GTX 780 Poseidon

Case - Lian Li - DK-02

PSU - Cooler Master V1000

Cooling - Bitspower

Part B follows this up with:

Motherboard - ASUS Maximus 7 Impact

CPU - Intel I7 4770k

Memory - 2x4GB Kingston HyperX Beast 2133

SSD - 2x Kingston 120GB Fury HyperX SSD

GPU - ASUS GTX 780 Poseidon

Case - Lian Li - DK-02

PSU - Cooler Master V850

Cooling - Bitspower

Capped off with new ASUS ROG peripherals, Tonks and his team took this system down to PAX Australia 2014 to show off at the ASUS ROG booth.

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Ransomware attacks against Android devices jumped 75% in 2014
Malware threats continued to grow in 2014, and cybercriminals are working on developing new generations of mobile malware, according to Lookout Security. The company noted a whopping 75 percent jump in Android-based malware threats throughout the year, with criminals shifting focus from SMS scams to new ways to compromise users.

Cybercriminals have found ransomware, though harder to compromise victims, proves more valuable when it comes to return on investment (ROI). End users and business employees are desperate to regain access to compromised devices, so they are more likely to pay a ransom immediately.

Cybersecurity experts recommend mobile users install anti-virus and anti-malware software on their smartphones and tablets, along with being cautious when clicking links and installing apps from unknown sources.


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Microsoft excited to make Windows 10 a platform for gamers
Microsoft is really pushing the gaming side of its upcoming next-generation desktop OS, Windows 10, with a big event planned for January 21, just days away. During this event, Xbox boss Phil Spencer will be talking about Windows 10 and how it will be a platform for gamers.

Spencer said: "I'm excited to be talking on January 21st. We have speakers coming up talking about Windows 10 and the great work that we're doing there. For the Xbox team, this is the beginning of our discussion with fans about the work that we're doing to bring gaming to the Windows 10 operating system". We previously heard that Windows 10 would be more focused toward gamers, but we've heard that before, too.

Spencer continued, saying "It's really nice to finally be able to get to talk about this. We'll continue the conversation throughout the year. We remain committed to gaming on console, but we know that we have fans and gamers that also play on PC and phone, and it's important that we build out the features that we have, learning from what we've done on console, and helping make Windows 10 the best operating system we've ever created for gamers on PCs".

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Apple lied about defects in 2011 MacBook Pro according to lawsuit
According to a class action lawsuit against Apple, the company has tried to hide the issues with their 2011 MacBook Pro, something that is coming out because of the lawsuit.

Apple Insider is reporting details of the case, which is unearthing some interesting details that were otherwise hidden by the company. Law firm Whitfield, Bryson & Mason LLP said in a note "Specifically, we allege that between early- and late-2011, Apple released a software update that dramatically reduced the graphical performance of the GPUs in order to prevent them from reaching temperatures that would cause the GPUs to effectively self destruct".

The lawsuit itself has been expanded, with the firm stating that it has expanded to cover California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Puerto Rico and Vermont. Various members of the class action lawsuit have offered up their hardware for testing, with experts performing various tests on their faulty MacBook Pros. The company is expected to file a motion to dismiss the case on January 29, but Whitfield, Bryson & Mason will be responding with their own filing on March 5.

We should hear more about the case in early April, from Judge Edward J. Davila of the Northern District of California.


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Hackers List helps you search for your most suitable candidate
"It could be used for legitimate reasons, right?" was the first thought that went through my head when looking at this website - well that's apparently not the case. If you're looking to seek revenge or hold a grudge and have money to spend - Hackers List will enable you to list up your task and a price - helping you search for the most suitable hacker for your needs.

As described by the New York Times, there are potential clients on here including a Sweedish man offering up $2,000 for someone to hack into his landlord's website and even a lady from California ready to pony up $500 for someone to gain access to his Facebook and Gmail accounts - talk about a healthy relationship!

With over 500 jobs currently listed, everything is completed completely anonymously, with the website working as the 'middle man' when it comes to jobs, correspondence and payment.

Hackers List claims to be exempt from legal issues, claiming that it does not endorse nor condone illegal activities, further mentioning that a 10-page terms and conditions agreement must be accepted by users signing up - which mentioned that no illegal services should take place on their website.


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Facebook working on transcribing feature for Messenger
According to Facebook's David Marcus, it looks like a new voice transcription feature will soon be baked into Messenger. This new transcribing feature would take a sound clip that you either send or receive to a friend, and transcribes the content of the message into text, just below the voice clip.

Marcus has said that Facebook is testing the new transcribing feature on a very limited basis, explaining "Our plan is to test this feature at a tiny scale for now and we're looking forward to seeing what you think of it before making the experience more widely available". We should expect the new transcribing feature to roll out on Messenger sometime in the near future.


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Popular app and browser game Stick Cricket has changed for good
This brings me back to my high school days, playing Stick Cricket throughout my computing class while pretending to complete assignments. Well if you haven't kept up-to-date or have no idea what Stick Cricket is, you're in for an awakening. With over 28,000 followers on Twitter and over 15 million app downloads - this game which started out as a cool browser time-waster has become a rather large project.

It's basically a very simplistic and addictive way to play Cricket on your phone or PC, allowing simple controls for users to slog it out and take a break from their Candy Crush Saga addition. If you haven't heard, there was a tragedy recently in the Cricket world, seeing Aussie player Phillip Hughes cop a nasty hit to the back of a head while batting, courtesy of a 'bouncer' (a ball which was bowled and ended up around head height) and eventually saw his life support being switched off.

Stick Cricket decided to change their simple app to reflect respect towards this occurrence. Previously if a bouncer was missed, your character would be struck on the head, eventually falling onto the stump and classifying you as out. However due to this tragedy taking place, Stick Sports' Creative Director, Colin Rowe, has stated in an interview to News.com.au that "we felt that the landscape had changed," further adding "it was there for comedic value, and when we first made Stick Cricket, no one had ever died from a head blow in professional cricket, so we felt justified to add the comedy. It's sobering now and no longer funny, so we had a team meeting the day Phillip Hughes died and put plans to change the game with the very next update."

So what's the plan? Rowe has stated that the app will now see the ball soar over your head and off into the distance when a bouncer is mistimed, reflecting respect and sympathy towards the unfortunate event.

At this stage, this change has only been implemented in the Stick Cricket Premier League application, with other apps set to change in the near future. Unfortunately the browser addition will not change as it is now under control of a separate organization.


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NVIDIA GM200 spotted, is this the new GeForce GTX Titan II with 12GB?
We know it's coming, but NVIDIA hasn't confirmed anything just yet - but here it is, the GM200. If you didn't know, this is the fully unleashed Maxwell GPU, which should materialize into the GeForce GTX Titan II.

The GM200 engineering board (180-1G600-1102-A04)) will use a PG600 board according to VideoCardz, and features 24 of Hynix's H5GQ4H24MFR modules, clocked at 7GHz. We have a total of 12GB of VRAM, which indicates this will be a new Titan part, and not a normal GeForce GPU. We don't know if it will be the Titan Z II, Titan Ultra, Titan II, or something else entirely, but whatever it is... it's going to be awesome.

We can see the prototype board is missing the DVI port, but it features three DisplayPort outputs, and HDMI 2.0 just like the GTX 980 and GTX 970 cards. We should expect the full Maxwell card to feature 3072 CUDA cores, too. This card will be a monster, something I expect NVIDIA will unveil at GTC 2015 in March.


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Hackers attack Twitter accounts, state World War III is happening
Some hackers broke into the Twitter accounts of the New York Post and the United Press International, where they said that World War III had been declared by the Pope and that the United States and China were engaged in a serious military battle.

This was obviously a hoax, with both the UPI and New York Post stating their respective Twitter feeds had been hacked by 1PM on Friday, just as US President Barack Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron addressed the media about the concerns of cyber security, and the fact they need to increase their online defenses.

The news organizations' Twitter feeds were throwing out some really huge statements, saying that China condemning President Obama's "pivot to Asia" before firing on, and damaging the USS George Washington, which is an American aircraft carrier based in the Pacific. The hacked feeds were also spouting that the US were engaged in "active combat" against China in the South China Sea. One of the tweets read: "US Joint Chief of staff: USS George Washington damaged, US navy now engaged in active combat against Chinese vessels in South China sea". Another tweet said "JUST IN: Xi Jinping: Obama 'condemned' for Asia pivot, 'has forced China to protect its interests through military means".

The UPI had something a little different to say when their account was hacked, stating that Pope Francis had declared "World War III has begun". Quickly after they were posted, the tweets were deleted, with both news organizations acknowledging they had been hacked. Financial markets weren't affected thankfully, but the Navy did come out with a statement confirming that the USS George Washington had not been attacked. Spokesman for House Armed Services committee, John Noonan, said: "Give the hackers this much credit, the George Washington is our permanent Pacific based carrier. They at least did their homework".


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Over $3.3 trillion was generated by the mobile industry in 2014
We constantly hear of the mountains of money that mobile giants like Apple, Samsung, Qualcomm and more make, but what about the industry itself? According to a new report commissioned by Qualcomm from The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), we are getting a handle on just how much money the industry is generating.

In 2014 alone, the mobile industry generated a gigantic $3.3 trillion, with six of the 25 most valuable companies in the world - Alibaba, Apple, China Mobile, Facebook, Google and Verizon - earn revenue directly from mobile technology. But it's not just the big tech giants that are enjoying these returns, as mobile technology has created 11 million jobs in six countries that BCG studied. These countries are Brazil, China, Germany, India, South Korea and the United States.

The report also found that investments into infrastructure and technology hit $1.8 trillion between 2009 and 2013, and those who are involved in the mobile industry will continue to spend heavily into research and development, especially in areas like the titanic shift between 4G and 5G that is coming in the next few years. It's expected that companies will spend around $4 billion in R&D over the next five years alone.


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UPDATE: Hotline Miami 2 developers tell Aussies to pirate their game
In an official statement, Devolver Digital and Dennaton Games have publicly stated that "in response to the report itself, we are concerned and disappointed that a board of professionals tasked with evaluating and judging games fairly and honestly would stretch the facts to such a degree and issue a report that describes specific thrusting actions that are not simply present in the sequence in question and incorrectly portrays what was presented to them for review."

Unhappy with the Australian Classification Board and their decision to refuse Hotline Miami 2 classification in Australia, the Devolver Digital and Dennaton Games teams have pointed out misconceptions revolving around the apparently classification report. They state that "the opening cinematic that was first shown in June of 2013 has not changed in any way. We also want to make clear that players are given an choice at the start of the game as to whether they wish to avoid content that alludes to sexual violence. The sequence in question is presented below in context, both after choosing the uncut version of the game and after choosing to avoid content that alludes to sexual violence."

Not only is the public quite annoyed thanks to the boards standings, but it seems the developers are claiming fair-play was not on the agenda. It's been further noted that a Reddit user has captured a screenshot of an email sent from the co-creator of this title, Jonatan Söderströmm, in which he tells people to "just pirate is after release" if "it ends up not being released in Australia." He went on to state that there is "no need to send us (the developers) any money, just enjoy the game!."

Apparently the developers have no current plans to fight the classification ruling in Australia, so it looks like Aussies are going to start donning eye-patches very soon and start sailing the seven seas of the World Wide Web.


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Hotline Miami 2 is another additon to Australia's banned games list
Australian residents have been, once again, told to take a long walk off a short pier - with Hotline Miami's long-awaited sequel being refused classification in Australia due to sex and drug usage.

What does the Australian Classifications Board have to say for themselves?

The computer game is classified RC in accordance with the National Classification Code, Computer Games Table, 1. (a) as computer games that "depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that they should not be classified.

Numerous media outlets (including us) are trying to get our hands-on the official copy of the classification report to help you all stay a little more informed.

This is saddening news for the Australian gamer population, who have finally been granted R18+ game classification, but still see titles such as this banned in their country.

If you haven't played the original Hotline Miami, do yourself a favor and buy it now on steam for only $9.99.


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SanDisk CloudSpeed Eco 960GB Enterprise SSD Review

Introduction

SanDisk offers a complete range of storage offerings that span the entire range of flash products; from the highest capacity PCIe offerings on the market to the highest capacity 4TB SAS SSDs, SanDisk has the bases covered. SanDisk has also pioneered the fusion of flash storage and the low latency memory bus with their revolutionary ULLtraDIMM product, which is covered in our SanDisk ULLtraDIMM DDR3 400GB Enterprise SSD Review.

These high-end solutions provide bleeding edge performance through SAS, PCIe, and memory channels, but SanDisk also provides solutions for the ever-growing 6Gb/s SATA segment. SATA SSDs offer wide compatibility with existing infrastructure, and an economical price point. SanDisk's CloudSpeed SSDs address read-centric and mixed-use workloads with three different offerings. The CloudSpeed Ultra delivers three DWPD (Drive Write Per Day) for heavier workloads and a higher random write speed of 30,000 IOPS, and the CloudSpeed Ascend offers one DWPD with 14,000 IOPS of random write performance. Both of these upper-tier SATA SSDs utilize eMLC to deliver a five-year warranty period.

The CloudSpeed Eco we are evaluating today leverages standard consumer class MLC (cMLC) to deliver the lowest price point, and one DWPD of endurance for a three-year warranty period. The CloudSpeed Eco addresses web servers, web 2.0 content repositories, photo sharing, media streaming, and VOD applications.

The price-sensitive SATA SSD segment values endurance and reliability over raw performance, and the CloudSpeed Eco employs SanDisk's proprietary Guardian Technology Platform to provide power-loss protection, and end-to-end data path protection. The Eco also features a BER of one per 10^17, and a two-million hour MTBF. We take a closer look at the three components of Guardian Technology on the following page.

The 6Gb/s SATA CloudSpeed Eco leverages SanDisk's 19nm MLC NAND, and comes in capacities of 240, 480, and 960GB. Random and sequential read performance are crucial in the value segment, and the Eco delivers up to 80,000 random read IOPS and 475 MB/s of sequential read speed. Random write speed weighs in at 14,000 IOPS, and sequential write speeds reach 450 MB/s.

The Eco leverages the Marvell 9189 controller running proprietary SanDisk firmware featuring the Guardian Technology Platform, and 1GB of DDR3-1600 DRAM to deliver a consistent performance profile that offers excellent performance in RAID arrays. The Eco SSDs feature thermal monitoring, which throttles performance if the SSD exceeds the rated thermal envelope.

The CloudSpeed family has progressed through previous CloudSpeed 500 and CloudSpeed 1000E products to the three new models that provide a low price point. Let's take a closer look at the CloudSpeed Eco.

PRICING: You can find the SanDisk CloudSpeed Eco 960GB SSD 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 CloudSpeed Eco 960GB SSD retails for $995.00 at Amazon.
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