IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 3/6/2015

Is this the most cute watercooling component you've ever seen?
Bitspower are once again in our spotlight, with Łukasz Płonka sharing his new project in progress on the Watercooled PC Facebook page.

This fancy photography shows off what is probably the cutest and also most beautiful water cooling components that I've ever seen. There's something about the dark metal contrasting with the crystal clear shell displaying a cool blue liquid interior that makes this something special.

We can't wait to see what Lukasz comes up with, stay tuned for updates as his build progresses.

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Aussie telco Telstra signs up Ikea and 7-11 owners in cloud deal
Dairy Farm Group is probably one of the largest companies you have never heard of, with 100,000 employees and 5,800 stores under their disposal across Asia including Ikea and 7-11 stores.

This deal will see Telstra "manage the storage, physical security, maintenance and connectivity of Dairy Farm's new SAP suite" as explained by The Australian. SAP is responsible for all human resources, payroll and financial applications just to name a few.

Telstra took over cloud storage for Dairy Farm Group's beauty stores in November 2014, however, this move sees them take on a much larger portion of the companies services.

With this deal set to begin next month, Telstra are looking at further expansion in taking control of their network and retail media solutions.


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Facebook fugitive troll finds himself in prison
Andrew Marcum was announced as wanted by the Butler Country Sherrif's office on their Facebook page recently, listing an extensive criminal history including "burglary / safe-cracking (a Felony 2). He's also been dabbling in abduction (F2), assault (M1), domestic violence (M1)" and more.

It seems Andrew was fairly happy with this post, seeing a reply from a Facebook account with the same name and photo stating "I ain't tripping half of them don't even know me." If you're not even sure what that means, it's ok because we don't either.

There hasn't been a solid confirmation as to if this account is real or a troll attempt, however Richard K. Jones from the police department tweeted a picture and said "Hey Andrew Marcum we've got your room ready..."

Soon after, another image was tweeted of the crook looking less than pleased with his efforts and plastered with the word "CAPTURED" across his chest as seen above.


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Bethesda announces Wolfenstein: The Old Blood for May 5, 2015
GDC 2015 - While the world thought that Bethesda would show off Fallout 4 at the Game Developers Conference, we didn't see it. Instead, they have just unveiled Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, with the first gameplay trailer available below.

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood is an "all-new standable prequel" to Wolfenstein: The New Order, and will be made available digitally on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC on May 5, for just $19.99. Wolfenstein: The Old Blood has players taking their hero BJ Blazkowicz "back to the year 1946 in an adventure that spans eight chapters and two interconnected stories (released together) that will lead into the events you know and love from The New Order".

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OSVR headset updated, now features 1080p OLED display and much more
GDC 2015 - The Razer-powered Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) headset has reached version 1.1, with the HDK 1.1 now featuring a low-latency 1080p OLED panel, as well as much more.

The new 1080p OLED panel provides "high-contrast, low-latency imagery within minimal motion blur" reports RoadtoVR. But the new headset is also capable of mirroring what the VR headset is rendering to another monitor, something that you can do with the Oculus Rift DK2 headset - but it doesn't always work perfectly with the DK2.

The new HDK 1.1 is also now capable of converting standard video to side-by-side format, so that you can watch it in VR, as well as doing so on-the-fly and streaming low-latency video signals, too. OSVR will be providing downloadable schematics on their website, something that can be printed and furnished with the right electronics.

The HDK itself will go on sale in June for $199.99.


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EA shuts down Maxis, the developer behind SimCity
Electronic Arts has been going through some serious tectonic shifts because of the issues that plagued SimCity since launch, where it has led to this moment: shutting the doors of Maxis, the developer who built the game.

EA has confirmed the news with Polygon, after reports surfaced from now-former employees of Maxis. Development on SimCity and The Sims will continue, but it'll happen in Redwood Shores, California; Salt Lake City; Helsinki; and Melbourne, Australia. The Maxis offices in Emeryville, California are being closed.

The company hasn't said how many employees will be let go, but longtime Maxis employee Guillaume Perre tweeted today that "it's time to turn off the lights and put the key under the door #RIPMaxisEmeryville".


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G.SKILL announces 'OC World Cup 2015' with over $16,000 in prizes
G.SKILL has announced its 2nd annual "OC World Cup 2015" overclocking competition, where there is a huge $16,200 up for grabs, which includes $10,000 in cash for the champion.

G.SKILL explains: "The OC World Cup 2015 is split into three rounds: Online Qualifier, Live Qualifier, and Grand Final. Live Qualifier and Grand Final will be held live at the G.SKILL booth during Computex 2015". The online qualifiers, which are the first stage of the competition, will take place on HWBOT between March 9 and April 13. There will be three benchmarks in this first round: SuperPI 32M, MaxxMem Read Bandwidth, and 3DMark Fire Strike Physics on specific hardware.

The top six from the first round of the competition will have the opportunity to enter the OC World Cup 2015 Live Qualifiers at Computex 2015, where they'll have the chance to win one of five prizes. The first of which is $10,000 in USD, but the rest of the prizes are not bad at all. Second place takes home $2500 USD and a 16GB kit of G.SKILL's 3300MHz DDR4 RAM, while third place takes home $1500 and a 16GB kit of G.SKILL's 3200MHz DDR4 RAM.

Fourth place secures themselves $1200 USD, while fifth place takes home $1000. All six of the OC World Cup 2015 Live Qualifiers will take home a kit of G.SKILL's Ripjaws 4 DDR4 3200MHz CL15 16GB RAM.


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ZOTAC unveils its 'SN970' Steam Machine at GDC 2015
GDC 2015 - ZOTAC was one of the first companies to unveil its Steam Machine at the Game Developers Conference, with its weirdly named, but very powerful 'SN970' making an appearance.

ZOTAC's SN970 gets its named from the GPU powering it, the GeForce GTX 970M, the mobile Maxwell GPU from NVIDIA. We have four HDMI 2.0 ports (yes, four!), an unspecified sixth-generation Intel processor, dual GbE, two USB 2.0 ports (with another two on the front) and two USB 3.0 ports. There's also an HDMI in port, as well as Wi-Fi 802.11ac.

Inside, we have 8GB of DDR3 SO-DIMM RAM, a 64GB M.2-based SSD and a 3.5-inch 1TB mechanical HDD. There's an SD card reader on the front, as well as a microphone and headphone port for audio. We'll see SteamOS preloaded onto the SN970, while the HDMI 2.0 ports can handle a huge 4K at 60Hz for those with the display or TV chops to handle it.

Right now there's no price or availability, but I'd dare say this would go on sale in November when Valve unleashes its Steam Machines into the living room.


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CliffyB: Valve's VR demo is 'pure magic', 'next level stuff' and more
GDC 2015 - Valve has been showing off its VR headset to various members of the press and industry, but ex Epic Games God and now boss of Boss Key Productions, Cliffy "CliffyB" Bleszinski, has used it and taken to Twitter with his impressions.

CliffyB had nothing but good things to say, where he tweeted: "Valve's VR demo is a religious experiecne. I was nearly in tears at one point. Pure magic. Next level stuff. Mind blown. Also, funny too". I don't think there's anything else to know at this point - but VR is going to really change things. For it to be referred to as a "religious experience" and that it's "pure magic" and "next level stuff" and that he had his "mind blown" we are beginning to turn the dial up on our excitement meter.


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EVGA, Inno3D reveal GeForce GTX 960 cards with 4GB of VRAM
Both EVGA and Inno3D have come out unveiling new GeForce GTX 960 video cards, with 4GB of VRAM. The full onslaught of GTX 960's so far have featured 2GB of framebuffer, but now we're seeing 4GB cards leak out of the cracks.

EVGA has unveiled its GeForce GTX 960 4GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+, which should act just as well as its awesome GTX 960 SuperSC ACX 2.0+ that had 2GB of VRAM, but now with much more performance for VRAM limited situations, like 4K gaming and VR.

Inno3D has also unveiled its new Inno3D GeForce GTX 960 4GB, which features the company's silent cooling technology, and much more. We've reached out to both companies to try and secure some samples immediately.


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MAINGEAR unveils its ultra-compact Steam Machine known as DRIFT
GDC 2015 - The Steam Machine flood is here, with MAINGEAR joining the party at GDC 2015 with its new 4K-capable DRIFT. The MAINGEAR DRIFT can be configured with some seriously delicious specifications, including the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 or AMD's Radeon R9 290X.

MAINGEAR has crafted the DRIFT in a beautiful Formula 1-like chassis, with a beautiful unibody that is "whisper quiet" thanks to the inclusion of an Epic 120 Liquid Cooling system and "superbly design airflow". MAINGEAR's CEO and founder, Wallace Santos, explains: "The DRIFT packs the muscle and performance of larger gaming desktop systems into a beautiful compact design that fits on your desk or coffee table. Valve's STEAM OS will bring PC quality gaming to any location and the DRIFT is the perfect way to deliver that experience".

Inside of the DRIFT we have up to 16GB of DDR3 RAM, up to 2TB of SSDs, and a 6TB mechanical HDD, and fully customized for everything in between. This includes up to Intel's Core i7-4790K CPU, and the latest and greatest in GPUs. The MAINGEAR DRIFT will start at $849, come pre-loaded with SteamOS, with the DRIFT Super Stock Edition arriving in an amazing bodyshell travel case that you can see above.


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NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X with 12GB RAM can be used in quad SLI
GDC 2015 - Earlier today we were introduced to the GeForce GTX Titan X from NVIDIA, its Maxwell-based card that features a gigantic 12GB of VRAM. We don't know much else about it other than it featuring 12GB of framebuffer and 8 billion transistors, until now.

Legit Reviews spotted NVIDIA's soon to be dominant card at the NVIDIA booth at GDC, housed inside of the beautiful In Win Tou Tempered Glass chassis, where they got a closer look at the GTX Titan X. Thanks to the closer look, we can see that the GTX Titan X is a dual-slot card with a 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe power connectors, and two SLI connectors that mean you could have four of these bad boys in SLI. Yes, four GTX Titan X cards in SLI, for a total of 48GB of VRAM.

With the GeForce GTX Titan Z on the market being a dual-GPU solution, the Titan X is 100% confirmed as a single GPU card which means the single GPU is using all of that 12GB framebuffer. With four of these in SLI, we will be seeing 12GB of VRAM used in total which is much better than the Titan Z, or even the Titan Black Edition cards which have 6GB per GPU.

On the back, we have the same video output as the current refernece, and most GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 980 cards: three DisplayPort outputs, one HDMI 2.0 port and a dual-link DVI port. We will have so much more to reveal on March 17 when NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference (GTC) 2015 kicks off in San Jose, California.

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Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook doesn't plan on developing a car
Facebook remains dedicated to developing social media and Internet access across the world, and won't try to deviate to car development, according to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

During a Q&A session during Mobile World Congress (MWC), Zuckerberg was asked if he had interest in other technologies, similar to Google's autonomous car and Apple's rumored vehicle development. However, the Silicon Valley billionaire said his company is "pretty focused" on current objectives, and straying to new projects isn't a priority.

Facebook wants to connect people across the world, and the company's objective is "pretty broad," using social networking, Internet.org to get more people connected, and further developing the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.


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Javelin Strategy: New identity fraud victim every two seconds in 2014
Criminals took $16 billion from 12.7 million US consumers last year, with a new identity fraud victim every two seconds, according to a new report from Javelin Strategy & Research. Two-thirds of identity fraud victims last year received notification that their personal information was compromised in a data breach, which took over headlines as major retailers were hit.

On the bright side, new account fraud, which is when a criminal opens up an account in a victim's name, dropped to a record low in 2014. In addition, new monitoring and protection systems saw the amount lost due to fraud dropping 11 percent year-over-year, from $18 billion in 2013 down to $16 billion in 2014.

"Despite the headlines, the occurrence of identity fraud hasn't changed much over the past year, and it is still a significant problem," said Al Pascual, director of fraud & security at Javelin Strategy & Research. "Consumers, financial institutions and retailers are all taking aggressive steps, yet we must remain vigilant. The criminals will continue to find new ways to commit fraud, so taking advantage of available technology and services to protect against, detect and resolve identity fraud is a must for all individuals and corporations."

Unfortunately, 64 percent of students say they are not very concerned about fraud - and are least likely to detect possible issues - and are the most severely impacted by fraud-related criminal behavior.


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AVADirect announce Omni VR desktop, for all things VR gaming
GDC 2015 - With all of the news of VR headsets and games, one can get lost in the reality of it all when it comes to purchasing a new PC that is ready for all things VR. This is where AVADirect's new Omni VR desktop comes into play.

AVADirect has announced the new Omni VR desktop, which is built from the ground up for the full virtual reality gaming experience. For those in the know, the Virtuix Omni is a VR treadmill that has you more in the game than ever before, with an AVA Omni VR Desktop Series PC powering it all. Thanks to AVADirect's "standard testing analyses" you can ensure that this system will meet any requirements you have for the virtual, and real worlds.

The new AVA Omni VR Desktop has been "engineered and designed specifically for the Virtuix Omni Gaming Platform", but that doesn't mean it's not one of the best systems you can buy for VR gaming. AVADirect has specifically chosen parts in the system that ensures you can play games at 1080p at a minimum of 75FPS thanks to the inclusion of an EVGA GeForce GTX 960 SuperSC ACX2.0+ video card.

The entire system can be configured to your liking, with the AVA Omni VR Desktop housed in the beautiful EVGA Hadron Air Black Mini Tower Case, which has an Omni etched side panel. Inside, we have a 500W PSU which will handle most configurations, and the EVGA Z97 Stinger Wi-Fi motherboard mixed with the Intel Core i5-4460 quad-core CPU which can be upgraded to the Core i7-4790. We have 8GB of RAM (upgradeable to 16GB) and the aforementioned GeForce GTX 960 from EVGA, which can be bumped up to the much more powerful EVGA GeForce GTX 980 SuperClocked ACX 2.0.

To be honest, I'm super impressed with what AVADirect has done here. They haven't just slapped together a PC with a video card that is capable of 1080p at 75FPS minimum, they have specifically chosen each part to match the other. Everything is mixed together in a green-and-black color scheme just like the Virtuix Omni, and NVIDIA hardware. On top of that, you're getting a stress-tested system that ensures ultimate stability, with a price that will not break that VR presence.

The AVA Omni VR Desktop starts at $1400 with the Core i5 processor and GeForce GTX 960, while it scales right up to $2400 with the Core i7 processor and GeForce GTX 980. The new AVA Omni VR Desktop systems are available right now, with the Virtuix Omni itself to be made available later in the year.


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Noontec Zoro II HD Foldable Headphones Review

Introduction

If you're often travelling on public transport or on the plane, it's likely that you have a pair of quality audio accessories that always make the trip with you. For those who aren't a fan of in-ear products and are looking for a little more extended comfort and extra noise-cancellation, Noontec has designed and released its Zoro II HD with you in mind.

The Zoro II is priced in the middle ground of most quality name-brand travel accessories, offering you general comforts like a handy fold-able design, detachable cable and leather to contact softly with your head.

Would I trust this product with my trusty ears on a train ride into university or long-haul flight to a technology expo? Well, I've already taken it on one of those things, so read on below.

Specifications

Featuring plush synthetic leather ear cups and a smooth thin leather headband, comfort is one of the first things that comes to mind when you're looking at something for travel. Weighing in at 5.7 ounces (164 grams), it's around half of what you would expect for general gamer-grade headsets - as most use on their home PCs.

Connected through a single and removable 3.5mm jack and cable (with in-built microphone), the 30mm drivers provide you with a 13~26,000 Hz frequency response, a 180 dB sensitivity at 1 Khz 1mW and a maximum power of 60mW.

The cable is long enough for most, rated at 1.2M, flat in design and feels rubberized. I haven't had any issues so far of the cable being hopelessly tangled when stored at home or in the carry bag.

The headphones claim to be noise cancelling, however, it seems that there is no active noise cancelling technology happening here, they're just able to clock out noise due to their on-ear design.

Pricing & Availability

Checking out Amazon, we found the Noontec Zoro II HD foldable headphones listed for #99.99 at the time of writing.

What's in the box?

Featuring the suede carry case, detachable 1.2m flat rubberized cable and user manual, once again, it's quite a simple package and is what you should expect for such an item.

The carry pouch feels nice and is quite soft, which will help keep the shiny headband and structure on this product clean, fresh and free of scratches. This is coupled with the great detachable cable - due to its flat design I've had no tangling issues when it's curled up and stored inside the bag.

The package is light and small, meaning when ordered online your shipping costs should be greatly reduced when compared to other products.

PRICING: You can find the Noontec ZORO II HD Headphones 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 Noontec ZORO II HD Headphones retails for $99.99 at Amazon.
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