IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 4/18/2015

Last Chance to Grab The Bluetooth Feather Earbuds For $24.99

Tangled headphone rage is real. But now you can quit your support group-we're offering tangle-free Bluetooth Feather earbuds for 58% off.

Compatible with any Bluetooth device, the Feather earbuds offer three gelled sizes and optional ear hooks ensure they stay put, while the noise-canceling outer shell makes it easy to block out that co-worker who's always mumbling to himself. Plus, with the built-in mic and call-answering functionality, you can quickly switch from your workout mix to the phone calls which can't wait.

This deal's almost gone-head over to TweakTown Deals now to get the Bluetooth Feather Earbuds for 58% off.


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Cybersecurity expert applauds work done by ethical hackers
Most headlines featuring hackers tend to focus on cybercriminals trying to breach security protocols for criminal gain - but there is a growing effort to support "white hat" hackers working in an ethnical manner to find security bugs.

"There are actually a lot of good hackers out there that are revealing vulnerabilities and bugs in technology that we all rely on," said Keren Elazari, analyst for GigaOM Research, while speaking during the Atlantic Security Conference, in a statement to CBC's "Mainstreet" program. "A lot of companies are still kind of reluctant to open their doors to hackers... that's something I'm trying to change."

Google, Facebook, Tesla, and other companies rely on so-called "bug bounty" programs that provide cash and other incentives for coders. It can be difficult for internal programmers to try to work out bugs and vulnerabilities in their own software, so having outside help can be critical.


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Gartner: Security analytics could be crucial for breach detection
Even with companies spending more on cybersecurity efforts, data security breaches are at an all-time high, the Gartner research group recently said.

However, these high-profile breaches are finally sounding alarm bells among C-level executives - and they may be desperate to spend money - but aren't really sure what they are buying and trying to implement.

The number of security information and event management (SIEM) solutions leads the way in regard to cybersecurity, collecting, saving and analyzing security data. However, trying to sort through all of that data remains rather confusing, but security analytics technology is maturing.

"Breach detection is top of mind for security buyers and the field of security technologies claiming to find breaches or detect advanced attacks is at an all-time noise level," said Eric Ahlm, research director at Gartner. "Security analytics platforms endeavor to bring situational awareness to security events by gathering and analyzing a broader set of data, such that the events that pose the greatest harm to an organization are found and prioritized with greater accuracy."


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Former Canadian spy boss says cyberattacks are a 'weapon of war'
Cybersecurity is a complicated issue that has serious ramifications for the United States and other countries that aren't focusing enough attention on the matter. More national governments are developing programs to attack political rivals, in an effort to steal information and cause data breaches.

"Cyber is a weapon of war," said Ray Boisvert, former head of intelligence for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), in a statement to The Register. "The NASDAQ and Home Depot hacks are examples of this."

There are around 60 countries involved in various forms of cyberespionage, including terrorist groups like Hezbollah, according to US assistant secretary of defense for Homeland Defense and Global Security, Eric Rosenbach. Boisvert thinks that number is accurate, though much of the attention is focused on Russia and China.

Using various forms of cyberattacks to compromise private sector companies and government agencies won't go away, and many cybersecurity experts only expect the problem to get worse.


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AMD says it'll reveal its next-gen video cards next month
We have previously reported that AMD would be unveiling its next generation GPUs in Q2 2015, which ends on May 31st, but we've just heard some news during AMD's Q1 2015 conference call directly from AMD CEO Lisa Su herself.

During the call, Su said that AMD will talk about their upcoming graphics products launches "later this quarter", with Su reiterating that the company "would like to see some regain of share in both the desktop and the notebook business". As for AMD's plans for 2H 2015, Su had the following to say: "In the second half of the year, I think we would like to see our products take a strong position as well as hopefully the market gets stronger as well".


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Cyanogen and Microsoft announce a strategic partnership
Cyanogen has announced a new strategic partnership with Microsoft, something that would see the company "integrate popular Microsoft services across the Cyanogen Operating System".

The new partnership will see Cyanogen integrating and distributing Microsoft's consumer apps and services "across core categories, including productivity, messaging, utilities, and cloud-based services". The press release adds "As part of this collaboration, Microsoft will create native integrations on Cyanogen OS, enabling a powerful new class of experiences".

Cyanogen's CEO, Kirt McMaster, said: "People around the world use Cyanogen's operating system and popular Microsoft services to engage with what matters most to them on their mobile devices. This exciting partnership with Microsoft will enable us to bring new kinds of integrated services to mobile users in markets around the world".

Peggy Johnson, Executive Vice President of Microsoft, said: "We aspire to have our tools within arm's reach of everyone, to empower them in all aspects of their lives. This partnership represents another important step towards that ambition. We'll continue to deliver world-class experiences across productivity and communications on Windows, and we're delighted that Cyanogen users will soon be able to take advantage of those same powerful services".


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GTA V maxed out on triple 4K monitors requires 14GB of VRAM
Exclusive: We are knee deep in our benchmarking of Grand Theft Auto V, where we've benchmarked it on various VGA cards at 1920x1080 (1080p), 2560x1440 (1440p), 3840x2160 (4K) and even 6480x3840 (triple 4K).

During our testing, we were pushing our VRAM usage up to around 7GB or so, but it was when we had our triple Acer XB280HK monitors in NVIDIA's 4K Surround that we saw something that had our jaws drop: 14GB of VRAM was being used. Yes, Grand Theft Auto V at maxed settings at 6480x3840 with anti-aliasing enabled has the game using 14GB of VRAM, and beyond.


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CD Projekt Red announces that The Witcher 3 has gone gold
CD Projekt Red has announced that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has gone gold, with the finished code being sent off for mass manufacturing for retail copies of the game.

Adam Badowski, CD Projekt Red's boss said: "We worked so damn hard over the past three years to bring you this game. From the corrupt nobles in Novigrad to ancient monsters lurking in deep forests, to the bustling cities, colorful ports and breathtaking vistas; all the people, all the places -- we literally spent tens of thousands of hours to turn all that into an adventure that will kick your ass and make you want to come for more. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has gone gold and will soon be yours".

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be released on May 19 for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.


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Grand Theft Auto V has hacked VR support for the Oculus Rift
Grand Theft Auto V has been out for just a few days now, and there's already some hacks out there that let Rockstar Games' open world title work on the Oculus Rift.

Official VR support is nowhere to be seen, but someone has played through a bike race in GTA V on the Oculus Rift DK2 headset with surprising results, as you can see above. In order to get it to work, you're going to need the Oculus Rift DK2 headset, vorpX, and of course - Grand Theft Auto V.

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F1 2015: 1080p on the PS4, 900p on the Xbox One, 4K and beyond for PC
We heard about F1 2015 when we reported on DiRT 4 yesterday, but it has been confirmed that F1 2015 will be spinning its tires on the PS4 at 1080p, and the Xbox One at 900p, both at 60FPS.

With F1 2015 being designed exclusively for the current generation consoles, it has allowed the studio to utilize the new graphics engine and handling model with much higher levels of detail. The visual side of the new graphics engine has been improved dramatically over the previous generation engine, thanks to the increased horsepower in the Xbox One and PS4.

Codemasters has teased: "F1 2015 marks an exciting new chapter for Codemasters and FORMULA ONE; it's a shift in direction for the game series, on new formats and our brand new game engine, with the game set to be released earlier in the season, launching this June". The studio continued: "The handling is a vast improvement from our previous games. In particular our new tyre model is a superb step forward towards realism, letting you explore where the limit is and allowing you to instantly feel much more connected with the car. You can now experience the changes in grip caused by temperature changes, wear, car set-up, debris and weather conditions".

If that wasn't enough for you to hit the 'buy' button, this last bit will help: "Our improved vehicle dynamics much more accurately convey the difference in performance and the feel between mechanical and aerodynamic grip. The new Force Feedback system adds to the feeling of connection with the car and track surface. The more natural and realistic nature of the game physics also serves to ensure that the racing experience is more accessible, enjoyable and rewarding for players of all skill levels".


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You can now find your Android smartphone by searching for it on Google
With Android Device Manager already being a great tool for Android users in the case of losing their smartphone, Google has gone a few steps further. While Android Device Manager lets you remotely lock the thief out of your device, or even erase information remotely, things have gotten better.

Google has now introduced a new "find my phone" feature that allows you to look for your smartphone directly from the Google search bar. All you have to do is type in "find my phone" into any Google search bar, and it will bring up a map, and display the last known location of your smartphone.

The Mountain View-based search giant has said that this new "find my phone" feature is aimed towards finding your phone when you've only lost it somewhere close, or when you've left it in the car, or at work. The new find my phone feature doesn't have the abilities of wiping or locking your device, but it's a nice convenient step by utilizing the power of the Google search bar.

I've just tested it now, and it works perfectly. Thanks, Google.


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Star Wars: Battlefront rumored for November on Xbox One, PS4, and PC
We heard previous rumblings about a November release window for Star Wars: Battlefront, to coincide with the cinema release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but it looks like November 17 might be the day.

According to Polygon's sources, we can expect Star Wars: Battlefront to be released on November 17, but we'll find out more information tomorrow at 1:30pm ET during the Star Wars Celebration that is still rocking along in Anaheim, California. EA has teased that gamers can expect more on Battlefront at that time, but someone has spotted the source code on the news page for the official site, which has gamers excited.

The source code teases: "The latest news and updates for Star WarsTM Battlefront . Available November 17, 2015 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC".


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Project Cars locked in for May 8 on Xbox One, PS4 and PC
After what feels like 50 delays, Slightly Mad Studios has announced that it will be releasing Project Cars on May 8. The studio had pushed it from April to mid-May, but now we have a solid release date.

Polygon reached out to Bandai Namco's US representatives to see which region the May 8 release date applies to, but they haven't heard back yet. With an original release date of November 2014, it was pushed into 2014, then into April, and then again into mid-May. With a May 8 release date, we are getting excited as that is only two weeks away.


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NPD: Smartwatch ownership will start to pressure fitness trackers
In the United States, smartwatch ownership will reach nine percent of adults by 2016, putting increased pressure on fitness activity trackers, according to The NPD Group. Activity tracker ownership will peak at 32 million users by the end of 2016, after four years of significant growth.

"The smartwatch will clearly begin to take a bite out of the activity tracker market moving forward," said Eddie Hold, VP of Connected Intelligence at The NPD Group. "The fact that the health and fitness apps on smartwatches are a key marketing focus will help draw consumers away from the simpler trackers."

A whopping 40 percent of fitness tracker owners stop using their selected device within six months - and with the rise of the smartwatch - will force a drastic evolution of fitness trackers.

As previously noted before, now it's up to wearable makers and software designers to create appealing apps for the growing number of smartwatches and fitness trackers. "While all of these new products will definitely help drive demand, the real test will be the apps for the smartwatches. There will definitely be a demand for these devices and the use-case will follow, but smartwatch manufacturers and app developers need to make these products 'need to haves' rather than 'nice to haves.'"


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Netflix adds 4.88M subscribers in Q1, surpassing its own expectations
Netflix is generating success from its original content and an international expansion, as the online video service added 4.88 million subscribers during Q1. The Silicon Valley company estimated it would add 4 million subscribers during the first three months - with 2.6 million subscribers from international markets.

Netflix now has 62.3 million subscribers, racking up more than 10 billion hours of online videos consumed during Q1 this year. More than 50 countries can now access Netflix, including high-profile launches in Australia and New Zealand, where Netflix plans to continue adding users.

"Our original content strategy is playing out as we hoped, driving lots of viewing in an economic way for Netflix while bolstering the positive perception of our brand and service around the world," Netflix said in a letter to shareholders.


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InWin D-Frame Mini Mini-ITX Tower Chassis Review

Introduction, Specifications and Pricing

We just had a look at what a more typical chassis from InWin these days, the 707. While in no way a failure, when compared to cases like we are about to see today, the 707 is just not of this caliber. What brings us all together today is another of InWin's PC cases slash artworks that have been all the rage, and are the go to chassis to house your components in on the show floor at all of the events. This is because InWin is the only company out there willing to play around in the open air category of cases. Doing so and allowing designers plenty of leeway when it comes to aesthetics, they have developed some great ideas along the way.

while personally having a look at near all of them, minus the H-Frame, we have seen the evolution start from the X-Frame, where the idea was open air, but more of along the lines of a test bench. Then came the H-Frame which took a different look at how ribs, if you will, can also make up a chassis, while still leaving room for all the vital components. Then was the D-Frame. Some say it looks like a jungle gym, some say a generator, but the hand crafted tubular chassis is intended to mimic the frame of a Ducati motorcycle, and is why it was called the "D"-Frame in the first place. While not an issue for most people who acquired these designs, the fact that they took on ATX systems left the small form factor market drooling without an option to really jump in and enjoy these cases.

Bringing us together today is exactly that. InWin has taken the D-Frame that we liked so much we made it a part of our CPU cooler test system and have not found a single reason to move away from it yet, and is selling a much smaller version for mini-ITX motherboard users. This is not a direct scale version of the original, and in offering a new layout and design, it allowed them to do cool things like space fans correctly for water cooling, add in a handle to the top so it is easy to tote around, and even offer slick thin trays for the storage drives that will highlight the device screwed onto them. While this is in no doubt a showcase chassis where everything is in plain sight, but if you want something to be the envy of all your friends, no doubt offers plenty of cool air to the components, and is perfect for a LAN, it is likely that InWin and the D-Frame Mini Mini-ITX tower chassis is what you need for your build.

Everything about the tubular and plate design of this D-Frame Mini is hand cut, hand welded aluminum construction, just like what we found on the D-Frame. Along with the thick bits of aluminum, there is also a fair bit of rubber used, in our instance it is molded in red, where all the aluminum is coated in black. The rubber bits on the outer tubes act as feet or bumpers to protect the paint finish, and it is also used on four mounting locations at both sides for the tempered glass panels. This allows them to be screwed down and secured, yet still isolated from grinding against any aluminum components. While this will only house a mini-ITX motherboard inside, video cards and the power supply can be of any normal size.

As far as storage in concerned, there is a trio of plates mounted to the motherboard tray on the open side, and each plate is drilled for either 3.5" drive use, or 2.5" drive use. Also, there is a section of the motherboard tray designed to allow a pair of 2.5" drives to mount directly to it. The front I/O panel is inside of the outer frame, but contains power and reset buttons, LEDs, and HD Audio and USB 3.0 connectivity. The motherboard tray also offers a bracket that allows support for two PCI-e slots. All of this is wrapped up in a package that is 405mm high, 230mm wide, and 501mm deep, and will even support water cooling in the new fan rack at the bottom of the chassis.

While this chassis does come in three color choices, there is one with black tubes with red accents like we received, but there is also an orange tube with blue accent offering, as well as a red tube and black accent version. All of them require the same price at all the various locations we are finding this chassis. At Amazon.com, we found the lowest pricing is $288.99 and also requires $18.65 to ship putting this just over the $300 mark. It can be found, however, for $279.99 over at Newegg.com, and requires nothing extra for shipping.

This close to $300 for a chassis this compact, $20 is not going to make or break this buying choice. But at this price, in a very niche segment of PCs, where SFF users have this sort of cash to spend to show it off, has to be very thin. However, just like its bigger brother, the original D-Frame, we cannot see pricing stopping this train from rolling on.

PRICING: You can find the InWin D-Frame Mini 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 InWin D-Frame Mini retails for $288.99 at Amazon.

Australia: The InWin D-Frame Mini retails for $299 at PLE Computers.
... Read the rest in your browser!



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OWC Viper Pro Thunderbolt External SSD Premieres at NAB 2015
Other World Computing (OWC), a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, announced today the arrival of the Viper Pro Thunderbolt external SSD. The OWC Viper Pro Thunderbolt External SSD is the pinnacle of fast, high-capacity, direct attached Thunderbolt 2 storage. Engineered to meet the extreme demands of content professionals, Viper Pro features dual Thunderbolt 2 ports and delivers extreme performance with sustained speeds up to 1350 MB/s.

Speed, Capacity and Flexibility. All in One. The Viper Pro Thunderbolt SSD will be available in two capacity options, 4 TB and 8 TB, which deliver versatile, pro-level performance for any workflow. With bandwidth to spare, not only does the Viper deliver big capacity and big speeds, it comes with the flexibility of Thunderbolt 2 connectivity and the power to use it comprehensively, supporting multi-stream, uncompressed 4K video and bus-powered daisy chains.

Viper Pro Thunderbolt SSD Features

• 4 TB and 8 TB capacities
• Speeds up to 1350 MB/s
• Dual Thunderbolt 2 interfaces
• Daisy-chain support for additional Thunderbolt devices
• Aluminum design with a variable speed fan for quiet cooling
• Three-year limited warranty.

"Viper Pro is one of our most exciting new products and another example of our commitment to building the absolute best solutions for our customers," said Larry O'Connor, OWC Founder and CEO. "This is an extremely fast, high capacity and reliable Thunderbolt External SSD. We're looking forward to showing it off this year at NAB."

Pricing/Availability:

• 4 TB Viper Pro Thunderbolt SSD $2,999
• 8 TB Viper Pro Thunderbolt SSD $4,799

The Viper Pro Thunderbolt external SSD will be available in the summer of 2015.


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