Two Nexus Phones Rumored to be Released This Year
A pair of new phones are expected to join the Nexus lineup of Android devices later this year, one from LG and one from Huawei. The information comes from Android Police via a "reliable" source, though full specifications for the devices aren't yet available. The LG phone is codenamed Bullhead and will have a 5.2" screen with a Snapdragon 808 processor, the same found in the LG G4. The Huawei Angler will have a 5.7" screen and a Snapdragon 810 processor. The phones could be released in October if following the previous release schedule for Nexus devices. Android Police rated confidence of the rumor at a seven out of ten.
Source: Android Police
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Charter Communications Plans Acquisition of Time Warner Cable
In the wake of a failed merger with Comcast, Time Warner Cable has found a new suitor in Charter Communications. Charter will pay $56.7 billion for Time Warner, and also plans to acquire Bright House Networks for $10.4 billion. After the merger, Charter will be the second largest cable company by subscribers, moving past AT&T and trailing only Comcast. Charter hopes that the merger won't face the same criticism from the FCC as the proposed Comcast and Time Warner merger as it won't create as great of a competitive advantage. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler addressed the proposed acquisition and described the FCC process stating, "The FCC reviews every merger on its merits and determines whether it would be in the public interest. In applying the public interest test, an absence of harm is not sufficient. The Commission will look to see how American consumers would benefit if the deal were to be approved." Charter feels that the merger will add value to customers of all involved companies stating, "Charter’s slowest speed tier (60Mbps downstream) is considerably faster and less expensive than TWC’s comparable tiers, with no data caps or usage based pricing.Charter will bring these products and pricing to TWC and BHN [Bright House Networks] customers, while embracing TWC’s and BHN’s rollouts of a 300Mbps tier."
Source: Ars Technica
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Potential Roll-to-Roll Manufacturing Process for Graphene Developed
As amazing as a material may be, it is not until it is easily accessible that it can really shine. Graphene was discovered years ago and researchers have been discovering possible uses for it since then, while also searching for new ways to make it. Researchers at MIT have recently developed a roll-to-roll means to create large graphene sheets, only limited in size by the size of the foil substrate and deposition chambers used.
Graphene is an atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms that has many extraordinary properties, but producing it in large quantities is very difficult. Typically it requires either pulling it off of pieces of graphite or furnaces with chemical vapor deposition (CVD) that only put out stamp-sized pieces. This new means though is an adaptation of the CVD method that uses two concentric tubes for the vacuum chamber, and allows a foil substrate to be run through. The foil winds around the inner tube as it moves through the system, and holes in the inner tube allows the necessary mixture of vapors to reach the substrate, to prepare it to grow the graphene, and to actually grow it. Throughout the process, the whole chamber is heated to 1000 ºC.
Thus far the system has only been built on a laboratory scale and the foil had to move through at just one inch per minute to create high-quality graphene. It is possible to go faster, but that degrades the quality of the graphene, and while lower-quality graphene may still have applications, the researchers want to see if they can push the speed, while also scaling the system up. Though the focus was on graphene, this process could be adapted for growing other 2D materials and even carbon nanotubes.
Source: MIT
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GPU-Z Screenshot Shows NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti Specifications
At the end of last week, some rumored specifications for NVIDIA's unannounced GeForce GTX 980 Ti appeared and showed some really promising information. Today we have something new about it, something that looks to be even more concrete. A GPU-Z image has surfaced that apparently is a reading of the GTX 980 Ti, and while a couple details are missing, the rest looks quite good. The name shows the GTX 980 Ti, there are 2816 shaders (CUDA cores), 6144MB of GDDR5 from Hynix, a 384-bit bus, a pixel fillrate of 96 GPixels/s, and a texture fillrate of 234 GTexels/s. The core is shown at 1000MHz, the memory at 1753MHz, and the boost is at 1076MHz; all things that are in line with the TITAN X. The big information that has a watermark over it is the ROP count, which is really the only unknown detail at this time. If it's the same as the TITAN X or slightly less because of the CUDA count is something that could factor into the total usable memory, but I guess we still have to wait to find that out.
Two leaked shots of 3DMark tests also accompany the GPU-Z image, with the 3DMark Fire Strike test hitting a total score of 14,071, and the Cloud Gate test obtaining a total of 29,444. The graphics score for Fire Strike is 17,091, while the graphics score for Cloud Gate is 107,868. All are impressive, but are still unconfirmed until we get something definitive from NVIDIA. Hopefully soon.
Source: Hardware Battle via Legit Reviews
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New Photo Surfaces of AMD's R9 300 Series
A new photo of AMD's still unannounced R9 300 series of video cards has recently surfaced, and while the photo is from an extreme angle, it looks quite interesting, much like the earlier photo. Previous rumors suggested the top-of-the-line Fiji card would be rocking a liquid cooler, and this photo seems to confirm that. The front of the card is completely flat, at least from what we can see, which certainly lends credence to the liquid cooler idea. The only branding on the card is "RADEON," which appears on the top and by the bracket, so you can see it from multiple angles in your case. A combination of metal and plastic also adorn the card, although if it fully encloses it or leaves the back exposed cannot be inferred. Also unknown is the length, as the photo tends to trail off at the end and then blur out, but AMD seemed to suggest the Fiji XT could be a half-length PCB, so this could be the case here.
We still need the full picture concerning AMD's plans for the R9 300 series, which hopefully arrives next week during Computex. Most of the series is expected to be a rebrand, with the Fiji XT and Fiji VR being the only truly new options, but time will tell for certain.
Source: WCCFtech
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August Announcement Expected for Intel Skylake Processors; Launch in September
Rumors and details concerning Intel's upcoming Skylake series of processors has slowly been starting to trickle out, with the Haswell successors on the way soon. There have been shots of the new Intel Z170 motherboards, which are expected to arrive in September to coincide with the processor launch, and then two different roadmaps showing a quarter three launch. Now we have yet another roadmap, and once again all things point towards September. This new roadmap suggests that Intel will officially announce the Skylake series at IDF15 in San Francisco, which is set for August 18 to 20. A fitting time for a new CPU series to be announced, and then a month later we can all get our hands on whatever chip suits our needs.
The Skylake series is composed of the Skylake-S, -H, -U, and -Y, with the desktop series being Skylake-S. The Core i5-6600K and Core i7-6700K should be the two people are going to be gunning for to replace their 4770K, 2550K, or whatever chip they may have. The Skylake-H, -U, and -Y series are all aimed at the mobile side of things, with the Skylake-H the high-performance laptop CPUs, the Skylake-U the mid-range laptop replacement, and the Skylake-Y the low-power replacement for the Core M series.
There's not much a whole lot of time remaining before the Intel Skylake processors arrive, and you can expect to find full coverage of their announcement, as well as their eventual review, right here at OCC.
Source: WCCFtech
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Hardware Roundup: Tuesday, May 26, 2015, Edition
May is wrapping up, with under a week to go, but there are still plenty of items for you to check out. There is a review of the Tt eSPORTS POSEIDON Z FORGED mechanical gaming keyboard, which is the first entry in the series to feature five dedicated macro keys. We also have the Cougar 500K gaming keyboard, a model that's similar appearance to its big brother 700K, but without the mechanical switches. For those in need of a new laptop, perhaps the Lenovo ThinkPad Helix convertible is the one for you. If you're looking for something a little different, there's a review of the Neurio home intelligence system, a Kickstarter success that can turn your home into a smart home.
Keyboards/Mice
Tt eSPORTS POSEIDON Z FORGED Mechanical Gaming Keyboard @ Benchmark Reviews
Cougar 500K Gaming Keyboard @ ThinkComputers
Laptops/Tablets
Lenovo ThinkPad Helix 2nd Gen Convertible @ Madshrimps
Gadgets
Neutrio Home Intelligence @ TechSpot
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ASUSTOR Launches Version 2.3 Beta of Surveillance Center
ASUSTOR, a subsidiary of ASUSTeK Computer Incorporated and a leading innovator and provider of network storage solutions, has revealed that version 2.3 beta of its Surveillance Center has officially been released. The news comes roughly three months after the company released version 2.2 of Surveillance Center, the latest stable version of the ASUSTOR software. Version 2.3 beta ushers in a variety of new features for users, such as role-based access control, automated event action rules, simplified and intuitive on-screen controls, and the addition of foreign object detection for intelligent video analytics and search. Additionally, ASUSTOR has revealed that HDMI local output function has been expanded for setups with greater than four cameras.
Surveillance Center 2.3 beta is available for immediate download from ASUSTOR’s App Central, and is of course compatible with all ASUSTOR NAS devices.
Source: Press Release
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Chromecast Application Updated to Version 1.11.9
Google has recently pushed an update to its Chromecast mobile application for Android and iOS devices. The latest update, which brings the application to version 1.11.9, provides owners of multiple Chromecast devices with a reworked hardware view that enables easier and quicker streaming to the device of their choice. The update incorporates improved reliability and performance of backdrop cards also ushers in the ability for users to view the current casting status and backdrop of Chromecast devices. Backdrops and their respective display cycles can also be changed now thanks to viewable history.
Version 1.11.9 of the Chromecast application is available for immediate download from the App Store and Google Play.
Source: Engadget
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Nano-Faucet Shows Quantum Effect
One of the larger mysteries of physics currently is likely the barrier between classical and quantum mechanics. At some point the rules change and discovering that point could allow us to eventually understand how the world we live in arises from the quantum world. Researchers at McGill University, the University of Vermont, and Leipzig University have recently performed an experiment that should help uncover the transition point.
Superfluid is a curious state a matter that is currently only known to exist for very cold liquid helium. In this state, the liquid flows without viscosity, which allows it to do some weird things, like move through small pores normal fluids could not. Normal fluids will also speed up as they travel through a small channel, like a river through rapids, but according to the Tomonaga-Luttinger theory, a superfluid will actually slow down if the pore size is small enough. It took a pore size less than 30 atoms wide, but the researchers finally observed such a slowdown.
It took a long time and an accident to finally make this experiment happens, as cutting the pores required using an electron beam and only after a student left a valve open during a run did they solve a problem with containments. Now that the nano-faucet is working though, it could be applied to help explore the region between quantum and classical mechanics, by observing behaviors at pores of different sizes. It could also be used to develop advanced nano-sensors.
Source: McGill University
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