IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 5/19/2015

500GB version of NVIDIA's Shield 'Pro' console listed on Amazon
While the leak on NVIDIA's website last month that hinted at the possibilities of a 500GB version of the Shield Android TV, it looks like it was real. A new listing has appeared on Amazon, but was quickly pulled.

The listing had an image of the box, which said "500GB Android TV" and the image doesn't look like something that was thrown together for a laugh. The description says that the new NVIDIA Shield has "4K entertainment and apps, powered by Android TV" as well as "a new class of Android games-only on SHIELD". But it's the "500GB storage for all your media and games" that has us excited, and you will get a Shield controller and HDMI in the box, too.

It looks like there will be a normal Shield, and then the Shield Pro that we have here with a 500GB internal 2.5-inch HDD. As we mentioned above, Amazon has since pulled the listing, but we're sure we'll see a 500GB Shield from NVIDIA in the very, very near future.


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Mortal Kombat X receives a massive new patch for PS4, Xbox One and PC
Mortal Kombat X is getting fixed up, with a new patch being pushed out to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC versions of the game. The patch fixes up different parts of the game, such as online matchmaking for ranked, and player matches. The full list of general gameplay fixes can be found below:

• Many movelist frame data corrections.
• Corrected many normal attacks that were intended to be 0 or negative on block were being overridden to be +2
• Hitting Front Punch + Back Punch + Front Kick at the same time at the special cancel window will no longer cause an enhanced move to come out
• Removed the ability to mash normal attacks while continuing to block after blocking an attack
• You can no longer cancel into an enhanced interaction during the first 10 frames of some block stuns.
• Versus Session Stats are now correctly award as wins/losses when you pause and exit to player select or restart match (Versus Session Stats can be turned on in Main Menu > Options > Game Play)
• Fixed several characters being able to attack on the first frame of a jump.
• Added unlock counter for Krypt.
• Fixed an issue that was preventing some players from joining an in-progress Ladder, KOTH, or
• Team Battle match from a chat lobby.
• Ping meter accuracy improvements.
• You can now choose to not play a Ranked Match if the connection is below the set threshold.
• Matchmaking improvements when finding a Ranked or Player Match.
• Player Skill Rating algorithm improved.
• Fixed crash occurring when receiving online VS. Challenge while editing Kombat Kard.
• Fixed a crash that sometimes happened when skipping the last fight in the Klassic Tower.
• Fixed an issue causing some offline replays to report "playback does not agree".
• Added the ability to go full screen in the KOTH viewer by PS4 players who use devices that do not have a touchpad button

The list of character-specific fixes is also quite long, check it out:

• Cassie (Hollywood) - Assault Force combo can no longer be special canceled after the knockdown.
• Ermac (Spectral) - Special cancels done during Soul Accession now award the correct amount of meter.
• Goro - Brutal Kick now hits overhead.
• Jason - Temple Punch & Shoulder Push no longer auto-correct after it's started moving.
• Jason (Unstoppable) - Some special moves were delaying resurrection from happening until the move was over.
• Jax - Can no longer get a free hit on opponents after his X-Ray.
• Johnny Cage - Adjusted some hitboxes to hit crouching opponents more consistently.
• Kitana - Can now perform her X-Ray attack while airborne.
• Kitana -No Longer airborne for the first frame after her X-Ray connects which could prevent her from blocking.
• Kitana - Gained a new attack on away +3 (Pretty Kick)
• Kitana (Mournful) - Glaive Throw no longer disables blocking removing a possible infinite combo.
• Kitana (Mournful) - Fixed a bug that causing the 2nd hit of Glaive Return to sometimes not come out.
• Kitana (Mournful) - Opponent can no longer by OTG'd after being hit by Staff Grab
• Kung Jin - Cartwheel Smash is now -3 on block (down from +4)
• Kung Jin (Bojutsu) - Several staff attacks were not combo damage scaling correctly
• Kung Lao (Tempest) - Cyclone now has 7 startup frames (up from 5)
• Kung Lao (Tempest) - Hat Spin & Orbiting Hat will now combo link correctly afterwards
• Kung Lao (Tempest) - Shortened the time it takes for his hat to return after Hat Spin & Orbiting Hat.
• Mileena - Tele-Kick can no longer be punished on hit and will combo when special canceled into Air Sai Blast or X-Ray.
• Mileena - Can now perform her X-Ray attack while airborne.
• Mileena - Improved tracking on X-Ray
• Quan Chi (Summoner) - Demon Spawn's cooldown is no longer reset when a Bat attack hits the opponent.
• Quan Chi (Summoner) - Fixed some cases where the Demon Spawn wasn't going away when Quan Chi got hit.
• Quan Chi (Summoner) - Fixed an issue causing Demon Spawn to sometimes instantly disappear after being summoned.
• Quan Chi (Warlock) - No longer has the Front Punch, Back Punch, Throw combo (Portal Slam).
• Quan Chi (Warlock) - Gained a new special move Portal Scoop (D, F, FP).
• Raiden - Shocker was causing combo damage scaling to be reset.
• Raiden (Thunder God) - adjusted some combo damage scaling
• Shinnok - Away + 3 (Shin Kick) is now towards + 4 and he has a new away + 3 (Devious Heel)
• Shinnok - Can now enhance Hell Sparks & Hell Blast on block.
• Shinnok (Impostor) - Now steals Dash Punch from Jax instead of Ground Pound.
• Shinnok (Necromancer) - Can now control the location of Judgment Smash & Judgment Fist.
• Sonya (Special Forces) - No longer gains meter for Park Drone and Remove Park.
• Sonya (Special Forces) - Park Drone and Remove Park no longer resets combo damage scaling
• Subzero (Grandmaster) - Ice Klone now always correctly goes away on block instead of sometimes leaving a Klone with no active hitbox.
• Subzero (Grandmaster) - Ice Klone cooldown is no longer instantly reset if it goes away on its own.
• Takeda - Slightly decreased the combo damage scaling on Fist Whirlwind & Whip Flurry.
• Takeda - Can now do his X-Ray with the Block + Front Kick + Back Kick shortcut on an arcade stick while jumping straight up.
• Takeda (Ronin) - When special cancelling into Blade Drop it will always fall the same distance regardless of Takeda's facing.

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Guerrilla Games working on open world RPG game 'Horizon' for the PS4
It looks like Guerrilla Games next title could be something worth getting excited over, with industry insider 'Shinobi602' saying that Guerrilla's upcoming PlayStation 4 exclusive will be called Horizon.

Horizon will reportedly be an open world RPG exclusive to the PS4, with Shinobi602 saying it will be released next year. The insider added: "To update on that a little further, it's almost assuredly a 2016 title at this point. From what I hear, some things were still being prototyped as recently as the beginning of this year".

We might see or hear about Horizon at E3 2015 next month, especially since the game is said to be arriving next year. Guerrilla will want to hype it up as much as possible between now and then.


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Next-gen drug test can detect cocaine in your system from fingerprints
Researchers from the University of Surrey in the UK have developed an interesting new, noninvasive drug test that can detect cocaine in your system through your fingerprints. The system looks for two common cocaine metabolites: benzoylecgonine and methylecgonine.

These two metabolites can be found in blood, sweat, and urine using a "mass spectrometry technique known as Desorption Electrospray Ionisation (DESI)", reports Engadget. Metabolites dissipate from our sweat much quicker than they do in blood and urine, so law enforcement will one day in the near future be able to know if a suspect is high right then and there, or was high a few nights ago.

The study's lead author, Melanie Bailey, told Motherboard: "We can distinguish between cocaine having been touched and cocaine having been ingested". With fingerprints being unique, it's hard to swap out a urine sample or test, which will make this type of technology fast-tracked beyond belief. The team has added that their research is still in its early stages, as they'll need to secure much more data on the effects of dosage and timing before they can move to more reliable testing. They still say that this technology will be made available to law enforcement within 10 years.


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AMD to rebrand Hawaii-based cards as Radeon R9 300 series, coming soon
According to VideoCardz.com, we should expect rebranded AMD Radeon R9 200 series cards based on the Hawaii architecture to arrive next month with a disguise, as the Radeon R9 300 series.

While the HBM-based Radeon R9 390X will arrive in two flavors: 4GB and 8GB (and maybe one model with GDDR5 and another with HBM), there will be other Radeon R9 300 series cards based on the Hawaii architecture. These should arrive as the Radeon R9 385, and R9 380 - but those specifics could change. But these new cards will feature slightly higher Core Clocks, and a nice jump on Memory speeds.

The Radeon R9 290X has a Core Clock of 1GHz, but the new R9 300 series rebrand will have 2816 stream processors, while its Core set at 1050MHz, a 50MHz jump. The Memory Clock on the other hand, jumps from the 1250MHz found on the R9 290X, to 1500MHz on the new cards, according to VideoCardz.com. This will give that particular card based on the Hawaii XT GPU around 384GB/sec of memory bandwidth, up from the 320GB on the R9 290X.

The second rebrand will use the Hawaii PRO architecture, which is what makes the Radeon R9 290 stand up and perform. The new Radeon R9 3xx card will feature 2560 stream processors along with its stock Core Clocks of 947MHz, it will be pumped up to 1010MHz on the new card. The Memory Clock also jumps from 1250MHz to 1500MHz providing the same 384GB/sec of memroy bandwidth across its 512-bit memory bus.


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The Division should be out in Q1 2016, with a better look at E3 2015
With Ubisoft delaying The Division into 2016 not too long ago, we are still trying to work out when the company will release its open-world RPG. Now, we might know, according to a listing on Amazon.

The listing states that The Division will be launching on February 28, 2016 - so not too far into 2016. Ubisoft promises that we'll see much more on The Division at E3 2016 next month, where the company has teased: "All of us at Massive, Reflections, Red Storm Entertainment and Ubisoft Annecy want to ensure the game not only meets our high expectations but also those of our fans and players alike. We are proud of what we have achieved so far and can't wait to show you more next month at E3!"

The last time we heard about The Division was when Ubisoft announced that a fourth studio had come in to help out. Ubisoft Annecy is the latest studio to lend a hand, joining Massive, Reflections and Red Storm Entertainment.


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Silicon Power unveils its new M.2 and mSATA SSDs
With M.2 and mSATA SSDs being quite the hot piece of technology right now, Silicon Power has unveiled its latest M10 M.2 2280 and M10 mSATA solid state drives. These two new drives are based on the SATA 6Gbps standard, supporting Intel's Smart Response Technology (ISRT) that offers "upgrade solutions that saves consumers a lot of time and space".

Starting with the M10 M.2 2280, which will slot right into M.2-based Ultrabooks and motherboards based on Intel's 87/97 chipsets. Silicon Power has deployed a "high-quality controller and MLC NAND flash chips" that provide the M10 M.2 2280 with the ability of up to 520MB/sec reads, and 330MB/sec writes. When it comes to 4K random read/writes, we have up to 40,000 IOPS.

The M10 mSATA SSD has the same 520MB/sec and 330MB/sec speeds for read/writes, as well as 40,000 IOPS. Silicon Power sees this new mSATA-based solid state drive being used by heavy gamers, professionals and DIY enthusiasts.


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DICE will provide new weapons, Gun Master Mode to Battlefield 4 soon
With DICE rolling out future DLC for free to all Battlefield 4 gamers, the Spring Patch which drops later this month on all platforms will be something that gamers will be excited over.

The new Spring Patch will offer up five new guns, a revamped damage, fall off and suppression model for the guns, and the return of Gun Master. Gun Master is something that was a fan favorite back in Battlefield 3: Close Quarters, and is played like a Team Deathmatch game, except with a big twist. You don't get to choose the weapons you use, with weapons being swapped every time you get two kills in a row on an opponent, and whoever is the first player to get a kill with the final weapon, wins.

The PC version of Battlefield 4 is also getting an injection of stability, with the Battlefield 4 Community Test Environment, or CTE, being used to find the problems, and fix them. The Spring Patch focuses on the crashes and issues with both the game client and server. DICE is asking that all gamers update their graphics drivers to the latest stable versions, and to keep their overclocks at a minimum to ensure the best experience with Spring Patch.


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Robot inspired by the octopus could change medical surgeries
Researchers have created a new robotic device that is able to mimic octopus tentacles, with the hope that surgeons can carry out surgeries in a faster, safer manner.

Ideally, surgeons will be able to check parts of the human body that are normally difficult to access without major interference - and part of the robotic arm can assist with the surgery without hurting the medical patient. The octopus-themed arm is able to bend up to 255 degrees, increase stiffness up to 200 percent and stretch up to 62 percent - giving doctors and surgeons much more flexibility.

"The potential is to allow the performance of current minimally invasive procedures in an easier way for the surgeon, as well as to enable them to perform procedures that are currently not possible in a minimally invasive way with the instrumentation surgeons have today," said Tommaso Ranzani, lead author and researcher at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, in a recently published story.


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Report: Wireless carriers in Europe to block mobile ads
Wireless carriers in Europe could be one step closer to turning mobile ad networks sideways, as they want to block advertisements shown on smartphones. Ads shown to mobile users is a multi-billion dollar industry, so there will be a lot of jockeying for position to get things sorted out.

It will be extremely difficult to accurately identify data that flows on their networks, with carriers reportedly interested in installing Shine. "Tens of millions of mobile subscribers around the world will be opting in to ad blocking by the end of the year," said Roi Carthy, chief marketing officer at Shine, in a statement published by the Financial Times.

Instead, it looks like mobile advertisers will just have to get a bit more creative while trying to reach mobile users in Europe. For example, ads displayed on Facebook and Twitter will still be allowed, and could open up a new ad pipeline.


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Government wants to accelerate self-driving vehicle technology
The Obama Administration understands autonomous vehicles are right around the corner, and wants to embrace the technological change. As part of the government's plans, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication will be a requirement, with other requirements now being worked out.

In regards to V2V, DOT is working with the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to help expand testing for the V2V-reserved 5.9GHz spectrum. There will also be more communication regarding the national framework, as automakers and Silicon Valley push forward with self-driving car testing.

"The Department wants to speed the nation toward an era when vehicle safety isn't just about surviving crashes; it's about avoiding them," said Anthony Foxx, Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary, in a public statement at Delphi Labs. "Connected, automated vehicles that can sense the environment around them and communicate with other vehicles and with infrastructure have the potential to revolutionize road safety and save thousands of lives."


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Black Ops 3 developer thinks CoD needs three-year development cycle
Treyarch, which is the developer of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, is looking for a three-year development cycle for new CoD titles - even though a two-year traditional roadmap is currently being followed. The entire Call of Duty game series has been a major blockbuster - and with millions of dollars on the line - sometimes it just doesn't pay off to force things.

"Without a three-year cycle, we wouldn't have been able to take the kind of risks that we took on this game, frankly," said Mark Lamia, studio head of Treyarch, in a statement made in the Official PlayStation Magazine. "We would not have been able to overhaul our entire AI system that supports the kind of engagements in an open-playspace like we have."

The game studio says the rendering technology couldn't have been overhauled in a shorter time frame, as the environments in the Black Ops sub-series are so massive. In addition, the movement system couldn't have been fixed very well, as developers would have been forced to rush ahead of schedule to get things done.


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Efergy Engage Hub Solo Online Power Monitor Review

After using the Efergy Elite Classic for the last two months, I decided it was time to step up my home's power monitoring. Lucky for me, we had a second product already in house from Efergy that would do just that, the Engage Hub Solo.

The Hub Solo is an online solution for users to monitor their home power consumption no matter where they are in the world. With that said, there are some caveats, the Hub Solo is only meant for users that already have a one of the four available power monitors from Efergy, including the Elite Classic which we reviewed recently (linked above). For new users, you will have to fork out a few more of your hard earned dollars to get the full kit.

Features of the Hub Solo include an online dashboard that is free of charge and available on iOS and Android devices. There is also a standard browser solution for PCs. With the Hub Solo and its online service, users can download their energy history to their PC, along with setting a monthly budget allowing the Hub Solo to alert you when you near the limit.

MSRP of the Efergy Hub Solo is listed at $79.99 with a one-year warranty. For new users, the Elite Engage Hub system carries an MSRP of $179.99.

Product packaging for the Hub Solo denotes its online monitoring capabilities. To the left, we have an image of the device itself.

Scope of delivery includes the power adapter, Ethernet cable, and reading materials.

The Hub Solo is a small white box that connects to your home's network, the top of the unit carries three LEDs for power, wireless connectivity and network connectivity.

The back of the Hub Solo houses the fast Ethernet port and power input.

A few steps are needed before setting up the Hub Solo.

When setting up your Hub Solo, the Efergy website will attempt to detect it on your home network. If successful, you will see it listed below where you can register it to your account.

After a few more steps, your hub is now paired and ready to go.

Above, we have a look at the online dashboard for the Hub Solo. As you can see, we have real time power usage at the top left with budget and cost next to it. The bottom right allows you to download your usage data while a large chart displays your daily usage.

The reports menu allows you to generate hourly or daily reports.

Finally, we have the settings menu where you can change everything from electricity cost per kWh, along with viewing what equipment you have connected.

The Hub Solo carries an interesting concept of being able to monitor your power usage no matter where you are in the world. While this device is meant for your home, it has an endless number of uses for those so inclined to be creative. One such use as Efergy mentions in their marketing materials is to monitor the output of solar panel remotely and the same could be said for wind energy as well.

However, this device seemingly has a few issues. To start things off, I will say I haven't had an accurate reading from the device since I set it up. This is most certainly due to only a single US and single UK power clamp being used together as they don't seem to work well together. Part two is a quality issue where the included 5v power adapter was dead on arrival and the US clamp I have in house doesn't seem to work either.

With all of that said, the dashboard software for this solution is quite elegant. Everything is laid out in an organized manner making it very easy to use and navigate through. The settings menu allows you to adjust electricity cost along with set up your home's settings and even download historic usage for your home. Even with the negative things we found in testing, setup is quick and easy, using the device is simple and for those that decide to purchase one for yourselves, I certainly hope you have better luck than I.
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