IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 5/27/2015

AMD Radeon R9 390X spotted without HBM, in an 8GB GDDR5 version
Something we talked about a few weeks ago now looks to be true: AMD will release two versions of its Radeon R9 390X. One of them will rock the next-gen HBM, while another will use the standard GDDR5 VRAM. WCCFTech is reporting that they noticed some juicy news on the ASUS forums, with the following units:

• ASUS R9390X-DC2-8GD5
• ASUS STRIX-R9380-OC-2GD5
• ASUS STRIX-R9370-OC-4GD5
• ASUS STRIX-R7360X-DC2OC2-2GD5
• ASUS R7360-2GD5

What we do think this means, is that AMD will release a Radeon R9 390X with 4GB of HBM, while the 8GB version will rock GDDR5. We've heard through our industry sources that HBM is experiencing seriously low yields, which will stop AMD from slapping 8GB of HBM onto the cards. This move will allow AMD to sell more R9 390X cards as they'll only be using 4GB of HBM, versus 8GB of High Bandwidth Memory.

The bigger question is: will the Radeon R9 390X be enough to compete against the GM200-powered NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti? What time of performance leap are we to expect from the HBM-powered R9 390X, over the nearly two-year-old R9 290X?


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Silk Road's Ross Ulbricht asks judge for leniency, some freedom
Silk Road leader Ross Ulbricht, 30, faces a minimum of 20 years in prison, but could face up to life, when he is sentenced by US District Judge Katherine Forrest. In a two-page letter, Ulbricht has asked Judge Forrest to at least give him the chance at leaving prison in his elder years, providing a "light at the end of the tunnel" for him.

Ulbricht was found guilty of seven charges that include narcotics trafficking, engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, computer hacking and money laundering - and will be sentenced on May 29.

"In creating Silk Road, I ruined my life and destroyed my future," Ulbricht wrote in an open letter to the judge. "I could have done so much more with my life. I see that now, but it is too late. Even now I understand what a terrible mistake I made. I've had my youth, and I know you must take away my middle years, but please leave me my old age."

The US government is hoping for a maximum sentence, and it's unknown what type of sentence Ulbricht will receive.


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Google updates Chromecast app for Android and iOS
Google has updated the Chromecast app, which makes it easier to get streaming content through to your TV or display. The Mountain View-based giant has updated both its iOS, and Android apps.

The new Android and iOS apps will provide users with a reworked hardware view that will provide each Chromecast with its own card, with a current backdrop and casting status now shown. Not only that, but you can now browse through your backdrop history, as well as quickly changing those pictures and their cycles.

If you want to update your Chromecast app, hit up the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.


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Report: Charter close to dropping $55 billion for Time Warner Cable
Comcast couldn't get a deal done to purchase Time Warner Cable, but it looks like Charter Communications is one step closer. Charter and TWC are reportedly close to a $55 billion acquisition deal, in what would help create a sudden new cable powerhouse.

The $55 billion acquisition is 47 percent higher than what Charter offered in 2014 - and 14 percent higher than TWC's most recently closing stock price. It's possible a public announcement could be made as soon as Tuesday morning, with the deal pending government approval.

Following news that Comcast was unable to acquire TWC, there seemed to be immediate interest from Charter once again. The Comcast-TWC merger would have given the company around 40 percent control of the competitive high-speed broadband market - while a Charter-TWC deal would be about 20 percent overall market share.


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Working to create a driverless truck corridor from Mexico to Canada
Testing of driverless big rig trucks could travel on Route 83 from Mexico through the United States to Canada, with a feasibility study currently underway. The additional travel corridor would allow grain, food and other supplies to make the multi-national journey while relieving logistical stress on trains.

The appeal of driverless trucks would make it safer due to no worry of driver fatigue, even though a human truck driver would be available to take over as needed. Self-driving truck technology was recently approved in Nevada, with other states interested in seeing results from the trials.

"We're hopeful that, working with the Canadian government, the Mexican government, the United States, we can create some kind of automated way... (to) streamline that process of border crossings," said Marlo Anderson, of the Central North American Trade Corridor Association, in a statement published by the Canadian Press.


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Researchers teaching robots to have better dexterity and speed
Researchers from UC Berkeley have found a way to help robots obtain better motor tasks using a trial and error process, in a similar manner to how humans learn. The reinforcement learning technique is possible because of software algorithms that give robots a new ability to learn from previous mistakes.

The robots complete different tasks, such as screwing a cap on a water bottle, putting a clothes hanger on a rack, and other tasks without the need of pre-programmed details. Deep learning will continue to be a major research focus in artificial intelligence (AI) development, as the Willow Garage Personal Robot 2 used at UC Berkeley continues perfecting its motor tasks.

"It used to take hours on up to months of careful programming to give a robot the hand-eye coordination necessary to do a task," said Gary Bradski, founder of OpenCV, which provides machine vision software, in a statement published by the New York Times. "This new work enables robots to just learn the task by doing it."

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US, European consumers quickly buy accessories from Xiaomi Mi store
Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi had a quiet launch of its Mi store in the United States and Western Europe, providing just a few accessories to consumers. The company isn't ready to directly sell smartphones and tablets to its latest markets just yet, but wants to slowly prepare its expansion in two key lucrative areas.

The Xiaomi Mi store sold two battery packs, a fitness tracker and one pair of headphones - all products costing $80 or less. It didn't take long before consumers purchased 200,000 units of the $80 headphones, $10 and $14 battery packs, or the $15 fitness tracker - clearly lured in by the low-priced electronics.

"There's a market for lower price point, mass market, high-quality goods in the U.S. and Europe," said Hans Tung, managing partner at the GGV Capital venture capital firm, in a statement published by Forbes. "This was a huge number - you just don't see that with US products."

It's a good strategy to slowly rollout products to the US and European consumers, and could be a solid stepping stone before expanding its product lineup in the future.


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Trying to make hit mobile game and generate revenue proving difficult
It's not a surprise to hear that mobile gaming has greatly increased in popularity with the rise of smartphones and tablets - but that doesn't mean generating revenue has become any easier. The mobile game market has generated $30 billion in revenue this year with a select few games proving ultra popular, the Newzoo market research firm predicted.

However, game titles quickly lose their appeal, as casual gamers look for new apps, games, and multimedia to enjoy on their devices. The freemium gaming model, which allows games to be downloaded for free and then developers try to get gamers to make in-game purchases has been difficult in mobile gaming.

"This market is exceptionally fickle," said Heloise Thomson, gaming analyst at Enders Analysis, in a statement to CNBC. "You are dealing with consumers who love variety and they like free or cheap so it's hard to make a lot of money."

Looking ahead, there are no easy answers for mobile game developers, except they will continue to publish games and hope to convince users to spend a bit of money along the way.


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Americans think privacy is important, but doubt its possibility
Ninety-three percent of adults in the United States feel it's important to be in control of who can collect information about them, with 90 percent noting it's important to control what information is collected, according to a recent Pew Research Center report.

Ironically, 91 percent of Americans didn't bother changing Internet or mobile phone usage habits, while just seven percent reported making changes in "recent months." However, it looks like more users are clearing their browser history (59 percent), refusing to share information that isn't relevant during checkout (57 percent), using temporary email addresses and usernames (25 percent), and providing inaccurate information about themselves (24 percent).

Things are changing in the United States, with many citizens frustrated by the overreaching powers of the Patriot Act - and the eventual information released by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Google, Yahoo and other services are providing end-to-end encryption, though only a small number of users are taking advantage.


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Google stepping up in Internet of Things, with its Brillo OS
During Google I/O 2015 later this week, the Silicon Valley company is expected to unveil Brillo, its Android-inspired OS designed for the Internet of Things (IoT). Connected devices typically have a lower amount of RAM, and should be able to operate on low-power, which are two considerations Google is addressing with Brillo.

Google has owned Nest Labs, a company known for smart thermostats, since early 2014 - and could provide a good test opportunity for any IoT-based operating systems.

There is a growing trend of software and hardware companies preparing their own IoT offerings, as analysts believe the sector will become more disruptive. Google, Apple, Microsoft, and other companies will be able to create unique software to help connected devices collected data and communicate with one another - and must be prepared for the expected increase in IoT-centric purchases.


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Want realistic 3D? Microsoft HoloLens should be able to deliver
Augmented reality is evolving into a suitable virtual environment for consumers and in the workplace, with Microsoft interested in pushing the boundaries of 3D interaction. HoloLens could allow wearers to view the actions of other people right in front of you, instead of just interacting with objects or environments.

The company currently has a custom holographic TV studio that uses around 100 cameras to track movements of humans. Captured video footage and custom software allows for an accurate creation that is much more immersive than a regular computer animation.

"There's something magical about it being real people and motion," said Steve Sullivan, who is currently involved with the HoloLens project, in a statement published by the MIT Technology Review. "If you have a HoloLens, you really feel these performances are in your world."

There are so many potential uses for HoloLens, and Microsoft wants to help developers test the limits further.


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Master Ethical Hacking - Save Over 90% On 6 In-Depth Courses

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You'll get six video courses-almost 40 hours of content-that'll teach you how to protect yourself online. Learn the basics of scraping sites like Yelp (and how it can benefit your business), how to safeguard your networks and sites and secure your hardware, and how to find and exploit web application vulnerabilities. You'll even get tips and tricks for using the Linux command line to manage files and automate tasks.

Dive into white hat security with this six-course bundle for $49 at TweakTown Deals.


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G.SKILL announces two 'major extreme' OC events for Computex next week
G.SKILL has announced two "major extreme" overclocking events at Computex 2015, which takes place between June 2-6 in Taipei, Taiwan. The two events will be the OC World Cup 2015, and the OC World Record Stage 2015.

These two OC events will see 19 world-class overclockers, five motherboard vendors, and three hardware sponsors taking part in what is sure to be, a huge event. Intel and Samsung have jumped on board with G.SKILL, as well as ASRock, ASUS, EVGA, GIGABYTE and MSI. The overclockers will be using the latest X99 motherboards with the Intel Core i7-5960X processor and G.SKILL memory to try and break records.

G.SKILL has said that the six winners fro mteh OC World Cup online qualifiers, Dancop, dRweEz, Hazzan, Vivi, Lam@Capital and Xtreme Addict, will take part in a "live stage" battle for their share in a cash prize pool of $16,200. The battle begins with a three-day Live Qualifier, with the two top scoring overclockers from four benchmarks will go through to the Grand Finals on June 5. The Grand Finals Champion will walk away with a very cool $10,000.


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48GB worth of Star Citizen assets leak online, swiftly removed
Roberts Space Industries has sprung a leak, with 48GB of assets belonging to the crowdfunded Star Citizen leaking online. This has just happened, with the following events taking place:

• Disco Lando posted pictures (taken with a phone or camera) of some Star Marine stuff.
• One of the pictures contain a partial URL to one of the Content Delivery Services (CDN) from CIG.
• Someone managed, probably by trial and error, to guess the complete URL.
• From that URL the CDN delivered an internal 40 GB developer build.

Thanks to Star Citizen being powered by the CryEngine, this means that you can use these assets right now, if you have managed to get your hands on them. This leak has given fans of the game a deep look at some of the ships and how they work, months or years before they would normally see them.

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Telemarketers and refs, lookout... robots coming for your jobs
Whether we want it or not, the transition from human workers to robots is expected to cause mayhem among a number of different industries.

The following industries are expected to face the highest likelihood of being replaced, according to a 2013 study from Oxford University - telemarketers (99 percent), umpires and referees (98.3 percent), cooks (96.3 percent), manicurists and pedicurists (94.5 percent), and roofers (89.7 percent).

It seems careers that require a mix of creativity, negotiation skill and strong communication will be safer than other positions - and there are plenty of concerns about how acceptable humans will be to jobs being carried out by robots.

Last year, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates issued a warning that people would be put out of the job as development of robots advanes, with other industry experts showing similar concerns. Even though it could take more time, businesses are finding ways to augment staff using robots.


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Team Group Vulcan DDR4-3000 16GB Quad-Channel Memory Kit Review

Just like when we reached out to Kingston and looked at the HyperX fury, we also reached out to Team Group Inc., and after a few emails we were told to expect a set of DDR4 RAM to arrive. What showed up was a 16GB set of Team Vulcan 3000MHz memory. We have had memory this fast, and even slightly faster, so we think we have a good handle on what the system needs to help allow everything to play well together as we get deeper into this Vulcan DDR4-3000 review.

Of course, this 16GB density kit of Vulcan's runs at 3GHz right out of the box, but there are other things to consider. Looks are a big seller, and to help with this, Team shows the Vulcan sticks available in red, orange, a light green, or blue as an option for the aluminium heat spreaders on these kits. Then there are the timings, and here we find a kit running 16-16-16-36 2T, but needs the top of the range in voltage at 1.35V to run this kit stable in any system. We also like the fact that this kit comes with a lifetime warranty.

With this kit, there is the magic of the XMP2.0 profile that allows the memory to get up to speed without impeding on the CPU and IMC as much. While the default speed of this kit is 2133MHz, when enabling the XMP profile, you will find the BCLK changes to 125, and the memory ratio used is 2400MHz. Where we would usually set things up the way we like to level the playing field, we were constantly running into issues of dropping channels or no boot situations. This means we will indeed have to test this kit as it works via its XMP profile, as once we stepped too far out of that realm, everything went belly up.

The packaging, while just cardboard on the outside, is stepped up quite a bit from what we are used to seeing. With a brushed metal appearance for the background, Team, Vulcan, and the memory image are both done in black to be easily seen. That goes for the line at the bottom of these being the "ultimate choice for gamers and overclockers". We will see if that holds true.

Out of the four color choices implied to this kit online, we were sent a fifth option with the white spreaders on the memory. With very little in the design, and grey paint used on the white spreaders, the Vulcan and Team names are almost stealth in their appearance. We also like the high contrast of the white against the black PCB.

The other side of each stick is identical to the side we just looked at with both the Vulcan and Team name displayed. However, at the right end of the stick this time, we find the product sticker offering the speed, timings, voltage needed, and the TLWED44G3000HC16ABK kit naming.

The two piece spreader design comes together at the top of the PCBs, and offers a chevron design at either end, and a large opening in the middle; leaving essentially four thin bits of white to see when in use.

Team is another company that requests the IC manufacturer naming be replaced with their own. We also found no information trying to use Google to sort out the second and third line for specifications pertaining to them. Whatever they are, we will say they are binned to the utmost extreme of what this kit can do.

We had to change a couple of multipliers to get the system to the right speeds while using the XMP profile to run this Team Vulcan kit at its rated 3000MHz with 16-16-16-36 2T timings we see in CPU-Z. Trying to boot 100BCLK and the 3000MHz divider either dropped channel C or D, or just would not boot with a post code LED error displayed.

Considering the issues we had getting the system stable where all other kits this fast and faster have done so well, it did break our spirits a bit, and lead us to find that 3000MHz was the maximum we could get, using even 100.1 set in the BCLK option sent them memory into a crazy fit. However, with a slight increase of 1.40V used, we easily dropped the timings back to 14-14-15-36 2T, and to our surprise, it is solid as a rock when set like this.

Outside of the write results, we see that the speed and timings of the XMP profile show nice leaps in performance, and while not as dramatic as the first bump in performance, we did almost get into the 60,000 range for copy, and took another solid increase in the reads as well.

This is one kit that Mem TweakIt liked all the way through. There is a nice jump in the score from 2133 to 3000MHz at CAS 16. Taking that same speed but with CAS14 used now, the score does not jump wildly, but does definitely show the increase in score that reflects to potential performance in other testing.

RealBench is the test we use to put the hurt on a kit of memory, and here we find that while there are performance gains to be had in each step, we would expect more jumping the speeds from 2133 to 3000MHz with 14-14-15-36 2T timings, but it is what it is, and running this multiple times has proved to us that this is all there is to be had for this level of testing.

This kit is more on the simple side aesthetically, and only stands a little more than 32mm in height, as to not play up with any CPU cooler you should choose to pick, and that is a huge plus. We also like the white on black look of this set of Vulcan RAM, and it would look very nice on the select few motherboards already themed with black and white. Even with our black and red system in the image below, the white sticks look right at home. Also with or without a system overclock, as long as you play within the confines of the XMP profile and use of the 125 BCLK, you too can get the results we showed here today.

The overclocker in us was almost ready to throw in the towel after a couple of days of no boot conditions, or when it would boot I would not be using quad-channel any longer. Try as we did, and all the time and playing around with voltages we did to make this kit conform to what every other kit previous to this was capable of, we are left with the overwhelming feeling that there is just much easier memory on the market to deal with.

While the Team Vulcan 3000MHz kit does run where it says it will, it is better than the baseline kit in our testing, and does afford a buyer of such memory bragging rights of running the memory at 3GHz, but if you are old school like we are and want a kit that has it all and then some, this may not be the kit for you. We were able to lower the timings, and get decent results and a slightly lower overall latency, but we do wish that we could have gotten even the slightest bit of an OC, or even the ability to run these sticks in the configuration we chose, that other sticks have proven to work in those same conditions, but not with this set.

Looking around as we always do to find the best pricing at the time of the review leaves us quite a bit to be desired. First of all, we were unable at this time to locate any retailer inside of the US to carry this kit. Second of all, when we did find listings over the pond, we see that this kit requires €249.78. For those not on top of the current conversion, that leaves us with a US price point of about $275, which in itself isn't all that bad compared to similar kits offered, but for the amount of hassle we went through, and the temperamental nature of this kits timings and settings, we feel there may be better solutions to pick when it comes to those with serious intention in overclocking. For those looking to lessen the gap in speed between the CPU and the memory, Team and this Vulcan 3000MHz kit will certainly do that, but there are easier and more OC friendly kits to use.

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Sharkoon Announces External USB 3.1 Hard Drive Case
Sharkoon expands its range of external drive enclosures and presents a variant for the new USB 3.1 standard: The QuickStore Portable USB 3.1 provides an elegant dwelling for a 2.5" SATA HDD/SDD. The internal controller supports the SATA Revision 3.0 and is backward compatible to Revision 2.0 and 1.0. External connection occurs via a micro-B port. The USB 3.1 case supports Windows 8 UASP and offers a maximum transfer rate of 10 gigabits per second.

Disks with a height up to 9.5 mm can be installed. Assembly is completely tool-free and is done within a few simple steps. To do this, the case frame can be simply unlocked and slid open. With the black, brushed aluminium cover, the QuickStore Portable USB 3.1 visually impresses. A blue LED also indicates operation and data transfer. The hard drive case measures a compact 134 x 85 x 14 mm (L x W x H) and weighs only 51 grams. Packaging includes short instructions as well as a USB 3.1 cable (type-A plug to micro-B port).

Additionally, Sharkoon presents the USB 3.1 Host Controller Card with a suitable PCIe expansion card for PCs. The card supports PCIe 2.0 and PCIe 3.0 plus is available with two external USB 3.1 connectors (type-A ports). The maximum transfer rate amounts to 10 Gbit/s. The Host Controller Card allows easy connection of USB 3.1 devices to a PC and is also backward compatible to USB 3.0 and USB 2.0. Windows 7 and Windows 8 operating systems are supported. Packaging includes a CD with needed drivers and a PDF manual.

End customers will find the Sharkoon QuickStore Portable USB 3.1 available for the suggested retail price of 34.99 euros from authorized retailers. The Sharkoon USB 3.1 Host Controller Card is also available for the suggested retail price of 34.99 euros.

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