IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 6/8/2015

Oculus VR rumored to unveil glove-based input for Rift on June 11
Oculus VR is set to unveil the first consumer version of the Oculus Rift on June 11 at its 'Step into the Rift' event, but company founder, Palmer Luckey, has taken to Twitter with quite the tease: a glove-based input device.

What could it be? We could see a Power Glove-like interface, where you have a pair of gloves that you'll use to control the Rift. Alternatively, you could see Oculus unveil a hand-tracking system with the Rift, thanks to their acquisition of Nimble last year. Whatever happens, we're about to be introduced to the future of technology, and we could not be more excited.

The tease comes in the form of a tweet from Luckey on Twitter, with a picture from The Wizard, a movie from 1989 that was pretty much one large Nintendo advertisement.


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HTC and Valve begin shipping Vive headsets, unboxing videos appear
HTC and Valve have started shipping developers their Vive headset, with the studio behind 'The Gallery: Six Elements' receiving their Vive developer kit in the mail and throwing together an unboxing video that we've embedded below.

In the box you'll get the Vive headset, two Lighthouse base stations, and two wireless Steam VR controllers. It's an exciting kit, as you get much more than you do in the Oculus Rift developer kit. Valve and HTC should begin shipping the Vive headset to consumers later in the year, most likely after the launch of the Steam Box, Steam Machines, Steam Controller and hopefully... Half-Life 3.

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ASUS Radeon R9 390X DirectCU II OC details leak, has 8GB of GDDR5 RAM
We had a world exclusive with the first Radeon R9 390X spotted thanks to PowerColor, but now details have leaked on the ASUS Radeon R9 390X DirectCU II OC. The ASUS variant will feature 8GB of GDDR5 RAM, which is in line with our exclusive story on the Fiji XT-based Fury X and Fury featuring HBM, while the 300 series cards will be powered by GDDR5.

The details leaked tease that the ASUS Radeon R9 390X DirectCU II OC will feature 8GB of GDDR5, 1070MHz Core, 6GHz on the 8GB of VRAM spread on a 512-bit memory bus. Connectivity wise, we'll have one DisplayPort, one HDMI, and two DVI-D. The ASUS Radeon R9 390X DirectCU II OC will sport 2816 stream processors, 176 texture mapping units (TMU) and 64 ROPs.

The 8GB of RAM being clocked at 6GHz is a change from the 5GHz on the R9 290X, so that's most likely what we can expect from the other Radeon R9 390X cards when they launch. ASUS has two 8-pin PCIe connectors on the card, and an estimated price of around $449 when it launches later this year.


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Slightly Mad Studios: Project Cars has sold over 1 million units
Project Cars has been one of the most talked about games of the year, with Slightly Mad Studios announcing that they have sold over one million copies since it was released a month ago.

The studio, together with publisher Bandai Namco, released a statement with SMS head Ian Bell saying: "Throughout the development of Project CARS the community were instrumental in guiding the game - giving us feedback daily on each build iteration, telling us what needed improving, highlighting what they'd like to see included, and ultimately approving it as the racing game of their dreams. Even with this amount of early indication that the bold, ambitious vision we had was on track to be something that would truly stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the existing leading titles in the genre, it wasn't until the first review scores came in that we truly realised how much Project CARS had resonated with both media, racing professionals, and gamers alike around the world".

He continued: "To now stand here having reached over a million players in such a short time really justifies the work both the team and the community have done over the years and solidifies Project CARS' future as the multi-platform racing experience of choice for fans around the world. And we'll be talking more about that future very, very soon".


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Hands-on, or laps-on with the Corsair Lapdog at Computex 2015
Computex 2015 - One of the devices I wanted to use at Computex 2015 the most was the just-announced Lapdog, an accessory for your lap that houses a Corsair keyboard and mouse.

Underneath Lapdog is a considerable amount of padding and foam that makes it comfortable to sit on your legs, but I did find a few issues with this prototype - keep in mind, this isn't the final design. There's no room for your wrists on both sides (keyboard and mouse) and there's no vertical wiggle room for the mouse.

The top of the Lapdog houses a bunch of the cabling from the mouse and keyboard, which is something Corsair will be fixing in the new prototype. But, how did it feel to game on it? In a word: awesome. I was able to sit back on the couch and play Grand Theft Auto V on a 65-inch 4K TV without a problem, where I was far more comfortable than sitting at my desk.


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NVIDIA's next-gen GPU being tested, 16nm GPU with up to 32GB of HBM2
While AMD is about to launch its Fiji XT-based Radeon R9 Fury X and the respin that will arrive as the Radeon R9 390X, it looks like NVIDIA is already playing around with its next-gen GPU: GP100. GP100 will reportedly rock between 4500 and 6000 CUDA cores, making it NVIDIA's biggest GPU yet.

Right now we have GM200, with the 'M' standing for Maxwell, so the GP100 and its 'P' standing for Pascal. Pascal is NVIDIA's next generation architecture, with the GPU being built on the 16nm process. Not only will Pascal be baked onto 16nm, but it will arrive with support for HBM2 memory, which should see memory bandwidth scaling up to an insane 1.2TB/sec or 1200GB/sec. Considering the GeForce GTX 980 Ti has 336GB/sec, the GTX 1080 Ti (or whatever NVIDIA calls it) could have up to 1.2TB/sec bandwidth, a near 400% increase in memory bandwidth alone.

The news is coming from a source on the Beyond3D forums who says that the 'big Pascal' chip (GP100) has been taped out on TSMC's 16nm process, with a 'target release' window of Q1 2016. We don't know if this is true or not, but I would be pretty sure that NVIDIA is playing around with Pascal right now. I've asked many of my NVIDIA sources about Pascal, 16nm and HBM2 and all I get back are smiles... we should be more excited about the next-gen GPU from NVIDIA than any other release from the company, ever.

16nm is going to really let NVIDIA stretch its legs, HBM2 is going to usher in the largest jump in memory bandwidth NVIDIA has ever had by 300-400% and the Pascal architecture - well, we don't even know what to expect from Pascal. Maxwell introduced many new technologies when it was revealed, but the performance and power consumption side of it was the best work NVIDIA has ever done, so I have very high hopes for Pascal.

We should also expect to see between 16GB and 32GB of HBM2-based VRAM to be offered on the new Pascal-based cards, where I'm sure NVIDIA will up the Titan X 2 (that's what I'm calling it for now) to 32GB from the 12GB of VRAM found on Titan X. I think we'll see the GP104 (the smaller chip) arrive as the GeForce GTX 1080, but I'm going to throw this rumor out there: the numbering system will change for this generation. I've just explained above how this is the most important release from NVIDIA ever, with 16nm, HBM2, new architecture and more - so start getting excited, folks!


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Corsair HG10: GPU liquid cooling system for GTX 980 and Titan X
Computex 2015 - Corsair is famous for their Hydro Series of CPU coolers, but their new GPU liquid cooling system is sure to impress, too.

Corsair's new HG10 was being shown off at Computex 2015, compatible with the GeForce GTX 970, GTX 980 and even Titan X.

Once again, with the HG10 keeping an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 cooled.

We will have a couple of these ASAP to throw on our Titan X cards, and then we'll see just how far we can push those bad boys!


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Google to offer monthly self-driving vehicle reports to the public
To help ease concerns related to self-driving cars, Google will issue monthly reports based on accident data and other performance information of its program.

The Consumer Watchdog advocacy group pushed for Google to release information related to traffic accidents involving its self-driving vehicles. The Associated Press asked the California Department of Motor Vehicles and Google to see access of the reports, though was denied because of privacy issues.

Google self-driving vehicles have racked up more than 1 million miles traveled in autonomous mode, but some minor traffic accidents have also been reported. Google has again noted that human drivers were at fault, and its self-driving vehicles were not responsible.


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New details, screenshots from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
A European Metal Gear Solid fan site has posted new screenshots from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which showcase Snake and Diamond Dog.

Each mission in the game features opening and closing credits, with plenty of side-objectives offering additional rewards for gamers. The Phantom Pain has open ended game play, and many missions don't require numerous return trips to Mother Base.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is scheduled for release in September for the PC, Microsoft Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4.

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Rumor: Microsoft 1TB Xbox One bundle will be announced soon
Microsoft plans to launch a new Xbox One bundle featuring a console unit with 1TB of storage and the shiny new controller with a 3.5mm audio jack.

There was a brief listing on Amazon for the console bundle, which includes The Master Chief Collection for $400, but it has been removed. The Amazon listing noted that the "item will be released on June 15, 2015," which means a public announcement is expected during E3.

Although 1TB of storage may seem like overkill for game consoles, it could become a necessity with the rise of downloadable content. Destiny weighs in at 25GB, while Batman: Arkham Knight will be 45GB - so you may want that larger storage space.




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Security experts say US government must make cybersecurity changes
The US government has confirmed that records of current and former federal employees are at risk, following news that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) suffered a series of cyberattacks. Despite reportedly beginning in late 2014, it took until April before the intrusions were detected.

Here is some expert cybersecurity input regarding the breach:

There is a changing cybercriminal landscape that the United States has been relatively slow to adapt to:

"Cyber espionage by state-sponsored actors is in fact cybercrime," said Jason Polancich, founder and chief architect at SurfWatch Labs. "China and Russia signed a no-hack agreement last month likely, in part, because one is the produce (China) and the other is the marketer (Russia) of today's cybercrime, now a world-sized cottage industry."

"Clearly, the government's approach to cybersecurity needs to be reformed, prioritized and accelerated," said Grayson Milbourne, security intelligence director at Webroot. "That the breach might have been carried out by the Chinese does not absolve the OPM of blame. The issue here is the government's technological failings and what it should be doing to prevent future attacks."

Of course, China - which could be behind the attacks - is taking a diplomatic approach to rejecting responsibility: "Cyberattacks conducted across countries are hard to track, and therefore the source of attacks is difficult to identify," said a spokesman from the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. "Jumping to conclusions and making hypothetical accusation is not responsible and counterproductive."


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The Mighty Gaming Movement: Part 1 - Peripherals

In the beginning

Some say that companies like Razer are the biggest because they've been around since the 'dawn of time', producing products like the Boomslang back in 1998 and pushing gaming into the forefront of many people's and company's minds. Others say they own the market simply because they make good products, market well and know their audience. What do you think?

Thanks to the massive rise of gaming and eSports internationally, every technology company seemingly wants a piece of the pie - vowing to produce the best features, style, ergonomics and performance in their gaming peripheral options and many are falling short in crucial areas. This article will not point out which are right or wrong, but highlight why some like the motherboard manufacturer GIGABYTE or the PC DIY masters Thermaltake have come to the peripheral party.

With the overall gaming hardware industry being reported as worth a massive $67 billion in 2014 and peripherals making up 8% of this ($5.36 billion), can you blame them for giving it a go?

A look into a few companies

As eluded to in the introduction, companies like Razer and SteelSeries helped set the forefront for peripheral development, lapping up the top eSports teams globally, sponsoring competitions and running seminars globally for fans and business partners alike.

After a while, the PC DIY scene wasn't doing so well and a steady decline was noticed in overall market spending. This coupled with a massive rise in the video game industry (bringing in $10.5 billion each year) saw other companies perk their ears.

One of the first to make the switch was that of Tt eSPORTS. A sister-company of Thermaltake based out of Taipei, Taiwan pushed their red dragon to the world, sponsoring globally known teams like Team Tt from Heroes of Newerth, the ever-loveable StarCraft II personality WhiteRa and the StarCraft II power house Koreans of PRIME. Alongside this, they pushed the social sphere by being one of the first companies to invest in 'Community Managers', taking on one in Australia, England and USA.

Performance aside, Tt eSPORTS is still working on becoming one of the major players globally, despite losing all of their community managers since hiring them in 2011 - they have decided to pursue other avenues of video advertisements and tie-ins with modding.

Another notable entry from PC DIY to the gaming scene is that of Cooler Master and their CM Storm series of peripherals. Known as the biggest case manufacturer on the market, Cooler Master launched its CM Storm series in order to take control of yet another market and placing a foothold in something set to rise considerably in years to come. Following a similar social mentality to that of Tt eSPORTS, CM Storm also hired some community managers to help appeal to their target audience - how can you market to gamers without knowing exactly what they like?

Lastly, GIGABYTE and their gaming contingent Aorus is something worth looking at. Stemming from its gaming notebook division of the same name, Aorus representatives told me last time I was in Taiwan that this company has a pure focus on high-end peripherals only. Releasing feature packed, LED packed goodies at the highest of price ranges to appeal to a specific audience and keep its name above the rest.

The issues begin

Let me take you back to what I said not too long ago - 'how can you market to gamers without knowing exactly what they like'.

As this 'demotivational poster' comically points out, there's a seemingly obvious problem that many of these companies have in common - they don't know their target audience. It's all well and good to slap the 'gaming' tag on your products (we're seeing it in every technology field), but it's another thing to develop a good product and also understand and market to the audience you are designed for targeting towards. This becomes more apparent when a company starts delving into the scene for the first time. We've commonly seen shining bright LED, 6000+ DPI, 20 side-buttoned monstrosities hit the market where it's evident that the company hasn't taken any time to talk to or understand its audience whatsoever.

As mentioned previously, some of these companies have taken to hiring underpaid and under-appreciated community managers to take the brunt force of complaints from the public sphere and pass up product suggestions to deaf ears.

Looking at it more academically, there is a thing called 'the ladder of community participation' by Sherry R Arnstein (1969) which helps to point out how companies or governments can in some ways entice the community to believe they have a say in processes and development, whereas they do not whatsoever. Looking at this theory, you may notice that the rank of consultation may be the most suitable for this topic - even going as far as labelling the companies own employed community manager as part of the consultation bracket.

Consultation sounds pretty good, right? Well, what it points out is that the communities at hand may be asked their opinions and advice, however, the whole process is just tokenism. The company at hand is simply going through these processes to make the community believe they have the option to change something - it's all too common to see marketing representatives or community managers pushing their brands on stage, asking audience members to put forward questions and make suggestions in person or through social media avenues, without having any intention of changing anything.

How often have you received a return email or Facebook message which reads the generic 'Dear 'name', thank you for your suggestions, we have taken it on board and will pass it to our HQ for further research and development' - I know many of you have, because I used to write them.

What else can be learned?

So by now you're probably feeling pretty disheartened about what has been read above. These companies are built to make money and they don't always listen to their target audience - not a huge surprise. But there are certainly some good things to come of more competition.

Furthered research and development - For a company to make something 'new', it's not too easy in this day and age. There are many copies of products and re-releases around boasting a myriad of features and it's difficult to make something to separate you from the crowd, but a company must do this in order to see massive growth or marketing exposure. We've seen the recent rise of RGB keyboards which has arguably been lead by Corsair, this is one great example. There's also some funny attempts - harmless, but humorous nonetheless.

More money put into marketing - This assists in grass roots funding, LAN party prizes, eSports tournaments sponsorships, internet personality sponsorships (covered in a later article) and more.

More competition - The most obvious of the three, more companies means more competition. It will keep driving down prices meaning companies make next to nothing off the developments and this is when moving quantity becomes important.

Closing Thoughts

There's been a bit of negative and a sprinkle of positive in this write-up. We've covered some of the newer players in the peripheral scene (2009 onwards) and how more unnamed companies are making the half-assed switch over can be quite annoying and detrimental in some ways, but great in others.

In closing thoughts, more competition isn't always a bad thing, but it's certainly helping push the stereotype that 'gamers' are into crazily shaped, LED laden, cheap plastic toys. In another sense, gaming is becoming the 'mainstream' thing to do for new generations, so maybe stereotypes and masses of companies won't matter in five years? You never see people complaining about how many T-shirt brands exist globally, do you?
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