IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 13/08/2015

Verizon is testing out new fiber system that scales to 80Gbps
Verizon has teased that it has successfully tested out its new, insanely fast fiber-optic technology that goes by the name of next-generation passive optical network, or NG-PON2.

This new technology is capable of blasting speeds to users at anywhere between 10Gbps and 80Gbps, enough to download many Blu-ray movies in just a few seconds. The new technology uses an optical line terminal (OLT) which is capable of generating four wavelengths of light, each capable of transmitting data at 10Gbps down, and 2.5Gbps up.

Verizon's impressive new technology is capable of transmitting both the current GPON (or Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network) as well as the new, insanely quick NG-PON2, simultaneously. The system is even capable of switching between the four wavelengths in the case of something going wrong, where it can quickly restore the 10Gbps connection.

Verizon is betting on the future of 4K video streaming, which will require much higher speeds than what is being made available through DSL and cable services. The company is issuing "requests for proposals" for the hardware and software required for its new FIOS service later in the year, with no word on when it'll arrive. But expect businesses to receive it first.

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Samsung unveils a new 6.4TB PCIe SSD that can read at 5.5GB/sec
Samsung has just announced three TCO-optimized, high-performance SSDs based on its incredibly exciting 3D V-NAND technology. These new products will be solely aimed at the enterprise and data center markets.

Kicking off with its latest SAS-based SSD, the new PM1633 is "designed to meet all requirements of Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) interface based systems". The PM1633 is based on the 2.5-inch form factor and the 12Gbps SAS standard, and will arrive in 480GB, 960GB, 1.92TB and 3.84TB versions. Samsung's PM1633 is capable of random read and write speeds of up to 160,000 and 18,000 IOPS, respectively. When it comes to sequential read and writes, we can expect 1.1GB/sec and 1GB/sec, respectively.

Moving onto the new half-height, half-length (HHHL) card-type, NVMe-based SSD - the new PM1725 - offers huge speeds, and massive capacities of 3.2TB and 6.4TB. The PM1725 is capable of random read speeds of up to 1 million IOPS, while writes hit 120,000. It can read at a huge 5.5GB/sec while it writes at 1.8GB/sec, with Samsung teasing that it can enable "users to save a 5GB video in less than three seconds".

Lastly, Samsung has updated the industry's first NVMe-based SSD, the SM951, with a new M.2-based form factor. The new PM953 arrives in the NVMe interface, and is available in both the 2.5-inch and M.2 standards. Samsung's updated PM953 is the ideal solution for large-scale data centers, mobile workstations and ultra-slim notebook PCs and high-end desktop PCs. The M.2 version of the PM953 will be made in 480GB and 960GB versions, while the 2.5-inch version will be offered in 480GB, 960GB and 1.92TB capacities.

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Check out this drool-worthy custom Minecraft PC
Minecraft is an interesting beast, with some of the most dedicated fans playing the game for countless hours, but what about a custom-built Minecraft PC? Yeah, it's been done, and holy hell does it look glorious.

Spencer Kern is the man behind the build, with a Minecraft-themed 'Redstone PC'. Spencer went as far as fully customizing the peripherals too, with an awesome-looking keyboard, mouse, headphones, and an Xbox 360 controller with a built-in chatpad.

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Seagate announces new Nytro Flash products at Flash Memory Summit 2015
At the Flash Memory Summit, Seagate has announced its new Nytro XF1440 2.5-inch, Nytro XM1440 M.2-based NVMe SSDs, and the new Nytro XP6500 Flash Accelerator Card. These new products, as Seagate puts it: "extend Seagate's portfolio of flash-based solutions, which are designed to work in conjunction with Seagate storage products to meet nearly any data storage need".

The new Seagate Nytro XF1440 and XM1440 are industry-leading power efficient, high-performance NVMe SSDs that are available in both ultra-small 2.5-inch and M.2 form factors. On the other hand, the Nytro XP6500 is a PCIe-based flash accelerator card that offers incredibly low write latency, all the while improving response time in application that require high IOPS and bandwidth.

Seagate's Vice President of Flash Products, Cloud Systems and Electronics Solutions, Brett Pemble, said: "These new flash products greatly expand the range of our total product portfolio and demonstrate how Seagate's acquisition of the LSI flash technologies is paying off. With these products, Seagate's commitment to the modern datacenter is clear. The Nytro XF1440/XM1440 SSDs deliver the highest performance in the smallest power envelope. The XP6500 flash accelerator card provides ultra-low latency capability for applications that require fast logging and produce significantly higher transactions per second, something today's applications demand".

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NVIDIA's G-Sync dominates AMD's FreeSync in side-by-side blind testing
Last week, Tom's Hardware teamed up with Newegg, NVIDIA, AMD, Digital Storm and a few other companies for a massive side-by-side blind test of NVIDIA's G-Sync technology versus AMD's FreeSync technology.

The setup involved using both IPS- and TN-based panels in the form of the Acer XB270HU (G-Sync) vs. the ASUS MG279Q (FreeSync) which are both based on IPS panels with a native resolution of 2560x1440. The other two displays are the ASUS PG278Q (S-Sync) vs. the BenQ XL2730Z (FreeSync) which are TN-based panels. Hardware wise, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 and AMD Radeon R9 390X were used inside of some well-specced Digital Storm gaming PCs.

The overall test had NVIDIA winning by a huge margin, with 60% of the participants choosing G-Sync based on this experiment. The remaining 40% was split into 21% choosing FreeSync, while 19% thought both were of equal quality. When it came to one of my favorite games to play to show people G-Sync's benefits, Battlefield 4, G-Sync scooped it up with 8 out the 12 users saying that G-Sync was best on Battlefield 4. FreeSync had just three people choosing FreeSync over G-Sync, while one thought it was of equal quality.

Interestingly, 34 of the 48 participants in this elaborate test said that they would pay a premium to play games using a 27-inch 2560x1440 IPS-based 144Hz monitor using G-Sync or FreeSync, with 16 out of 28 people saying they'd pay up to $100 more. Nine of the participants said that they'd pay between $100-$200 more, while three of them said they'd shell out $200 or more.

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Grand Theft Auto V has sold over 54 million copies
We all know that the Grand Theft Auto games are one of the biggest selling franchises of all time, but did you know that there have been over 54 million copies of GTA V sold so far?

With an average price of $60 per copy, Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar Games have pulled in an insane $3.24 billion from Grand Theft Auto V sales. The news of GTA V's huge sales come from Take-Two Interactive's earnings report, with the company reporting earnings per share of 31c on revenues of $366.4 million.

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Nintendo believes it can no longer ignore the mobile gaming market
Gaming company Nintendo announced earlier this year that it planned to enter the mobile gaming market - and at least five mobile games could be expected by March 2017.

"We can't deny the massive install base of smartphones out there, and some fans that aren't old enough yet to afford their own gaming console, perhaps for those consumers they can start to appreciate some of our content and build a relationship with some of our characters and our franchises," said Scott Moffitt, executive of Nintendo of America, in a statement to the Examiner. "We feel it's going to be an additive to our console business."

Just because Nintendo is dabbling in the smartphone game market doesn't mean investors and supporters need to be worried about executives abandoning the company's core business: "Normally, we wouldn't have taken that step of telling people we are working on the next system, but we wanted people to know we remain committed to the dedicated game device business," he said while referring to the Nintendo NX.

If done properly, Nintendo could find a new way to transition some mobile gamers into Nintendo console owners - but with so many mobile titles already available to consumers, they'll have to be careful not to degrade long-loved game franchises.

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Former spy panel senator believes Edward Snowden should be hanged
There are plenty of folks in Washington, D.C. unhappy with former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, and you can count retired Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) as one of those people. Snowden remains holed up in Moscow, Russia, with very few options considering the severity of charges he faces in the United States.

Chambliss believes there could be only one way to punish Snowden for his actions:

"We need to hang him on the courthouse square as soon as we get our hands on him," Chambliss recently told students at the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business. "I hope none of you have any sympathy for him."

Despite Snowden saying he'd like to one day return home, that obviously doesn't seem likely any time soon. Chambliss also pointed towards likely loss of American lives due to Snowden's actions, a common statement among anti-Snowden lawmakers.

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Make your next big move. Get a two-year subscription to Virtual Training Academy for just $59 at TweakTown Deals.

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Report: $21.8 billion in lost ad revenue in 2015 due to ad blockers
A new report from PageFair says that there has been a 41% spike in the use of ad blockers over the last 12 months, something that will cost the industry around $21.8 billion in lost advertising revenue in 2015 alone.

The report warns that ad-blocking software is a large threat to the future of free content on the web, with PageFair's 'The cost of ad blocking' study saying that close to 200 million monthly Internet users are now using ad-blocking browser extensions. The report continued, saying that sites targeting "young, technically savvy, or more male audiences" are the ones that are most effected when it comes to ad blockers.

In the United States, around 45 million monthly active users use ad-blocking software, but that pales in comparison to Europe's 77 million users. Greece tops them all with 36.7% of the Internet population using ad-blocking software of some sort. Co-founder and Chief Executive of PageFair, Sean Blanchfield said: "It is tragic that ad block users are inadvertently inflicting multi-billion dollar losses on the very websites they most enjoy. With ad blocking going mobile, there's an eminent threat that the business model that has supported the open web for two decades is going to collapse".

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Strontium Nitro Plus Nano 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Review

Nano or Pico sized flash drives are becoming more common as performance and capacity have been able to be squeezed into the small form factor. Over the last year or so, many vendors have jumped into the arena with a Nano sized flash drive. Today we look at the latest...

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Available Tags:Samsung , SSD , Seagate , Nintendo , gaming , USB 3.0 , USB ,