Is HTC One the real name for the HTC M7?
The long-rumoured HTC M7 handset may be revealed as the HTC One when it is unveiled later this month.
The oft-leaked Android Jelly Bean device is due to arrive at a special HTC event, pre-MWC, on February 19, with M7 the name mostly associated with launch rumours.
However, notorious leak artist EvLeaks tweeted on Friday: "HTC M7 coming to market as simply the HTC One."
The move would see HTC stick to the One brand it established last year with the HTC One X and One S devices launched at MWC and the One+ device, which followed later in 2012.
The One
The lack of a suffix would certainly give the impression that this new flagship handset is the One, rather than another One - a change in perception that beleaguered HTC definitely needs. The HTC One/M7 is expected to bring a 4.7-inch, full HD 1080p display as well as Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and a new version of HTC's Sense UI. It's likely that a Qualcomm 1.7GHz quad-core processor will be powering the device, with 2GB of RAM to keep everything speedy. HTC is almost certain to unveil the device at special events in London and New York on February 19 so we'll know for sure whether it truly is The One.
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Microsoft seeking further unification of Windows and Windows Phone
Microsoft is seeking a software engineer to help unify the Windows Phone and Windows 8 developer platforms, allowing apps to seamlessly work on both.
The company posted a job opportunity on Friday in search of an individual who could work alongside the team in charge of making Windows Phone apps work on Windows 8/RT and vice versa.
In the past, Microsoft has been clear in its desire to create a unified Windows platform, where Metro-style apps in the Windows Store 'just work' on both platforms.
Those plans, which don't include traditional desktop-style apps, now seem to be in motion.
Bringing platforms together
The job posting reads: "Are you excited about Windows Phone? Are you passionate about delivering the best possible experience to the developer community? Do you wish the code you write for Windows Store apps would just work on the Windows Phone and vice versa? If so, then this is the role for you! "We are looking for a highly motivated and technically strong SDET (software development engineer in test) to help our team bring together the Windows Store and Phone development platforms. "You will work closely with your developer and PM (program manager) counterparts to solve the technical challenges of bringing a platform built for desktops and tablets to the phone form factor."
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'Twittr' LOLcats language option invites us to 'View Conversashun'
There are times when using perfect English when composing tweets just isn't practical. The 140 character limit means the odd abbreviation and use of text-speak is sometimes a necessary evil to fit everything in.
However, that's nothing compared to the new LOLcats language mode Twitter unleashed through a little Easter Egg that became available to users on Friday.
Taking a trip to twitter.com/?lang=lolc transforms your timeline into a tribute, of sorts, to one of the internet's most ensuring memes.
Twitter is replaced by TWITTR, while Home becomes HUM. COMPOZE NEW TWEET, VUW PHOTO and EXPAN.KTHX have also replaced the conventional commands on the site.
View UNITED KINGDUM. KTHX. TRENDS
Our favourite has to be VIEW MAH PROILE PUJ which, obviously, takes users to their profile page. Naturally, there's not a lower case letter in sight. The new language setting can be accessed by hitting the URL above, or it can be done manually from the Twitter settings. Of course, this is hardly headline news, but considering Twitter has been fostering a Mr Tough Guy reputation in the last couple of years, it's good to see the company still has a sense of humour.
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'Don't update to iOS 6.1,' Vodafone UK warns iPhone 4S customers
Vodafone UK has warned iPhone 4S users not to upgrade to Apple's iOS 6.1 software.
The network has sent a text out to subscribers telling them to hold off until Apple fixes intermittent issues relating to 3G internet performance the ability to connect to the network at all.
Placing the blame firmly at Apple's door, Vodafone said that Cupertino is working on a solution, although Apple has not confirmed any issues or admitted it is trying to fix said issue.
iOS 6.1, brings improvements to Siri allowing users to purchase movie tickets as well as individual song downloads in iTunes Match, was launched last week, but this is the first we're hearing of any problems.
Investigations
In a post on the network's website, Vodafaone said: "Some customers may occasionally experience difficulty in connecting to the network to make or receive calls or texts or to connect to the Internet. "Apple is working on a solution to their software issue. These connection problems are intermittent. "While Apple's investigations continue, we would recommend that anyone who has not yet installed iOS 6.1 on their iPhone 4s should delay doing so until Apple has confirmed that their problem has been fixed." Apple has not yet commented on the apparent issues
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Week in Science: Are we all overdosing on caffeine every day?
Another week, another fantastic discovery -- have we finally found the magic cancer-killing bullet? Maybe, but if not, perhaps we can just 3D-print new replacement organs instead.
We've even got bacteria that can make gold to help us pay for it all, which we should celebrate with a diet vodka-coke for a quick alcoholic hit. Plus, how much caffeine have you had today? It could be lethal.
How much caffeine is too much? -- You wake up, sluggish and tired, until you can get your caffeine hit. You reach for a coffee and everything is better, but is it dangerous? You might be surprised to learn that the accepted safe level of caffeine is actually only around 400mg a day. A small coffee could contain as much as 133mg, where as a Venti from Starbucks, for instance, is a whole 400mg of caffeine on its own. There's been spate of seemingly fit and healthy people dying from heart attacks recently, possibly brought on by very high levels of caffeine. Perhaps it's time to cut down, just a tad? [CEN]
Just for the alcohol intake, diet Coke -- Caffeine gets you through the day, but at night, you're after something a bit stronger. You're watching your weight, though, so what do you have with your double vodka? Diet Coke, of course. Thing is, a recent study has shown that diet mixers actually allow alcohol to be absorbed more readily into the blood, meaning you feel the effects quicker. So, you might be watching your weight, but you're getting intoxicated a lot faster than your full-fat-sipping friend. [Alcoholism]
Need a replacement organ? Just print one out -- Everything seemingly damages your health these days, but what if you could solve aliments by just printing out and swapping in new replacement organs? The surgery might be there already, but now scientists from the University of Edinburgh have managed to actually 3D-print stem cells. The theory is that you print out an organ using the stem cells, matching your own body's template, essentially printing replicas of your own organs. This could be the holy grail of organ replacement, print, grow, insert, and be as good as new. [New Scientist]
Red-green colour blind? Should have gone to Specsavers -- About 10 per cent of the male population can't differentiate between red and green due to a genetic defect in the cone cells of their retinas. Now scientists have created lenses that let the red-green colour blind see normal colours. One downside is that it makes yellows almost invisible, which wouldn't be great for driving, but one day, if we can't fix the genetics, we'll be able to just wear contacts instead. [Scientific American]
Have we finally found the magic cancer-killing bullet? -- The longer we live the bigger the cancer threat becomes. It's tough to kill because it's actually your own cells rebelling against your body, so you end up killing your normal cells in the process of treatment. A new, tiny molecule, called TIC10, has been found to successfully cause cancer cells to commit suicide in a whole variety of cancers, including brain tumours, in mice, without affecting healthy, non-cancerous cells. There's a long way to go to prove it works just as well in humans, but TIC10 could be the revolutionary treatment we desperately need to beat cancer. [Nature]
Feeling sick? Blame the vegetables -- Contrary to popular belief, a new study has shown that the majority of food poisoning is actually caused by vegetables, not meat. 51 per cent of food-borne illnesses reported to the CDC in the US every year are caused by contaminated plants. In fact, every kind of meat bundled together only caused 22 per cent of sicknesses. The main culprits of leafy-green contamination is the delightful norovirus family, responsible for what's commonly known as 'stomach flu'. Not something want messing up your insides, so best cook those veggies thoroughly next time you're feeling in need of greens. [CDC]
It's all yellow -- Alchemists have been trying to turn lead into gold for centuries, but the reality is we've been stuck trying to haul it out of the ground. Now bacteria might do it for us. Two bacterium have been found to be able to actually produce gold particles out of a gold solution, essentially growing gold nuggets if given long enough. Scientists think bacteria could be the next gold prospectors, automatically sifting through waste mine water and building gold nuggets for us. Bugs literally making us rich. [NCB]
Super lightweight and 15 times stronger than steel -- Scientists from Southampton University have developed a new super material that's incredibly light and 15 times stronger than steel. The new silica nanofibres are so thin that they cease to be brittle and, in fact, become stronger and more flexible. By forming them into nanowires, they show incredible strength and lightness, creating something that could revolutionise aviation, marine, and any application that requires an extreme strength-to-weight ratio. In fact, even your phone could eventually me made of silica nanofibres, because ultra-lightweight and strong makes for super-skinny phones. [Lab News]
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In Depth: Why there's never been a better time for Mac design
Apple has been very busy over the last few months, with new technologies taking the Mac to even greater heights.
The last MacBook Pro refresh brought us the much-vaunted Retina display, the world's highest-resolution notebook screen.
Then we got a radically redesigned iMac packed with new features, an exciting new storage solution and a 13-inch version of the Retina display MacBook Pro.
The late 2012 iMac's call-out feature is its ultra-thin case. At its edges, its body is now just 5mm thick, and it's 40% smaller in volume than the previous generation. But to achieve this thinner, smaller form factor, Apple had to raise its game in several key areas.
The first challenge faced by Apple's engineers was how to fix the front of the iMac to the rear section. Standard welding procedures such as fusion arc welding are impossible on such a thin body, so new solutions were sought.
They found one in friction-stir welding, a cutting-edge process that uses friction-generated heat and a high degree of pressure to fuse the two aluminium surfaces into a seamless joint that's incredibly strong.
Friction-stir welding is a British invention developed for use in the shipbuilding, aircraft and automotive industries. The process was also adopted by NASA for use in the now-retired Space Shuttle programme.
It works by rotating a wear-resistant cylindrical tool at between 180-300rpm, depending on the thickness of the components being welded together. This tool is pressed onto the joint at a pressure of between 5,000 to 10,000 pounds per square inch, moving along it at between 3.5 to five inches per minute. A probe in the centre of the otherwise-flat rotating, high-pressure welding tool friction-heats the joint, causing the metal to soften without actually melting.
This softened material is then forced back behind the pin, where, under the pressure of the main surface of the tool, it's bonded into a very strong joint.
Welding the case joints wasn't the only challenge faced by Apple's engineers. The ultra-thin form factor also forced a rethink in how the display is put together. Unlike previous iMac models, where there was a two millimetre gap between the LCD screen and its glass cover, here the screen is pressed against the glass using a process called full lamination.
Already used on tablet devices, this is the first time the process has been attempted on such a large screen. The LCD used in the new iMac is 5mm thinner than before too. But the full lamination process does more than shave a few millimetres off the screen's thickness. By pressing the LCD directly against its cover glass, reflections are dramatically curtailed. Light can no longer bounce off the LCD screen itself, or the back of the cover glass.
The anti-reflection coating used on the glass has been revised too. Eschewing the usual application methods, a process called plasma deposition has been used. This allows Apple to coat the glass with incredibly thin layers of silicon dioxide and niobium pentoxide, decreasing reflections from the front of the glass without compromising the integrity of the display's colours.
It was originally designed for much smaller transparent surfaces such as camera lenses and helmet visors, but Apple's engineers have managed to scale it up for use on the iMac's 21-inch and 27-inch screens. The result is that the new 2012 iMac's screen is 75% less reflective.
The new form factor has forced the optical drive to be dropped, so if you still need to burn to or read from CDs and DVDs, you'll have to buy an external drive. It's not the first Mac desktop machine to drop the optical drive, the Mac mini hasn't had one since July 2011 and both the MacBook Air range and Retina MacBook Pros were designed without one from their inception.
Could Apple once again be skating to where the puck is going to be, successfully predicting future trends as it did when it dropped the floppy drive from the original iMac back in 1998?
Frankly, we have our doubts. The floppy disk was a very limited storage medium. Optical storage is far more versatile. You might not get your software physically delivered on a disk any more, but do you still rip CDs to iTunes? Or watch DVD movies on your iMac? Or make your own DVD video disks? We suspect sales of USB SuperDrives will increase with the arrival of the new iMac.
Previous generations of iMac and Mac mini gave us hard drives as standard, and solid-state drives as configuration options. The new Macs give us a third choice: buy any iMac except the entry-level model or the more expensive of the two Mac minis from the online Apple Store, and you can choose a new Fusion Drive.
The Fusion Drive combines 128GB of solid-state storage with a 1TB or 3TB hard drive, with the 3TB model only available in 27-inch iMacs. By storing the operating system, regularly used applications and commonly accessed files on the flash section of the drive and everything else on the hard drive platters, a Fusion Drive gives near-SSD speeds without compromising on storage capacity.
According to Apple, a Fusion Drive is around three and a half times as speedy as a regular hard drive. The solid-state storage section is not a cache. The Fusion Drive doesn't create copies of regularly used files on the SSD. Nor is it a RAID drive. Instead, it's a hybrid drive that appears as one volume in the Finder, with a capacity of 1.12TB for the 1TB version (a 1TB hard drive plus 128GB of solid-state storage), or 3.12TB for the 3TB drive.
Likewise, if you back up your Fusion Drive, it's treated as a single volume rather than two separate units. The drive itself deals with file management, opting to put frequently accessed data on the solid-state portion, and moving files you no longer regularly use back to the hard drive.
According to Apple, 'You'll enjoy shorter boot times, and as the system learns how you work, you'll experience faster application launches and quicker file access'. There have been hybrid drives before, of course, most notably Seagate's Momentus XT. But Fusion Drive is different. Because it's made by Apple it can integrate directly with OS X, and Seagate's hybrid solution offers up to 8GB of solid-state storage, not the 128GB enjoyed by the Fusion Drive.
And as regular readers know, we've tested the Momentus XT and were extremely impressed with its performance. Could Apple's Fusion Drive prove quicker still? We certainly look forward to finding out. The new Fusion Drive looks like it will prove a real boon for your desktop Mac, let's hope it also comes to notebooks soon.
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Review: Thermalright Macho Rev.A
Massive coolers are generally a few things: a nightmare to fit, turbine-loud and incredibly obstructive to everything in the surrounds of your CPU socket. Thermalright's huge Macho Rev.A cooler takes all those preconceptions and changes the rules.
It's giant, but only needs a GCSE in metalwork to fit, not a full engineering degree, stays whisper-quiet, and won't have you digging around for low-profile RAM like the Tactical LP sticks.
The important thing to take away with from this review is that the Macho Rev.A isn't designed to ship huge amounts of heat away from heavily overclocked CPUs. Despite its chunky fan, this is not a high-performance chip cooler in the traditional sense.
That's not to denigrate the Macho Rev.A though - it's designed to keep your CPU cool, while producing very little noise.
Whisper it
You won't get industry leading cooling performance here, but that 140mm fan is so quiet you can barely hear it - especially when it's fully mounted in a chassis. That's because it's initially set up running at just 600rpm. In fact, it occasionally dropped below that, triggering my motherboard's fan alert.Benchmarks
Idle CPU performance 3770K @ 3.5GHz: Degrees centigrade: Lower is better MACHO REV.A: 33 SAPPHIRE VAPOR-X: 25 REEVEN KELVEROS: 26 100% CPU performance 3,770K @ 3.5GHz: Degrees centigrade: Lower is better MACHO REV.A: 66 SAPPHIRE VAPOR-X: 58 REEVEN KELVEROS: 69 100% OC performance 3770K @ 4.5GHz Degrees centigrade: Lower is better MACHO REV.A: 90 SAPPHIRE VAPOR-X: 86 REEVEN KELVEROS: N/A At that speed it's practically silent, and because of the large heatsink and six heatpipes, it was still able to keep my stock-clocked 3770K running at just 66°C under full load. Things were different when we started waving the overclocking stick around - it still kept the chip below the thermal junction, but at 90°C under full load at 4.5GHz it's a little warm for regular use. The fan would only spin up to 1,275rpm, so it wasn't able to shift enough heat away from the chip when there was that much waste energy produced. It was still very quiet, but not so useful for the OC brigade. The Macho Rev.A is also a really well made bit of kit, with a solid CPU mounting. You need to remove your mobo to fit it - no matter if your chassis has a cut out behind the CPU or not - but it's not a difficult build outside the case and the fit is incredibly sturdy. I'm also a fan of the heatsink design. The offset fins shift the whole cooler away from the DIMM slots so there's no interaction between them at all, despite there being a chunky fan attached too. It's well thought out, and so simple you wonder why it's not used for all such chunky coolers. The Macho Rev.A is a really rather impressive cooler. It's not ideal for overclockers - they're well catered for with the liquid chillers - but it's perfect for the stock-clocked masses who don't want their PC to sound like a Harrier jump-jet in rapid ascent. It's well designed, well built and whisper quiet - a quality massive cooler.
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Google may bring air fleet to new Silicon Valley home
Just when we thought Google's digs couldn't get any swankier, news comes that the search engine is building its own airport.
According to the San Jose Mercury News, a deal is in the works to create a privately funded airport adjoined to the Mineta San Jose International Airport. That's basically Wi-Fi distance from Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.
Signature Aviation and Blue City Holdings (the companies in charge of Google's fleet) are looking to build the 29-acre, $82 million facility in San Jose to house Google aircraft along with the companies' other corporate and private clients.
Google Air
The blueprints for the private airport include an aircraft servicing facilities, an executive terminal, hangers and ramp space for giants aircraft such as Boeing 737s and 767s. Rent for the airfield will run the two companies $2.6 million annually, and the proposed lease will last for 50 years. Similar leases normally last for about 20 to 30 years, so hopefully Google will be happy with its future plane parking lot. Google's fleet is currently hanging out at Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View. The company had previously offered to pay for restorations of NASA/Ames' Hanger One located in the airfield in exchange for use of two-thirds of the facility's space. But it's too early to tell what this new deal will mean for that arrangement. The proposal is set to go to the San Jose city council's Airport Competitiveness Committee later this month. then it will be up for a vote from the full council in April. If the deal gets approved, the airfield will take about two years to build. And maybe after that, Google will tackle building its own moon base.
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