Google's Eric Schmidt is planning to sell 3.2M shares or 42% of his stake
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt is planning on trading in some 3.2 million of his shares in the company. That equates to roughly 42 percent of his stake in the company which currently stands at about 7.6 million shares of Class A and Class B common stock. Currently, he has about 8.2 percent of the voting power.
At the current stock price, this transaction will net him around $2.5 billion. He intends to sell the stock over a period of one year and will use the cash to diversify his investment portfolio. Google said in today's filing, "
Eric can diversify his investment portfolio and can spread stock trades out over a period of one year to reduce market impact."
For comparison, Google founder Sergey Brin holds about 8.5 percent of the voting power and co-founder Larry Page, the current CEO of Google, holds about 8.7 percent. We'll keep an eye on Google's stock to see how this affects the price.
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OUYA promising fast game approval, reviews starting up by end of February
The CEO of OUYA, Julie Uhrman, has promised that game approvals will be a simple and quick process. It'll be similar to the approval process that mobile apps go through when submitted to the Apple App Store and others. It'll get a quick check for infringement, malware, or other violations and will be approved if none are found.
It's similar to mobile: they'll submit their games, and we'll review for intellectual property infringement, and malware, and excessive pornography. But ultimately it's a quick review and you're in the storefront in one capacity or another.
Developers are already to be able to upload games to the store even though the review process hasn't been finalized. She expects reviews to begin by the end of this month as the ability to review games is still being built. They'll need to get this finished up quickly as the first consoles are scheduled to launch in March and they won't do much good without games to play.
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Firefighters sworn in on iPad Bible app after no one brought a Bible to the ceremony
In what can only be described as a culture increasingly turning towards technology, eight firefighters in Atlantic City were sworn into their new positions using an iPad's Bible app. That's right, instead of using a physical Bible, these eight firefighters put their hand on an iPad and took their oath.
The strange event transpired after everyone realized that no one had brought a Bible to the ceremony. Luckily, someone had an iPad and the bright idea to pull up a Bible app on it to use as a stand-in. Could we see something similar happen at the next presidential inauguration? I doubt it, though this goes to show that times are changing.
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Apple hires James Lee, AMOLED TV expert from LG, fuels rumors that Apple working on TV
Apple has reportedly hired James (Jueng-Gil) Lee, a former senior researcher on LG Display's R&D team. Prior to that, he worked as a researcher at Cambridge Display Technology and as R&D head for LCD technology at Samsung. Clearly, he's got quite a bit of experience in the television industry.
Unfortunately for Apple, they don't make a TV. But, this hire is sure to add fuel to the rumors of an Apple TV that has been predicted by analysts for at least a year now. Of course, these are just minor details. We'll sure he'll find a good home at Apple, though what he'll be working on isn't known. A good bet would be Apple's displays.
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EA offering up a second beta test for SimCity
If you missed out on the first beta test EA and Maxis offered up for SimCity, you're no longer out of luck. After taking into consideration the bugs and feedback they received, they have announced that they are hosting a second closed beta to test the servers. The second beta will run from Saturday February 16 6AM PST to Sunday February 17 6AM PST.
Users can submit an application on the
SimCity website in hopes of being chosen for the beta. Registration for the second beta closes as of February 11 at 6AM PST. Along with the announcement of the second beta, EA has released a second trailer for the game, possibly in hopes of encouraging more users to sign up to try it out.
Hopefully all of the bugs will be worked out of the server before the launch in March. If not, we could have a repeat of the Diablo III fiasco that prevented some people from playing.
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Microsoft expanding Surface RT availability February 14
Microsoft is expanding the availability of the Surface RT tablet on February 14 with the release of the tablet in more European countries. The following countries will be able to procure the Surface RT February 14: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
It's important to remember that the Surface RT is ARM based and runs Windows RT as opposed to the full Windows 8. The Surface Pro is launching tomorrow, though it will not be available in the above countries starting tomorrow. It will likely come at a later time, much like the Surface RT has.
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Twitter adds lolcat language, similar to Facebook's pirate language in function
Speaking plain English isn't enough for you? How about speaking Internet? With Twitter's new lolcat language, you can have your Twitter experience transformed from a mundane English affair to an all out meme-based Internet language. The changes aren't quite as dramatic and sweeping as that last sentence made them seem, but you can now browse Twitter with some of the terms updated to fit lolcat memes.
For instance, many of the words have been changed to all capitals. A more specific example--and one of the better changes--is the change that "View Summary" underwent. It now reads "VIEW SUMMARY. KTHXBYE!" Additionally, "More Changes" has been changed to simply read "MOAR."
The language is currently in beta and will likely undergo changes to perfect it as comments and suggestions come in from Twitter users. The setting can be changed in Twitter's Settings, or you can simply click
this link to take you to Twitter with the new language.
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iOS Evasi0n jailbreak installed on 7m devices in just 4 days
The Evasi0n jailbreak continues to make tracks in terms of installs. The tool for untethered jailbreaks of nearly every iOS device saw massive downloads and uptake on Monday when it was first released and demand appears to be continuing. As of Thursday night, the jailbreak had been used on approximately seven million devices.
The way this is being tracked is through the alternate app store Cydia. As of Thursday night, the app store had recorded visits from 5.15 million new iPhones, 1.35 million iPads, and 400,000 iPod touches. Altogether that works out to just about seven million new devices.
While jailbreak statistics for previous tools aren't perfectly recorded, Jay Freeman, author of the Cydia app store, says that Evasi0n has brought "insanely more new traffic" than the release of Absinthe, a jailbreak that worked for some iOS 5 versions and devices.
If you have an iOS device, have you jailbroken it yet? If not, why not?
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Windows Phone 8 scores a Spotify app
Windows Phone 8 users will no longer be left out of the music streaming goodness that is Spotify. Today, a beta version of an app destined for Windows Phone 8 was launched as a free download on the
Microsoft Marketplace. Users will be provided with the same 48 hour free trial that doesn't require any credit card information.
If users would like to continue using Spotify on their Windows Phone 8 mobile device, they'll have to pony up the same $9.99 that the rest of us have to for iOS and Android devices. For users on Windows Phone 7, 7.5, and 7.8, it appears that you are still out of luck as the app requires Windows Phone 8.
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AOL sees revenue grow for the first time in almost a decade
Who here remembers AOL? Yes that AOL, the one famous for bringing America on to the interwebs. Since the rise of broadband and the decline of the much slower 56k connection, AOL has fallen out of the limelight and pretty much out of the business world altogether.
For the last eight year in a row, AOL has reported massive revenue losses that are attributed to its once popular, but now almost nonexistent dial-up internet service. Finical reports recently released show that for the first time in almost a decade, AOL saw revenue growth.
The company reported revenue of $599.5 million in December, a 4% increase from the $576.8 million it generated during the same quarter in 2011.
"AOL returned to growth and generated significant value for shareholders in 2012," said Tim Armstrong, AOL's chairman and CEO, in a statement.
"AOL has strong momentum entering 2013 and is positioned to continue on our growth path by executing our strategy to build the next generation media and technology company."
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SpaceTT: NASA Astronauts to "hangout" in Google+ and answer your questions from space
Let's face it; most of our readers would love the chance to talk to an astronaut who is orbiting the earth inside the international space station. In fact, Americans have long been fascinated with communicating with astronauts while in space.
NASA has announced that U.S. astronauts Kevin Ford and Tom Marshburn along with Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency will be fielding questions live during a Google+ hangout that will take place on February 22nd at 11AM US Eastern time.
It is becoming pretty common for astronauts to communicate with the public during their extended trips on the International Space Station. Recently Hadfield hosted an AMA on Reddit, and has had a back and forth series of tweets with William Shatner of Star Trek fame. I hope to be one of the lucky people to get a question answered during the hangout. Maybe I will see you there!
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Microsoft's SkyDrive now hosting over 1 billion documents, following successful Office 2013 launch
This morning Microsoft announced that its SkyDrive cloud storage service is now hosting over one billion documents thanks to a very successful Office 2013 launch. The success is credited to users being easily able to upload and download their files from within the new Office software.
SkyDrive is the latest brainchild of Microsoft, and is billed as a cloud storage system for consumer, business and enterprise. Office 2013 is now able to save user documents to both the user's HDD as well as SkyDrive simultaneously, mitigating the need for frequent document backups. In a release Microsoft said:
Last week Office 365 Home Premium launched and we've seen a lot of enthusiasm over the seamless integration of SkyDrive for saving and sharing your docs. Recently we reached a big milestone; our customers are now storing over a billion Office documents on SkyDrive!
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EA's Origin gaming software comes to Mac users today in the form of Alpha testing
EA's Origin game management software (a competitor against Valve's Steam) features some of the biggest titles in PC gaming and up until now, it has been limited to Windows PC users only. That all changed today as EA officially announced Origin for Mac (Alpha).
In a release this morning, Origin said "
With Origin for Mac we'll be able to offer the same Origin experience and features that define our PC app - cloud storage, auto-patching, friends list, and more". While the alpha testing is open to the public, don't expect to download Battlefield 3 just yet. The game store is blocked until the official launch.
You may notice that the Origin Store tab is not yet live in this alpha trial; rest assured, the store will be live-with a great catalog of EA and partner titles-when we formally release the client. Additionally, we're not yet able to provide the same one-click streaming live to Twitch in Origin for Mac (we'll be adding this as soon as possible).
Otherwise, the Mac client feels and behaves exactly like the PC version. Just like PC gamers, you'll be able to add non-Origin games to your library, use the Origin In Game overlay, chat with friends across platforms and games, and can continue your saved progress from any Origin-enabled Mac. In order to make sure you can get the most out of this alpha trial, we've added a free copy of PopCap's smash hit puzzle game, Bookworm, to your My Games library. This game is yours to download and keep, on us. We hope you enjoy it.
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BitRock's BitNami enables OS X to run popular open source CMS's
OS X has a massive following of web developers who constantly used Linux based web server stacks to run their CMS stacks - it's actually a pretty common trend at the moment. Within Apple's OS X App Store, users can now find four of the most popular CMS's that run inside BitNami - Drupal, Wordpress, Joomla, and a generic MAMP stack (Mac, Apache, MySQL and PHP).
The issues arise when developers wanted to dev on a CMS in the local environment, files would be stored all over the place instead of a simple single directory. BitNami solves this problem by "walling-off" the CMS software and keeping everything nice in neat in a single place. This single directory structure is essential when migrating a site from a local host development environment to a live server out in the interwebs.
Traditionally web developers mitigate this issue by building a development server that is hosted on a Linux server somewhere on their local network. I have one sitting beside me at this moment with no less than six Drupal sites in the development phase.
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Mega file sharing service hires new CEO, Ex-head of InternetNZ, Vikram Kumar
Just weeks after its successful launch, file-sharing website Mega has a new CEO. Kim Dotcom has brought on the ex-head of InternetNZ, Vikram Kumar, to run the quickly growing Megaupload predecessor. Kumar has been one of Mega's biggest supporters as well as its founder, Kim Dotcom.
InternetNZ, the company Kumar once headed, up describes itself as a "
non-profit open membership organization dedicated to protecting and promoting the Internet in New Zealand and fostering a coordinated, cooperative approach to its ongoing development." Kumar's experience and lack of a controversial legal record should bring a new sense of professionalism to Mega.
"MEGA is delighted to welcome Vikram Kumar as its new CEO", said interim-CEO Tony Lentino. "I have assisted MEGA since its inception, putting time and energy into finding investors, setting up support staff and general overview of the company in its initial stage. Now MEGA runs on a day-to-day routine, and I am pleased to hand the role of CEO to Vikram who is an experienced leader in the Internet industry."
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Maps of India need improving, Google launches contest to kick-start the process
Google is hoping to speed up the crowd-sourcing cartography efforts in India by offering a contest with prizes to the top 1000 Map Makers. The contest spans from February 12th to March 25th with prizes including devices and Google branded merchandise.
Google Map Maker lets people who know the area better supply edits to Google Maps, most noticeably in areas where government supplied data and Google's on mapping efforts have failed, or been blocked. Most recently, Google Map Maker efforts have greatly improved the accuracy of North Korea on Google Maps.
The very top participants in the contest will receive a Samsung Galaxy Note 8000, with Samsung Galaxy S II GT smartphones, gift coupons, T-shirts and certificated will be awarded to lower ranking participants. What do you think about Google Map Maker? Have you used the service to improve your local maps? Let us know in the comments.
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HP working to prevent student workers in its Chinese factories
The world's largest PC manufacturer is working to make sure its Chinese suppliers aren't using student and temporary workers in their factories. Similar to Apple's current supply chain problems, HP has discovered student workers among those employed by the Chinese factories that supply them with their products.
HP isn't having one bit of it. According to HP's new regulations, a student's work "must complement the primary area of study." Also among the regulations is a cap that limits the ratio of student and temporary workers to 20 percent, though they plan to decrease that to 10 percent in the long run.
The labor issues in the supply chain affect all of the major electronics manufacturers. Apple has trouble with Foxconn and Samsung found unacceptable working conditions in its own factories in China. However, it remains to be seen if these companies will follow the example set by HP.
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ReportTT: Obama planning to issue executive order dealing with cybersecurity
Bloomberg news is reporting that President Obama is near to issuing an executive order that would deal with the nation's cybersecurity. They cite two former White House officials who have been briefed on the Obama administration's plans. An increase in US cybersecurity is desperately needed as was demonstrated by the recent hack of the Federal Reserve.
This executive order has apparently been in the drafting stages since last fall. It's widely expected to be released after Obama holds his State of the Union address on February 12. It reportedly will set up a voluntary program of standards for companies involved with vital US infrastructure such as, say, a power plant.
We'll definitely have more details after this executive order is released.
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Dell's shareholders reportedly resisting privatization buy-out
Reuters is reporting that several major shareholders and investment firms of Dell are having issues with Dell's buyback terms. Southeastern Asset Management is holding out saying that the offered $13.65 a share is too low and thinks the number needs to be around the $20 mark.
The pending deal has to pass a couple hurdles before the privatization can become official. Shareholders need to approve the deal by a majority vote, and regulatory agencies must sign off on it as well.
Voting against the deal is Alpine Capital Research president Nick Tompras. He manages about two million shares of Dell stock, and said "
Let the fools sell low -- don't make us all fools." Schneider Capital Management President Arnie Schneider holds 350,000 shares and will also vote against the deal.
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Adobe issues "emergency" Flash update to block malware
Adobe has just issued an emergency update to its Flash software for both Mac and Windows platform. The update fixes two new vulnerabilities that are already being exploited to spread malware.
The exploits are affecting Windows PC's as well as Apple Mac devices. Mac users are tricked into downloading an MS Word files that contains the malware. Similar trickery is used to lure in Windows users.
The patch comes on the same day that Adobe announced that future versions of Flash will be able to block this type of exploit all together. Worried users can disable flash in their browser until the program can be updated. You can check to see if you are already patched by checking the flash version. If it is 11.5.502.149, then you are safe.
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TiVo launches Mini DVR Extender for rentals to Suddenlink customers
While the whole world waits on the TiVo Mini to make its retail debut, Suddenlink has managed to work out a deal allowing its customers to rent the small DVR extension units.
A report from Zatz Not Funny mentions that the outfit is pricing rental units at $6-$12 depending on customer location and current service package. The rental fee grants the user the privilege of streaming live TV from a TiVo Premier DVR to their network or another TV set.
Users are also able to search for and watch recorded shows. Dynamic tuning is built into the device, but it appears to be turned off at the moment. We can expect to see the TiVo Mini hit retail shelves sometime this spring.
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Jelly Bean beginning to roll out to Xperia devices
Owners of Sony's Xperia line of devices will soon be getting an update to Android 4.1. Known as Jelly Bean, the updated version of Android has started rolling out the Xperia T and Xperia V devices. The update includes redesigned media apps, camera features, and other enhancements.
In total, the updated operating system will be making its way onto 10 devices within the Xperia line of devices. The Xperia TX will have to wait until next month to get its update. For the remaining seven devices, no official plans have been confirmed, though it shouldn't be too much longer of a wait.
Some of the changes owners can expect are listed below:
- "More intuitive" versions of its Sony Media apps, Walkman, Album and Movies
- More options for personalization, including a redesigned home screen
- Better on-device search
- Improvements to the camer, such as a revised viewfinder and new auto-scene setting
- Google Now service
Device owners don't have to do anything as their devices will notify them when the update is available.
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Kent Smith of LSI explains SSD over-provisioning
Solid-state drives contain more NAND than is required to meet the listed capacity on the box. The reasoning for this is that the controller requires some of it for garbage collection and to replace cells when they go bad. The concept of over-provisioning an SSD is one that isn't always understood by the consumer, so Kent Smith of LSI has written an article to help you understand.
Essentially, over-provisioning allocates a portion of the total flash memory available to the flash storage processor, which it needs to perform various memory management functions. This leaves less usable capacity, of course, but results in superior performance and endurance. More sophisticated applications require more over-provisioning, but the benefits inevitably outweigh the reduction in usable capacity.
You can read the
entire article over at EDN.
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ReportTT: NVIDIA GeForce Titan outperforms GTX 690
There's a benchmark score floating around the internet that was reportedly earned by NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce Titan. The number shows the new GK110-based GPU besting the dual-GPU GTX 690 by a hefty margin. In 3DMark11, the card reportedly earned a score of X7107. For comparison, a GTX only achieves a score of around X6000.
The details can't be confirmed because the site reporting this won't release their source. The Titan is said to be coming with 6GB of RAM on a 384-bit memory bus. The naming scheme is said to retain the GeForce Titan nomenclature, possibly as a reference to the Cray Titan supercomputer that houses just shy of 19,000 NVIDIA Tesla K20X cards.
Pricing is said to be $899 with availability starting at the end of February.
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Internet sensation Sweet Brown stars in a local TV commercial, spoofs original viral YouTube hit
I'm sure most of you have seen the "Ain't nobody got time for that" YouTube video that got turned into a meme. If you haven't, watch it right now:
Now that you're back, take a look at this local TV commercial for Shortline Dental in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
You're not mistaking. The stars in both of those videos are the same person. The TV commercial produced by Shortline Dental plays off of the original video's catch phrase and uses the star's notoriety much like other ads feature celebrities. What do you think of the ad?
What I find really interesting about this is the fact that more and more memes are seeping into the non-digital world. It goes to show just how pervasive the internet culture has become.
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The Castle (1997) Blu-ray Review
I think it's fair to say that whilst Australia definitely punches above its weight in regards to television, there are very few Australian made films that genuinely add to the Australian experience, stand the test of time and convey our culture and way of life. For every
Red Dog and
Crocodile Dundee, there's dozens of cheap ass films that served solely to extract a lazy grant from the Australian film council.
It's not much, but Daryl Kerrigan (Michael Caton) is proud of his 'Castle'; the Bonnie Doon property adjacent to an airport he shares with his family. Whilst some might label them as 'bogans', they are quite unaware of their social status and are proud of their lot in life. However, when a property developer approaches Daryl with an offer to purchase his modest property in order to extend the airport, he's prepared to fight them all the way to the high court with his crew of well meaning cohorts.
The Castle is one of the few Australian films so successful that it's had such success that multiple quotes from the script have entered the Australian vernacular, and 15 years on its success continues to provide. The film, made for just $19,000 and lensed in under two weeks, was a massive successful for Working Dog, the production company made up of members of the D-Generation, famous for such shows as
The Late Show, and spin-off programs such as
Frontline and
Funky Squad.
The Castle is also noteworthy due to the first feature film performance from a certain Eric Bana.
Video
The Castle is presented in the film's original aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with AVC MPEG-4 compression.
For years, the only available Australian release of
The Castle was derived from an ancient VHS master which cropped the original aspect ratio to 4x3 which featured slightly more vertical information, at the expense of the horizontal, deviating significantly from the intended aspect ratio. In 2008 Roadshow released a remastered DVD version from a new master which rectified this. This Blu-ray release comes from that same transfer, with naturally better results.
Filmed with such brutal efficiency,
The Castle has never been, nor will it ever be a pretty film, with generally poor lighting, but this Blu-ray accurately reflect the way the film is meant to look. The image is crisp and clear, and with a pleasing amount of film grain.
Noteworthy is that the fact that due to being filmed on 16mm stock, this 1080p transfer is essentially the same resolution as the studio master, with 16mm film equating to around 2K resolution.
The Castle is simply not going to look better than it does here.
Audio
The Castle is presented in DTS HD Master Audio 5.1, at 24 bits.
Roadshow have given the choice to view the film with the original Australian audio track, or in conjunction with the orchestral score by Edmund Choi which was produced for the American market. The film works much better without the score in my opinion.
Let's be clear. This is a film that scarcely benefits from stereo to 5.1, let alone from lossy 5.1 to lossless 5.1. Still, I guess we should be grateful nonetheless. Dialogue is rarely a problem to hear, although some of the rushed recording methods leave a bit to be desired. There's very rarely any hint of surround activity in the dialogue heavy feature, but there is some suitable ambience in outdoor scenes, along with some mildly aggressive airplane noises.
Overall, this is hardly anything to write home about, but as far as an accurate reflection of the original elements goes - this is superb.
Extras
Sadly
The Castle does not feature any extra features. This seems to be a deliberate choice of the filmmakers, coupled with a general lack of original materials from the film's production. That said, it's a shame that we don't even get the original theatrical trailer, which is available on the U.S. release DVD. A short featurette on the cultural impact of the film would have been nice too, but alas.
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Kingston HyperX Limited Edition PC3-19200 16GB Quad Channel Memory Kit Review
Starting off 2013 I really wasn't sure what we'd be seeing from companies when it came to review samples because that core component category tends to be a little quieter than normal. Last year was slightly different, though, as we saw AMD launch the HD 7000 series with the HD 7900 series coming out just before the Christmas holidays then more and more models coming out in the following months.
What I didn't think we'd see, though, is a bunch of RAM come in for testing. Recently we had a chance to look at the new
Kingston Beast series in the form of a 16GB PC3-19200 kit. Along with that we recently checked out the
ADATA Gaming Series V2.0 16GB kit which also carried with it a PC3-19200 speed.
Today, though, we move away from the recent Dual Channel kits we've looked at and look at a Quad Channel kit from Kingston that falls into yet another new series. With the X79 platform so established, it's been ages since we've seen a Quad Channel kit, with the last one being a
32GB kit from G.Skill, which really impressed us.
We've recently seen Kingston release some new series and today we're looking at another one. Celebrating a massive 10 years of the HyperX name we've today got the new Kingston HyperX Limited Edition kit with a pretty sexy looking heatsink going on. Along with that we find ourselves giving a brief *sigh* as we see the company again opt for a green PCB instead of a black one. Are you guys listening to us?
Looking above we can see that the heatsink follows a similar design as we see on the Genesis series of RAM which has the LOVO, PnP and Blu kits all fall under it. Today, though, we see the new HyperX Limited Edition series that falls underneath it.
Flipping over a pair of the modules we can see what's going on with the heatsink. The overall design of the heatsink is similar on each side with the silver cross being shown to make an X in the middle. On one side you can see the HyperX logo on the left and on the other side you can see we've got a nice little HyperX 10 Years logo on the right, which looks cool.
On the other side of the kit we've got the Kingston logo on the left and on the right hand side you can see a sticker that gives us a rundown on the main information that we'll be looking at in just a second. Overall, though, we've got a pretty good looking heatsink that sits nice and low which is always good news for those with larger than normal CPU coolers.
Moving in a little closer to the sticker you can see we've got a whole bunch of information being shown, but most of it won't mean a whole lot with the model number across the top being the only piece of information that is helpful. Instead of breaking that down, though, we'll just get into what exactly we're dealing with.
On the speed front we're dealing with a PC3-19300 kit that translates to a strong 2400MHz DDR. On the timing side of things the kit comes in at 11-13-13-30-1T at 1.65v. Considering the speed of the kit these are fairly standard timings and should bring with it some good performance. As you saw earlier we're dealing with a Quad Channel kit with four 4GB modules making up a total of 16GB.
Heading into the BIOS we setup the speed and the timings of the kit manually. We then saved everything and rebooted. Just as you'd hope our machine fired up straight away and as you can see above in our AIDA64 CPUID screenshot everything is running correctly.
Under AIDA64 we ended up with Read / Write numbers of
20,245 MB/s / 15,540 MB/s, Copy speed of
17,573 MB/s and latency of
44.4ns. As you'd expect these numbers line up just as you'd expect and in typical fashion come in behind Dual Channel kits on the Z77 platform. This is nothing new as we've always seen Dual Channel perform exceptionally well on the latest Intel platform.
Since we've tested stock performance, it was time to head back into the BIOS and see what we could do with overclocking. Unlike the Z77 platform, we don't have the same divider range. After 2400MHz DDR, our next option is 2666MHz DDR. We didn't expect this to work since our test CPU is limited to around 2600MHz (memory speed) and with no surprise after it was set we rebooted and found our testbed wouldn't boot.
With the next divider not working it was time to head back into the BIOS, move to the 2400MHz DDR divider again, and work with the BCLK. The only way to really do it is slowly increase the BCLK and reboot till we can either no longer boot or not get into Windows.
Slowly working our way up from the stock 100 BCLK we ended up getting to a strong 106.3 BCLK. As you can see below, this pushed the RAM up to 2551MHz DDR with the same 11-13-13-30-1T setup. It also pushed the CPU clock speed to 4252MHz.
Under AIDA64 we ended up with Read / Write numbers of
21,415 MB/s / 16,414 MB/s, Copy speed of
18,849 MB/s and latency of
42.1ns. Across the board you can see improvements in every area along with a reduced latency time.
As always there's one more thing we always try to do when we overclock and that is push the CPU speed up with the overclocked RAM to see just how much performance we can get out of the kit. We know our CPU is good for around the 4.7GHz mark so leaving our BCLK at 106.3 we upped the multiplier to where our CPU would sit at around 4.7GHz. Unfortunately our machine wouldn't post.
Working down our multiplier we had trouble getting a post out of our machine till we reached around the 4.3GHz mark. Considering this is only slightly above the clock we got with the default divider we decided to go back to the drawing board and take a slightly different approach.
We loaded our normal 4.7GHz OC Profile on our ASUS test motherboard and started at 100 BCLK again. We moved our BCLK up and CPU multiplier down trying to stay as close to the 4.7GHz mark. We knew that our memory clock would be a little lower, but we hoped that the increased CPU speed from 4252MHz would be enough to still give us a boost in performance.
In the end we got a 45x CPU multiplier and a 105 BCLK. This pushed our CPU to 4725MHz and using the 2400MHz DDR divider you can see above our RAM came in at 2520MHz DDR. Only slightly lower than the 2551MHz DDR we achieved above. Our CPU was running almost 500MHz faster, though.
Under AIDA64 we ended up with Read / Write numbers of
22,550 MB/s / 18,238 MB/s, Copy speed of
20,417 MB/s and latency of
40.7ns. While our memory speed wasn't quite as fast as our previous test, you can see that across the board our numbers have improved and by a nice little chunk. Still this comes as little surprise to us as we often see the increased clock speeds on our CPU brings with it the largest gains.
Kingston have put together a really nice kit of RAM here today and coming in at $124.99 for this Quad Channel kit makes it look even more attractive. The heatsink is nice and it's great to see them mark it with a 10th Anniversary label.
While not a part of the new higher end Predator Series, the 2400MHz DDR clocks with its CL11 timings provide some very strong performance. As for the overclocking side of things we can see performance in this area is very strong as well. This is great news considering the X79 platform isn't known for being as strong on the RAM overclocking front when compared to its younger brother, the Z77 platform.
Like most RAM kits we see from companies these days this is another great option for people looking for a strong performing 2400MHz DDR kit. How this one differs to most others that we've looked at recently, though, is the fact it's a Quad Channel kit instead of the typical Dual Channel kits we've been seeing. All round the new Limited Edition HyperX kit is a strong addition to the already strong line up from Kingston.
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Sound Blaster Axx SBX20 Bluetooth Portable Speaker Review
Creative Labs have had a huge range of audio equipment on the market over the years, covering just about every facet of gaming audio as well as branching out into the realm of personal and portable audio as well. The shift from awesome sound cards and multimedia speaker systems into the world of headsets and portable speakers has been a stepped progression for Creative Labs, but it seems as though they are fairly dedicated to the market now. And the reduction in speaker system's and sound card solutions overall from that company is another clue to the new found direction that Sound Blaster is headed.
All of this does make a degree of sense because we are now well and truly in a world of portable devices and people are spending more time on the go and not just fixed in one position as they once were. Now consumers have more and more tablets, smartphones and laptops - it's a matter of catering to a market.
The Sound Blaster Axx SBX20 is a portable speaker that stands quite tall with controls built into the top and a thin cloth covering the sides of the unit.
The SBX20 is quite a heavy speaker which is always a good sign in our experience and seems to be built from good quality materials. The only label on the unit is a small Sound Blaster emblem on the top. Facing the rear of the unit is a USB power connection, a headphone jack and an AUX connection for devices not featuring Bluetooth. There is also a small bass port that is actually oblong rather than circular like most.
Also of interest is the iPhone app that can be scanned via the barcode QR on the box and downloaded via your smartphone in order to control the SBX20. This app allows for basic controls over the unit. Interestingly though, this app is being used to sync the unit with the smartphones 'iPod' function, which we felt was arguably better than the actual app is. We suspect this allows for multi-platform use and may be necessary for Google Android users, but don't quote us on this.
On the surface the SBX20 looks like an interesting product on its own, but as a successor to previous Sound Blaster Bluetooth solutions, it does have something to prove today. In terms of connecting the unit for use we had no problems whatsoever, and were able to get things going in a couple of moments, thanks to a well-designed Bluetooth system that syncs quickly and easily. For connection of other devices there is the AUX port, but today for testing we used the Bluetooth functionality with an iPhone.
From a technical perspective the SBX20 is a feature laden product in its own right that promises to deliver a lot. Probably the most notable of all the features is the SB-Axx1 processor which basically is the thing that makes the SBX20 sound good even if the input quality of the audio is not fantastic.
In the past we have been pleased with the Bluetooth processing ability of several similar products tested from Sound Blaster. This is why we have little to no doubt that they will be able to make the SBX20 sound great. In terms of other features of interest is the call function which allows you to make and receive calls using the SBX20 and even tailor a sweet spot for your own voice using another built in function. Lastly of interest here is the control software that can be downloaded for use on a smartphone. Now we do agree this is a good idea in principal, we did not find the app to be overly intuitive nor really interesting to use. But many may well enjoy it more than we did.
The SBX20 is a well built and fantastic sounding portable speaker. It packs in a lot of technology into a small package that can be taken wherever is needed. Playing back of music is a very enjoyable experience overall with great sounding tones throughout and plenty of power when things heat up. Overall we did like the SBX20 for much of what it can do and think that it has a place in a very busy market, which is now the portable speaker market. We would however like to see only one of these speakers for sale from Creative Labs' Sound Blaster division rather than three, which as far as we can see is a little overkill, in as we have just said is an already fully stocked area of the market.
Listening to music through the SBX20 is a very enjoyable experience overall, with the majority of the audio we played back during testing being of a very respectable quality. The low-end (bass), while not being huge, is certainly enough to provide a good sense of depth and enjoyment when listening to various types of music. However, there are going to be certain types of bass heavy music that do strain the smaller drivers in the SBX20, so be warned there. This is not a bass monster by any means and this should be considered when deciding on whether to buy the SBX20.
The high-end was quite good for the most part with a nice airy feel to it, and not a real harshness that can detract from the listening experience. The high-end was also very smooth and controlled which is a hallmark of Sound Blaster as we have come to see for ourselves. The mid-range is great in a word, and was very impressive when listening to vocals with a nice timbre to the sounds and plenty of smooth mid-range clarity that gives the sound a very life like and captivating quality.
During our testing we had no issue with the Bluetooth function as we were able to get it up and running quickly. We also found that the algorithms charged with processing the audio were fantastic as has been the case in the past with Sound Blaster, who must be almost industry leaders in developing high-end consumer audio from wireless solutions.
The SBX20 is a really well thought-out evolution of many years work from the Sound Blaster team, who has arguably developed one of the best methods of playing back audio using Bluetooth that we have tested. The processing done inside the SBX20 is a secret weapon in itself and should be guarded as such by Creative Labs. We can see this technology taking off big time, but not until some further clarity is gained in this very crowded area of the market. And this is a good segway into our only gripe, which is that Sound Blaster has made not one, but three different models of this speaker. This is simply too many in our opinion and could detract from the shining light, being the SBX20. Keep things simple so that the true message does not get diluted too much, that's our advice.
But that really is a small issue within what is a very respectable product that we are sure will do quite well. It gets our recommendation.
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MyDigitalSSD BP4 120GB 2.5-inch SSD Review
Introduction
Yesterday we had
the new MyDigitalSSD BP4 240GB on the test bench and were impressed with its price, price to performance ratio and industry leading notebook battery life performance. Today we have the 120GB model.
Last month we also started a quest to look at some of the newest 120/128GB SSDs and the BP4 fits right in. In 2012, we observed this capacity size starting to change, for the worst. Companies started making 128GB models with just four or eight NAND flash chips. We've shown in the past something car guys have always known, there's no replacement for displacement. A majority of SSD performance comes from parallel operations, reading and writing to several or all of the flash at the same time. The same concept one-step back in the storage world is called RAID.
The good news for shoppers is that NAND flash is getting faster. Toshiba's new 19nm Toggle 2 is faster than the 32nm and 24nm of yesterday. Another good thing is that some SSD manufactures aren't trying to cut corner.
The new MyDigitalSSD BP4 120GB still uses sixteen NAND flash chips, and because of that, this new low-cost drive is very fast by today's standards.
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Fractal Design Define XL R2 Black Pearl Full-Tower Chassis Review
Introduction
In the same conversation I sat down for with Josh Smith from Fractal Design at CES during our meeting there, I was told that by the time I arrived back to my house, this chassis should be waiting there for me. As I was finally able to play catch up with some of their cases last year, one chassis I missed sadly was to have a look at the Define XL. From what I have seen in their other products, I can only imagine this chassis was a beast just like all the rest I have had a chance to look at. Even not having actually seen the chassis, I did venture back in time a bit and read a few other reviews of the original Define XL, just to brush up on its offerings and do a little bit of a compare and contrast.
When someone says they are doing a chassis revision, a lot of time I have to turn those samples down, because adding a fan or two, or painting it another color, does not warrant a full review. Here that isn't the case at all, excuse my pun. Fractal took the original chassis, but did not do much to the outside of the chassis, as to keep the sleek looks that made the original such a success. This new revision made five major changes to the interior that I could come up with in just a couple of moments looking through the specs list. In my opinion, making a whole new chassis, and well worth its own series name, but since it is in the same clothing, Define XL it is.
Some of the changes to look for in the newly released Define XL R2 from Fractal Design are things like the fan controller, the hard drive bay configuration, the lack of the second floor, the lack of the odd fan duct at the top, more expansion slots, and another form factor of motherboard to add to the compatibility list. As you can see, just in what I listed there, there have been a lot of changes to this revision, and well worth the time and effort to go over this new chassis with a fine toothed comb.
Join me as I take a walk around the Define XL R2 and see just what Fractal had up their sleeves when designing this revised chassis.
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