IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 02/04/2014

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 02/04/2014

TweakTown

Smartphones, tablets help drive interest in home automation services
Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets connected to the Internet open the door to home automation services, according to the Home Automation Study from The NPD Group.

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The study found that 88 percent of mobile device users are familiar with current home automation devices, a full 10 percent higher than regular consumers. Furthermore, four-out-of five own a smartphone, tablet or some type of mobile device - and because of this, home automation adoption could continue to grow.
"Mobile connectivity has enabled products from programmable thermostats to home security systems, to be controlled remotely, thus increasing their appeal and utility," said Ben Arnold, The NPD Group industry executive director, in a statement. "Another key part to this growing industry is the app ecosystem which allows consumers to use one device to monitor and control multiple products."
Cable providers and utility companies also have shown a great interest in giving subscribers/customers the ability to take control of homes while on the move.

Smartphone kill switches would customers save $2.6 billion every year
The addition of smartphone kill-switches could help save up to $2.6 billion per year, with American consumers routinely purchasing dew devices related to theft and other crimes.

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California Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), with support from San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon, currently have SB 962, which aims to make smartphone kill switches mandatory in California. The debate regarding these types of technologies has generated a great debate, with supporters and critics sounding off on both sides.
"I thought a high percentage would say yes, but it was a little surprising and maybe a bigger number than I would have guessed," Duckworth told PC World. "I view losing a credit card as a similar frame of reference. If it is stolen or lost, I can call the credit card company and get it canceled and they can issue a new one. There is safety there. My smartphone has tons of information and accounts in there, so the idea that I could call and say 'kill it' is a very reasonable thing."
Politicians and law enforcement support smartphone kill switches, as metropolitan areas continue to see robbery and theft increases relating to mobile devices.

Tesla packs technology into vehicles, but needs to improve security
Tesla vehicles have generated a large amount of interest and controversy across the United States, though is in the headlines for a rather unexpected reason: a potential cybersecurity issue with the Tesla S vehicle.

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The iPhone app for Tesla vehicles, which allows owners to control door locks, braking system, sunroof and other car functions, uses only a one-factor authentication system.
"The point here (and subsequent attack vectors) is that Tesla needs to implement an authentication mechanism that is beyond 1-factor," said Nitesh Dhanjani, security researcher, in a statement. "Attackers shouldn't be able to use traditional and well known attack vectors like phishing to remotely locate and unlock a $100K+ car built-in 2014."
Tesla's website doesn't have a limit to customer login attempts, allowing criminals to try and brute force their way in - something that will likely be fixed in the near future.
"In cases where the attacker is able to hack another website, he or she can use the usernames and credentials from the compromised accounts to attempt them on Tesla's website and APIs given that users have the tendency to reuse passwords."

NHTSA will require backup cameras in all vehicles by 2018
Rear visibility cameras will be required in all vehicles by May 2018, according to the US Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), a ruling that was delayed on numerous occasions.

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The agency reported that 73 percent of the vehicles that will be released by 2018 will already have the cameras anyway - but wants to ensure manufacturers will continue to provide the security either way.
"Rear visibility requirements will save lives, and will save many families from the heartache suffered after these tragic incidents occur," said David Friedman, NHTSA Acting Administrator, in a press statement. "We're already recommending this kind of life-saving technology through our NCAP program and encouraging consumers to consider it when buying cars today."
Motorcycles and trailers are exempt, but the new rule does apply to buses and trucks, as long as they weigh less than 10,000 pounds.
There are 210 fatalities and 15,000 injuries each year because of backover crashes, according to the NHTSA, with children under 5 and elderly adults above the age of 70 amounting for more than half of yearly fatalities.

Rdio, Crackle, and VUDU now featured on Google's Chromecast
Google's Chromecast is already a very powerful HDMI streaming dongle, but today the inexpensive device gained support for three heavy hitters in the online media realm. Rdio, Crackle, and VUDU have all released apps for the device, and now allows users to stream music, watch internet videos, and stream movies from their VUDU digital collection straight from the Chromecast.

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Rdio, VUDU, and Crackle have all released updated versions of their apps for iOS and Android to enable Chromecast support, making them the latest three content providers to join the Chromecast revolution. While Rdio and Crackle offer their normal services to casting, VUDU allows its users to stream HDX quality copies from the users digital collection as well as control playback, subtitles, and more, however, not all VUDU content is supported, and is based on each particular studio's licensing.

RumorTT: Windows Phone 8.1 could arrive as early as April 23rd
It's no secret that Microsoft is planning the launch of its next-generation mobile OS, but today we are hearing rumors of when the new OS might launch to the public, and what new hardware it may bring with it. A new report from WPCentral is suggesting that the new OS will launch on April 23, and will bring several new Nokia smartphones along for the ride.

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The report failed to mention which new Lumia devices we may see launched alongside Windows Phone 8.1, but one would be safe in betting that the Lumia 630 is one of those phones. We are expecting to see more glimpses, and rumors pop up about the new mobile OS as well as the myriad of devices that are expected to run on it during this weeks Build Conference that is hosted by Microsoft. With recent news of BlackBerry Messenger headed to Windows Phone, we are wondering if any news of the pre-installed integration will show up on these new devices as well.

UK launches cyber response team to defend against cyberattacks
Launched today, the UK Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UK) will help the British government coordinate against sophisticated cyberattacks, and respond to any cybersecurity issues that target the country's infrastructure.

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The CERT team stemmed from a National Cyber Security Strategy meeting hosted in 2012, in which other nations discussed their programs - or intention to open a national cybersecurity team - and has grown from there.
"The cyber hacker needs to succeed only once, but those protecting us must be successful all the time; around the clock, day after day, week after week," said Francis Maude, Cabinet Officer Minister, when announcing the program. "And of course, nothing in the digital world ever stands still. It's forensic and painstaking work and it's absolutely relentless. I have a very high level of confidence that we can achieve this."
Furthermore, Maude said 93 percent of large corporations suffered at least one cyber breach during the past 12 months, with companies suffering $750,000-$1.4M on average.

AMD teases dual Hawaii-based Radeon GPU in newly posted image
With last weeks introduction of a new GPU core from NVIDIA as well as the announcement of the new $3000 GeForce GTX TITAN Z, AMD has some catching up to do in the world of high-end PC graphics. Today the company has reveled yet another teaser that is pointing towards a premium dual-GPU video card that would most likely be based on dual Radeon R9 290X GPUs.

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The company kicked off its new #2betterthan1 campaign by posting a silhouetted image of what appears to be an industrial-themed Radeon Video card on Twitter. If the speculation of dual R9 290X Hawaii GPU's on a single card is true, then that also means that AMD has designed one hell of a new cooler for the card, as it is quite difficult to cool just one of those GPUs. Could this mean that we are about to see the launch of one of the first factory-cooled GPUs ever? This could be the case, but more than likely, AMD has added more heat-pipes to the existing cooler, and beefed up the fans to keep everything cool.

Banks withdraw from class-action lawsuit against Trustwave
Less than one week after two banks hit Target and credit card security service company Trustwave with a class-action lawsuit, the banks have pulled the lawsuit.

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It seems Trustwave was inaccurately noted as a Target IT security contractor, which doesn't appear true - interestingly, the class-action lawsuit aims to try and expand responsibility of the data breach away from just Target.
"Contrary to the misstated allegations in the plaintiffs' complaints, Target did not outsource its data security or IT obligations to Trustwave," said Robert McCullen, Trustwave CEO, in a public statement. "Trustwave did not monitor Target's network, nor did Trustwave process cardholder data for Target."
Trustmark National Bank and other financial institutions haven't thrown legal action completely out the window, though will more closely try to analyze appropriate steps.

BlackBerry says it will launch BBM for Windows Phone users soon
Back in Feburary, BlackBerry's Jeff Gadaway, announced that BlackBerry messenger would be headed to Microsoft's Windows Phone platform, but not much else has been mentioned since. Fast froward to a call to investors last week where BlackBerry CEO, John Chen, said that BBM will be released on Windows Phone somewhere between April and June of this year.

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During this same announcement, Chen said that BBM now has more an 113 million registered users, and boast an impressive 80 million active monthly users. While Windows Phone will definitely help elevate these numbers some thanks to Nokia agreeing to pre-load it on many of its Lumia models, a wider Android and iPhone adoption rate would benefit the company far better. BlackBerry is working on shifting software to its main revenue generator, and plans on utilizing adds from within its messenger app to make this happen.

Philips smart HDTVs don't have good security, researchers warn
Security researchers from ReVuln recently published a video demonstrating how cybercriminals can compromise certain Philips smart HDTVs, giving criminals the ability to remotely control the TV and conduct other actions.

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"The main problem is that Miracast uses a fixed password, doesn't show a PIN number to insert and, moreover, doesn't ask permission to allow the incoming connection," said Luigi Auriemma, ReVuln CEO and security researcher, in an interview with SCMagazine. "So basically you just connect directly to the TV via Wi-Fi, without restrictions. Miracast is enabled by default and the password cannot be changed."
When the TV owner browses the Web using their HDTV, criminals are able to view cookies and browsing history, researchers noted.
Philips, one of the largest electronic manufacturers in the world, has a growing smart TV collection, and will have to scramble to fix this security loophole.

3D printing enthusiast rejoice, Slic3r version 1.0 is finally here
It's been more than a year in the making, but Alessandro Ranellucci has finally released Slic3r 1.0 to the masses. For those not in the know, Slic3r is the default-slicing program that most 3D Printing enthusiast, such as myself, use to slice the 3D models we wish to print into manageable layers. Slicer also handles the hard-work of plotting the tool-path head, injecting control coding, and spitting it all out into machine-readable GCode. While there are other slicing programs out there, Slic3r is by far the most popular and feature rich.

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Today Slic3r 1.0 stable has been released and it brings with it, a myriad of new features as well as support for a host of new printers and tool-heads. As always, Slic3r 1.0 is fully open source, and free to download, modify and distribute as you see fit, making it fully Libre / Open Source compliant. A lot has changed in Slicer 1.0 so I fully recommend that you read the user manual before jumping straight into use.
Slic3r 1.0 boast the following new features as well as many more.

Wide printer compatibility,
Fast G-code generation,
Command line and graphical interface,
Multiple extruder functionality,
Automatic generation of support material,
Open source code, open development,
Brim features for best adhesion,
Smart cooling strategies to improve prints,
Many input/output formats,
Easy, dependency-free downloads for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows, and
Microlayering to save time, increase accuracy.

Android 4.4.3 is on the way, scheduled to fix dozens of bugs
It's been a few months since Google first released Android 4.4, and the updated mobile operating system is now on many of the current handset models out. As with any new major release, a handful of bugs have been discovered, and it appears that Google is aiming to fix them with the next update to the software.

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Android 4.4.3 has been rumored to be headed to release for a few weeks now, and it appears that Google is closer to its unveiling that previously thought. AndroidPolice has discovered the unofficial changelog of the 4..4.3 build, and based on what it shows, the build will mainly be a bug-fixer. This is nothing new for Google, as it likes to keep the major changes and new features tucked away for major release updates. AndroidPolice has also posted a screenshot of 4.4.3 running on a Nexus 5, which could mean that the update is coming down the pipes quite soon.

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SanDisk announces the launch of four new Enterprise SATA SSDs
Today SanDisk announced the addition of four new Enterprise-grade SATA SSDs to its CloudSpeed Serial ATA line of solid state drives. The CloudSpeed Extreme, CloudSpeed Ultra, CloudSpeed Ascend and CloudSpeed Eco Solid State Drives have been designed to deliver the best business-critical performance possible in mixed-use enterprise applications often found in today's business world.

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"Organizations in every industry are turning to SSDs to meet the challenges faced by growing volumes of data," said John Scaramuzzo, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Enterprise Storage Solutions at SanDisk. "However, finding a solution that meets the performance and cost needs of your individual environment can be difficult. The CloudSpeed SATA SSD product family was designed to meet the needs of applications across the read-write spectrum, meaning organizations and server designers no longer need to make tradeoffs between system performance and cost."

The new CloudSpeed drives utilize SanDisk's flash management Guardian Technology Platform to become the first SSD vendor to ship a drive capable of ten full writes per day that has been built on a 19nm scale. This technology also helps the drives to offer the best value in long-term operation. SanDisk says that 90-percent of the world's data has been generated in the last two years, and that this rapid growth has "catapulted" the industry into the so-called "big-data era," and it will take new technologies like CloudSpeed to keep up with the demand of this boom.
"We are only at the early stages of becoming a data-driven society that wants instantaneous access to our information," said Jeff Janukowicz, Research Director, at IDC. "To deliver real-time or near real-time insight to drive business decisions, organizations worldwide will need to consider high performance storage solutions, such as SSDs, thereby driving demand for these solutions in the coming years."
The SanDisk CloudSpeed Serial ATA (SATA) product family offers the following range of endurance and performance capabilities:

CloudSpeed Extreme - This high-endurance SSD achieves up to 10 full capacity DWPD with a 5 year warranty1 and delivers up to 75K/25K IOPS of random read/write performance for write-intensive application workloads such as Database Logging and High Performance Computing (HPC). It comes in capacities ranging from 100GB to 800GB and supports up to 14.6 Petabytes Written (PBW) to the drive over its life.
CloudSpeed Ultra - This high-performance drive achieves up to 3 full DWPD with a 5 year warranty1 and is optimized for mixed-use application workloads such as Online Transaction Processing (OLTP), Financial Transactions, Email/Messaging, E-Commerce, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and Collaboration. The CloudSpeed Ultra is offered in capacities ranging from 200GB to 800GB, and delivers up to 80K/25K random read/write IOPS and supports up to 4.4 PBW.
CloudSpeed Ascend - This high-end drive is designed for read-intensive application workloads such as File Servers, Web-based Applications and Virtual Tape Libraries (VTL). The CloudSpeed Ascend comes in capacities ranging from 240GB to 960GB, achieves up to 1 full DWPD with a 5 year warranty, delivers up to 80K/15K IOPS and supports up to 1.8 PBW.
CloudSpeed Eco - This entry-level SSD is designed for read-intensive application workloads such as Web Servers, Web 2.0 Content Repositories, Photo Sharing, Media Streaming, Video on Demand (VOD) and Cloud Computing. The CloudSpeed Eco comes in capacities from 240GB to 960GB, achieves up to 1 full DWPD with a 3 year warranty3, delivers up to 450/400 MB/s** of sustained read/write performance and 80k/15k read/write IOPS and supports up to 1.0PBW.

John Carmack weighs in on the acquisition of Oculus VR by Facebook
When John Carmack left the walls of id Software for Oculus VR, we knew good things were about to happen, and it was a time when the thought of the world's largest social network acquiring a virtual reality start up were far, far from your mind. Carmack, the Chief Technology Officer of Oculus VR, has finally weighed in on Facebook acquiring the company he just joined.
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"Titans" is a term Carmack used to talk about Facebook and Oculus VR, where he said: "The fairly rapid involvement of the Titans is inevitable, and the real question is how deeply to partner with, and who. Honestly, I wasn't expecting Facebook (or this soon). I wasn't personally involved in any of the negotiations - I spent an afternoon talking technology with [Facebook CEO] Mark Zuckerberg, and the next week I find out that he bought Oculus".
People have concerns, thinking that Facebook will be the end of Oculus VR - something that I'm going to write about in a few days when I get home - but Carmack has said: "There is a case to be made for being like Valve, and trying to build a new VR ecosystem from the ground up. This is probably what most of the passionate fans wanted to see. The difference is that, for years, the industry thought Valve was nuts, and they had the field to themselves. Valve deserves all their success for having the vision and perseverance to see it through to the current state".
Carmack finished with: "I do have reason to believe they [Facebook] get the Big Picture as I see it, and will be a powerful force towards making it happen. You don't make a commitment like they just did on a whim".

Samsung UD590 display has 3840 x 2160 native resolution
Samsung has announced several new displays that will be launching in the coming weeks. The most interesting of them is the 28-inch UD590 display. This monitor supports UHD resolution with a native resolution of 3840 x 2160.

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One of the coolest parts about that display is that it is affordable even though it has UHD capability. The UD590 will sell for $699.99. For the money, you get a screen with good viewing angles and a brightness rating of 370 cd/m2 and support for 2 billion colors.

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It features dual HDMI ports and a single DisplayPort. Response time for the panel is 1Ms GTG and it has a stand that can be tilted for a comfortable angle. Samsung also has a number of other new displays coming that support full HD resolution ranging in price from $249.99 to $329.99. The UD590 can be pre-ordered now and it's unclear when it will ship.
"Samsung is a worldwide leader in display technology renowned for our UHD 4K TVs. The UD590 brings that UHD 4K technology to our monitor line up, offering unparalleled imagery right at your desk," said Ron Gazzola, Vice President of Consumer IT Marketing at Samsung Electronics America. "It offers a viewing experience unlike any other, perfect for consumers looking to enjoy premium display quality in their homes. We're also introducing several other consumer monitors this year to offer a wide range of high performing options to meet the needs of any user."

Alien: Isolation introduces Ripley's daughter on October 7
If you are a fan of the Alien movie franchise with Sigourney Weaver, one of the masterpieces of science fiction, you may have been following the development of the newest game based on the film series. The game is called Alien: Isolation and it has Ripley's daughter as the main character.

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Earlier this month a behind the scenes video turned up looking at the game and it got us very excited. The game has now been given an exact launch date when it will land for PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, and PC gamers. That launch date is October 7, 2014.
That will put the horror/survival shooter launching during the spookiest month of the year. Players will have to fight the Xenomorph that is hunting them with scavenged resources and wits. This may be one of the coolest games to launch this year.
"We couldn't be happier to finally announce a date for Alien: Isolation," said Alistair Hope, Creative Lead at Creative Assembly. "The reaction we have seen so far has been simply incredible, from the screams and shrieks to the cold sweats and racing hearts. It's the Alien game that we've always wanted to play and we can't wait to let everyone get their hands-on it this fall."

Metro 2033 Redux coming to PS4 and Xbox One this summer
A few years back an interesting video game called Metro 2033 launched. This survival/horror shooter had players playing in a post apocalyptic Moscow. Most of the game took place in the metro tunnels under the city.

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Players fought against mutants and other humans with a mix of weapons. The original game was offered on the PS3 and the Xbox 360. It was a cool game and spawned a sequel eventually. If you liked the original game and its sequel and have a PS4 and Xbox One, some leaked photos have surfaced that will interest you.

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These leaked photos claim that Metro 2033 Redux will be coming to the PS4 and Xbox One. Details on the game are scant at this point. The developer and publisher haven't officially confirmed the game is in the works for the new console.
The leaked images show that the game is being developed by 4 A Games with Deep Silver publishing. The game is tipped to launch in July and will come to PC as well. Presumably it will have updated graphics, but exactly what is changing, if anything, is unknown.

Top 10 TweakTown News Stories from the past week [31 March 2014]
Here are our top 10 news posts from the past week!

Samsung Galaxy S5 has a Galaxy Gear compatible baby monitor built-in
Samsung announced its new generation smartphone at Mobile World Congress this year called the Galaxy S5. The device is the new high-end Samsung Android offering to replace the Galaxy S4. We know that he S5 has a lot of cool features and nice specifications.

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A previously unknown feature of the smartphone has now surfaced called the baby crying monitor. As you can gather from the name, this feature is designed to alert parents when their baby is awake and crying.
The way the feature works requires you to sync the smartphone to your to the Galaxy Gear smartwatch. One the two devices are synced, when the phone detects the baby crying it will alert the parent via a vibration on the Gear smartwatch. The S5 has to be left within 1 meter of the baby for the feature to work in a quiet room with no background noise.

Battlefield 4 Naval Strike begins rolling out to premium members on PC
It's been almost a week since DICE first tried released the Naval Strike expansion for Battlefield 4. Unfortunately, only PlayStation 4 owners who were Battlefield premium members could play the new DLC. A major bug in Naval Strike forced DICE to postpone the game for PC and Xbox One premium members until a fix could be implemented. In a statement on the delay,DICE said that: "We know that many Battlefield 4 Premium owners wanted to play Naval Strike today. However, we didn't want to release the new content until we believed it was quality content."

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It appears that DICE was able to implement the fix a little earlier than expected, and today Battlefield 4 premium members on PC are beginning to receive the Naval Strike update. This follows a roll-out to Xbox One premium members just three days ago. I just finished downloading the update, and will have a post up very soon with a first look at Battlefield 4 Naval Strike in high-resolution on max settings.

Battlefield 4 Naval Strike includes four new maps, a new game mode and a whole new cache of weapons that many players have had for weeks now thanks to a glitch in the system. Obviously, the new maps focus on a water-based assault, or have island-themed surroundings. The new Carrier Assault mode resurrects the classic Titan mode we all loved in Battlefield 2142, except this time players must assault the opposing team's aircraft carrier using several different methods to gain access into the ships hull. Additionally, a new hovercraft vehicle is present, and players can access it immediately.

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The four new maps include:

Lost Islands: Blow open a crashed passenger plane and capture fishing villages across these tropical islands.
Wave Breaker: Drop a submarine on your foes as you infiltrate a naval base or rush between shipping docks and rocky islands on this massive map.
Nansha Strike: Wage war across stormy seas in the largest ocean stretch in a Battlefield map yet.
Operation Mortar: Storm an abandoned cliff-side resort, or get lost in the breathtaking vistas in this map.

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Silicon Motion expands SSD portfolio with new eMMC and SATA 6Gb/s
Today, at the Electronics Engineering Live! Conference and Expo in San Jose, CA, Silicon Motion Technology Corporation (NasdaqGS: SIMO), manufacturer of NAND flash controllers for solid state storage devices, will announce new additions to its Ferri portfolio with single-package Ferri-eMMC™ and ultra-high performance SATA 6Gb/s FerriSSD embedded memory solutions.

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The Ferri-eMMC is available in two flavors, the SM667 for applications that require up to 30K P/E cycles and the SM661 for applications that do not require such high reliability. The new controllers are designed for a wide range of embedded applications and provide for more flexible PCB design and low-cost manufacturing. They are available in configurations ranging from 2GB to 32GB.
The new SATA 6Gb/s Ferri-SSD embedded memory series also has two models, the SM659 and SM619. Embedded DRAM extends the SSD life and delivers best-in-class performance of up to 80K random IOPs. These solutions leverage Silicon Motion technologies including PowerShield, DataPhoenix, Intelligent Scan DataRefresh, SSDLifeGuard health-monitoring, and remote firmware updates. They are available in 8GB to 64GB configurations.

According to Wallace Kou, President and CEO of Silicon Motion, there is a wide range of applications for their embedded products. "With our expanded product range, we are better able to bring industrial-grade and commercial-grade, single-package SSD solutions to an increasingly wide range of embedded applications, such as server, thin client, POS, office automation, HMI devices, factory automation, gaming, medical equipment, surveillance and in-vehicle infotainment that require eMMC 4.5 or faster SATA 3.1 performance."

Game on for our Ender's Game Blu-ray Giveaway - Win 1 of 5 copies
To celebrate this week's release of the 2013 sci-fi hit Ender's Game on home video formats, our friends at Icon Home Entertainment have supplied us with copies of the film on Blu-ray to give away to five lucky readers.

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Filled with extra features including two audio commentaries, a 50 minute making of documentary, a collection of Deleted and Extended scenes and Easter eggs, the Blu-ray will hold pride of place in sci-fi fans Blu-ray collections.
To go into the running to take one copy home, simply answer the following question in 35 words or less:
What would you do if you found an unhatched egg containing a previously extinct animal?
Send your answers, along with your postal address to ben at TweakTown.com before the competition closes on April 3rd. The total prize pool is approximately $239.75.

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Ender's Game is available on Blu-ray and DVD from Australian retailers from April 4th.

Sapphire Radeon R9 270 Dual-X 2GB OC Overclocked Video Card Review

Introduction

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Since the start of the year, we started seeing more and more companies offer new variations of AMD R Series cards. Being busy with motherboards at the start of the year and just generally not feeling great having had the same flu that seemed to be traveling around the world, I got off to a bit of a slow start.
Feeling so much better and ready to go, though, I've finally got the chance to check out some of the great looking cards that have arrived recently. The other day, I got a chance to check out the MSI R9 290X 4GB Twin Frozr Gaming OC.
While impressed with what MSI had done via the Twin Frozr IV Advanced cooler, the card found itself with the same issue so many other R9 290X 4GB cards we've tested have. Overclocking continues to be limited, and talking to partners, it seems that it's due to the simple fact that AMD has already pushed the clocks so high.
While we do indeed have our hands-on the Tri-X version of both the R9 290X 4GB and R9 290 4GB, we won't be looking at something so high-end today. Instead, we'll be checking out something that sits more in the middle of the pack. The R9 270 2GB was one of the later R series cards to be released and is the entry-level R9 offering sitting above the R7 260X and below the R9 270X.
The particular version of the card we're going to be looking at today from Sapphire is the Dual-X version, which is a series we've seen before. It's impressed us in the past, and we're hoping that it continues to do so today. While we're dealing with an OC model of the card today, we'll be taking that overclock even further with the help of MSI Afterburner.
Before we do that, there's a few other things we need to do. Let's check out the package of the Sapphire R9 270 Dual-X 2GB OC and see just what exactly we're dealing with here today.

Package

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Taking a look at the box, you can see the overall design isn't too different to anything we've seen before. The purple color scheme looks awesome, and the image looks great. You can see the model and series in the top right corner, and some of the main features are covered in the bottom left, including 2GB of GDDR5, Dual-X Cooler, and the fact the card is pre-overclocked, to name just a few of the main features.

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Turning the box over, you can see we've got a bit of a blurb on the model, and we've also got some extended information on the features that are on offer. You can see we get a bit more detail about the Dual-X cooler that Sapphire is using along with a mention about the TriXX overclocking software that Sapphire offers. You can also see some of the AMD specific technologies mentioned, including Eyefinity and CrossFire, to name just a few.

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As we move inside, you can see we've got that slightly larger-than-normal bundle that we see from Sapphire so often. Starting from the left, you can see the normal Sapphire leaflet along with a quick install guide and our driver CD.
Along with that, you can see the HDMI cable that is something that Sapphire consistently include on their mid-range and up models. Finally, we finish off with our Molex-to-6-Pin PCIe Power Connector, CrossFire bridge, and DVI-to-VGA connector.
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Top 10 TweakTown Content from the past week [31 March 2014]
Here are our top 10 articles, reviews and guides from the past week!

Seagate 600 Pro 200GB 2-Drive SSD RAID Report

Introduction

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Seagate's 600 Pro is marketed as a light enterprise solid state storage solution. Because of its enterprise pedigree, a 600 Series Pro SSD is a drive that has superior endurance and better heavy duty write performance than typical consumer based SSDs. In addition, the 600 Series Pro has on-drive power loss protection via integrated tantalum capacitors.
Seagate has tapped Link A Media's (LAMD) venerable LM87800 controller to power their third generation SSDs. Link A Media's LM87800 controller has an enterprise pedigree that makes it an ideal choice for Seagate. Seagate collaborated with LAMD to develop the LM87800 controller, which makes the LM87800 a logical choice for the 600 Pro.
Because the 600 Pro is designed to handle enterprise workloads, utilization of high quality flash is essential. Seagate utilizes 19nm Toshiba toggle mode flash in BGA packages on their third generation SSDs. Utilization of premium flash and a healthy dose of over-provisioning produces a drive with superior write endurance, i.e. enterprise class endurance.
Seagate doesn't make the components utilized in the 600 Series Pro, but never-the-less, the Seagate 600 Series SSDs are powered by Seagate. What makes the 600 Series tick is Seagate's in-house custom firmware. Writing their own firmware allows Seagate to tune their third generation SSDs performance for the intended market, whether it be consumer or enterprise.
An enterprise focused SSD typically makes for a superior enthusiast class SSD. Problem is, typically enterprise class SSDs are priced out of the enthusiast market. We consider Seagate's 600 Pro a hybrid of sorts because it's one of the only true enterprise class SSDs that's not priced out of the enthusiast market.
Until now, it's been hard-to-impossible for us to visually quantify in our reviews what advantages over-provisioning and enterprise tuned firmware really have to offer an enthusiast/professional. We know that endurance can be increased exponentially by heavy over-provisioning; we know this because we can see that for ourselves by taking a look at the TBW a drive is warrantied for. We can now show you exactly how much better a drive that is heavily overprovisioned will perform in the most demanding environments.
Our senior storage editor, Chris Ramseyer, recently introduced our readers to a new benchmark created by Futuremark. PCMark 8's command-line-executed consistency test, really for the first time, allows us to see pronounced differences in real-world performance between SSDs. Futuremark's consistency test spits out over 3500 lines of data. This data, when properly disseminated, can shed a new light on performance, even allowing us to see exactly what over-provisioning brings to the table.
We already showed you what kind of drive scaling you can expect from native Intel 6Gb/s ports in our recent six drive Seagate 600 Pro 200GB RAID Report; today we are going to focus on how a two drive Seagate 600 Pro 200GB array stacks up against the competition. We will be utilizing our Test Setup 1 bench featuring the superior performance of our ASUS Maximus VI Extreme board. All our two drive array RAID Reports, with the exception of mSATA, are run on our ASUS board.
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Yoshi's New Island Nintendo 3DS Review

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Although the Wii U is not performing anywhere near what Nintendo probably would have hoped, in the last 12 months, the 3DS has really picked up steam and they have been returning to some of their most famous franchises again to keep the releases rolling. The latest is Yoshi's Island, the sequel to Super Mario World on the ever-popular SNES system. This is not the first time that Nintendo has returned to this series, but with both Mario and Donkey Kong games doing well on the system, it's no surprise they went back to the well. Perhaps they shouldn't have.
The story of Yoshi's New Island on the 3DS is very much like that of the past games. In the Mario universe, the children are delivered by stalk to their parents. One evening when the stalk is delivering Mario and Luigi, the parents inform the stalk they were not expecting any children. At the same time, Luigi is taken away and Mario is left alone. Yoshi comes along promising to help Mario, and the adventure begins from there.

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The gameplay is as you expect from the previous games in the series. Baby Mario sits on the back of Yoshi as you control Yoshi running from point A to B. Occasionally, you have to solve a puzzle that is more infuriating than clever and interesting. Each time Yoshi gets hit, baby Mario will fall off Yoshi and you have a set number of seconds to retrieve him before he will be taken by some enemy characters. Each time you lose Mario, this number drops, while keeping him on Yoshi's back will build that number up again.

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There are six world's to complete in this game, and while the world's offer variety and puzzles, they are in general fairly run of the mill. There is also occasionally the chance to take control of Yoshi as a vehicle, but there is one major problem that presents itself here. When using Yoshi as a vehicle, you have to tilt the 3DS left and right. It's about time Nintendo realized that people play these systems on public transport and do not want to use this accelerometer system. There is no option to control Yoshi other than this way.
However, that is not the biggest problem with Yoshi's New Island 3DS; in fact, it's the least of its problems. This game is an unimaginative, boring game that lacks in any innovative design or anything interesting to keep you coming back. We finished the game in about four and a half hours of play and, quite frankly, none of it is memorable. Mario and Yoshi on the SNES was an innovative, fresh take on the franchise, and this is anything but. There is not one single level we would consider a must play, and in fact, some of the levels are over within about a minute of gameplay.

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The structure of the game shouldn't come as a surprise either. Finish six world's, each with a boss character at the end and a mini boss in the middle. There generally is nothing wrong with this structure, but with the complete lack of innovation elsewhere in the game, it just exacerbates the problem. There is some level of change, at least, to mention. Yoshi can now gain larger eggs by eating enemies, and this helps solve puzzles but isn't used anywhere near enough, and it's pretty obvious when this needs to occur, primarily because a large enemy will appear.

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When it comes to the visuals, they are impressive, and the 3D of the game is used quite well, although not as impressively as we have seen on some recent titles. There is no real part of the game that requires 3D, and even in 2D, the game looks fine. Perhaps again one of its flaws that there is just no innovation here. The developers have so much to work with and use so little of it. Music, well, is just passable. Every level has close to the same musical score, which is an absolute travesty when you compare it to some of its brethren. Many Mario levels have been memorable purely because of the amazing soundtrack; not in this game.
Yoshi's New Island 3DS is just not good enough. It's not good enough to hold the name of one of the most famous characters in video gaming, and it's barely passable. It is boring, and we had to really push ourselves to finish this one. When was the last time a Mario universe game could be considered so boring you struggled to finish the game? If you desperately want a new platformer on the 3DS system, this game will suffice, but if you are looking for a good game in the Mario universe, look elsewhere. Back to the drawing board, Nintendo. Cookie cutter releases like this are not good enough, especially when there is so much to work with on a 3DS system.
PRICING: You can find the Yoshi's New Island (3DS) Game for sale below. The prices listed are valid at the time of writing but can change at any time. Click the link to see the very latest pricing for the best deal.
United States: The Yoshi's New Island (3DS) Game retails for $39.96 at Amazon.
Canada: The Yoshi's New Island (3DS) Game retails for CDN$41.33 at Amazon Canada.
Australia: The Yoshi's New Island (3DS) Game retails for $49.99 AUD at Mighty Ape Australia.
New Zealand: The Yoshi's New Island (3DS) Game retails for $74.99 NZD at Mighty Ape NZ.

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Top 10 TweakTown Press Releases from the past week [31 March 2014]
Here are our top 10 posted press releases from the past week!

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