Latest OCAU News

Misc Pics (9 Comments) (link)  Friday, 6-March-2015  14:22:37 (GMT +10) - by Agg Thanks to mpot, J_B and Scott this week! Remember tonight you can see the ISS flyover above Sydney and probably elsewhere in Oz too. Forum Projects (1 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 5-March-2015  16:55:31 (GMT +10) - by Agg Here's some interesting things from people in the forums: d33g33 is making a 1:1 scale arcade R2D2 Tomma Liu has a PC inspired by Bugatti windwithme reviewed MSI's GT72 Dominator Pro Defyant made some cool headphone/amp stands EssentialDesign has a Clear Ivory Stacker Mod and Renza compared some cheap SSDs Thursday Afternoon (2 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 5-March-2015  14:31:12 (GMT +10) - by Agg John Selby has written an article summarising the metadata debate and exploring some related issues with white-collar crime. The call for communications service providers to retain two years of their customers’ metadata is simply the latest round in this debate. While much of the current discussion has centred on consumer data and policing agencies, the proposal also covers the communications of businesses, and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is one of the agencies seeking access. Intel has unveiled new Atom x3, X5 and X7 mobile processors. These chips combine x86 Intel cores with integrated baseband modems and, oddly enough, graphics based on ARM's Mali IP. More info on the x5 and x7 variants here, and Tweaktown have a preview as well. SimCity fans will be sad to hear that EA have shut down Maxis. EA has shut down Maxis Emeryville, the main Maxis studio and longrunning developer behind SimCity and Spore, among other games. Though the Maxis brand will carry on, the studio that most people knew as "Maxis" is no more. Discussion here. Google have an online Cultural Institute featuring some high-profile Australian exhibits, including the Australian War Memorial and the Australian Museum. Google Cultural Institute was launched in 2011 and today partners with more than 600 organisations in more than 60 countries. Through this project more than 60,000 of the world’s most important and compelling artworks have been made accessible in high resolution online. Australia boasts internationally acclaimed artists, art companies and cultural institutions. Over the past 12 months Google has worked closely with our cultural institutions to bring some of our finest cultural and artistic treasures to the world. NVIDIA have a few new goodies, including a 12GB GPU and SHIELD console (more here and here). NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang just got done speaking at the Made To Game event tonight in San Francisco and he had some major announcements that will change gaming forever. It is clear that gaming has gone to the living room. The first big announcement tonight is the NVIDIA SHIELD set top gaming box that that is the world’s first Android TV console designed for use in the living room. Optus have unveiled a smartwatch for payments. OPTUS will introduce payments by smartwatch by year’s end and has flagged the possibility of supplying customers with other wearables such as intelligent watch straps for contactless payments. Optus’s move, announced in Barcelona today at Mobile World Congress, comes just days before Apple reveals more details of its upcoming smartwatch and its own Apple Pay payments system. Netflix will start streaming to Australia on March 24th. Netflix has named the day on which its Australian (and New Zealand) service will commence: March 24th, 2015. Smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, Panasonic, Philips and HiSense, plus Fetch TV’s second-generation set-top box, will all be able to access the service. Netflix's home-brand shows will be offered locally, along with content from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Many ISPs have announced that the service will be quota-free, including Optus, iiNet and Internode. More info here. Wednesday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 4-March-2015  23:48:36 (GMT +10) - by Agg Storage: Western Digital 3.5? Red 6TB NAS HDD on eTeknix. VisionTek DataVault 3S Interlocking Stackable Storage Case on Tweaktown. WD My Cloud DL4100 Business NAS on LegitReviews. Western Digital My Cloud DL4100 SMB NAS on Tweaktown. Cases: Enermax iVektor Mid-Tower on eTeknix. Antec Nineteen Hundred on TechPowerUp. SilverStone Raven RV05 on PCPerspective. Corsair Carbide Series 100R on ThinkComputers. Video Cards: Sapphire Tri-x Radeon R9 290x 8GB on eTeknix. Gigabyte WaterForce 3 Way SLI on Modders-Inc. Motherboard & CPU: Core i7-5960X vs i7-5930K Gaming-Performance - FullHD, 1440p, UHD on OCAholic. MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC on OCAholic. GIGABYTE X99-UD4 (Intel X99) on Tweaktown. ECS Z97I-Drone on Guru3D. Input Etc: ASUS Strix Tactic Pro Gaming Keyboard on BenchmarkReviews. ROCCAT Tyon – All Action Multi-Button Gaming Mouse on HWAsylum. CM Storm NovaTouch TKL Gaming Keyboard on TechPowerUp. Misc: Homeworld Remastered Collection Benchmarked on TechSpot. Netgear D6300 AC1600 Dual Band Gigabit Modem Router on NikKTech. Creative Sound Blaster ROAR on Vortez. Noctua NH-U9S Compact Lower Noise Heatsink on Frostytech. ECS Liva SOC Mini-PC System on eTeknix. ScaleUp 3,000mAh Portable Battery with LCD on Tweaktown. ISS Spotting (11 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 4-March-2015  20:17:51 (GMT +10) - by Agg It's short notice, but in a few minutes the International Space Station will be visible above Sydney for six minutes. Go outside and look up! Update: That was cool - but if you missed it, check that link above, it's happening again for the next few nights. Tuesday Morning Reviews (2 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 3-March-2015  00:40:09 (GMT +10) - by Agg Cooling: CRYORIG H5 Universal CPU Cooler on NikKTech. Cooler Master Nepton 240M All-in-One Liquid Cooler on PCPerspective. Storage: Plextor M6e PCI Express SSD on Vortez. HIS Multi-View x2 HDOCK1 USB 3.0 Dual Display Docking Station on Tweaktown. SilverStone TS431S 4-Bay miniSAS DAS Storage Tower on eTeknix. Portable & Prebuilt: HP Spectre X360 Ultrabook Review: Sleek, Sexy, Convertible on HotHardware. HP Omen 15 Gaming Notebook Review, A Little Bit Of Mojo and Voodoo on HotHardware. Intel NUC5i5RYK Broadwell-U Mini-PC on HotHardware. Dell Venue 8 7000 on TechSpot. Motherboard & CPU: GIGABYTE X99-Gaming 5 (Intel X99) Motherboard on Tweaktown. X99 Charts: 11 Boards - ASUS X99-WS/IPMI on OCAholic. ASRock X99 WS-E/10G (Intel X99) on Tweaktown. Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H Black Edition on OCAholic. Supermicro C7Z97-OCE (Intel Z97) on Tweaktown. MSI Z97 MPower AC on OCAholic. Core i7-5960X CPU on HWSecrets. Power Supply: Corsair HX1000i 1000W 80 PLUS Platinum on Tweaktown. Enermax DigiFanless 550W on OCaholic. Portable Smartphone Battery Pack Roundup on eTeknix. Software: Evolve Review: The Evolved Strike Back PC gamee on Techgage. Windows Storage Server 2012 R2 Overview on ComputingOnDemand. Input Etc: Cooler Master Novatouch TKL Gaming Keyboard on MadShrimps. GAMDIAS HADES (GMS7011) Laser Gaming Mouse on TechARP. Misc: Xigmatek Mach Mid-Tower on eTeknix. Crucial CT4G4DFS8213 DDR4-2133 16GB Quad-Channel Memory Kit on Tweaktown. Monday Evening (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 2-March-2015  18:25:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg Leonard Nimoy passed away, age 83 on the weekend, to the dismay of Trekkies everywhere. It's a sentiment that Nimoy himself reflected upon on Twitter this past Sunday, in his very last post. "A life is like a garden," he wrote. "Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory." That's what we'll have to do, then. On the topic of final frontiers, the world's largest aircraft is being built, for space-launch duties. Built for Stratolaunch by Scaled Composites, the Roc will be the largest aircraft ever made with a wingspan of 385 ft. This compares to 320 ft for the Hughes H-4 Hercules (Spruce Goose), 290 ft for the six-engined Antonov An-225, 262 ft. for the Airbus A380, and 225 ft. for the Boeing 747-8. Powered by six reconditioned Pratt & Whitney PW4056 engines salvaged along with other parts from two ex-United Airlines Boeing 747-400s, the twin-fuselage carrier aircraft resembles a vastly enlarged version of the Scaled-built WhiteKnightTwo developed for Virgin Galactic. Google are proclaiming that Android is ready for work, thanks mpot. For many, these phones have become essential tools to help us complete important work tasks like checking email, editing documents, reviewing sales pipelines and approving deals. But for the majority of workers, smartphones and tablets are underutilized in the workplace. Their business and innovation potential remain largely untapped. Today we're announcing the Android for Work program to tap into that potential. With a group of partners, we're helping businesses bring more devices to work by securing, managing and innovating on the Android platform. More info here. Samsung meanwhile have announced the Galaxy S 6 and S 6 Edge. At the high end, many criticisms have been leveled at the industrial and material design of Galaxy S and Note devices, and outside of the hardware itself, TouchWiz has received a great deal of criticism for performance issues and poor design. This brings us to the Galaxy S 6 and S 6 edge, which represents a fundamental shift in the way Samsung approaches the way their phones are made and designed. While we’ve seen these changes in the form of the Galaxy A line and the Galaxy Note 4, the Galaxy S6 represents the first phone that has been made from the ground up with a focus on industrial and material design. Monday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 2-March-2015  01:28:16 (GMT +10) - by Agg Cases: In Win 703 on LegionHW. Fractal Design Core 2300 on TechPowerUp. Raijintek Metis Classic on BenchmarkReviews. Nanoxia Deep Silence 5 Rev B. on OCAholic. Corsair Carbide 100R Silent on Vortez. Corsair Carbide 100R Silent Mid-Tower on eTeknix. Cooling: Phanteks PH-TC12LS CPU Cooler on Modders-Inc. Corsair H80i GT watercooler on HWHeaven. Audio Visual: Kingston HyperX Cloud II Gaming Headset on ThinkComputers. Divoom Voombox Outdoor Rugged Bluetooth Speaker on ThinkComputers. Storage: Silicon Motion SM2256 Controller with Samsung TLC NAND on TheSSDReview. Crucial's BX100 and MX200 solid-state drives on TechReport. WD My Cloud DL4100 Business NAS on Techgage. OCZ ARC 100 480GB SSD on NikKTech. HIS Multi-View HDOCKP USB 3.0 Portable Docking Station on Tweaktown. Seagate Seven External USB 3.0 Drive on LegitReviews. Video Cards: Asus STRIX GTX 750 Ti on PCPerspective. Gigabyte GeForce GTX 960 G1 on LegitReviews. Gigabyte GTX 960 on LanOC. GeForce GTX 980 vs Radeon R9 290X - Should I upgrade? on OCAholic. GALAX GeForce GTX 960 EXOC on Tweaktown.

Want more news? View previous 7 days, 14 days, 30 days or monthly archives.

All original content copyright James Rolfe.
All rights reserved. No reproduction allowed without written permission.
Interested in advertising on OCAU? Contact us for info.