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January 2013 |
Windows Phone 7.8
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Thursday, 31-January-2013 20:25:43 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Asteroid sent in a couple of pictures of the long-anticipated Windows Phone 7.8 upgrade which just rolled out, giving WP7 users a WP8-like interface. I confess to not being a WP guy, but this is apparently something of a big deal, so check 'em out:
 
WP7 discussion continues in this thread.
Forum Projects
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Wednesday, 30-January-2013 16:01:33 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's some more interesting projects from people in the forums:
Wednesday Afternoon
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Wednesday, 30-January-2013 15:12:49 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Microsoft are raising prices, or more accurately ending discounts, in Australia. The software giant will put up its prices despite weaker than expected software and PC sales, and disgruntled computer makers who have dubbed the software unsuccessful and slow to take-off. A Microsoft spokeswoman said the current Windows 8 Pro upgrade price of $39.95 would cease on Thursday, ending "a discount of up to 90 per cent off the recommend retail price that commences on February 1".
The CSIRO have launched a new digital economy program. Federal research organisation CSIRO has pulled together a range of projects into a concerted, $40 million initiative aimed at boosting Australia’s services sector. The so-called Digital Productivity and Services Flagship was launched today by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and W3C director Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
Google have paid for 15,000 Raspberry Pi's for students in the UK. Commenting on the grant in a statement, Google’s Schmidt said: “Britain’s innovators and entrepreneurs have changed the world — the telephone, television and computers were all invented here. We’ve been working to encourage the next generation of computer scientists and we hope this donation of Raspberry Pi’s to British school pupils will help drive a new wave of innovation.”
ArsTechnica report on how Newegg beat a shopping cart patent. Soverain will lose the $2.5 million it stood to gain from Newegg, as well as two much bigger verdicts it won against Victoria's Secret and Avon. Those two companies were ordered to pay a total of almost $18 million, plus a "running royalty" of about one percent, after a 2011 trial. The ruling in the Newegg case is a total wipeout for a patent troll that had squeezed many millions from online retailers, was backed by big-firm lawyers, and was determined to collect hundreds of millions more.
Today's timewaster is Qoosh, a platform game with a teleporting twist, from Supplanter.
Wednesday Afternoon Reviews
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Wednesday, 30-January-2013 12:35:18 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards & CPUs:
AMD FX-8350 Processor on iXBTlabs.
Asus Maximus V Gene Motherboard on ThinkComputers.
ASRock Z77 Extreme3 Motherboard on Xbit Labs.
Memory:
Crucial Ballistix Sport VLP & Tactical LP 16GB Low-Profile Memory on TechnologyX.
Crucial Ballistix Tactical 16GB DDR3 PC3-12800 Low Profile Memory on Madshrimps.
Cooling:
Noctua NH-D14 Heatsink on OCmodshop.
Phanteks PH-TC12DX Tower CPU Cooler on TweakTown.
Fractal Design Adjust 108 Fan Controller on eTeknix.
CPU Cooler Roundup on Custom PC Review.
Input etc:
Mad Catz S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 Gaming Keyboard on HardwareHeaven.
CM Storm Sentinel Advance II Mouse on XtremeComputing.
Audio/Visual:
Creative Sound Blaster Z Sound Card on techPowerUp.
SteelSeries Flux Headset on Hardware Secrets.
Genius WideCam 320 Webcam on Techgage.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Intel Next Unit of Computing on Xbit Labs.
Asus Taichi 21 on InsideHW.
Zotac ZBOX ID83 Plus on t-break.
MSI GX60 Gaming Notebook on Techspot.
Toshiba Satellite U945-S4390 Ultrabook on TechReviewSource.
Misc:
Rosewill Tachyon 1000 Watt 80PLUS Platinum ATX Modular Power Supply on Futurelooks.
WD My Net N900 Central Router on ThinkComputers.
Kingston DataTraveler Hyper X Predator 512GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on The SSD Review.
Tuesday Morning Reviews
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Tuesday, 29-January-2013 08:24:28 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Graphics Cards:
Asus ROG ARES II on techPowerUp.
Asus ROG ARES II on Guru3D.
Asus ROG ARES II on Overclockers.com
PowerColor PCS+ HD7870 Myst Edition (Video Review) on HardwareHeaven.
Matrox TripleHead2Go Digital SE External Multi-Display Adapter on OCC.
Storage:
G-Technology G-Drive 4TB External HDD on NikKTech.
OCZ Vector 256GB SSD on Funky Kit.
MyDigitalSSD BP4 mSATA SSD (240GB) on The SSD Review.
QNAP TS-669 Pro NAS on Computing on Demand.
Cooling:
Corsair H80i CPU Cooler on Hardware Secrets.
NZXT Kraken X40 Liquid CPU Cooler on eTeknix.
Corsair Hydro Series H55 on Vortez.
Gelid Solutions Black Edition CPU Cooler on eTeknix.
Corsair Hydro 90 & H110 on Madshrimps.
Cases:
Antec Eleven Hundred on Techreaction.
Raidmax Raptor on Techreaction.
NZXT Phantom Full Tower on eTeknix.
Input etc:
Cooler Master Storm Power-RX Mouse Surface and Skorpion Bungee on Pro-Clockers.
Logitech G710+ Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Legit Reviews.
Func Surface 1030 XL Mouse Pad on eTeknix.
Gigabyte Aivia Osmium on Vortez.
Leetgion El'Druin Gaming Mouse on Madshrimps.
Thermaltake Level 10M Gaming Mouse on Benchmark Reviews.
Portables & Mobiles:
Asus Taichi 21 on TechReviewSource.
Toshiba Satellite U940 Ultrabook on t-break.
Misc:
PC Power & Cooling Silencer MK III 750 W on techPowerUp.
Five Gaming Headphones Tested on HotHardware.
Monday Morning
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Monday, 28-January-2013 00:53:14 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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All the best to people struggling with the floods and bushfires at the moment. Stay safe!
If you've got any Jindi cheese in the fridge you might want to avoid eating it. The Victorian Department of Health has identified a ''definitive'' link between the outbreak and batches of brie, camembert, blue and other soft cheeses manufactured by the Jindi Cheese company at its Jindivick factory in Victoria, the state's acting chief health officer, Dr Michael Ackland said. ''Of course it is very bad news'' said Jindi Cheese's head cheesemaker and CEO Franck Beaurain. But he referred to the Department of Health's media statement that ''it is not possible to absolutely rule in or out a link for these deaths to Jindi''.
A law in the USA has passed, making it illegal to unlock phones, thanks Gunna. But if that's something you've done before or have thought about doing, then you should know that starting today it is illegal to unlock a subsidized phone or tablet that's bought through a U.S. carrier. Why now? Starting today, the U.S. Copyright Office and Library of Congress are no longer allowing phone unlocking as an exemption under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Tim Berners-Lee has warned against government control of the net. British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee gives a speech on April 18, 2012 in Lyon, France. The inventor of the World Wide Web warned Friday that government control is limiting the possibilities of the Internet, as dozens of countries and businesses signed a cybersecurity deal at the Davos forum.
Sciby spotted this article about DNA storage. DNA is the building block of life, but in the future it may also be the standard repository for encyclopedias, music and other digital data. Scientists announced yesterday that they successfully converted 739 kilobytes of hard drive data in genetic code and then retrieved the content with 100 percent accuracy.
Lichking sent in some info on a new hardware raytracing card. When Ars Technica covered the announcement a few days ago, John Carmack himself dropped in to give his own impression of ray tracing in modern games and professional applications as compared to rasterization. According to him, the practical benefits of hardware ray tracing compared to rasterization are limited: “For any game that is not grossly GPU bound, a ray tracing chip will be a decelerator, due to the additional cost of maintaining dynamic accelerator structures… I am 90% sure that the eventual path to integration of ray tracing hardware into consumer devices will be as minor tweaks to the existing GPU microarchitectures.”
He also spotted this cool screen-expansion technology. IllumiRoom is surprisingly simple in its operation. Kinect captures the appearance and geometry of the room, and then this data is used to adapt the extra visuals that are projected against the wall and furniture around your TV.
Tweaktown checked out the new MEGA cloud storage. MEGA is a cloud storage site built on security and confidentiality. Most think this is for the users, but there is more security built into the backend to protect MEGA and it's financiers from prosecution, more so than protecting users' privacy. We'll get to that soon.
I hope you had a great Australia Day - or are still having one! There's certainly been some trying times recently, but it's worth remembering that we're pretty lucky to live in a politically stable, reasonably strong economically, generally safe country. I can't think of anywhere I'd rather live and raise my family. Now, back to the beers and the leftover snags!
Saturday Morning Reviews
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Saturday, 26-January-2013 09:54:54 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards & CPUs:
ECS Z77H2-A2X (v1.0) on Xbit Labs.
MSI Z77 MPower on Xbit Labs.
Storage:
Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB SSD on Bigbruin.
Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3 64GB USB Thumb Drive on TechwareLabs.
Memory:
Patriot Limited Edition 'Intel Extreme Masters' DDR3 2133MHz 8GB Memory Kit on eTeknix.
Kingston HyperX Beast PC3-19200 16GB Dual Channel Memory Kit on TweakTown.
Power Supplies:
Seasonic Platinum Series 660W on PC Perspective.
Cougar GX-S 600W on PureOverclock.
Cooling:
Corsair H55, CM Seidon 120M and Antec Kuhler 620 v4 on HardwareHeaven.
Phanteks PH-TC12DX CPU Cooler on OCC.
NZXT Kraken X60 Watercooler on Guru3D.
Be Quiet! Shadow Rock Topflow on XSReviews.
Antec Kühler H2O 620 v4 on Rbmods.
Input etc:
Tt eSPORTS Level 10M Gaming Mouse on NikKTech.
Mad Catz GLIDE 7 Gaming Surface on HardwareHeaven.
Roccat Sense High Precision Gaming Mousepad on ThinkComputers.
Audio/Visual:
Netgear NeoTV MAX HD Streaming Player on Legit Reviews.
Antec AMP "iso" Active Noise Canceling Wireless Bluetooth Headphones on Madshrimps.
Antec A.M.P Mobile Audio Review Roundup - Gain, ISO and dBs on TweakTown.
Portables & Mobiles:
Asus VivoBook S400CA on TechReviewSource.
Kobo Arc Android 4.0.4 Tablet E-Reader on MegaTechNews.
Misc:
NZXT Phantom 630 Case on Hardware Secrets.
Thanks to Daniel and Timbot this week!
     
     
     
     
     
And if you're after more, check out this Wiki page which lists ALL "misc pics" news posts from the archive.
Friday Morning Reviews
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Friday, 25-January-2013 06:37:40 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Graphics Cards:
Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 XT (Tahiti LE) 2GB on TweakTown.
EVGA GTX 670 FTW Signature 2 2GB on techPowerUp.
Cases:
In Win GRone Full Tower on ThinkComputers.
Antec P280 Full Tower on eTeknix.
NZXT Phantom 820 on Vortez.
Cooling:
Coolermaster Gemin II M4 on Frostytech.
Noctua NF-A15 and NF-A14 Cooling Fans on OCmodshop.
Swiftech H220 LCS All-In-One Water Cooler on Overclockers.com
Noctua NH-L9i CPU Cooler on OCC.
Noctua NF-A14 ULN, NF-A14 FLX and NF-A15 PWM Fans on eTeknix.
Fractal Design Adjust 108 Fan Controller on Hardware Secrets.
Power Supplies:
XFX PRO 850 W Black Edition on Hardware Secrets.
Corsair AX760 on Guru3D.
Input etc:
Thermaltake Level 10 Mouse on OCC.
SteelSeries CS: GO peripherals on Techgage.
Mad Catz STRIKE 7 Gaming Keyboard (Video Review) on HardwareHeaven.
Zowie G-CM Mouse Mat on eTeknix.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Dell XPS 10 Tablet (Windows RT / 64GB) on HardwareHeaven.
Dell XPS 14 Ultrabook Review - 2012 on Legit Reviews.
ASRock VisionX 321B Ivy Bridge HTPC on TweakTown.
Misc:
Asus RT-N12HP Router/AP/Range Extender on t-break.
Toshiba THNSNF512GCSS 512GB SSD on NikKTech.
Forum Projects
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Thursday, 24-January-2013 09:25:44 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's some more interesting projects from people in the forums:
Another year has rolled around, and it's Agg's birthday again! He's a year older, a year wiser, but not 40 so don't start teasing him just yet.
Happy birthday, Agg!
Here's to many, many more, until medical technology has advanced to where cyborg implants are possible and then we start counting in "robo-birthdays".
Please help us in wishing him a happy birthday in the comments. :)
Wednesday Afternoon
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Wednesday, 23-January-2013 17:01:19 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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A few people sent in this new StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm opening sequence. We're pleased to present the opening cinematic for StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm in full HD glory! The expansion arrives March 12, 2013.
ATARI's U.S. operations have filed for bankruptcy. Atari SA’s U.S.-based video-game- making businesses filed for bankruptcy protection in Manhattan with the intention of separating from the unprofitable French parent and seeking independent funding. New York-based Atari Inc., maker of video games “Pong” and “Asteroids,” as well as affiliates Atari Interactive Inc., Humongous Inc. and California U.S. Holdings Inc., asked to be jointly administered in filings yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, according to a statement.
Here's a video from Crucial about how they make their SSDs. Crucial® SSDs are designed and developed by Micron, one of the largest NAND manufacturers in the world. This means four things: hundreds of SSD qualification tests, over a thousand hours of prerelease validation testing, 1.5 billion dollars invested in R&D, and more than 30 years of industry expertise.
Lifehacker have a beginner's guide to the Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi is a wonderful little computer that fits in the palm of your hand, yet packs enough power to run your home media centre, a VPN, and much more besides. Before you can do all that cool stuff, however, you need to configure it and install an operating system. Here’s how to do that. Raspberry Pi thread here, thanks Davo1111.
Technoviking is hitting the courts. The star of one of the most emblematic Internet cultural phenomenons of the past decade is suing the artist who surreptitiously filmed him, claiming he stole his image and profited from the results.
It's only a rumour at the moment, but could Microsoft be buying Dell? Microsoft Corp is in discussions to invest between $1 billion and $3 billion of mezzanine financing in a buyout of Dell Inc, CNBC cited unidentified sources as saying on Tuesday.
Meanwhile Intel are moving away from branded desktop motherboards. Intel’s Desktop Motherboard Business will begin slowly ramping down over the course of the next three years. As Intel gradually ramps down its motherboard business we are ramping up critical areas of the desktop space including integration of innovative solutions for the PC ecosystem such as reference design development, NUC and other areas to be discussed later.
Neerav has a blog post about the strong AUD making it tough for local retailers. Australian retailers and distributors of consumer electronics products are facing a new challenge as a growing number of consumers take advantage of the high Australian dollar to purchase gadgets from grey importers.
As further proof that we're heading towards The Diamond Age, there's a new desktop plastic recycler to turn your junk into 3D printing filament. Imagine how much more incredible home-based 3D printing will get when folks don’t have to worry about wasting expensive filament. They can experiment away without fretting over how much each model is costing in raw materials because the failed projects can simply be recycled into new ones.
Wednesday Morning Reviews
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Wednesday, 23-January-2013 06:50:10 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards & CPUs:
Intel Core i7-3960x vs. i7-3970x on Bjorn3D.
ASRock FM2A85X Extreme6 (AMD A85X) on TweakTown.
Storage:
Samsung 840 Pro Series 512GB SSD on Legit Reviews.
Synology DiskStation DS713+ and DX513 on Legion Hardware.
OCZ Vector 256GB SSD on Neoseeker.
KingFast F3 Series mSATA3.0 120Gb SSD on Madshrimps.
Cooling:
Spire X2.9883 CPU Cooler on NikKTech.
Phanteks PH-TC90LS CPU Cooler on OCC.
Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme 240mm Liquid Cooling System on Futurelooks.
Cooler Master Seidon 240M AIO CPU Cooler on Pro-Clockers.
Cases:
NZXT Phantom 630 on Anandtech.
NZXT Phantom 630 on techPowerUp.
Four Affordable Midtowers Compared on HotHardware.
Power Supplies:
Cougar GX-S 500W on Jonnyguru.
PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III 1200W on APH Networks.
Audio/Visual:
Antec AMP SP1 Portable Bluetooth Speaker on ThinkComputers.
Asus PA248Q ProArt Monitor on t-break.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Dell Latitude 6430u Ultrabook on TechReviewSource.
Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet 2 on Funky Kit.
Dell XPS One 27 Touch on TechReviewSource.
Misc:
Avexir MPower Core Series 16GB 1600MHz DDR3 on Vortez.
PowerColor Radeon HD 7950 3GB PCS Video Card on TweakTown.
Tuesday Morning Reviews
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Tuesday, 22-January-2013 06:42:04 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Storage:
Adata Premier Pro 32GB SDHC UHS-1 Memory Card on Legit Reviews.
Samsung 840 Pro SSD 256 GB on techPowerUp.
WD RE 4TB Enterprise Hard Drive on Techgage.
Plextor M5 Pro SSD Review (256GB) on The SSD Review.
Cooling:
Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 2 CPU Cooler on XSReviews.
SilverStone NT06 Pro Low Profile CPU Cooler on eTeknix.
Cooler Master, Deepcool, Noctua, and Thermaltake CPU Cooler Roundup on OCC.
Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.
Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme CPU Cooler on eTeknix.
Zalman LQ315 CPU Cooler on Hardware Secrets.
CPU cooler group test review with 3770K on Guru3D.
NZXT Respire T40 CPU Cooler on TweakTown.
Cases:
Fractal Design Define XL R2 Case (Video Review) on HardwareHeaven.
Antec GX700 on HardwareHeaven.
Antec GX700 on TweakTown.
Antec Performance One P280 on NikKTech.
Silverstone Sugo Series SG09 SFF on Pro-Clockers.
Audio:
Asus Orion Pro Gaming Headset on t-break.
Mad Catz Tritton Pro+ 5.1 Surround Headset on Benchmark Reviews.
SteelSeries Flux Headset on XtremeComputing.
Input etc:
Cooler Master CM Storm Power-RX Hybrid Mouse Pad on TweakTown.
MadCatz S.T.R.I.K.E.5 PC Keyboard on eTeknix.
Razer Blackwidow Ultimate mechanical keyboard on Rbmods.
Misc:
MSI Big Bang Z77 MPower Mainboard on Madshrimps.
Acer Aspire S7 Touch Screen Ultrabook on The SSD Review.
Photography Gallery
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Monday, 21-January-2013 21:29:08 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's a quick snapshot of what people are up to in our Photography Gallery forum.
Monday Evening
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Monday, 21-January-2013 20:02:55 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Pirate Party Australia have successfully registered for federal elections. “More than ever before there is a necessity in Australia for a Party that holds empowerment, participation, free culture and openness as its central tenets. A Party that understands the modern emerging information society and the imperative for political transparency that ensures meaningful engagement.” said Rodney Serkowski, the Party’s founder. More here and discussion here.
The ACCC meanwhile have rejected a proposal for uniform minimum pricing from Narta. Narta is a buying group of around 30 electrical goods retailers, including David Jones, JB Hi-Fi and Bing Lee. The proposed conduct would ensure that all of its members advertise the same price for particular new release, premium or BEKO branded products that would be available from Narta members, such as televisions, cameras, white goods, espresso machines and ovens.
GB Aus have a high-end PC tuning guide video and a new OC CPUz skin. Testing some high end components today and decided to put together a quick video pointing out to some basics which everyone should think about on their next PC DIY build. GIGABYTE is also about to launch the new GIGABYTE OC CPUz skin and I've provided a quick sneak peak preview.
HWHeaven compared GTX 670 and HD 7970. We will be taking EVGAs latest GTX 670, the FTW Signature 2 Edition and putting it head to head with the ASUS 7970 DirectCU2 to find out how each performs in games such as Far Cry 3, Assassins Creed and Hitman Absolution. Of course this will all be real world gaming and the usual GPU computing, media and power/thermal testing will be thrown in too.
Meanwhile Tech Report have info on a new AMD driver. We spotted an issue with high frame latencies in several of the latest games on the Radeon HD 7950 not long ago, and now AMD has delivered a driver intended to remedy some of the problems. Does it do the trick? We take a look.
Speaking of which, we've mentioned the newish Catzilla benchmark previously, but here's a video of the demo, in case you just want the eyecandy without the downloading and benchmarking, thanks Schnappuy.
Google are taking aim at passwords. The future may not exactly be password-free, but it will at be least free of those complex, hard-to-remember passwords, says Grosse. “We’ll have to have some form of screen unlock, maybe passwords but maybe something else,” he says, “but the primary authenticator will be a token like this or some equivalent piece of hardware.”
For something completely different, here's a cool video of an auto-braking truck, and info on wireless road trains from Volvo. Using wireless technology to link a road train, in which a lead truck controls a convoy of vehicles driving behind it, is already technically feasible. The technology, which can enhance traffic safety, was demonstrated at the conclusion of the SARTRE project, which Volvo Trucks participated in.
Warcom are having a Pinterest contest. We’re excited to kick off our first ever Australian Pinterest challenge, a “Pin It to Win It!” competition where you can win $250 to spend at Warcom to help freshen up your home office space!
Kim Dotcom has launched his new Mega file service. We are a dedicated group of technologists who were given the time, opportunity and Internet access to build an awesome cloud storage service that will help protect your privacy. We have programmed this Internet service from scratch in Auckland, New Zealand. Unlike most of our competitors, we use a state of the art browser based encryption technology where you, not us, control the keys. Unsurprisingly, it was fairly popular at launch.. and seems to be down as I type this. More info here and here, thanks Gunna.
Quan-Time spotted a contest to win $10k from NASA by fixing the ISS. Your goal, as a contestant in this completion, is to define the angular position and velocity for each of the joints that connect the solar panels to the station for every point in a 92-minute orbit. Limitations on any solution include making sure the masts for each panel aren’t in a shadow more than they need to be, making sure the cycle can be repeated each orbit, and making sure the most power is generated on board.
AMD are claiming former employees took secrets to NVIDIA. Chipmaker AMD is taking four former employees to court, one former vice-president and three former managers from the firm's Boxborough plant, who left the company to go and work for rival Nvidia last year. AMD believes that as they left the company, the four employees copied more than 100,000 confidential documents and trade secrets to take with them.
An electronic pill is helping firefighters. The pill can relay an individual's core temperature in real time, giving a better understanding of the body's vulnerability to heat stress to protect firefighters. Victoria's Country Fire Authority health and wellbeing officer Peter Langridge said the data gathered in a CFA trial had led to changes in firefighters' work patterns, including the length of time they are exposed to blazes.
Saturday Morning Reviews
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Saturday, 19-January-2013 07:06:48 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Storage:
Kingston DT Elite USB 3.0 64GB Thumb Drive on XtremeComputing.
Kingston DataTraveler HyperX Predator 512GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on Legit Reviews.
Corsair Neutron SATA III SSD on HotHardware.
Cooling:
Thermalright Macho Rev.A (BW) CPU Cooler on eTeknix.
Thermalright AXP-100 CPU Air Cooler on [H]ardOCP.
Cases:
SilverStone Precision PS08 Case on Hardware Secrets.
Cooler Master HAF XB on techPowerUp.
Fractal Design Define R4 Mid-Tower on Techgage.
Antec GX700 on Anandtech.
Power Supplies:
Fractal Design Tesla R2 650 W Power Supply on Hardware Secrets.
Thermaltake Smart-M 750W on Funky Kit.
Thermaltake Toughpower XT Platinum 1275W on PureOverclock.
SilverStone Zeus ZM1350 on PC Perspective.
Cougar PowerX 550W Power Supply on Legit Reviews.
Audio:
Oblanc NC2-1 UFO Headphones on Benchmark Reviews.
Logitech Ultimate Ears 4000 On-Ear Headset on TweakTown.
Sound Blaster Tactic3D Rage USB Gaming Headset on TweakTown.
Input etc:
CM Storm QuickFire TK Keyboard on Custom PC Review.
Cooler Master CM Storm Trigger Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Madshrimps.
Cooler Master CM Storm Trigger Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on TweakTown.
SteelSeries Free Touchscreen Gaming Controls (Video Review) on HardwareHeaven.
Misc:
Crossover 27Q 2560 x 1440 LED Pivot Monitor on XSReviews.
Toshiba Satellite LX835-D3380 PC on TechReviewSource.
EVGA GeForce GTX 670 FTW Signature 2 vs ASUS HD 7970 DirectCU II on HardwareHeaven.
Late this week - things got a bit bushfirey around here, and I had to go away for a while!
     
     
     
     
     
And if you're after more, check out this Wiki page which lists ALL "misc pics" news posts from the archive.
Interesting Forum Threads
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Thursday, 17-January-2013 20:55:55 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's a snapshot of what's going on in some of the forums. You can also find new interesting things you might have missed via the Who's Online page, the New Posts page and the Live forum view. Also try the Today's Posts link (find it on the Quick Links menu) and the handy Who Quoted Me? feature.
MSI Notebook DiRT Giveaway (on FB) in Overclocking & Hardware.
Aywun RADI A1-V4 CPU Cooler Review in Overclocking & Hardware.
Raspberry Pi Webradio & Weather Station in Electronics & Electrics.
How mainstream games butchered themselves and why it’s my fault in PC Games.
Creative Assembly making Total War: Warhammer! in PC Games.
Public sector vs Private sector IT in Business & Enteprise Computing.
Share your setup for firewall+proxy+antivirus+dns Server in Business & Enterprise Computing.
Stirling Engine in Hobby Engineering.
New apartment, no phone sockets? How to internet? in Networking.
SKA Telescope funded for Central Aus in Science.
Maybe not everyone else is a jerk. Maybe it’s me? in Science.
MOVIE: The Pirate Bay: AFK in Entertainment.
MOVIE: Why is HFR considered bad? in Entertainment.
What Do You Spend Each Year? in Career, Education & Finance.
Thinking about going into IT contracting in Career, Education & Finance.
XiangLong UAV - China "Global Hawk" start RCS in Current Events.
China’s J-15 fighter goes to sea...Trials on China's carrier in Current Events.
Obama to ‘Put Everything I’ve Got’ Into Gun Control in Current Events.
Capitalism and Democracy can't solve big problems, but that's our fault in Politics & Policies.
Why is there a recession? in Politics & Policies.
Sunscreens - what is best? in Sport, Fitness & Health.
Tyres of the Future in Motoring.
Thursday Evening Reviews
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Thursday, 17-January-2013 19:52:47 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Portable & Prebuilt:
Asus' VivoBook X202E notebook on TechReport.
Lenovo IdeaCentre A720 Windows 8 All-In-One on HotHardware.
Audio Visual:
Antec AMP SP1 Bluetooth Speaker and Speakerphone on MegaTechNews.
Beats by Dr. Dre Powerbeats headphones on TechReviewSource.
Edifier Esiena Bluetooth Review – A Universal Audio Dock on Techgage.
Storage:
Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB SSD Upgrade Kit on NikKTech.
Kingston DataTraveler HyperX USB 3.0 64 GB on TechPowerUp.
EonNAS 1100 NAS Network Storage Server on BenchmarkReviews.
SanDisk Ultra Plus SSD 256GB on TheSSDReview.
OCZ Vector 512GB on LegionHW.
Cooling:
NZXT Respire T20 CPU Cooler on HWSecrets.
Thermalright Archon SB-E Cooler on XbitLabs.
Power Supply:
Affordable Gold from Seasonic: G-360 and G-550 Power Supply Units on XbitLabs.
Kingwin Power Force 850W on HardOCP.
Video Cards:
HIS Radeon HD 7970 3GB IceQ X2 Overclocked on Tweaktown.
Nvidia Quadro K5000 on XbitLabs.
Diamond Multimedia Dual View DV100 USB 3.0 Dual Display Graphics Adapter on Futurelooks.
Misc:
ASUS RT-N66U N900 Router on TBreak.
G.Skill TridentX DDR3-2400 CL9 Memory Kit on Funkykit.
Intel 847 with NM70 ECS NM70-I2 Mini-ITX board on Guru3D.
Thursday Midday
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Thursday, 17-January-2013 12:45:12 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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The Government has a new social media complaints process. Prime Minister Julia Gillard has singled out social network Twitter for not yet signing up to the Federal Government’s new complaints handling process for major social networking sites, in a speech this morning pointing out that rival companies such as Facebook and Google had already done so.
Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner is having a bumpy start to its life, with Japanes airlines grounding their fleets. Japan's two leading airlines grounded their fleets of Boeing 787s on Wednesday after one of the Dreamliner passenger jets made an emergency landing, heightening safety concerns over a plane many see as the future of commercial aviation. All Nippon Airways said it was grounding all 17 of its 787s and Japan Airlines said it was suspending all flights scheduled for departure on Wednesday. The two carriers operate around half of the 50 Dreamliners delivered by Boeing to date.
A few people sent in this guy who outsourced his own job to China so he could slack off, with more info here. A security audit of a US critical infrastructure company last year revealed that its star developer had outsourced his own job to a Chinese subcontractor and was spending all his work time playing around on the internet.
There's a new crowdsourcing project to explore Mars, with discussion here. We need your help to find and mark ‘fans’ and ‘blotches’ on the Martian surface. Scientists believe that these features indicate wind direction and speed. By tracking ‘fans’ and ‘blotches’ over the course of several Martian years to see how they form, evolve, disappear and reform, we can help planetary scientists better understand Mars’ climate.
Facebook have a new Graph Search feature, in limited rollout at the moment. Still, there were demonstrations of just how useful this new feature could be and it looked much smarter and intuitive than the existing search box which does little more than find your friends. You could search for "people who like fencing and live in Palo Alto" or "films my friends like" or "restaurants recommended in New York".
A Belgian woman set out to drive 61km from home, but thanks to blindly following her GPS, ended up 1500km away in Croatia. She passed traffic signs in different languages and stopped to refuel her car several times and get some sleep, but didn't stop to question the TomTom sat-nav until 60 hours later when she realised she may not be in Belgium anymore.
Today's timewaster is Stepping Stones, from TheWedgie.
Forum Projects
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Wednesday, 16-January-2013 20:40:57 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's some interesting projects from people in the forums:
Wednesday Morning Reviews
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Wednesday, 16-January-2013 07:58:53 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards:
Gigabyte Z77N-WiFi mITX Intel LGA 1155 on techPowerUp.
ASRock Z77 OC Formula on Anandtech.
Storage:
Mushkin Atlas 30GB mSATA SSD on Bigbruin.
Western Digital RE 4TB HDD on TechwareLabs.
OCZ Vector 256GB SSD on Techgage.
OCZ Vector 256GB SSD on Vortez.
Cooling:
Noctua NH-L9i Low Profile CPU Cooler on HardwareHeaven.
Noctua NH-L9i Low Profile CPU Cooler on TweakTown.
Spire Air Force 120 and Air Force 120 LED Fans on Pro-Clockers.
NZXT Respire T20 CPU Cooler on TweakTown.
Thermalright AXP-100 CPU Cooler on [H]ardOCP.
Power Supplies:
Cougar GX-S 500 W on Hardware Secrets.
Fractal Design Integra R2 750W 80 PLUS Bronze on TweakTown.
Input etc:
Steelseries World of Warcraft Wireless Gaming mouse on Rbmods.
Tt eSports Level 10 M Mouse on Hardware Secrets.
Audio:
Ozone Rage ST Headset on Vortez.
Plantronics GameCom 780 7.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headset on Velocity Reviews.
NuForce Cube Portable Speaker on MegaTechNews.
Asus Orion Pro Gaming Headset on Hardware Canucks.
Misc:
Crucial Ballistix Tactical LP 1600MHz 16GB Kit on Pro-Clockers.
Dell XPS 12 Convertible Ultrabook on HotHardware.
VTX3D HD 7870 Black Edition 2 GB on techPowerUp.
Tuesday Afternoon
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Tuesday, 15-January-2013 15:39:03 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Gunna sent in this video about a lumpy tablet screen demonstrated at CES. When you can't feel individual keys on a touchscreen device it can be hard to type at speed. That is why Tactus, a company based in California, has developed technology which can turn a typical flat tablet screen into a real keyboard with bumpy buttons. The keyboard rises from the tablet when needed, before disappearing when the typing is done.
Vodafone will apparently be charging for blocks of 1MB of mobile data. The company will now charge for data in "blocks" of one megabyte rather than for actual usage, the Daily Telegraph reports. Next month Vodafone will also stop providing free access to social media sites, in a move that could force some prepaid customers to upgrade their plans.
The TSA have a blog post about the worrying things they've seized from people trying to board planes in 2012. A few examples would be bear mace in a sock, a spear gun, dead venomous snakes, a chastity belt, more cane swords than you could shake a cane sword at, a shocking amount of stun guns, a gassed up chainsaw, an 8oz. bottle of vodka discovered in a passenger's pants, a knife mounted on a walker, eels, prohibited bling, a marijuana filled grenade, another speargun, samurai swords, a stun cane, and jingle bell shotgun shells.
On a related note, a Qantas flight recently had a snake on a plane. QF191 was about 20 minutes into its 6.15am flight from Cairns to Port Moresby on Thursday when a woman pointed outside the plane and told cabin crew: ''There's a snake on the wing … There's its head and if you look closely you can see a fraction of its body.''
IBM's Watson supercomputer developed a potty mouth recently, with more info here, thanks Stygian. Ultimately, Brown's 35-person team developed a filter to keep Watson from swearing and scraped the Urban Dictionary from its memory. But the trial proves just how thorny it will be to get artificial intelligence to communicate naturally. Brown is now training Watson as a diagnostic tool for hospitals.
A Chinese web censor has expressed exasperation at the situation of being a web publisher there. If we don’t delete your post, the alternative is that your account will be banned. This platform belongs to the public. It has changed our life and can exercise influence on the society and government through the spread of opinion.
Back to CES, and Tech Report think the the Oculus Rift is amazing. Immediately, I was plunged into an immersive environment with a true and robust sense of depth, with none of the flickering or momentary disorientation and focus problems associated with most stereoscopic 3D schemes. Meanwhile ArsTechnica think smart glasses need some work.
Yif spotted some robots at CES. Shown off at IFA 2012, Famibot is a service droid that can be controlled via your smartphone or any Wi-Fi connection. Its primary function is to roam around your floors and purify the air. When it senses a particularly dirty zone, such as cigarette smoke, it will focus on that area.
Monday Night Reviews
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Monday, 14-January-2013 21:19:50 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Storage:
Synology DS413j NAS on Madshrimps.
OCZ Vector 256GB on PureOverclock.
Cases:
Cooler Master Silencio 650 Mid Tower on Madshrimps.
Fractal Design Node 605 on techPowerUp.
NZXT Phantom 820 on PureOverclock.
Enermax Fulmo GT on Guru3D.
Power Supplies:
Zalman ZM1250 Platinum 1250W 80 PLUS Platinum on TweakTown.
Rosewill Tachyon 1000W 80 PLUS Platinum on TweakTown.
Cooling:
NZXT Kraken X40 All-In-One Liquid CPU Cooler on Pro-Clockers.
Lamptron FC9 Fan Controller on Neoseeker.
SilverStone Air Penetrator AP182 Cooling Fan on APH Networks.
SilverStone HE02 CPU Cooler on Vortez.
NZXT Respire T40 CPU Cooler on Hardware Secrets.
Thermalright AXP-100 Low-Profile CPU Cooler on NikKTech.
NZXT Cryo X60 Notebook Cooler on Benchmark Reviews.
Input etc:
Mionix Naos 8200 Gaming Mouse on TweakTown.
Tt eSPORTS Level 10 M Gaming Mouse on TechwareLabs.
Cyborg S.T.R.I.K.E 7 Keyboard Review on t-break.
All In One & Mobile:
HTC 8x Smartphone on t-break.
Asus ET27 All in One PC on t-break.
Audio:
Steelseries Flux headphones on Rbmods.
Contests and Sponsor Specials
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Monday, 14-January-2013 12:26:40 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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There's a few contests running in the forums at the moment:
Win an MSI 660TI thanks to MSI AU and the OCAU HWBot team.
Win one of 2 Synology NASs thanks to Synology.
Win one of eight $25 DX.com vouchers thanks to Deal Extreme.
It's probably worth reminding you of our Sponsor Specials forum while I'm here. In there our many sponsors have deals and information on all kinds of things, from fitness supplements, tabletop gaming, data recovery, VOIP services, SSDs, arcade gaming supplies, watercooling supplies, CCTV systems, microservers, network storage, office chairs, hard drives, media players, domain names and more. Take a look!
Internet activist and pioneer Aaron Swartz has died, apparently by suicide. Born in 1986, Swartz co-authored the first specification of RSS when he was 14. He also started Infogami, a service funded by Y Combinator that was later merged with social networking site Reddit. Swartz also co-founded Demand Progress, an advocacy group that rallies people "to take action on the news that affects them — by contacting Congress and other leaders, funding pressure tactics, and spreading the word in their own communities." More info here and here.
One of the founders of the popular YouTube channel FPSRussia has also been found dead, of a gunshot wound. Ratliff's body was discovered in the office where he stored many of the handguns and high-powered rifles that helped his videos starring friend Kyle Myers climb the YouTube charts. The clips on FPSRussia, which feature Myers enthusiastically discussing a gun before showcasing its firepower in dramatic fashion (often involving explosions), have been viewed millions of times.
Australia has its first R18+ rated video game, "Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge". “It's great to finally see Australian adults have access to video games designed specifically for mature audiences, after more than ten years working with government, families, businesses and the broader community to introduce an R18+ category,” said Ron Curry, chief executive officer of Interactive Games & Entertainment Association in a statement. Discussion continues here.
People are reeling from Qualcomm's bizarre CES 2013 keynote. 2013 was the first time in many years that Microsoft didn't host the opening keynote for the Consumer Electronics Show here in Las Vegas. Instead, the show went to Qualcomm and its CEO, Dr. Paul Jacobs. We weren't quite sure what to expect beyond a new series of processors, but what we got was weirder than anything we've seen in all of our collective years attending CES. Discussion here.
The company that handles Australia's "Do Not Call" Register has been fined for, you guessed it, calling people on the list with commercial offers. Service Stream Solutions was fined $110,000 for illegally contacting 6300 households and offering to install low-energy light bulbs, standby power controllers and low-flow showerheads. The calls were made by the firm's telemarketing division, which is separate to the arm that manages the Do Not Call Register.
MSN Messenger is being shut down in favour of Skype. The sword was already hanging over the head of Microsoft Messenger - or MSN Messenger as we all knew it - but I today received the email telling me 15 March was the date for transferring your contacts and moving on to the new(ish) pastures of Skype.
There's a Ruby on Rails flaw threatening more than 200,000 websites - and another Critical Java exploit, the latter leading the US Government to recommend disabling Java entirely. A previously unknown and currently unpatched security hole in the latest version of the Java software framework is under attack online, according to security researchers and bloggers. Attack code that exploits vulnerability in Java's browser plugin has been added to the Blackhole, Cool, Nuclear Pack, and Redkit exploit kits, according to the Malware Don't Need Coffee blog, prompting its author to say that the bug is being "massively exploited in the wild."
Speaking of which, a few people sent in this light-hearted response from the US Government to people demanding they build a Death Star. The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn't on the horizon. Here are a few reasons.
CES 2013 Headlines
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Sunday, 13-January-2013 20:21:59 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Some headlines from the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas:
Day 2 on OCClub.
TP-Link on ThinkComputers.
OCZ on ThinkComputers.
Coverage Round-Up on TechGage.
Notebooks, Tablets and Convertibles with Gigabyte, Lenovo and MSI on MegaTechNews.
Nvidia's Project Shield handheld caught on video on Tech Report.
Western Digital demos hybrid SSHD technology on Tech Report.
Cooler Master shows all-new case designs, updated classics on TechReport.
Intel Previews Haswell’s GT-3 on Bjorn3D.
Intel Haswell Overclocking Preview – The Return of BCLK Overclocking? on HardCoreWare.
Micron displays world's first working DDR4 memory at CES 2013 on Tweaktown.
NZXT on TechWareLabs.
ROCSTOR on TechWareLabs.
ADATA on ThinkComputers.
MSI Laptops & Tablets on ThinkComputers.
EVGA preps first Mini-ITX enclosure on Tech Report.
Lepa shows off high-efficiency PSUs, seizure-inducing LED fans on Tech Report.
We drop a Corsair Survivor 16GB pen drive from 10th floor hotel room on Tweaktown.
Canonical Demos Ubuntu For Smartphones at CES 2013, We Go Hands On on HotHardware.
Lian-Li Teases Slew of All-Metal, All-Black Pre-Production Cases at CES 2013 on HotHardware.
Hands-on With Roccat’s New Mechanical Keyboard And Power Grid on HotHardware.
CyberPower on ThinkComputers.
CES 2013 Coverage on Bjorn3D.
Mobile Accessories from Antec Mobile Products, LUXA2, Kingston, iDAPT, and Joy Factory on MegaTechNews.
Here's some more yummy threads from our Geek Recipes forum:
Meanwhile one of the legends of our Geek Food forum has had his greatness recognised. Myself & 5 other lucky cooks are being flown to Melbourne next weekend of which I'm hoping to be selected as one of 3 people who will represent them over 6 months. Congratulations!
Saturday Morning Reviews
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Saturday, 12-January-2013 02:52:30 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards & CPUs:
AMD A10 5700K APU on Guru3D.
Gigabyte Z77X-UD4H on Hardware Secrets.
Gigabyte Z77X-UP7 vs. Asrock Z77 Extreme11 on Legion Hardware.
Graphics Cards:
Sapphire HD 7870 XT With Boost (Tahiti LE) on HardwareHeaven.
HIS Radeon HD 7750 1GB IceQ X Turbo on TweakTown.
Storage:
Patriot SuperSonic Rage XT 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on NikKTech.
Patriot Gauntlet (PCGTW320S) on Bjorn3D.
Intel SSD DC S3700 800GB and 200GB Enterprise SSD on HCW.
Adata DashDrive UD310 Jewel-Like Flash Drive on Pro-Clockers.
Memory:
Crucial DDR3-1600 CL8 VLP on Tech Reaction.
Patriot Memory for Ultrabook PC3-12800 8GB LoVo SODIMM on TweakTown.
Crucial Ballistix Sport Very Low Profile DDR3-1600 16GB on HardwareHeaven.
Power Supplies:
SilverStone Strider Gold 650 W on Hardware Secrets.
Corsair HX650 Gold on Hardware Secrets.
FSP Aurum 92+ PT-650M 650W 80 PLUS Platinum on TweakTown.
Input etc:
CM Storm Speed-RXL Mouse Pad on Techreaction.
CM Storm Skorpion on Techreaction.
AZiO Levetron CM-2000 Gaming Mouse on TweakTown.
Roccat Kone Pure Gaming Mouse on Benchmark Reviews.
CM Storm Quick Fire TK Keyboard & Inferno Mouse on t-break.
Portables:
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch on TechReviewSource.
Acer Aspire S7 on Techspot.
MSI GT70 Limited Dragon Edition Gaming Laptop on Madshrimps.
Thanks to Yezzum and TJ this week!
     
     
     
     
     
And if you're after more, check out this Wiki page which lists ALL "misc pics" news posts from the archive.
Hardcoreware have look at what MTBF means for SSD. There some confusion surrounding MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) and how it relates to SSD products. We explain what MTBF means for SSD, how it is tested, and how much it matters to the end user.
How strong is your password? Ben J let us know of a site that estimates how long a password takes to crack. I think I need to update mine..
Flash drives get ever larger! Kingston have shown a 1TB drive at CES, Thanks Gunna. At Predator’s retail launch, which should take place soon, only a 512GB model will become available. The 1TB model that I’ve been raving over will see its launch later in Q1.
iXBT Labs have summarized the performance of basically every consumer graphics card available in 2012. You can download the results in a rar or zip file.
Love them or loathe them, iPads have a lot of uses. They can even assist the little ones with potty training! It's not all curved OLED TVs and 4K at CES. For some exhibitors it's all about innovation in the high-end training toilet space.
On the subject of iPads, it seems that Microsoft were left feeling a bit awkward after the theft of some iPads from their R&D center over the Christmas break. No MS products were reported stolen. News of the raid came to light after a Palo Alto Daily Post story on 4 January, headed "Microsoft says somebody stole its Apple iPads". The final line of the story included the intriguing nugget: "No Microsoft products were reported stolen."
Austin-based startup TrackingPoint have developed a series of high powered rifles complete with Linux driven scopes with 'auto-aim' capabilities. The Linux-powered scope produces a display that looks something like the heads-up display you'd see sitting in the cockpit of a fighter jet, showing the weapon's compass orientation, cant, and incline. To shoot at something, you first "mark" it using a button near the trigger.
Tuesday was the hottest day on record for Australia, breaking the record set the day before. On Monday, the national average (minimum and maximum) temperature calculated by the National Climate Centre was 32.22 degrees, exceeding the previous record of 31.86 set in December 1972. However, while the previous record lasted 40 years, Monday's only stood for one day.
Wednesday Morning Reviews
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Wednesday, 9-January-2013 06:45:23 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Graphics Cards:
Gigabyte GTX 670 Windforce x3 OC on Vortez.
MSI GeForce GTX 650 Ti Power Edition on Neoseeker.
Storage:
Plextor M5 Pro SSD on HardwareHeaven.
SanDisk Ultra Plus 256GB SSD on Legit Reviews.
Asustor AS-606T NAS on techPowerUp.
KingFast F3 Series 2.5" SATAIII SSD 240GB on Madshrimps.
Samsung 840 Pro 128GB SSD on TweakTown.
Micron P320h PCIe Enterprise SSD on TweakTown.
PNY XLR8 Pro SSD on HardwareHeaven.
Cooling:
be quiet! Shadow Rock TopFlow CPU cooler on Vortez.
Noctua NH-L9i CPU Cooler on Hardware Secrets.
NZXT Respire T40 Heatsink on Frostytech.
Thermalright True Spirit 120m CPU Cooler on PureOverclock.
Cases:
Thermaltake New Soprano Mid-Tower on Funky Kit.
Fractal Define R4 Mid Tower Case on Madshrimps.
Akasa Venom Toxic Black Full Tower on NikKTech.
Input etc:
Thermaltake Level 10 Mouse on Bigbruin.
Ozone Xenon Gaming Mouse on techPowerUp.
Thermaltake Tt eSPORTS Level 10 Mouse on APH Networks.
Portable:
MSI GX60 Notebook on TechReviewSource.
LG Optimus L7 Smartphone on TweakTown.
Asus S46CA-XH51 Ultrabook on TechReviewSource.
Tuesday Afternoon
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Tuesday, 8-January-2013 16:31:11 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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AMD are looking to address the Radeon frame latency issue via software updates - discussion here. lthough the Radeon cranked out conventionally respectable FPS averages, it often produced a number of long-latency frames interspersed throughout our testing sessions. Follow-up testing confirmed the problem isn't confined to Windows 8, and we even posted a slow-motion video illustrating the issue. We concluded that AMD has work to do in optimizing its drivers for the latest games.
Haven't heard much about Rambus for a while, but Sniper spotted them being barred from enforcing chip patents in their battle with Micron. “Rambus’s destruction of evidence was of the worst type: intentional, widespread, advantage-seeking and concealed,” Robinson concluded in a 46-page ruling. The judge said the “only appropriate sanction” was to find the patents unenforceable.
Digitrends have an interesting article about Windows 8, Steambox and the future of PC gaming. Consoles and PCs have traditionally been like oil and water. Consoles are locked-down devices that prevent you from tampering with their hardware and software, while PCs invite users to modify those aspects as much as they like. This dynamic is changing, though.
The Earth is being recreated at 1:1500 scale in Minecraft. This custom terrain was made with the help of Worldpainter and a heightmap created using the ETOPO1 global relief map. This map was then cleaned up & tweaked and thereafter biomes and forests were painted on. The suggested use for this map would be to use it as a creative map, undergroud everything is stone.
This is a few months old but I missed it originally - someone has been having fun rigging online polls. Last week, News Corporation ran a story about the shock results of an online poll that indicated over 90% of the 16,000 respondents wanted to see a raise in speed limits, despite the poll being paired with an article asking motorists to slow down in consideration for elderly drivers. Well, I have some news for you: Over 15,000 of those votes were mine.
Ubuntu are entering the smartphone war. This new version of Ubuntu will be "aimed at two core mobile segments: the high-end superphone, and the entry-level basic smartphone, helping operators grow the use of data amongst consumers who typically use only the phone and messaging but who might embrace the use of web and email on their phone. Ubuntu also appeals to aspirational prosumers who want a fresh experience with faster, richer performance on a lower bill-of-materials device."
Tuesday Midday
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Tuesday, 8-January-2013 13:13:27 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Catzilla is a new DX11 benchmark, and there's a thread for sharing results here in the forums.
A father has hired online assasins to kill his son in online games. "It's not going to do much for family relations," Prof Mark Griffiths, a gambling and addictions expert at Nottingham Trent University told the BBC. "I've never heard of that kind of intervention before, but I don't think these top-down approaches work. Most excessive game playing is usually a symptom of an underlying problem."
A few people sent in this amusing video explaining electrostatic discharge. Know what not to do when testing for ESD!
Sniper spotted more info on helium-filled HDDs from Western Digital. Western Digital Corp.’s upcoming line of high-efficiency and super-capacity helium-filled hard disk drives (HDD) could elevate the company to the top of the enterprise HDD space, according to IHS iSuppli, a leading market tracker.
The John McAfee story gets even weirder. I purchased 75 cheap laptop computers and, with trusted help, installed invisible keystroke logging software on all of them—the kind that calls home (to me) and disgorges the text files. It also, on command, turns on, and off, the microphone and camera—and sends these files on command. I had the computers re-packaged as if new. I began giving these away as presents to select people—government employees, police officers, Cabinet Minister’s assistants, girlfriends of powerful men, boyfriends of powerful women.
Another criminal has been undone by bragging on social media. In an interview with ABC affiliate KATU-TV in Portland, Cox-Brown says the post was meant as a joke. But his friends who spotted the update didn’t see the humor behind it. Instead, one friend sent a private message to an Astoria police officer’s personal Facebook account while another friend called police Sgt. Brian Aydt.
There's a new Lego Mindstorms EV3 on the way. Its updated Mindstorms EV3 runs on new Linux firmware that's ready for Android and iOS control out of the box, creates an overall more hackable platform and allows further programming on the core Intelligent Brick itself; accordingly, there's an SD card slot for local storage.
Lenovo have a coffee table PC. The company proclaimed on Sunday the arrival of the "interpersonal PC'' with the debut of the IdeaCentre Horizon Table in Las Vegas, where the Consumer Electronics Show gadget gala is set to start. "It's definitely a new category; the world's first home table personal computer,'' Lenovo director of global marketing Dee Kumar said while giving an early glimpse at the creation in San Francisco. All I can think of is "it's happening!!".
As you're no doubt aware there are some severe bushfire situations around the country at the moment, particularly Tasmania. Tomorrow is shaping up to be one of the worst fire danger days on record for NSW, and I imagine other states are in a similar position. I'm trying to find centralised info but so far here's the per-state links - feel free to reply with more:
QLD: Current Restrictions - Current Incidents - Real-time Official Emergency Info
NSW: Current Fire Danger Map - Current fires and incidents - Facebook page
VIC: Current Bans and Ratings - Current Warnings and Incidents
SA: Current Incidents - Current Bans and Restrictions
TAS: Current Bushfires
NT: Combined Emergency Services Site
ACT: ACT Emergency Services (news updates) - Current Incidents Map
WA: Current Alerts
Here's a (PDF) Bushfire Survival Plan from the NSW RFS. There seems to be centralised bushfire info here and here.
Monday Evening Reviews
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Monday, 7-January-2013 20:26:45 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Storage:
Mushkin Chronos DX 480GB SSD on Tweaktown.
Kingston SSDNow KC100 240GB SSD Upgrade Kit on NikKTech.
Infortrend EonNAS Pro 200 2-Bay NAS on Tweaktown.
Audio Visual:
Creative Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Rage headset on CustomPCReview.
AVerMedia RECentral Live Gamer HD Capture Card on eTeknix.
Sennheiser U320 Gaming Headset on TBreak.
Swann OutbackCam - Waterproof Infrared Security on Techgage.
Samsung UN55ES8000 55 inch LED HDTV on OCOnline.
Input Etc:
Nyko PlayPad Bluetooth Controller for Android Devices on MegaTechNews.
TTesports Level 10M Gaming Mouse on RBMods.
Software:
Sony Vegas Pro 12: A Quick Look at a New Standard in Video Editing on LegitReviews.
Two months with Windows 8 on DVHardware.
Cooling:
Corsair Hydro Series H55 Liquid CPU Cooler on eTeknix.
Corsair Hydro H60 on OCClub.
Misc:
EVGA SuperNOVA NEX750 PSU on Guru3D.
Raidmax Raptor tower on OCModShop.
Gigabyte GA-7PESH1 Dual-CPU motherboard "review by a scientist" on AnandTech.
Toshiba AT300SE Tablet on TBreak.
Here's a few "2012 in Review" type articles:
Google Zeitgeist 2012 on Google.
The Year in Tech, 2012 Top Tech Stories on TechSpot.
Apple 2012: The Year in Review on MegaTechNews.
2012 - The Year of the Smartphone and Tablet: A Wish List For Better Devices on HotHardware.
The Best Gaming Keyboard of 2012 on ThinkComputers.
Top 9 Tech Blunders of 2012 on OCModShop.
The Top 10 Tech Fails of 2012 on CNN.
Saturday Morning Reviews
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Saturday, 5-January-2013 06:44:45 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Graphics Cards:
PowerColor PCS+ HD 7870 Myst Edition on Overclockers Club.
HIS Radeon HD 7970 6GB IceQ X2 (Dual GPU) on TweakTown.
Storage:
OCZ Vector 256GB SSD on ThinkComputers.
OCZ Vector 256GB SSD on techPowerUp.
Memory:
Crucial Ballistix Sport VLP 16GB 1600MHz DDR3 Memory Kit on Bigbruin.
Patriot Extreme Performance Viper 3 1600MHz 8GB Kit on Pro-Clockers.
Cooling:
NZXT Cryo V60 Bladeless laptop cooler on Rbmods.
Zalman LQ310 CPU Cooler on Hardware Secrets.
Cases:
Silverstone SUGO SG09 on techPowerUp.
Cooler Master Storm Scout 2 on TechSpot.
Lian Li PC-7HX on Metku.
Power Supplies:
Cougar GX-S 500w on Pro-Clockers.
Thermaltake Toughpower Grand Platinum 700W on Legit Reviews.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Gigabyte U2442F Ultrabook on TweakTown.
Lenovo IdeaPad U410 14-inch Ultrabook on ThinkComputers.
iBUYPOWER Chimera 4SE Desktop Gaming PC on TweakTown.
Nokia Lumia 810 and Lumia 820 on HotHardware.
Input etc:
Tt eSPORTS Level 10 M Gaming Mouse on Legit Reviews.
Gigabyte Force M7 Thor Mouse on Hardware Secrets.
Azio Levetron Mech5 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on PureOverclock.
Mionix Ensis 320 Aluminum Mouse Pad on Madshrimps.
Roccat Kone XTD Gaming Mouse on Benchmark Reviews.
Misc:
Plantronics GameCom Commander 7.1 Headset on HardwareHeaven.
Intel Core i3-3220 v. Intel Core i3-3225 on MissingRemote.
Thanks to Daniel this week!
     
     
     
     
     
And if you're after more, check out this Wiki page which lists ALL "misc pics" news posts from the archive.
Thursday Afternoon Reviews
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Thursday, 3-January-2013 13:49:51 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards & CPUs:
AMD's A10-5800K Trinity APU and Memory Speeds on Legit Reviews.
MSI Z77 MPower on PC Perspective.
AMD FX-8350 Overclocking + Liquid Cooling System on PC Perspective.
Storage:
OCZ Vertex 3 240GB SSD on PCstats.
WD Black 4TB Hard Drive on Techgage.
Western Digital Sentinel DX4000 NAS on Xbit Labs.
WD Black 4TB Hard Drive on Legion Hardware.
Memory:
Corsair Dominator Platinum Dual-Channel DDR3 Memory Kits on Xbit Labs.
Apacer Armor Series vs Kingston HyperX Beast on t-break.
Cooling:
NZXT Respire T20 CPU Cooler on eTeknix.
NZXT Respire T20 CPU Cooler on Frostytech.
NZXT Kraken X60 All-In-One Liquid CPU Cooler on Pro-Clockers.
Swiftech H20-320 Elite Custom Liquid Cooling on Bjorn3D.
Corsair Hydro H60 Watercooling System on Frostytech.
Arctic Accelero Hybrid Cooling System on Xbit Labs.
Notebooks & Portables:
Acer Aspire S7-191 Ultrabook on TechReviewSource.
MSI GE70 Gaming Laptop Video Review on HardwareHeaven.
Cyberpower Zeus M2 Intel Ultrabook on Legit Reviews.
Misc:
PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD 7870 (Tahiti LE) 2GB Myst Video Card on TweakTown.
Netgear XAVB5201 500Mbps Powerline Adaptor on eTeknix.
Rosewill SilentNight 500 W on techPowerUp.
Cooler Master HAF XB on Guru3D.
Logitech G710+ Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on NikKTech.
Wednesday Night
(11 Comments)
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Wednesday, 2-January-2013 23:17:11 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Time for some news catchup!
MSI and the OCAU HWBOT Team are running a competition in the forums. Everyone who makes a submission in week one and week 2 will automatically go into the draw to win a MSI 660 Ti Power Edition.
The R18+ game rating has come into effect as of January 1st. Mr Rau says the rating does not mean obscenely violent or sexually explicit games, or games that depict drug use, will become available. "The regime still contemplates that some games will be so unsatisfactory that they will be refused classification altogether. Now, that will continue," he said. Discussion continues towards the end of this thread.
Some people think Kim Dotcom is good for New Zealand. "It remains to be seen whether New Zealand courts force him to face American copyright law," the editorial concludes. "But he has been good for this country. He exposed things we needed to know and did so with an unfailing sense of fun."
Back closer to home, the world's largest radio telescope will soon be built, partly in Australia. The SKA will provide scientists with the farthest peek into the universe and, therefore, time. That $2 billion project will comprise 3000 dishes spanning South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, and will be funded by a consortium of 20 nations. Discussion here.
Schnappy spotted this amazing hovering rocket test by SpaceX. Grasshopper, a vertical takeoff and landing vehicle (VTVL), rose 131 feet (40 meters), hovered and landed safely on the pad using closed loop thrust vector and throttle control. The total test duration was 29 seconds. Grasshopper stands 10 stories tall and consists of a Falcon 9 rocket first stage, Merlin 1D engine, four steel landing legs with hydraulic dampers, and a steel support structure.
Futurelooks have a DDR3 roundup. We’ve assembled a great group of memory kits all worthy of your consideration. Some are intended to support gamers, others pander to content creators, while some call out to niche system modders and overclockers. We’re having a look at the Mushkin Enhanced Redline 1600, Kingston HyperX Predator 1866, Patriot Memory Viper III Venom 2133, ADATA Game Series V2.0 2400 and Corsair Dominator Platinum 2666 memory today to see how they measure up.
A new tiny box could be the next big thing. Basically the engineers at Leap Motion have invented the 3D user interface of the future. You don’t use a keyboard and mouse; you don’t even use a touch screen. You just move your fingers in the air, and, as if by magic, with zero latency and pinpoint accuracy, stuff happens on your screen. Think of Microsoft’s Kinect controller, but way better. Leap Motion claims its device is 200 times more accurate than anything on the market and can track your finger movements down to 1/100th of a millimeter.
Tuesday Afternoon Reviews
(3 Comments)
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Tuesday, 1-January-2013 15:11:41 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Storage:
Western Digital Red (WD30EFRX) 3TB HDD on Tech ARP.
OCZ Vector 512GB SSD on TweakTown.
OCZ Vector 256GB SSD on eTeknix.
Input etc:
Tt eSPORTS Level 10 M Mouse on Madshrimps.
Cmstorm Quickfire TK mechanical gaming keyboard on Rbmods.
Gigabyte Aivia Osmium Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Funky Kit.
Cases:
CM Storm Scout 2 on ThinkComputers.
Corsair Carbide Series 200R Mid-Tower on eTeknix.
Lian Li PC-A55B Mid Tower on XtremeComputing.
Portable:
ZTE Grand X Smartphone on InsideHW.
MSI GX60 Gaming Laptop on t-break.
Acer Aspire S7 Touch Screen Ultrabook on The SSD Review.
Sony Xperia TX on t-break.
Misc:
Cougar PowerX 550W Power Supply on HardwareHeaven.
Linksys EA6500 Router on t-break.
Kaiser Baas Photo and Negative Scanner on TweakTown.
Noctua NF-F12 PWM 120mm Fan on eTeknix.
HIS Radeon HD 7850 IceQ Turbo 2GB on Custom PC Review.
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