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March 2013 |
Sunday Morning Reviews
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Sunday, 31-March-2013 03:47:17 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards:
Gigabyte Z77X-UP4 TH (Intel Z77) on TweakTown.
Asus P9X79 PRO on Techgage.
Graphics Cards:
Radeon HD 7790 vs. GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST on Hardware Secrets.
Palit GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost Overclock Edition on Hardware Heaven.
Sapphire Radeon HD 7750 1GB Low Profile on TweakTown.
Asus GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost OC Edition 2GB on eTeknix.
Asus GTX 650 Ti Boost Direct CU II OC 2 GB on techPowerUp.
Storage:
Intel 525 SSD mSATA SSD on Benchmark Reviews.
OCZ Vertex 3.20 120GB on PureOverclock.
Corsair Neutron 240 GB vs. OCZ Agility 4 256 GB SSD on Hardware Secrets.
Cooling:
Noctua NH-L9i Low Profile CPU Cooler on Modders-Inc.
Phanteks PH-TC12DX CPU cooler on Funky Kit.
Xigmatek XAF Series F1255 120mm Fan on eTeknix.
Cases:
Cooler Master HAF XB on eTeknix.
Enermax Ostrog GT on eTeknix.
Zalman MS800 Mid Tower on ThinkComputers.
Input etc:
Genius Gila GX Series Gaming Mouse on Legit Reviews.
AZiO Large Print Tri-Color Backlight Keyboard on OCC.
Roccat Savu Hybrid Gaming Mouse on MegaTechNews.
Portables:
Asus VivoBook S500CA on TechReviewSource.
Dell Latitude 10 Windows 8 Pro Tablet on HotHardware.
Thanks to Fortigurn and Smile[MOD] this week. Hope everyone has a safe and relaxing Easter!
     
     
     
     
     
And if you're after more, check out this Wiki page which lists ALL "misc pics" news posts from the archive.
Friday Afternoon
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Friday, 29-March-2013 13:33:00 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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ZGeek are looking for legal assistance at the moment. ZGeek is currently fighting its fourth defamation battle over comments posted in our forums. The first finished with a lol, the next two were thrown out when the person decided not to come to court. But they decided they are really are cranky at us so we need to be sued again. So here we are. If you are in the legal trade, or you know someone who is and you can ask them. Please do so! Drop me a line here.
There's a big DDoS battle going on at the moment, but it doesn't seem to be affecting Australia much. Spamhaus, a Geneva-based volunteer group which publishes spam blacklists which are used by networks to filter out unwanted email, says it been attacked by Cyberbunker, a Dutch-based web hosting site. Cyberbunker claims it has been unfairly labelled as a haven for cybercrime and spam. Since the spat flared last week a series of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks have flooded core web infrastructure, and some experts have suggested the manufactured traffic has slowed internet services across the world.
Somebody "hacked the internet" to make a gif, pretty much. An anonymous internet user "infected" about half a million Linux computers around the world with a file which logged their internet activity and used the information gleaned to create this (ok, we admit it) rather pretty GIF. The hack was part of a project called "Internet Census 2012" which documents global internet activity.
ArsTechnica checked out the Firefox OS for smartphones. In 2011, it announced a new project called Boot2Gecko to build an operating system around its browser. Last year the project was re-branded Firefox OS, and Mozilla began preparations for a major push into the mobile phone market.
NVIDIA has sent frame-capturing tools to various websites, to see whether higher FPS leads to smoother gameplay or not. Coverage on Tech Report and PC Perspective. After returning from CES later in January, I posted another short video and article that showcased some of the captured video and stepping through a recorded file frame by frame to show readers how capture could help us detect and measure stutter and frame time variance.
Tom spotted some interesting stats about the computing power needed for modern animated films. The new 3D animated movie "The Croods" may be about a stone-aged family, but DreamWorks said it is by far its most sophisticated production to date, topping all others in compute cycle hours. The movie, out in theaters last Friday, required a whopping 80 million compute hours to render, 15 million more hours than DreamWorks' last record holder, "The Rise of the Guardians."
Today's timewaster is crumpled, a blobby platformy thing from biatch.
Thursday Night Reviews
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Thursday, 28-March-2013 21:17:11 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Storage:
ADATA DashDrive Durable HD710 External Hard Drive on Tweaktown.
OCZ Vertex 3.20 SSD on Bjorn3D.
OCZ Vertex 3.20 120GB SSD on Tweaktown.
OCZ Vertex 3.20 120GB Solid State Drive on Pro-Clockers.
ADATA DashDrive HV610 External Hard Drive on Tweaktown.
OCZ Vertex 3.20 240GB SSD on Tweaktown.
Input Etc:
ROCCAT Isku FX Illuminated Gaming Keyboard on NikKTech.
Playseat Challenge Game Racing Seat Video Review on HWHeaven.
A4TECH V3 Bloody Gun3 Gaming Mouse on BenchmarkReviews.
Cooler Master Storm Power-RX Mousepad on APHNetworks.
Cooling:
DeepCool Neptwin Heatsink on FrostyTech.
Cooler Master Seidon 240M Water Cooling System on ThinkComputers.
Audio Visual:
BenQ W1060 1080p DLP Projector on XSReviews.
Scythe Kama Bay Amp Pro (SDAR-3000) & Kro Craft Speakers Rev. B on MadShrimps.
Eagle Tech Arion Portable Bluetooth Speaker on NikKTech.
Bose SoundLink Bluetooth Mobile Speaker II on TechReviewSource.
Video Cards:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost Video Card Overclocked on Tweaktown.
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 2 GB on TechPowerUp.
Radeon HD 7790 Crossfire vs. GeForce GTX 660 Ti on LegionHW.
Misc:
Kingston HyperX 10th Anniversary Edition - 16GB DDR3 2400MHz on PureOC.
TuneMount Bicycle Mount 2 for Smartphone on MegaTechNews.
Forum Projects
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Wednesday, 27-March-2013 14:02:47 (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, 27-March-2013 13:03:26 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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A Western Australian man has been swindled out of $700k by overseas scammers. The man in his 70s, who wishes to remain anonymous, says he sent the money offshore over a period of years as part of an inheritance and investment scam. The Major Fraud Squad said they alerted the man a number of times but he continued to send money overseas.
Sony's PS3 has a native YouTube app in Australia now, thanks therazza. The Google-made app was launched in North America back in August, but had been missing in action in other Sony's territories until today. The free portal is available to download from the PS3's online TV/Video services menu in 19 new countries in total. The arrival of the official YouTube app frees PS3 users from the hassle of having to access videos using the console's web browser. Discussion here.
On a related note, Gizmodo list every Aussie TV social app. TV ratings season is about to be upon us and Australia’s TV networks are rolling out the big guns when it comes to programming. This year it’s all a little different, however, because every network has some form of second screen app, social app or catch-up app to get you closer to the action. Here are all the TV apps you need to stay on top of your favourite shows this year.
Google Glass is a fascinating bit of futuristic technology, but concerns continue about privacy. ''At this early stage the full implications of this technology, such as how people will use it, and for what purposes, are unclear,'' Mr Pilgrim said. The commissioner's spokeswoman said while the Privacy Act did not cover individuals, it was possible the technology could be used to breach state surveillance laws. West Virginia meanwhile are working on a driving ban for the devices.
Japan have found a rare earth metal reserve on the seabed, breaking China's monopoly. Beijing shocked the world when it suddenly began to restrict exports in 2009, prompting furious protests and legal complaints by both the US and the EU at the World Trade Organisation. China claimed that it was clamping down on smuggling and environmental abuse. "Their real intention is to force foreign companies to locate plant in China. They're saying `if you want our rare earth metals, you must build your factory here, and we can then steal your technology," said professor Kato.
Meanwhile Ubuntu could be the basis of a new national Chinese operating system. A new agreement announced today between Canonical and the China Software and Integrated Chip Promotions Centre (CSIP) has just been made which will pave the way for Ubuntu to become the new basis of Kylin. Western corporations seeking new opportunity in the East may not be such a surprise for us, but it may raise some new concerns.
North Korea are embracing technology now also. Interviews with refugees, travelers and defectors reveal that North Koreans are using illegal Chinese mobile phones, DVDs, computers and small flash drives to work around official barriers to outside information, according to a report released on Thursday.
Today's timewaster is Koutack, a deceptively simple stacking game from TheWedgie.
Nvidia Geforce GTX 650 Ti Boost Reviews
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Wednesday, 27-March-2013 02:18:51 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Hot on the heels of the recently unveiled HD7790 comes a response from Nvidia, the GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost. A higher base clock along with the addition of a turbo clock function and a wider memory bus are the major improvements over the regular reference GTX 650 Ti.
Anandtech
Benchmark Reviews
Bit Tech
Bjorn3D
Extreme Tech
Guru3D
[H]ardOCP
Hardware Heaven
Hexus
Hot Hardware
Legit Reviews
Overclockers Club
PC Perspective
The Tech Report
techPowerUp
Toms Hardware
TweakTown
Vortez
Wednesday Morning Reviews
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Wednesday, 27-March-2013 01:18:58 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards & CPUs:
AMD FX-4300, AMD FX-6300 Processors on iXBTlabs.
Asus P8Z77-V Premium (Intel Z77) Motherboard on TweakTown.
Graphics Cards:
PowerColor Radeon HD 7790 Turbo Duo on OCC.
Gigabyte Radeon HD 7790 1GB OC on TweakTown.
Storage:
Patriot Supersonic Rage XT 32GB on APH Networks.
KingFast F3 Series mSATA 3.0 SSD (120GB) on The SSD Review.
Transcend JetFlash 700 and 780 64GB Flash Drives on PureOverclock.
Memory:
Team Xtreem DDR3-2666 C11 8GB on Funky Kit.
Corsair Dominator Platinum 4x8Gb 2133Mhz DDR3 on Vortez.
Input etc:
Roccat Isku FX Keyboard on Vortez.
Corsair Vengeance M65 FPS Laser Gaming Mouse on Madshrimps.
Roccat Apuri Mouse Bungee / USB Hub on ThinkComputers.
Systems and Smartphones:
Sony Xperia TX Smartphone on TweakTown.
Cyberpower PC Fangbook X7-200 Gaming Notebook on Ninjalane.
Toshiba Satellite U845T-S4165 Notebook on TechReviewSource.
Misc:
Cougar PowerX 550W Power Supply Unit on NikKTech.
Sentey Halcon GS-6050 II Case on ThinkComputers.
Cooler Master Seidon 120XL Liquid Cooler on techPowerUp.
The Federal Government is supporting a Cyber Security Challenge. CySCA is the next in the series of national cyber security competitions for university/TAFE graduates across Australia — following the success of the 2012 Cyber Defence University Challenge. Discussion here.
Meanwhile one recent cyber attack spilled over into the real world. Glancing up from my squat, I saw a Fairfax County Police officer leaning over the trunk of a squad car, both arms extended pointing a handgun at me. As I very slowly turned my head to the left, I observed about a half-dozen other squad cars, lights flashing, and more officers pointing firearms in my direction, including a shotgun and a semi-automatic rifle. I was instructed to face the house, back down my front steps and walk backwards into the adjoining parking area, after which point I was handcuffed and walked up to the top of the street.
EA is giving away games in apology for the SimCity dramas. Doubtless, you know about the dodgy launch servers, the poorly realised underlying structure of the game's simulation, and the whole always-online issue. To make up for what has been one of the most disappointing launches in history, EA has stepped up and offered up some free games to assauge the savage beast of gamer ire.
A new production land speed record for Australia has been set. The Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14R has reinforced its title of “the world’s most powerful production motorcycle” by setting a new Australian Land Speed record (Production class – Outright) at Lake Gairdner, SA during the recent DLRA Speed Week. With only gearing/tyre changes and the speed limiter removed, the Kawasaki Australia supplied Ninja ZX-14R, which happens to be the first unit to roll off the production line in Japan (#0001) set a phenomenal top speed of 208.153 miles per hour (334.99 km/h) at the hands of rider Ralph Nicholls.
When they're not busy looking for the Higgs Boson etc, those people at CERN are rehabilitating computer mice. We are back!!! After the disaster early 2012, we have been able to secure new funds and are happy to annouce the reopening of the CERN Animal Shelter for Computer Mice on the lawn in front of the CERN Computer Centre.
Think you can improve the condom? Bill Gates has got $100,000 for you if you can. The money is being offered by the Gates Foundation by way of the Grand Challenges in Global Health Program, and is up for grabs by "anyone - students, scientists or entrepreneurs" who can improve the age-old second-skin tech.
Clem reminded me of Star Trek meets Monty Python, possibly my favourite mashup ever.
Sunday Afternoon Reviews
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Sunday, 24-March-2013 16:12:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
ASUS P8Z77-V Pro/Thunderbolt on Tweaktown.
MSI Z77A-G45 Thunderbolt on PCPerspective.
GIGABYTE Z77-HD4 (Intel Z77) on PCPerspective.
Storage:
Kingston HyperX Predator 512GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on Tweaktown.
G-Technology G-Drive Mobile USB 1TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive on NikKTech.
Samsung 840 Series 120GB Solid State Drive on ThinkComputers.
ADATA DashDrive Air AE400 Wireless Storage Device on Tweaktown.
Power Supply:
Fractal Design Newton R3 800W on HWSecrets.
SilverStone Strider Plus 600W on HWSecrets.
PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mk.III 850W on HWHeaven.
PC Power & Cooling MKIII Silencer 750W on PureOC.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Lenovo IdeaPad Y500 on TechReviewSource.
Lenovo IdeaTab Lynx Windows 8 Pro Tablet on HotHardware.
Misc:
NETGEAR Powerline 500 WiFi Access Point on HWHeaven.
BeQuiet! Shadow Rock Topflow CPU cooler on PureOC.
Razer Ouroboros Elite Gaming Mouse on BenchmarkReviews.
AMD HD 7790 Reviews
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Saturday, 23-March-2013 02:36:13 (GMT +10) - by booj
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AMD have launched their new HD 7790 GPU. It is not an overclocked version of an existing model, but a new GPU altogether codenamed "Bonaire". It is aimed at filling the price and performance gap between the 7770 and 7850 cards.
Anandtech (Reference & Sapphire)
Bit Tech (Sapphire)
Bjorn 3D (Sapphire)
Guru3D (Sapphire)
[H]ardOCP (Asus)
Hardware Heaven (Sapphire)
Hexus (Sapphire)
Hot Hardware (Asus & Sapphire)
Overclockers Club (Sapphire)
Overclockers.com (Asus)
PC Perspective (Sapphire)
Techpowerup (Asus)
Techspot (Gigabyte)
Think Computers (Sapphire)
Toms Hardware (Sapphire)
TweakTown (Sapphire)
Vortez (Gigabyte)
Crossfire:
Guru3D
Techpowerup
Thanks to Davo1111 and Fortigurn this week!
     
     
     
     
     
And if you're after more, check out this Wiki page which lists ALL "misc pics" news posts from the archive.
Friday Afternoon
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Friday, 22-March-2013 13:43:58 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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From Strange1: Revenge and myself are entered in the Shitbox rally to raise money for the cancer council. We have to drive our $850 Nissan Pintara from Adelaide to Perth Via Uluru, but we have to make it from Sydney to Adelaide first! There is a forum thread with some photos of before and after painting the car and general updates of our progress. We are also offering to put peoples names and memes on the car in exchange for donations so this could turn into a real nerd fest :D Here's a direct link if you want to contribute to the cause.
During a fairly exciting day in politics yesterday, the proposed media regulation bills have been withdrawn from parliament. "If it can't be agreed on by the end of this week then ... we will not proceed with the bills and we will move on,'' Senator Conroy said today before the bills were withdrawn. The dumped bills covered controversial proposals for a body to oversee the policing of news media by the Press Council which powers to withdraw privacy exemptions from council members should it not safeguard consumer rights. It would have also looked at diversity of media.
Apple, Microsoft and Adobe are defending their Australian pricing before a parliamentary committee hearing. Last year the inquiry heard examples of an Arctic Monkeys album costing $17.99 on iTunes in Australia but the equivalent of $13 overseas, and the movie Toy Story costing $24.99 in Australia but about $10 overseas. But Apple's Tony King defended his company's Australian prices when he fronted the committee this morning. "Price considerations must go well beyond simply looking up a currency exchange rate," he said. "For example, Apple must consider differences between countries in product costs, freight charges, local sales taxes, levies, import duties, channel economics, competition and local laws regarding advertised prices."
According to new data, the universe is a lot older than previously thought. The universe is 100 million years older than thought, according to the best-ever map of the oldest light in space. The adjustment brings the universe's age to 13.82 billion years, and means space and time are expanding slightly slower than scientists thought.
The USA's NSA are sponsoring cyber-war games. Computer-savvy teens are putting down their game controllers -- at least temporarily -- for code writing and virus-sweeping. Call it "Red Dawn: Part Deux: Teen Cyber-Commandos." At events like the CyberLympics, CyberPatriot contest or just-announced "Toaster Wars," sponsored by the National Security Agency, high school geek squads are competing to see who does the best job at preventing unauthorized computer intrusions.
The NBN chairman has stepped down and been replaced. Siobhan McKenna, NBN board member and Ten Network Holdings director has been confirmed as his replacement. In a joint release from Senator Conroy and Penny Wong, it was explained that Mr Young's contract expired on the 14th of March. "Mr Young has decided not to stand for reappointment," the statement read.
George R.R. Martin, author of the books behind the Game of Thrones TV show, apparently the most pirated TV show ever, has detailed his thoughts on piracy etc. I know that a lot of that piracy is taking place in Australia, where for whatever reason they delay the show six months. So people are just anxious to see it. I think we're seeing — we're still right in the midst of a whole new template evolving for television and film entertainment. And the old template, where shows were made in America, and then they were sold to foreign broadcasters who would show them the next week, or the next month, or six months later, or six years later, or whenever they felt like it — that's breaking down. Because it is a global marketplace.
Thursday Afternoon
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Thursday, 21-March-2013 13:21:45 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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EA's woes continue, with a security issue in their Origin platform. More than 40 million people could be affected by a vulnerability researchers uncovered in EA's Origin online game platform allowing attackers to remotely execute malicious code on players' computers.
M0r4h3us sent in info on NVIDIA's next-gen GPU, Volta. Volta GPUs will have access to up to 1TB per second of bandwidth by stacking the DRAM on top of the GPU itself, with a silica substrate between them. Then, by cutting a hole through the silicon and connecting each layer it's possible to move, according to Huang "all of the data from a full Blu-Ray disc through the chip in 1/50th of a second." More here.
Dean spotted this mobile LAN party. On a cold evening in early February, months of abstract planning and hectic last-minute hard-work, a dash of providence, and a small group of wonderfully supportive people came together to ride a mobile LAN party down Main Street to show Durango what REAL geeks and nerds are like.
Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame has been recovering Saturn V engines from the ocean. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden released a statement congratulating Bezos and his team on the recovery: "Nearly one year ago, Jeff Bezos shared with us his plans to recover F-1 engines that helped power Apollo astronauts to the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s. We share the excitement expressed by Jeff and his team in announcing the recovery of two of the powerful Saturn V first-stage engines from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean."
That dusty old bowl on Grandma's shelf might be worth a fortune. After picking it up for a few dollars down the road in 2007, the buyer displayed it the living room. More recently, they became curious about its value and brought it to experts for an appraisal. Sotheby's had estimated the bowl would sell for between $US200,000 and $US300,000. But four bidders battled over the rare find, and it ultimately sold to renowned London art dealer Giuseppe Eshenazi for $US2.225 million.
Frostytech report on a new wonder-material, annealed pyrolytic graphite. Let's consider the numbers: where a solid aluminum heat spreader has a thermal conductivity of 126W/mK, the same heatspreader with an Annealed Pyrolytic Graphite core would see thermal conductivity on the order of 1092W/mK. That's not a typo.
PC Magazine have announced their readers' choice award winners, thanks JD. Perhaps the most surprising result is to see Windows phone 8 moving into top spot as a clear favourite despite the app selection. Perhaps least surprising was Samsung for the second time, picking up the overall satisfaction for its wide range of products.
A few people sent in this very clever (but very violent with strong language and probably not safe for work) FPS in real life video.
Thursday Morning Reviews
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Thursday, 21-March-2013 03:45:48 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Graphics Cards:
HIS Radeon HD 7850 iPower IceQ Turbo 4GB Video Card in CrossFire on TweakTown.
PowerColor PCS+ HD 7850 on Pro-Clockers.
HIS Radeon HD 7770 iCooler 1GB on TweakTown.
Storage:
Kingston V300 120GB SSD on Bjorn3D.
SanDisk Ultra Plus 128GB on Computing On Demand.
OCZ Vertex 3.20 SSD 240GB on HardwareHeaven.
QNAP TS-469L on Legion Hardware.
OWC Mercury On-The-Go Pro USB 3.0 Portable Enclosure Kit on Madshrimps.
Power Supplies:
Thermaltake Dr.Power II ATX Power Supply Tester on Modders-Inc.
Antec High Current Pro Platinum 1000W on NikKTech.
Thermaltake Toughpower Grand Platinum 700-Watt 80 PLUS Platinum on TweakTown.
Cooling:
Zalman FX100 CPU Cooler on Hardware Secrets.
be quiet! Silent Wings 2 Case Fans on ThinkComputers.
Phanteks PH-TC12DX CPU Cooler on Vortez.
Systems and Smartphones:
AVADirect Mini Gaming PC on HotHardware.
Acer Aspire S7 13? (S7-391) Ultrabook on XSReviews.
LG Optimus L9 Smartphone on TweakTown.
RetroDuo Portable Version 2.0 Core Edition NES/SNES Handheld on MEGATechNews.
Misc:
Roccat Apuri Hybrid USB Hub & Mouse Bungie on Neoseeker.
Roku 3 Media Streaming Hub on TechReviewSource.
Sponsor Specials
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Wednesday, 20-March-2013 11:45:21 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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It's been quite busy in our Sponsor Specials forum lately. In there our various sponsors have info and deals on office chairs, fitness supplements, tabletop gaming supplies, android accessories, hard drives, SSDs, t-shirts, gummy bears, PC modding gear, HDD docking stations and more.
There's also some competitions going on in there:
- Make a wallpaper and win $850 credit
- Find mistakes and win gift vouchers
- Review a helicopter and get it for free
- Win $50 vouchers if your order is selected randomly
OCAU member mpk74 is pushbiking solo around Oz for charity, and to break the current record of 37 days 20 hours. On the 26th of August this year I depart from Clontarf Qld on a most excellent adventure. I am cycling solo around Australia on behalf of the Childrens Health Fund. Having had several children spend a lot of time at the Royal Childrens Hospital in Brisbane and seeing the excellent work they do, I wanted to give something back. More info here and also on FB.
Over at PlayerAttack they are starting a gaming TV show in April. A new Australian gaming TV show is headed to Foxtel. Starting April 12th, Player Attack will discuss the latest and greatest from the world of video games, with a weekly half-hour show screening at 9pm Friday nights (AEST). There's a preview clip here.
Wired have an interesting article about locked technology - and not just mobile phones. The issue goes beyond cellphone unlocking, because once we buy an object — any object — we should own it. We should be able to lift the hood, unlock it, modify it, repair it … without asking for permission from the manufacturer. But we really don’t own our stuff anymore (at least not fully); the manufacturers do. Because modifying modern objects requires access to information: code, service manuals, error codes, and diagnostic tools. Modern cars are part horsepower, part high-powered computer. Microwave ovens are a combination of plastic and microcode.
EA's CEO has resigned. Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) today announced that John Riccitiello will step down as Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Board of Directors, effective March 30. The Board has appointed Larry Probst as Executive Chairman to ensure a smooth transition and to lead EA's executive team while the Board conducts a search for a permanent CEO. The Board will consider internal and external candidates with the assistance of a leading executive search firm.
Astroid spotted this transparent TV from Philips. Innovative features on the PDL8908 ‘DesignLine’ sets include the lack of stand or wall frame required, with the product instead built to be leaned against the wall, making a solid (and larger height-wise) single glass sheet with a slight black tint.
IntelInside spotted more on the Apple warranty story: Until now, many Apple consumers have reported on forums that store staff have only ever discussed with them a standard 12-month manufacturer warranty when selling, fixing or replacing Apple goods. Apple has now changed this from 12 months to 24, which appears to bring it in line with Australian Consumer Law.
Tuesday Morning Reviews
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Tuesday, 19-March-2013 10:50:50 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards & CPUs:
Core i7-4770K: Haswell Performance Preview on Toms Hardware.
Asus Crosshair V Formula-Z on PC Perspective.
Storage:
QNAP TurboNAS TS-469U-RP NAS Server on NikKTech.
OCZ Vertex 3.20 20nm SSD Review (240GB) on The SSD Review.
MyDigitalSSD BP4 Slim 7 SSD on Benchmark Reviews.
Silicon Power Armor Series A15 USB 3.0 Portable HDD on Madshrimps.
Intel 335 Series 180GB SSD on Techgage.
OCZ Vector 256GB SSD on APH Networks.
Cooling:
Prolimatech MK-26 GPU Cooler on Pro-Clockers.
Corsair Hydro Series H110 Liquid CPU Cooler on eTeknix.
Cases:
Raidmax Cobra on ThinkComputers.
CM Storm Scout II Advanced on eTeknix.
Nanoxia Deep Silence 2 Mid-Tower on TweakTown.
In Win D-Frame on techPowerUp.
Input etc:
Roccat ISKU FX Gaming Keyboard on eTeknix.
Razer DeathAdder 2013 (4G) Gaming Mouse on Custom PC Review.
Audio:
Plantronics GameCom 780 PC Gaming Headset on ThinkComputers.
Oregon Scientific Boombero Wireless Speaker on NikKTech.
Misc:
Dell Inspiron 17-3721 Notebook on TechReviewSource.
Sparkle Dragon Cyclone GTX 650 on PureOverclock.
The future tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere has been approved for Melbourne. The 388-metre high, 108-storey hotel and apartment building is planned for Melbourne's Southbank area. Melbourne City Council had opposed the project due to fears it would cast a shadow over the Shrine of Remembrance. But the Planning Minister, Matthew Guy, says most of council's concerns have been addressed and the shrine trustees support the project. If tall buildings are your thing, check out Emporis which has stats etc.
The SimCity saga continues: a modder proves it works offline, then EA admit it could have run offline, and finally there's a simple config change to make it work offline. For now, that's the placeholder fix for people who just want to play offline...a quick-fix from gamers for gamers. Have fun.
Here's a cabinet made of wood, that hurts my brain. This is not a distorted digital photo - it's a cabinet that's been intricately carved to look like one.
Samsung have announced the GS4 smartphone's specs. Following months of leaks culminating with a series of high-resolution photos and several videos, Samsung’s new flagship Galaxy S 4 smartphone is now official. In line with earlier reports, key specs include a 5-inch Super AMOLED display with 1080p HD resolution, an Exynos 5 Octa eight-core processor in the international version and a quad-core Snapdragon chipset in the U.S. version, a 13-megapixel rear camera, up to 64GB of storage, 2GB of RAM, microSDXC support and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, the latest available version of Google’s mobile platform.
Plane nuts will lose a lot of time in the virtual USAF museum - for example a B-1B cockpit, an A-10A cockpit or an F-117A cockpit.
RETARD Hits The Bigtime
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Sunday, 17-March-2013 01:07:34 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Our very own master chef Paul aka RETARD was selected to compete for a spot on the Bulla Cream Team recently, which involved some jetsetting, some hobnobbing and quite a bit of cooking. I'll let his thread tell the story:
click for the thread!
Saturday Evening Reviews
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Saturday, 16-March-2013 17:33:00 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Storage:
Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB SSD on TweakTown.
PQI Tiffany USB 3.0 32 GB on techPowerUp.
Micron RealSSD P400m Enterprise SSD on The SSD Review.
Toshiba MK01GRRB/R 2.5-inch 6Gb/s SAS 15K RPM Enterprise RAID on TweakTown.
StarTech 2.5-Inch to USB 3.0 Encrypted Hard Drive Enclosure on Legit Reviews.
Cooling:
Corsair Hydro Series H110 Liquid Cooler on OCC.
Noctua NH-L9i Low Profile Intel CPU Cooler on Bigbruin.
Prolimatech Megahalems Red Series CPU Cooler on Hardware Secrets.
Six CPU coolers Roundup on Anandtech.
Cases:
Sharkoon REX8 on eTeknix.
Anidees AI-06W Midi Tower on NikKTech.
Power Supplies:
Silverstone Zeus 1350-Watt 80 PLUS Silver on TweakTown.
NZXT Hale90 V2 1000 Watt on Pro-Clockers.
SilverStone SFX ST45SF-G 450W on [H]ardOCP.
Input etc:
Corsair Vengeance M65 Mouse on Vortez.
Mionix Ensis 320 Mouse Surface on PureOverclock.
Cooler Master CM Storm Power-RX Mouse Pad on Ninjalane.
Misc:
WD TV Play on TechReviewSource.
Netgear Centria WNDR4700 Wireless Storage Router on HardwareHeaven.
Samsung Galaxy S4 first look on Anandtech.
Friday again!
     
     
     
     
     
And if you're after more, check out this Wiki page which lists ALL "misc pics" news posts from the archive.
Plextor SSD Giveaway - with bonus!
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Friday, 15-March-2013 13:29:45 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's a reminder that Plextor are giving away 3x 128GB SSDs to OCAU members in the forums. In fact, they just let me know that if that thread hits 256 replies, they will give away a fourth SSD, this time 256GB, as a special bonus. So far there are 128 replies. I think you know what to do. :)
Here's some interesting projects from people in the forums:
Friday Morning Reviews
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Friday, 15-March-2013 00:44:20 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
Gigabyte Z77X-UD4H on FunkyKit.
Gigabyte Z77X-UD4H on ThinkComputers.
Storage:
Solidata K8 1920E 2TB SSD on TheSSDReview.
Patriot Gauntlet Node Portable Wireless Enclosure on BigBruin.
Samsung SM843 Pro: High Performance Data Center SSD on HotHardware.
QNAP TS-469L High-performance 4-bay NAS Server for Home & SOHO on MadShrimps.
Audio Visual:
Sennheiser PC 350 SE Gaming Headset Video Review on HWHeaven.
Edifier Predator e1100 MKII Multimedia Speaker System on MegaTechNews.
MadCatz F.R.E.Q.5 Red PC Headset on eTeknix.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Acer Iconia W510 Hybrid Tablet on TechSpot.
HP ENVY 4 TouchSmart (ENVY 4-1102xx) Ultrabook on CustomPCReview.
PIVOS XIOS DS Media Play on OCClub.
ASUS Vivobook S500CA 15.6 inch Ultrabook on LegitReviews.
Power Supply:
Cooler Master Silent Pro Platinum 1000-Watt 80 PLUS Platinum on Tweaktown.
Silverstone Strider Gold ST65F-G 650W on TechPowerUp.
Cooling:
Zalman CNPS11X Extreme CPU cooler on Vortez.
Corsair Hydro Series H110 AIO CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
Misc:
Edimax N300 Wi-Fi Extender and N150 Personal Hotspot on HWHeaven.
Thursday Night
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Thursday, 14-March-2013 23:52:17 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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The USA have made a pointed demand that China stop cyber-espionage. The demand, made in a speech by President Obama’s national security adviser, Tom Donilon, was the first public confrontation with China over cyberespionage and came two days after its foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, rejected a growing body of evidence that his country’s military was involved in cyberattacks on American corporations and some government agencies.
Gizmodo report on a paper plane robot made from lego. Sure, it makes and throws paper planes, but can it fire chainsaws at people? See how the huge shoulder mounted rubber bazooka fires the heavy Black and Decker tool into the air, and then against a thick archery mat.
Researchers have made some headphones from graphene. Given graphene’s status as a wonder material we shouldn’t really be surprised, but it turns out that this graphene speaker — the first of its kind — has intrinsically excellent performance.
Kotaku have an interesting article about the demise of GAME Australia. In July 2012 GAME Australia closed its doors for the last time. 700 members of staff, 90 stores, 20 years. All lost. Gone. But two years previously, when the UK’s Chief Executives sent its best men to save GAME from the doldrums, no-one could have predicted how quickly it would all go wrong. This is the story of how one retailer tried to reinvent itself, but came tumbling apart at the seams.
Google are retiring Google Reader. We have just announced on the Official Google Blog that we will soon retire Google Reader (the actual date is July 1, 2013). We know Reader has a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go. We’re sad too. People are quite upset about this, and chooky05 pointed out this petition to save it.
IntelInside spotted a fake finger scam. Five doctors at a Brazilian hospital have been suspended for allegedly covering for absentee colleagues by using fake silicone fingers to fool biometric machines. Thaune Nunes Ferreira was arrested on Sunday for signing in six co-workers to the biometric employee attendance device at a hospital in Ferraz de Vasconcelos, Sao Paulo.
Wednesday Afternoon Reviews
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Wednesday, 13-March-2013 13:11:22 (GMT +10) - by booj
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AMD 'Richland' mobile APUs:
The Tech Report.
Bjorn3D.
PC Perspective.
PCStats.
Motherboards:
Gigabyte Z77-HD4 on PureOverclock.
MSI Z77IA-E53 Mini-ITX motherboard on The Tech Report.
Asus P8Z77-V LK Motherboard on Hardware Secrets.
Cooling:
Noctua NH-L12 CPU Cooler on techPowerUp.
DeepCool IceBlade Pro V2.0 CPU Cooler on Frostytech.
Corsair Hydro H110 280mm AiO CPU Cooler on Pro-Clockers.
Scythe Kabuto II CPU Cooler on Hardware Secrets.
Swiftech H220 Watercooler on ThinkComputers.
Storage:
CalDigit AV Pro USB 3.0 HDD / SSD Enclosure on TweakTown.
Kingston V300 240GB SSD on PureOverclock.
Patriot Gauntlet Node Wireless Enclosure on NikKTech.
Cases:
NZXT Phantom 630 on Benchmark Reviews.
Enermax Ostrog GT Gaming Case on Pro-Clockers.
Mice:
AZiO Levetron GM533U Gaming Mouse on OCC.
AZiO Levetron GM533U Gaming Mouse on Benchmark Reviews.
Misc:
Gigabyte GP-H11 Earphones on APH Networks.
TP-LINK N900 Wireless Router, N600 Wireless USB and AV500+ Powerline Adapter on HardwareHeaven.
Sapphire EDGE VS8 miniPC on techPowerUp.
Fractal Design Telsa R2 650W Power Supply on ThinkComputers.
Wednesday Morning
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Wednesday, 13-March-2013 01:09:27 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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AMD have introduced its Richland mobile APUs. I want them to introduce a Nahasapeemapetilon one. AMD has formally introduced the first members of its Richland APU family. We have the goods on the chips and Richland's new power management tech, which combines temperature-based inputs with bottleneck-aware clock boosting.
Some trolls have duped Today Tonight with a fake story. Last night, in our story on Tristan Barker, the Internet bully, we featured a young woman who claimed to have been bullied by him. This was wrong. The young woman, as it turns out, is an attention-seeker with a history of making up stories.
Telstra and Optus have been feeling the heat as field equipment requires more and more cooling. In one of the hottest summers on record, Telstra and Optus relied on fresh air cooling and high-efficiency air conditioners to keep their mobile networks going, officials from the companies said last week. “Almost half of our energy use is air conditioning,” said Telstra energy and greenhouse general manager, Brian Hennessy.
There's a followup video on a "Terminator" arm we saw earlier. After all the comments which were posted on our channel Nigel very kindly agreed to answer some of your questions and show how the false arm was changing his life.
Monday Afternoon Reviews
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Monday, 11-March-2013 13:54:42 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards:
Gigabyte Z77N-WiFi (Intel Z77) Mini-ITX on TweakTown.
ECS A970M-A Deluxe (AMD) on OCC.
Storage:
Patriot Supersonic Magnum 256GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on Legit Reviews.
Samsung 840 Pro 512GB SSD on TweakTown.
Synology DiskStation DS213 NAS on HardwareHeaven.
Asustor AS-608T 8 bay NAS on Computing on Demand.
Memory:
Kingston HyperX 10th Anniversary 16GB 2400MHz Quad Channel Kit on NikKTech.
Kingston HyperX 10th Anniversary 16GB 2400MHz Quad Channel Kit on techPowerUp.
Cases:
Cooler Master Scout 2 Advanced on Ninjalane.
Fractal Design Define XL R2 on Vortez.
Cooling:
DeepCool N9 Aluminum Notebook Cooler on Benchmark Reviews.
Gelid Black Edition CPU Cooler on PureOverclock.
Zalman CNPS14X Cpu cooler on Rbmods.
Audio:
RHA MA350 In-ears on techPowerUp.
Jabra REVO Wireless Headset on NikKTech.
Misc:
Razer Naga Hex & Goliathus League of Legends Gaming Peripherals on Custom PC Review.
PC Power and Cooling Silencer Mark III 750W PSU on Funky Kit.
iBuypower Revolt SFF Gaming System on HotHardware.
Rebuilt my main PC yesterday. It's still almost theraputic to strip it down and clean all the dust out, then reinstall the O/S on a shiny new SSD. Plus it's now a lot more responsive and a lot quieter!
There's much online angst about the new SimCity and its various launch issues. It has been out for three days, and SimCity is broken. Seriously, unplayably broken. As a long-time fan who's been looking forward to this week for many years, this is a huge, frustrating disappointment. The worst part? The main issue isn't with the game itself, but an entirely unnecessary and completely avoidable always-online DRM system that's keeping millions of fans from playing the game they paid for, when they were told they'd be able to play it. EA are now offering a free game in apology. Discussion here.
There's some more Google Glass developments, perhaps most notable being the first venue to ban it. The 5 Point, a self-described dive bar in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood, posted a notice to its Facebook page this week telling Glass Explorers looking to grab a pint that they will need to remove their $1,500 spectacles. The story was noted today on GeekWire. "For the record, The 5 Point is the first Seattle business to ban in advance Google Glasses," the post reads. "And ass kickings will be encouraged for violators."
Boy Scouts can now earn a game design badge. Recognizing the importance of games in society, the Boy Scouts of America on Thursday announced an all-new Game Design merit badge. To earn the badge, scouts will first have to "analyze different types of games; describe play value, content, and theme; and understand the significance of intellectual property as it relates to the game industry." The scout will then put this knowledge to use by designing his own game, and keeping a design notebook for the project. Scouts can choose to create a card, board, or dice game — or even a smartphone app.
There's been a fenderbender in space, with a Russian satellite having its course "abruptly changed" by remnants of a Chinese satellite, blown up in an anti-satellite test years ago. CSSI technical program manager T.S. Kelso reported that the collision involved the Chinese space junk and Russia's small Ball Lens In The Space (BLITS) retroreflector satellite, a 17-pound spacecraft. The Fengyun 1C satellite debris was created during China's anti-satellite test on Jan. 11, 2007, and has posed a threat to satellites and crewed spacecraft ever since.
Three-quarters of a man's skull has been replaced by a 3D-printed implant. The company says it can now provide the 3D printouts to replace bone damaged by disease or trauma after the US Food and Drug Administration granted approval on February 18. The implant is more than a simple moulded plastic plate: Tiny surface details are etched into the polyetherketoneketone to encourage the growth of cells and bone.
A friend of mine is addicted to drinking brake fluid.. but he says he can stop at any time. The last two pics might be NSFW btw. :)
     
     
     
     
     
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Microsoft have recieved a huge fine from the European Commission after their "Browser Choice Screen" was removed from Windows. Microsoft has been fined 561m euros ($731m; £484m) for failing to promote a range of web browsers, rather than just Internet Explorer, to users in the European Union (EU). It introduced a Browser Choice Screen pop-up in March 2010 as part of a settlement following an earlier EU competition investigation. But the US company dropped the feature in a Windows 7 update in February 2011.
Folks in our Mechanical Keyboard thread might be interested in this review on Tech-Report. Cooler Master has released a keyboard based on a little-known mechanical key switch: the Cherry MX greens. We've compared this offering to an IBM Model M and another keyboard based on Cherry's more popular blue switches.
HardwareHeaven have some coverage of CeBIT 2013. This week HardwareHeaven headed over to Germany to attend the annual CeBIT trade event, here we have some interviews conducted by Kaeyi for HardwareHeaven and a gallery of the event. Enjoy!
Mibberz sent in this interesting page about Australian warranty laws and Apple. First, let’s clear up some initial points. This is not a scam, or a way to scam Apple. The Australian Government and the ACCC have some fantastic consumer protection policies in place that many people simply aren’t aware of, and many companies don’t rush to inform you about. In 2011, they increased these protections even further with the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, but in the case of the iPhone 4, it’s likely that your situation is covered by the 1974 act, which this guide is based upon.
IntelInside spotted this article about slum children teaching themselves to use computers. After realising what he had found, Dr Mitra began publishing the results in scientific journals. "I published everywhere. I wrote down and measured everything, and I said, in nine months, a group of children left alone with a computer in any language will reach the same standard as an office secretary in the West. I'd seen it happen over and over and over again."
Here's a clever billboard which produces drinking water. The rain in this region is almost zero, but its atmospheric humidity is about 98%. Inspired by this, UTEC built the first billboard that produces drinking water out of the air. The billboard has unique technology that captures the air humidity and turns it into drinking water.
It's a bit of a stretch, but Hubble has photographed a Space Invader galaxy. That's just what happened with a faraway elliptical galaxy that lies billions of light-years from Earth. When its light passed near the massive Abell 68 galaxy cluster, the light was bent and warped, producing a picture resembling a squat alien invader when viewed from Earth.
Friday Morning Reviews
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Friday, 8-March-2013 02:38:22 (GMT +10) - by booj
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CPUs & Motherboards:
AMD Athlon X4 740 and AMD Athlon X4 750K Processors on iXBT Labs.
ECS A85F2-A GOLDEN (AMD A85X) Motherboard on TweakTown.
Graphics Cards:
Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan on Techspot.
Gigabyte GeForce GTX Titan on Legion Hardware.
Storage:
Monster Digital Daytona 240GB SSD on TweakTown.
Plextor M5 Pro Xtreme 256GB SSD on TweakTown.
Kingston Wi-Drive MobileLite+ Wireless Card Reader on Megatechnews.
Cooling:
Fractal Design Adjust 108 Fan Controller on Futurelooks.
Xigmatek Prime SD1484 CPU Cooler on PureOverclock.
Swiftech H220 Water Cooling System on ThinkComputers.
Evercool Silent Shark CPU Heatsink on OCmodshop.
Swiftech H220 Compact Drive II AIO CPU Cooler on Pro-Clockers.
Cases:
Rosewill Armor EVO E-ATX on Benchmark Reviews.
Silverstone Redline Series SST-RL04B Mid-Tower on TweakTown.
Thermaltake Armor Revo GENE Snow Edition on Vortez.
Fractal Design R4 Black Pearl on Guru3D.
Power Supplies:
BeQuiet! Dark Power Pro 10 750W on PureOverclock.
Seasonic Platinum Series Fanless 460 W on techPowerUp.
Audio:
AZiO Levatron GH808 USB Gaming Headset on OCC.
Mad Catz F.R.E.Q.7 Surround Sound Gaming Headset on NikKTech.
Networking:
TP-LINK TL-WA850RE 300Mbps Universal Wireless N Range Extender on Madshrimps.
TP-LINK TL-WDR3500 Wireless N600 Router on Legit Reviews.
Misc:
MSI GX60 Gaming Notebook on TechReviewSource.
TT eSports x Softball Mouse on XSReviews.
Corsair AX860i PSU
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Thursday, 7-March-2013 01:16:23 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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FearTec has checked out the Corsair AX860i PSU. This is a high-end modular unit which can run completely silently. It also comes with some fancy monitoring software:
Click for the review!
Wednesday Afternoon
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Wednesday, 6-March-2013 13:36:31 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Australia has signed onto a European Cybercrime Treaty. Australia has now formally joined 38 other nations as a party to the world’s first international treaty on crimes committed via the Internet. “Australia becoming a party to the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime will help combat criminal offences relating to forgery, fraud, child pornography, and infringement of copyright and intellectual property,” said Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.
Several tech giants have been ordered to attend a parliamentary enquiry into allegations of price gouging in Australia. Apple, Microsoft and Adobe each received a summons from the committee last Thursday, Labor MP Ed Husic said. The committee is investigating the impact of IT prices on Australian consumers. It has said Australians pay more than consumers in other countries for hardware and software. The managing directors of all three companies, including Apple’s rarely seen local chief Tony King, are expected to attend the hearing in Canberra on March 22.
It's being widely reported that The Pirate Bay are now being hosted from North Korea, but this seems to be a deliberate hoax. It appears that the announcement is a hoax and a commentary on how the Western world is cracking down on file sharing and piracy. However, it's a highly technical prank. To those using the service, it would seem that the site's IP address is located in Pyongyang, North Korea.
TomsHardware have compared Crysis 3 performance on 16 video cards. Crysis 3 boasts amazing graphics quality, and is based on an engine that takes the strongest PCs to their knees. Is it playable on low-end hardware? Can we run this one at its highest detail levels on today's graphics cards? Our benchmarks tell the story.
BMW/Mini have launched a real-world driving game. The British icon has developed an app called the "Driving Excitement Analyser" that can be downloaded to the car via iPhone. The app encourages drivers to access the sporty nature of their Mini by scoring their driving technique. The game is only available in overseas models fitted with the Mini Connected internet service at the moment, but BMW Australia is evaluating introducing such features in the future. Discussion here.
Here's a cool video about a new motion magnification technique, making some normally invisible things become visible. A team of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a computer program that reveals colors and motions in video that are otherwise invisible to the naked eye.
In an interesting example of democracy via technology, the US Government has responded to a petition about mobile phone unlocking - and agrees with it. The White House agrees with the 114,000+ of you who believe that consumers should be able to unlock their cell phones without risking criminal or other penalties. In fact, we believe the same principle should also apply to tablets, which are increasingly similar to smart phones. And if you have paid for your mobile device, and aren't bound by a service agreement or other obligation, you should be able to use it on another network.
TheReg report on a UK prisoner, behind bars for hacking, who took IT classes and hacked the prison computers, thanks Gunna - although it's unclear exactly how serious this second "hacking" was. Fox said he was not aware of Webber's crimes when the hacker joined the prison's IT class. Fox also maintained that it wasn't his decision to admit the lad to the course, which aims to give young offenders skills that will give them a better chance of finding gainful employment once they leave prison.
PanicBlog looked inside an Apple AV adapter cable and found more than you'd expect. Your eyes don’t deceive you — that tiny chip says ARM. And the H9TKNNN2GD part number on there points towards RAM — 2Gb worth. In short: it appears the Lightning Digital AV Adapter has a SoC CPU. So, AirPlay (or AirPlay-like MPEG streaming) makes a lot more sense now.
Wednesday Afternoon Reviews
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Wednesday, 6-March-2013 13:07:22 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Storage:
Kingston HyperX 3K 240 GB on techPowerUp.
Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB SSD on APH Networks.
SanDisk Ultra Plus SSD 256GB on HardwareHeaven.
Plextor M5 Pro 256GB SSD with Xtreme 1.02 Firmware on TweakTown.
Cooling:
Evercool Venti CPU Cooler on Hardware Secrets.
Sapphire Vapor-X Universal CPU Cooler on TweakTown.
Corsair Hydro Series H90 AIO CPU Cooler on TweakTown.
Phanteks PH-F120S and PH-F140TS Fans on eTeknix.
Thermalright Archon SB-E X2 CPU Cooler on Hardware Secrets.
Audio:
Thermaltake eSPORTS SHOCK One Gaming Headset on Bjorn3D.
Wavemaster Mobi Mobile Speaker on eTeknix.
Jabra Supreme UC Bluetooth Headset on Megatechnews.
Input etc:
SteelSeries APEX [RAW] Gaming Keyboard on HardwareHeaven.
Roccat Kone XTD & Kone Pure Gaming Mice on Neoseeker.
Misc:
Powercolor HD 7870 Myst Edition on Bjorn3D.
Tenda W311R+ Wireless Router on Vortez.
Kingston 10th Anniversary HyperX 16GB 2133MHz DDR3 on Vortez.
Gigabyte GA-Z77N-WiFi Mini-ITX motherboard on The Tech Report.
BitFenix Ghost Midi Tower case on NikKTech.
GaryJ's Greatest Shave
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Tuesday, 5-March-2013 15:17:54 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Long-time OCAU member and IRC bot GaryJ is taking part in the "World's Greatest Shave" for the Leukaemia Foundation:
I'm taking part in this years Worlds Greatest Shave for one very simple reason. I have quite a bit of hair, and people are willing to donate money to a good cause if I shave it off. It took a few days for me to make the decision but it came down to the fact that my hair will grow back. Those people that lose a loved one to blood cancer will never be able to get them back. By getting behind this cause and donating we can hopefully prevent this in the future.
click for the thread!
The direct link for donations is here.
Tuesday Morning Reviews
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Tuesday, 5-March-2013 03:39:20 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Storage:
Samsung SM843 Pro Data Center Series 240GB SSD on TweakTown.
Toshiba STOR.E SLIM 500GB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive on NikKTech.
Synology DS213air NAS on Vortez.
Mushkin Atlas Deluxe mSATA 30GB SSD on Legit Reviews.
Vantec NexStar WiFi Hard Drive Dock on Techgage.
Power Supplies:
Seasonic G Series 550W SSR-550RM on Legit Reviews.
PC Power & Cooling MKIII Silencer 750W on PureOverclock.
Enermax Triathlor FC 550W/650W on Pro-Clockers.
Cooling:
BitFenix Spectre Pro PWM and Spectre LED PWM Fan on TweakTown.
DeepCool M3 Notebook Cooling Pad on Benchmark Reviews.
Aerocool Strike-X X-1000 Fan Controller on eTeknix.
Mobile & Prebuilt:
Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T convertible tablet on Vortez.
Zotac ZBOX AD06 Plus on techPowerUp.
Shuttle Barebone DS61 on Madshrimps.
Lenovo IdeaPad S400 on TechReviewSource.
Nexus vs. Surface vs. iPad on Techgage.
Sony VAIO Tap 20 All-in-One on PC Perspective.
Misc:
Kingston HyperX 10th Anniversary DDR3-2400 16GB Memory Kit on ThinkComputers.
CoolerMaster HAF XB Chassis on Funky Kit.
HIS Radeon HD 7950 HIS IceQ X2 on Guru3D.
Func MS-3 Mouse on Vortez.
Jaybird BlueBuds X Bluetooth Headphones on Custom PC Review.
A few people sent in this huge panorama of London, where you can zoom in to an incredible level of detail.
There's an interesting article about the effect of Google Glass on others. The key experiential question of Google Glass isn’t what it’s like to wear them, it’s what it’s like to be around someone else who’s wearing them. I’ll give an easy example. Your one-on-one conversation with someone wearing Google Glass is likely to be annoying, because you’ll suspect that you don’t have their undivided attention. And you can’t comfortably ask them to take the glasses off (especially when, inevitably, the device is integrated into prescription lenses). Finally – here’s where the problems really start – you don’t know if they’re taking a video of you. Google Glass discussion continues here.
Seagate are apparently going to stop making 7200rpm mobile HDDs this year. Seagate Technology, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of hard disk drives, plans to cease production of mobile hard drives with 7200rpm spindle speed late this year as the mainstream market demand will shift to different products, such as solid-state hybrid drives (SSHDs). The company will continue to offer 5400rpm HDDs for value notebooks.
Zac pointed out that Dan has updated his site with some letters. Dirt-cheap laptop power supplies might be more prone to catch fire or screw up in such a way as to deliver mains voltage directly to the laptop, but in reality the worst they usually do is just drop dead harmlessly after not very much use.
Evernote has been hacked. The company posted a security notice on its blog on Saturday announcing that an individual or individuals had been able to gain access to “Evernote user information, which includes usernames, email addresses associated with Evernote accounts and encrypted passwords.” Discussion here.
There's going to be a Portal-themed web series released later this month.
Saturday Midday Reviews
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Saturday, 2-March-2013 12:05:11 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Storage:
Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate 3.0 G3 32 GB on techPowerUp.
OCZ Vector 256GB SATA III 2.5'' SSD on Madshrimps.
Adaptec by PMC ASR-72405 Enterprise RAID Controller on TweakTown.
Patriot Supersonic Magnum 256GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on eTeknix.
Cases:
Thermaltake Armor Revo Full-Tower on Funky Kit.
NZXT Phantom 630 on PureOverclock.
Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 on Hardware Secrets.
Silverstone SUGO SG09 on eTeknix.
Cooling:
Noctua NH-L9a Low Profile AMD CPU Cooler on Bigbruin.
Corsair H90 liquid cooler on Guru3D.
Corsair H110 CPU Cooler on Hardware Secrets.
Noctua Low Profile Heatsinks on Bjorn3D.
DeepCool IceBlade Pro V2.0 Heatsink on Frostytech.
Input etc:
Mionix Naos 8200 Gaming Mouse on PureOverclock.
EpicGear Meduza Mouse & HybridPad Mousepad on XSReviews.
Razer Ouroboros Gaming Mouse on Metku.
Networking:
Apotop DW06 Travel Wi-Fi Router on TweakTown.
Netgear Universal Dual Band WiFi Range Extender (WN3500RP) on HardwareHeaven.
Portables:
Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX HD Smartphone on Benchmark Reviews.
Asus S56C 15.6-inch Ultrabook on Techgage.
Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook on Hot Hardware.
Acer Aspire S7 11.6 inch Touch Enabled Ultrabook on Legit Reviews.
Misc:
Seasonic Platinum Series Fanless 460W Power Supply on PC Perspective.
Steelseries Flux Luxury Headset on XSReviews.
Intel Core i5-3570K vs. i7-3770K Ivy Bridge on techPowerUp.
Gigabyte GeForce GTX Titan 6GB Graphics Card on eTeknix.
March already.. wow.
     
     
     
     
     
And if you're after more, check out this Wiki page which lists ALL "misc pics" news posts from the archive.
Friday Afternoon
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Friday, 1-March-2013 13:16:23 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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New rules should make it simpler to compare phone/broadband plans in Australia. Starting on Friday all telcos must provide free a two-page ''critical information summary'' to shoppers that clearly states the monthly charges and value of any contract.
A few people sent in this Oreo Separator video. It's a basic human desire to separate an OREO cookie. Humans love either cookie or creme. And sometimes a man just needs to invent a machine to do the hard work of separating the two.
The music industry is worried that the NBN will be a piracy disaster. “However local rights organisations, including ARIA are concerned that whilst the new NBN opens up endless possibilities for local content industries, if more action isn’t taken by the Government and ISPs to curb piracy levels, the NBN could have disastrous results for the local industry.” ZDNet are not convinced.
Speaking of which, with the new Game of Thrones series starting soon, the director has shrugged off piracy. At the Perth Writer's Festival this past weekend, Game of Thrones director David Petrarca downplayed the threat of piracy to the show's success, saying that illegal downloads don't matter since shows thrive on "cultural buzz." As The Sydney Morning Herald reports, Petrarca shrugged when a panel mediator noted that Game of Thrones was the most pirated show of 2012; the show was downloaded about 3.9 million times per episode, which was more than a million downloads per episode more than the second-most pirated show How I Met Your Mother. "That's how they survive," he said.
Apple's iCloud mail service is apparently silently censoring users. The second email amended the phrase "a barely legal" to "barely a legal". This second email was delivered fine, whereas the first is still undelivered. Upon further testing we discovered that the phrase is not blocked by Siri or iMessages, both of which can search and send messages containing the term: "barely legal teen". Update: Seems to be a spam filter over-reacting.
TechSpot have a Crysis 3 Performance Test. Plus, PC gamers won't have to wait for graphical extras. Crysis 3 launched with high-resolution textures, DX11 support and plenty of customization options that set it apart from the diluted consoles builds. The result looks incredible and we get the feeling this will prove to be the game that folks who are heavily invested in multi-GPU setups have been waiting for. Here's hoping we aren't woefully disappointed.
HWHeaven went to the Mobile World Congress in Spain. This week saw the 2013 MWC take place in Barcelona, Spain. Senior Editor Stuart Davidson headed along to find out what's on the horizon in the mobile world.
Some high-flying programmers appear in this film hoping to inspire kids to get into programming. Code.org, the new non-profit aimed at encouraging computer science education launched last month by entrepreneur and investor brothers Ali and Hadi Partovi, has assembled an all-star group of the world’s most well-known and successful folks with programming skills to talk about how learning to code has changed their lives — and how isn’t quite as hard as people might think.
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