June 2014

Monday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 30-June-2014  05:13:35 (GMT +10) - by aftahours Audio: ARCTIC S113BT Portable Bluetooth Speaker on Nikktech Diamond Xtreme Sound 7.1 External Sound Card on Hardware Asylum Attitude One Almaz Headset on ocaholic CM Storm Sirus-C 2.2 PC & PlayStation 4 Gaming Headset on eTeknix CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 Processor on Legit Reviews Intel Core i7-4790K (Devil's Canyon) CPU on Hardware Heaven Storage: OCZ RevoDrive 350 480GB PCIe SSD on Custom PC Review Seagate Laptop SSHD 1 TB Solid State Hybrid Drive on Techarp Crucial MX100 512GB SSD on NikkTech Samsung 845DC EVO Enterprise SSD on TweakTown SanDisk Extreme PRO 480GB SSD on TweakTown Seagate 6TB Enterprise Capacity 3.5 HDD v4 on TweakTown Seagate Desktop HDD ST6000DX000 6TB HDD on TweakTown Gaming: DXRacer TV Lounge Chair on LanOC Cube Raptor Gaming PC on eTeknix Misc: Kingston MobileLite Wireless G2 Multi-purpose Media Reader on Techgage Netgear Nighthawk X6 AC3200 Tri-Band WiFi Router on Benchmark Reviews Corsair Graphite Series 730T Case on ThinkComputers.org GIGABYTE Z97X-Gaming G1 WiFi-BK Intel Z97 Motherboard on Legit Reviews Lenovo ThinkPad 10 Windows 8.1 Bay Trail Tablet on HotHardware be quiet! Dark Rock 3 CPU HSF on Overclockers Club Non-Approved USB Chargers (6 Comments) (link)  Saturday, 28-June-2014  16:26:27 (GMT +10) - by Agg There's some concern about non-approved USB chargers after a woman was electrocuted in Sydney. Authorities used Ms Aldeguer's death to warn consumers against buying rip-off USB-style chargers. The young woman was wearing headphones and holding her laptop when she was found dead with burns on her ears and chest, in an apparent electrocution. Seems very strange - discussion in this thread. Misc Pics (34 Comments) (link)  Friday, 27-June-2014  13:53:41 (GMT +10) - by Agg Thanks to Ben and RP today! Friday Afternoon Reviews (1 Comments) (link)  Friday, 27-June-2014  12:43:05 (GMT +10) - by aftahours Videocard: PowerColor Devil 13 Dual Core 290X (290X2) on Hardware Heaven HIS Radeon R9 290 4GB IceQ X2 Turbo on TweakTown PowerColor Devil 13 Dual Core R9 290X 8GB on OCC HIS R7 260X iCooler 2GB GDDR5 on Madshrimps MSI GTX 780 Gaming 6 GB on techPowerUp ASUS GeForce GTX 780 6GB STRIX OC on TweakTown Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer on Hardware Secrets ASRock Z97 Extreme4 on Hardware Secrets ASRock Z97 Extreme6 on Phoronix ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer on Hardware Secrets Storage: Samsung 845DC EVO 240GB, 960GB SATA SSD on Custom PC Review ADATA Premier Pro SP920SS 256 GB Solid State Drive on ThinkComputers OWC ThunderBay 4 RAID5 Edition on The SSD Review Silicon Power Armor A30 1TB External Hard Drive on APH Networks ADATA XPG SX300 SATA 6Gb/s mSATA SSD on Modders-Inc Case: Dimastech Nano on ocaholic Antec P100 Performance Black Case on Benchmark Reviews NZXT Source 530 on Ocaholic SilverStone Nightjar 520W Fanless Power Supply on PC Perspective Misc: Vantec UGT-AH700U3 7-Port USB 3.0 Hub on TweakTown Vantec UGT-AH400U3 4-Port USB 3.0 Hub on TweakTown MSI GT70-2PE ‘Dominator Pro’ Gaming Notebook on eTeknix LG G3 Smartphone on Hot Hardware Deepcool Quanta DQ1250 1250W PSU on techPowerUp Sentey Lumenata Pro Gaming Mouse on TechwareLabs be quiet! Shadow Rock Slim on HCW Linksys X3500 N750 Dual-Band Wireless Modem/Router on NikkTech Geek Food (3 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 26-June-2014  12:37:02 (GMT +10) - by Agg Here's some yummy threads from our Geek Recipes forum: Beef Cheeks with port, wine and onion sauce by hsvguy Slow Roasted Leg of Lamb by RETARD Tatonka and Peppered Jerky by sgtraven Hot Cross Bun Bread And Butter Pudding by salmon Easy Choc Honey Tart by adrog Pizza Sauce by nurple Thursday Midday (5 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 26-June-2014  12:13:42 (GMT +10) - by Agg An Australian entrepreneur has shared her experience of the highs and lows of startups. A young Australian technology entrepreneur who moved to New York to pursue the start-up dream has opened her heart on failing as she prepares to close her 99dresses fashion app. Google had an oddball release at their I/O 2014 conference - Cardboard. Cardboard is a way to create an Oculus Rift-like virtual reality viewer with your Android smartphone. Users can put together their Cardboard kits – which contains corrugated cardboard, some lenses, magnets, two strips of velcro and a rubber band. A Canadian newspaper has apologised to David Bowie after incorrectly blaming him for the removal of Cmdr Chris Hadfield's "Space Oddity" video. The commentary erroneously claimed that Mr. Bowie refused to renew a one-year licence previously granted to Commander Hadfield, ultimately forcing the video to be removed from worldwide distribution. That was incorrect. Anandtech went on a tour of ASUS's testing facilities. As part of our Computex trip this year, ASUS gave us a guided tour of its testing facilities at the ASUS headquarters in Northern Taipei. Adelaide's free wifi is pretty much ready to go. The South Australian Government today officially cut the ribbon on the Adelaide CBD's free outdoor wi-fi network, as part of a $1.5 million contract awarded to Adelaide-based internet service provider Internode late last year. ... The merging of the two networks means Adelaide citizens will get coverage in a number of indoor cafes, restaurants and shops through the old CityLan network, as well as AdelaideFree's 200-odd external access points. Tweaktown have an interesting article on printing a GoPro mount. I first printed these mounts in PLA, but quickly found out that PLA's natural hardness makes it very brittle, and the mounting ears would crack and break off after just a few uses. I experimented with different infill percentages and even tried it solid. Nothing seemed to fix it. I reviewed the original GoPro camera here back in 2011, but there's been a couple of updated versions since then. A Queensland man has been arrested over alleged bitcoin theft. "Yesterday, members of the cyber and identity crime group, part of the fraud and cyber crime group, with the assistance of Maryborough Police located the man at a Hervey Bay address,” the QPS said in a statement. “Police will allege the man had possession of approximately $110,000 worth of Bitcoin (a digital currency) he allegedly obtained from these offences and will now be considered proceeds of crime.” The Big Day Out has been axed for 2015. The new sole owners of the Big Day Out (BDO) have confirmed the music festival will not be held next year although they intend to bring it back in the future. Discussion here. Warm Fuzzies (12 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 25-June-2014  20:22:25 (GMT +10) - by Agg Quite a cool thing happened in the forums this month - a social experiment to see if OCAU's community could band together to help someone out. This is in no way a reflection on how broke I think he may or may not be, nor is it intended as charity in any way, he just seems like a nice guy and I want to see if this little experiment works. OCAU TO THE RESCUE !!! I think many of the community here are generous people and I'd like to prove it. There was a twist to the tale along the way, but it all worked out pretty well in the end. :) Wednesday Morning (3 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 25-June-2014  10:37:09 (GMT +10) - by Agg Dino from GIGABYTE sent across this PPTX file showing just how many world records they and TeamAU managed to break at Computex. I've been involved in just about every single one of these records and feel pretty proud that both GIGABYTE and TeamAU guys (me-dinos22, James Trevaskis-youngpro, Carl Hollingworth-SniperOz, Jack Coxon-JJJC) are heavily represented here and have such global overclocking achievements. They also have a new motherboard aimed specifically at LN2 users. Overclocking world cup (HWBOT Country Cup) is on again later in the year (Q4) and Team Australia are the defending champions. I look forward to defending the crown alongside all the Aussie enthusiasts with these new "weapons" in our arsenal. HP have unveiled The Machine. Why do we call it The Machine? When we first started developing it, we wanted to be very careful not to call it a server, workstation, PC, device or phone, because it actually encompasses all of those things. So as we were waiting for Marketing to come up with a cool code name for the project, we started calling it The Machine—and the name stuck. Yesssss. Sooo, what actually IS it? More here. In order to handle this flurry of information it uses clusters of specialized cores as opposed to a small number of generalized cores. The whole thing is connected together using silicon photonics instead of traditional copper wires, boosting the speed of the system whilst reducing energy requirements. Discussion here. Australia has signed a treaty to make it easier for visually impaired people to access published works. It's of interest more generally because it has involved copyright exceptions, which highlights the need for a broader "fair use" provision. As EFA noted back in February when Attorney-General Brandis released the ALRC report, Australia’s current Copyright Act is no longer fit for purpose in an environment of increasingly rapid innovations in technology and service delivery. The current law is out-dated and its inherent inflexibility casts uncertainty on the legitimacy of basic internet functions like caching and searching, cloud computing, mash-ups and remixes, data mining and the personal use of content, particularly within the social media context. MIT have developed a new nanostructured material. Now engineers at MIT and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have devised a way to translate that airy, yet remarkably strong, structure down to the microscale — designing a system that could be fabricated from a variety of materials, such as metals or polymers, and that may set new records for stiffness for a given weight. Meanwhile here's some cool stuff printed with sugar. Tech Report follow up on the SSD "bait and switch" allegations from earlier this month. When buying a product based on an online review, most of us expect our purchase to match the reviewed item. It's hard not to feel some degree of trepidation when that doesn't happen, especially if the performance implications of such a discrepancy are unclear. Since component variability seems to be a key part of keeping budget SSD prices down, we'll likely see more examples of this in the future, and there's no telling whether the component variances will or won't impact performance, stability, longevity, and so forth. There's more info here, here and here on Harley-Davidson's new electric motorcycle. Meanwhile from July 1st, lane filtering becomes legal for motorcycles in NSW. Lane filtering is when a motorcycle rider moves alongside vehicles that have either stopped or are moving slowly (less than 30 km/h). Wednesday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 25-June-2014  08:39:32 (GMT +10) - by aftahours Audio: Bayan Audio Soundbook X3 Wireless Bluetooth Speaker on Technologyx Gamdias Hephaestus Multi-Sensorial PC Gaming Headset on eTeknix Sennheiser HD-8 DJ Headphones on TechnologyX Attitude One Almaz Headset on techPowerUp Edifier Luna Eclipse 2.0 Speaker Set on Madshrimps Case: In Win S-Frame Open Air Limited Edition Chassis on eTeknix Enermax iVektor Case on ThinkComputers Thermaltake Urban T81 Full Tower Case on Hardware Asylum CPU: AMD A10-7850K (Kaveri) on Bjorn3D Intel Core i7-4790K Devil's Canyon on Techspot Intel Core i7-4960X vs Core i7-3960X 3-way SLI Gaming-Performance on ocaholic Devil's Canyon Intel Core i7-4790K on Legion Hardware Motherboard: Gigabyte G1.Sniper M5 Motherboard on Madshrimps ASUS Maximus VII Gene Motherboard on Madshrimps ASRock Z97X Fatal1ty Killer (Intel Z97) Motherboard on TweakTown MSI Z97 MPower Max AC on Ocaholic EVGA Z97 Classified Motherboard on PC Perspective Gigabyte Z97MX-Gaming 5 (LGA 1150) Motherboard on eTeknix ASUS Z97 SaberTooth Mark 1 Motherboard on Guru3D Gaming: Watch Dogs Video Review on Benchmark Reviews GRID Autosport Video Review on Hardware Heaven Phone: Sony Xperia Z2 Smartphone on Megatechnews Noika X on Techspot Storage: Intel 1.6TB P3700 SSD on TweakTown Crucial MX100 256GB & 512GB SSD on Legit Reviews Patriot Supersonic Phoenix Flash Drive Review (256GB) on SSDReview QNAP TS-470 NAS on Computer on Demand HGST Deskstar NAS 4TB Hard Drive on APH Networks Mouse/Keyboard: ROCCAT Siru Gaming Mouse Pad on ThinkComputers.org Corsair Vengeance K65 Compact Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Bjorn3D Corsair Vengeance K70 keyboard on Techreport Misc: ASUS RS300-E8-RS4 Intel Xeon 22nm Server on TweakTown Samsung Gear 2 Smartwatch on Hot Hardware Be Quiet! Pure Power L8 700W PSU on NikkTech Asus GTX 760 Striker Platinum on LanOC Thermaltake Massive Notebook Coolers (V20, SP, TM) on OCC Netis WF2505 High-Power 150Mbps Wireless N USB Adapter on TweakTown Forum Projects (1 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 24-June-2014  16:27:43 (GMT +10) - by Agg windwithme has photos and info from Computex Several people have reviewed Tt's Posieidon Z KB as well as the Tt Core V71 case ItsDanK has a video review of the CM Storm Reaper mouse Grinder9 has benchmarks using Xeon E3 1271 v3 & Asus Gryphon Z97 while badmofo made a C64 Media Centre! Tuesday Afternoon (4 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 24-June-2014  12:22:09 (GMT +10) - by aftahours A hacker has hijacked Synology NAS boxes for a Dogecoin mining operation and made himself at least $600,000 USD. Dell's SecureWorks site goes into quite a bit of detail on how the exploit was executed. Thanks mpot. Harley-Davidson have made their first electric motorcycle, and it actually isn't too bad at all. The LiveWire offers 74 horsepower, 52 foot-pounds of torque and a (governed) top speed of 92 mph. Techreport have performed an SSD Endurance Experiment on six SSDs. Now, after an astounding one petabyte of writes, only three of the drives remain. Join us for a closer look at how the casualties failed and how the survivors are holding up. Interesting article on Engadget about 3D Printing, and TweakTown have a writeup on some 3D printing tips and tricks, and how to keep your electronics cool. After Vodafone's network outages recently, they offered a free data weekend, and apparently customers consumed a record amount of downloaded data. Vodafone said its customers consumed 590 terabytes of data nationally - twice as much compared to the weekend before. iiNet's chief regulatory officer Steve Dalby has strongly voiced its stance on Internet piracy in Australia in a blog post on iiNet's website. File sharing is a multi-headed Hydra that government filtering and legal threats will never slay. Soon Google will provide their own independant domain registration service, shifting the company away from its dependance on companies like GoDaddy and eNom. Legit Reviews have a round-up of E3 2014 posted. Monday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 23-June-2014  11:17:37 (GMT +10) - by aftahours Case: BitFenix Colossus Computer Case on Benchmark Reviews Thermaltake Commander G41 Mid Tower Case on Neoseeker CPU: Intel Fourth Generation Core i7 4790K on Overclockers Club Intel Core i7 4790K (Devil's Canyon) CPU on TweakTown Motherboard: Biostar Hi-Fi Z97WE Motherboard on Modders-Inc ASUS Z97I-PLUS (LGA 1150) Motherboard on eTeknix Z97 & Z87 Motherboard Charts: 35 Models tested on Ocaholic MSI Z97 GAMING 9 AC (Intel Z97) Motherboard on TweakTown Cooling: Noctua NH-D15 D-Type Premium CPU Cooler on eTeknix NZXT Sentry 3 Fan Controller on Neoseeker Deepcool Lucifer CPU Cooler on Nikktech Leef Surge Copper 16GB USB 2.0 Pico Flash Drive on TweakTown Deepcool Gamer Storm Lucifer on techPowerUp Videocard: XFX Radeon R9 290X Double Dissipation 4GB GDDR5 Graphics Card on eTeknix Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan-Z on Guru3D Storage: Thecus N4560 4-Bay NAS on eTeknix WD My Passport Pro 4TB Thunderbolt Portable RAID Drive on Futurelooks Patriot SuperSonic Rage XT 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on NikkTech Intel 730K 480GB 6-Drive SSD RAID on TweakTown Thecus N2310 NAS on The SSD Review Keyboard/Mouse: Mionix Naos 8200 Gaming Mouse on Hardware Heaven Tt eSPORTS Poseidon Z Blue Switch Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Nikktech SFF/PC: Zotac Zbox OI520 Plus "Sphere" SFF PC on Hot Hardware MSI Z97I GAMING AC (Intel LGA 1150) on techPowerUp Misc: Linksys WRT1900AC Dual-Band Wireless Router on eTeknix Kingston HyperX Fury Red DDR3 1866MHz 16GB Memory on Hardware Heaven Attitude One Tunguska 7.1 on Ocaholic Misc Pics (30 Comments) (link)  Friday, 20-June-2014  14:29:43 (GMT +10) - by Rezin Thanks to Cront and t1mbot this week! Friday Morning Reviews (1 Comments) (link)  Friday, 20-June-2014  05:20:21 (GMT +10) - by aftahours Storage: SanDisk Extreme PRO 960GB SSD on TweakTown HighPoint Rocket 750 Enterprise HBA on TweakTown Leef Magnet 3.0 Copper 16GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on TweakTown Corsair Force LX 256GB SSD on Legit Reviews Intel SSD DC P3700 NVMe PCIe on Hot Hardware Seagate Desktop SSHD 4TB on PC Perspective Case: Cooler Master Elite 110 mini-ITX Case on PC Perspective Antec P100 Mid-Tower Chassis on eTeknix Cooling/Modding: Noctua NH-D15 CPU Cooler on ocaholic Noctua NH-D15 150mm D-Type Premium Heatsink on Hardware Asylum Adafruit Neopixel RGB LED Strip on TweakTown Keyboard/Mouse: TteSports Poseidon Z Mechanical Kailh Blue Switch Keyboard on eTeknix EVGA TORQ X10 Gaming Mouse on Legit Reviews Videocard: Radeon R9 290 vs. Radeon R9 270 CrossFire on ocaholic MSI GeForce GTX 780 Gaming OC 6 GB Graphics Card on Guru3D Motherboard: Biostar Hi-Fi Z97WE (LGA 1150) Motherboard on eTeknix Gigabyte Z97X-SLI Motherboard on PureOverlock MSI Z97 XPower AC on ocaholic ASRock Fatal1ty H97 Performance (LGA 1150) Motherboard on eTeknix Audio: UE BOOM Personalized Edition Bluetooth Speakers on techPowerUp Blue Microphones Spark Digital Lightning Microphone on Benchmark Reviews Misc: Keymander on Gaming Nexus Supermicro AS-2042G-6RF Server on TweakTown Diamond Multimedia WR600NSI Dual Band Wireless Range Extender on FutureLooks Rollei Mini WiFi Camcorder 1 on Nikktech Borderlands 5-Years Later on Overclockers Club Cooler Master V1200 Platinum, V1000 & V850 on Legion Hardware MSI GP70-2PE ‘Leopard’ Gaming Notebook on eTeknix Patriot Memory 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Viper 3 LP Memory Kit on Madshrimps Thursday Afternoon (8 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 19-June-2014  15:36:11 (GMT +10) - by aftahours If you're with Vodafone or Optus, and can't take phone calls or send texts, then you are not alone at the moment as there are widespread outages across both networks. mPot found this amusing video about the discrimination Google Glass Explorers face day to day. With all the controversy that surrounds Google Glass today (or even smartphone cameras), sometimes we forget the amount of absurdity that comes with it. Australian Geographic have listed the best Australian wildlife apps of 2014. It's easier than ever to become a wildlife expert, or help researchers study our animals and plants. Amazon have finally launched a smartphone - the Amazon Fire. No other devices have six cameras and quick access to tech support, and features like Firefly and Dynamic Perspective help give the device a flavor of its own. Apple have released the price of their cheapest iMac, only $1349. As with other iMac models, the new entry-level one comes standard with Wi-Fi, bluetooth and USB 3.0 ports. Almost sounds similar to the car ads that advertise cars with 'power steering, power windows and air'... More pictures are getting leaked of what could be Apple's next iPhone. While the report has stated that the render hardly confirms the final iPhone 6 make, it added that the representation is aligned with earlier insinuations that the next iPhone, both models in fact, are getting the supersized treatment plus reconfigures on the rear flash placement and the sleep/awake control button location. For people who like to mod things, IKEA Hackers is a site modifications on and repurposing of Ikea products. Hacks, as we call it here, may be as simple as adding an embellishment, some others may require power tools and lots of ingenuity. Seems like the drone technology is definitely in a bit of a boom at the moment, especially with this African drone maker selling Pepper-spray, bullet firing drones. It is marketing the device as a "riot control copter" that can tackle crowds "without endangering the lives of security staff". Wednesday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 18-June-2014  12:48:41 (GMT +10) - by aftahours Case: COUGAR MX500 Midi Tower on NikkTech Antec ISK600 Mini-ITX Case on Benchmark Reviews NZXT Phantom 240 ATX Mid Tower on PureOverclock NZXT H440 Mid-Tower Chassis on Legion Hardware Storage: KingFast F8 240GB SSD on Madshrimps SanDisk Extreme Pro SSD on SSD Review Plextor M6e 256GB M.2 PCIe SSD on Legit Reviews Kingston SSDNow E100 200GB SSD on NikkTech Seagate 600 Pro 400GB Enterprise SSD on TweakTown Crucial MX100 256GB SSD on Custom PC Review Leef ICE 3.0 Copper 16GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on TweakTown Corsair Force LX 256GB SSD on Guru3D SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-II Memory Card on SSD Review Plextor M5M 256GB mSATA 2-Drive SSD RAID on TweakTown CPU: Intel Pentium 20th Anniversary Edition G3258 CPU on Madshrimps Noctua NH-D15 CPU Cooler on Neoseeker Intel Core i7-4790K Devil’s Canyon Processor on ThinkComputers.org Audio: Mionix Nash 20 Gaming Headset on eTeknix Stellé Audio Pillar Bluetooth Speaker on Hardware Heaven Keyboard/Mouse: Coolermaster Devastator Keyboard & Mouse on eTeknix KBParadise V60 Mini Keyboard on HardcoreWare Laptop: WaterField VertiGo and Sleevecase on LanOC MSI GT60 Dominator Pro Gaming Laptop on HotHardware MSI GP60 2PE Leopard 15.6" Gaming Laptop on Hardware Heaven Origin EON17-S Gaming Laptop on TWeakTown Motherboard: Gigabyte G1.Sniper A88X on PC Perspective ASUS Maximus VII Impact Preview on ocaholic Biostar Hi-Fi Z97WE Motherboard on SSD Review MSI B85M Gaming Motherboard on Modders-Inc Videocard: XFX R9 280 Black Edition OC on Vortez ASUS GeForce GTX 780 STRIX OC Edition on ocaholic Misc: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 850W on TechPowerUp Netis Systems WF2190 AC1200 Wireless USB Adapter on TweakTown Noctua NH-D15 on techPowerUp Tuesday Evening (1 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 17-June-2014  21:01:59 (GMT +10) - by aftahours Wired have posted up a rare peek inside one of Amazon's 90 massive warehouses. Entering the fulfillment center in Phoenix feels like venturing into a realm where the machines, not the humans, are in charge. Also known by the codename PHX6, the place radiates a non-human intelligence, an overarching brain dictating the most minute movements of everyone within its reach. The U.S Government have lifted restrictions on high-detail satellite imaging provided by Google Maps and Bing. Digital Globe plans to launch new satellites following the decision and says it'll be able to take thrilling photos of "key features such as manholes and mailboxes". Thrilling! Apparently, random Xbox Ones have been turning on after listening in to Microsoft's latest Xbox One ad on TV. Thanks to the platform’s Kinect sensor, the console can boot up from sleep mode when a user utters those terms within range of the hardware. A new device called BodyBeat has been created designed to listen to the noises your body makes, trasmit them to your Android phone, and let you know whether anything is irregular. The current version of BodyBeat is mounted on the wearer's neck and can be rigged to hold the microphone against the side of the neck, the jaw or behind the ear. All three locations can pick up vibrations from chewing, breathing and the beating heart. Project Loon, Google's balloon delivered Broadband designed more for providing internet in rural areas is becoming more of a reality, and can offer 22Mbit/sec download speeds. One craft, dubbed Ibis 152 (Google uses bird species to nickname its balloons), has been aloft over 100 days and is still flying. Surprised to know that this doesn't already exist, but 3G and 4G coverage is extending to Melbourne's City Loop by the end of the year. Full article here on IT Wire. For the first time, metro rail passengers, through their mobile phone carrier, will have high-quality mobile coverage throughout the City Loop tunnels and its underground stations. Over 90,000 Australians have lost almost $90m in telephone and online scams in 2013, not including the unreported ones. In 2013, dating and romance scams moved to the top of financial losses, with over $25 million reported lost. This is despite them making up only 3% of all scam reports to the ACCC. Techradar have a look at the new Microsoft Surface 3 that will hit Australia around the end of August. The Surface Pro 3 an evolution, rather than revolution over the Surface Pro and Surface Pro 2 in terms of design - it's still a touchscreen tablet featuring an industrial design, with sharp lines, wrapped in a magnesium alloy case with a detachable keyboard. Monday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 16-June-2014  05:16:16 (GMT +10) - by aftahours Storage: Crucial MX100 SSD Review on SSD Review ADATA Premier Pro SDXC UHS-1 U3 Card 128GB on SSD Review Plextor M6M 256GB mSATA SSD on PC Perspective Addonics ADM2PX4 PCIe 3.0 to M.2 SSD Adapter on TweakTown MX Technology LX 256GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on TweakTown Seagate Surveillance 3TB SATA III HDD on Nikktech Plextor M6e 256GB M.2 PCIe SSD on Legit Reviews Crucial MX100 512GB Solid State Drive on eTeknix Phone/Tablet: iOCEAN X8 octa-core Smartphone on Madshrimps LG G3 Smartphone with SlimPort on TweakTown Patriot Fuel+ 9000 mAh Mobile Rechargeable Battery on Ocaholic Samsung Galaxy Tab S With 2560X1600 Super AMOLED Display on Hot Hardware Cooling: Zalman Reserator 3 Max Dual Ultimate Liquid CPU Cooler on TweakTown Noctua redux & IndustrialPPC on HardcoreWare Audio: Diamond USB Xtreme Sound 7.1 Channel Digital Audio Adapter on TweakTown Jabra Solemate Max Portable Wireless Speaker on Nikktech Roccat Kave XTD True 5.1 PC Gaming Headset on eTeknix Kingston HyperX Cloud on Vortez Laptop/Compact: ZOTAC ZBOX EN760 Plus on Hardware Heaven MSI GS60-2PE ‘Ghost Pro’ Gaming Notebook on eTeknix Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z97X Killer (LGA 1150) Motherboard on eTeknix ASRock Z97 Extreme6 (LGA 1150) Motherboard on eTeknix MSI Z97 Gaming 7 Motherboard on Overclockers Club Misc: RAIDMAX Scorpio V on Neoseeker CM Storm QuickFire Rapid-i Keyboard on Modders-Inc Diamond WR600NSI Dual Band 802.11n Wireless Range Extender on TweakTown Intel Core i7-4790K on Hot Hardware Sapphire Vapor-X R9 290 on LanOC Saturday Afternoon (9 Comments) (link)  Saturday, 14-June-2014  15:46:39 (GMT +10) - by aftahours It appears NASA have been working on faster-than-light space travel, and have released a 3D render (with obligatory lens flare) of their Warp Drive Spaceship. They discovered a loophole that could theoretically allow faster-than-light travel without breaking the laws of physics. Discussion here. Gizmodo have posted an episode of Computer Chronicles up from 1991: How To Build The Best PC 1991 Had To Offer. The best part? Adding in faux-floppy faceplates (seen around 5:50) to make it seem like you have more drives than you actually do. Because you can never have too many floppy drives. Intel's appeal against the $1.06 billion euro fine from the European Commission from 2009 has been denied. The European Commission fined Intel for anticompetitive practices, due to Intel giving rebates to major computer companies Dell, Hewlett Packard, Lenovo, and NEC for buying the majority of their chips from Intel. Tesla Motors have made a huge annoucement - removing all the patents from their electric vehicle technology. Tesla Motors was created to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport. If we clear a path to the creation of compelling electric vehicles, but then lay intellectual property landmines behind us to inhibit others, we are acting in a manner contrary to that goal." Discussion here. With Australia being declared by Attorney-General George Brandis as the "worst offender" in the world, it appears the Abbott government is still "considering a range of options" to tackle online piracy. Whether the Australian government will go as far as disconnecting users from the internet remains unclear. eTeknix have a guide to building a your own NAS system for under $220. There’s a wealth of affordable hardware out there and more importantly an abundance of free software to help you configure your own NAS setup. A Microsoft Employee Alex Kibkalo has been sent to prison for 3 months and fined $100 after he leaked early copies of Windows 8 to a French blogger. Microsoft pinpointed the leaker after searching the Hotmail account of the unnamed French blogger. A huge ocean has been discovered near the Earth's core, estimated to be three times the volume of all our existing oceans. The water is hidden inside a blue rock called ringwoodite that lies 700 kilometres underground in the mantle, the layer of hot rock between Earth's surface and its core. Microsoft are busy developing a smartphone battery that can last up to a week without recharging. Chandra said Microsoft Research has tackled the problem not just by focusing on the battery technology, but also on making the power consumption of a device more efficient using existing battery technologies. Misc Pics (52 Comments) (link)  Friday, 13-June-2014  12:50:01 (GMT +10) - by Agg Friday the 13th AND a full moon? Spooky. Thanks to zzapped and simon this week! Friday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 13-June-2014  05:05:46 (GMT +10) - by aftahours Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z97X-SOC Force Motherboard on PC Perspective Asus A88XM-Plus versus Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H on XbitLabs Keyboard/Mouse: Tesoro Lobera Supreme Full Color Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on TweakTown GAMDIAS HERMES GKB2010 Black Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Benchmark Reviews CM Storm QuickFire Rapid-i Keyboard on Modders Inc Corsair Raptor M45 Gaming Mouse on eTeknix Das Keyboard 4 Professional Mechanical Keyboard on TweakTown iRocks Rock Series K10 Gaming Keyboard on eTeknix Cooling: Cooltek ITX30 Low-Profile CPU Cooler on Nikktech Noctua NH-D15 on OCC Enermax ETS-N30 TAA CPU Cooler on PureOverclock Storage: Western Digital Blue (WD10SPCX) 1 TB Slim Mobile Hard Disk Drive on TechARP Western Digital Red WD40EFRX 4TB Hard Drive on APH Networks Crucial M550 Solid State Drive on XbitLabs CPU: Intel Core i7-4790 (Haswell Refresh) on techPowerUp Intel Core i7-4790K (Overlocking) on Hot Hardware Videocard: HIS R9 290X iPower IceQ X² Turbo & R9 290 iPower IceQ X² OC on Legion Hardware AMD Radeon R9 295X2 2x4GB on XbitLabs Misc: Diamond BVU3500 DisplayLink USB 3.0 to DVI Adapter on TweakTown Cooler Master HAF XB Evo Cube Case on Ocaholic Be Quiet! PurePower 600w Power Supply on Techware Labs Interesting Forum Threads (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 12-June-2014  20:41:54 (GMT +10) - by Agg Here's a few interesting threads from the forums. Remember, OCAU has official Twitter, Facebook and Google+ pages. If you can add us via the various services it's much appreciated and helps us get the word out, and keep you up to date. :) MSI GS60 2PE Ghost Pro Unboxing in Overclocking & Hardware. Have a laugh on my behalf in Business & Enterprise Computing. trueCrypt is dead in Business & Enterprise Computing. Galloping Ghost Arcade in the USA in Retro & Arcade. The Goonies, free retro remake for Windows/Linux in Retro & Arcade. YT Video: Building a retro gaming PC for Splinter Cell in Retro & Arcade. How did I burn out my MCP35X? in Extreme & Water Cooling. Asus P9A-I series boards - Mini-ITX, 16 SAS lanes in Storage & Backup. 197TB written to my 240GB Samsung Pro SSD in Storage & Backup. Acer C720 (Chromebook) in Portable & Small Form Factor. How do you deal with delivery depression? in Extreme and Water Cooling. does internet censorship work? in Networking, Telephony & Internet. At what point is a dedicated headphone amp worth it? in PC Audio. Is it worth having a dedicated physics GPU? in Video Cards & Monitors. Talk to me about Prius batteries in Electronics & Electrics. Calling all Sketchup Pro users in General Software. Journey & Banner Saga Composer Might Get Fined $50,000 in PC Games. Battlefield: Hardline in PC Games. Wolfenstein: The New Order in PC Games. BIG GUIDE TO BBQ (What to buy Help) in Geek Food. IT Industry - Where is it heading and what will it be like in 3-5years? in Career, Education & Finance. How To See What Shows Are Currently Airing in Entertainment. Curiosity Show to return! in Entertainment. Thursday Morning (1 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 12-June-2014  02:08:42 (GMT +10) - by Agg A couple of people let me know that the earlier Turing Test story has some flaws which make it probably not the big deal it seemed to be, with more info here. This was widely acknowledged as a ‘pass’ of the Turing test, but experts have now moved to dispute this. Professor Murray Shanahan of the Department of Computing at Imperial College London told Buzzfeed it was ‘a great shame’ the test was reported as passed. iiNet have a blog post about piracy in Australia, from an ISP's perspective. The Australian Government is readying legislation, if news reports are to be believed, which would require ISPs such as iiNet to send infringement notices to our customers while, at the same time, blocking certain websites which provide access for customers to download and share unauthorised content. We believe the Government is heading down the wrong path if they’re serious about protecting copyright. E3 is currently underway in Los Angeles, with a slew of gaming announcements. The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2014 wiki page has a pretty good summary of things so far, and you can watch replays of the press conferences here on GameSpot. The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2014, commonly known as E3 2014, is the 20th Electronic Entertainment Expo event. E3 is an annual trade show for the video game industry presented by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). Also, Doom! Thursday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 12-June-2014  00:33:04 (GMT +10) - by Agg Video Cards: NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN Z on PCPerspective. Gigabyte R7 250X OC 1GB GDDR5 on MadShrimps. HIS R7 250X iCooler 1GB GDDR5 on MadShrimps. Motherboard & CPU: ASUS Z97-A Preview on OCAholic. Intel Core i7 4790K: Devil's Canyon Benchmarks On Ubuntu Linux on Phoronix. Intel Core i7-4790K Devil's Canyon Processor on LegitReviews. Intel i7-4790K Devil’s Canyon on LanOCReviews. Intel Devil's Canyon Core i7-4790K on Vortez. Gigabyte Z97X-SOC Force on OCAholic. Intel Core i7 4790K Devils Canyon CPU on Guru3D. Audio Visual: Genius GX Gaming SW-G2.1 2000 Speaker System on BenchmarkReviews. Adesso Xtreme S2 Portable Bluetooth Speaker on ThinkComputers. Kingston HyperX Cloud Pro Gaming Headset on ThinkComputers. Kingston HyperX CLOUD Pro Gaming Headset on NikKTech. Storage: ADATA XPG SDXC UHS-1 U3 Card (64GB) on TheSSDReview. Samsung 840 Pro Solid State Drive on BenchmarkReviews. Patriot Stellar Boost XT 32GB on OCAholic. SilverStone DS380 Eight Bay NAS Chassis on Tweaktown. ADATA XPG 64GB SDXC UHS I U3 Memory Card on Tweaktown. MX Technology ES 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on Tweaktown. WD My Passport Pro 4TB Thunderbolt Portable Storage on Tweaktown. Akitio Palm RAID Thunderbolt 256GB Portable Storage on Tweaktown. Vantec UGT-AH100U3 10-Port USB 3.0 Hub on Tweaktown. Crucial M550 256GB SSD on NikKTech. Samsung MicroSD PRO 32GB and EVO 16GB on PureOC. Corsair Force LX 256GB on Vortez. Power Supply: EnerPlex Kickr II portable charger on TechWareLabs. XFX XTR Series 650W on TechPowerUp. Cooling: Enermax Liqtech 120X and 240 on Guru3D. Updated NZXT Kraken X40 Liquid Cooler on FrostyTech. BeQuiet Shadow Rock Slim Heatsink on FrostyTech. Thermaltake Massive TM Notebook Cooler on Tweaktown. BeQuiet Shadow Rock 2 Heatsink on FrostyTech. Zalman Reserator 3 Max Dual Ultimate Liquid CPU Cooler on LegitReviews. Cases: NZXT H440 Mid-Tower Chassis on TechSpot. Xigmatek Midgard III on OCClub. Portable & Prebuilt: Kyocera Hydro Vibe waterproof smartphone on HotHardware. BlackBerry Z30 smartphone on TechnologyX. Input Etc: Genius Imperator Pro Illuminated Keyboard on Modders-Inc. Logitech G502 Proteus Core Gaming Mouse on Techgage. Thermaltake Tt eSPORTS Level 10 M Hybrid Wireless Mouse on Tweaktown. Misc: Actiontec PWR51WK01 Powerline Adapter Kit on BigBruin. Patriot Viper 32GB PC3-17000 2133Mhz DDR3 Memory Kit on TechnologyX. Tuesday Morning (7 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 10-June-2014  00:10:03 (GMT +10) - by Agg Apparently a super-computer has passed the Turing Test, no doubt kicking off the Singularity and plunging the world into an Amazon-drone-patrolled dystopian nightmare. Maybe. Eugene Goostman, a computer programme made by a team based in Russia, succeeded in a test conducted at the Royal Society in London. It convinced 33 per cent of the judges that it was human, said academics at the University of Reading, which organised the test. It is thought to be the first computer to pass the iconic test. Though other programmes have claimed successes, those included set topics or questions in advance. More here. Maybe we can fight back by becoming cyborgs - or at least learning the piano. "I have a glove that can teach you how to play a piano melody,” Thad Starner declares when I call to chat about the future of wearable computing. Now a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the technical lead of Google Glass, he helped pioneer the field in the 1990s as a student at MIT. “During this conversation, you could have learned ‘Amazing Grace.’ ” Vonz sent in this article about power bank ripple. It’s a fact that all switching power converters will produce some noise and voltage ripple, however, the better designed converters with sufficient filtering should approach a very low level of ripple. While I don’t really have the time to judge the overload characteristics, or the efficiency of conversion circuits, this article will focus on the ripple and noise in the power delivered by power banks. That article links to this one about USB chargers which is also interesting. GamersNexus want to tell you how SSDs work. SSDs are surrounded by terminology that generally isn't understood beyond a relative level. There's this top-level concept that one type of NAND is superior to another, that synchronous is preferable to asynchronous, that endurance is tied to P/E cycles, but a lot of the knowledge halts there. We've worked closely with several SSD and controller engineers over the past year to educate ourselves on the inner workings of the storage world's biggest recent advancement; now it's time to start organizing that education in article form. There's not much info with it, but JC sent in this very tidy XBOX360 PC case mod. Meanwhile here's another impressive PC mod, this time mounted on a wall. Tetris recently turned 30. By now, Tetris's history is well-known among gaming fans: introduced on June 6th, 1984 as a PC game, the product of Moscow's Academy of Science of the USSR spread to the rest of the world in short order. It was the first video game exported from the Soviet Union to the U.S., by way of Commodore 64. But it was in 1989, when it was included in the U.S. launch of Nintendo's Game Boy, that Tetris entered a generation's psyche. Here's some more Computex headlines: be quiet!, GIGABYTE, Thermaltake, Rosewill and Corsair on Futurelooks, Kingston Girls on TheSSDReview, Booth Babes on TechPowerUp and a single-slot GTX 750 Ti on TomsHardware. Computex 2014 Headlines (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 9-June-2014  01:49:03 (GMT +10) - by Agg Here's some headlines from Computex in Taiwan: Booj & MSI at Computex 2014 in our forums. Fractal Design's new liquid coolers are expandable, refillable on TechReport. AMD's Adaptive Sync Requires No Hardware, Only Firmware Update on GamersNexus. More Intel Tablets, the Dell Venue 7 and 8 on Anandtech. Intel Devils Canyon receives support on ASUS Z87 on MadShrimps. Corsair shows new Cases, DDR4 and GPU Cooling System on MadShrimps. Corsair kicks off Computex with three new cases on TechReport. Psychedelic LEDs to hit Corsair keyboards, mice this summer on TechReport. Zotac goes fanless with Zbox C-series mini-PCs on TechReport. This Corsair bracket lets you liquid-cool your GPU on TechReport. Crucial ships DDR4 for servers, desktop modules coming in August on TechReport. Intel intros 'Devil's Canyon,' Pentium Anniversary overclockable CPUs on TechReport. Asus Product Announcement and Press Event on TechWareLabs. In Win S-Frame on HWAsylum. Gigabyte Suite Visit on HWAsylum. Hands-On with the Securifi Almond+ Wireless Router on MegaTechNews. The Core M is a 14-nm Broadwell CPU aimed at 2-in-1s on TechReport. G-Sync monitor, mini gaming PCs among Asus' new ROG gear on TechReport. Multiple sizes, sockets differentiate new Asus ROG mobos on TechReport. NZXT releases new fan controller, variable-speed liquid coolers on TechReport. Gigabyte sets DDR3 speed record with limited-edition board on TechReport. WD's SATAe prototype combines 4TB hard drive with 128GB SSD on TechReport. ''Smart mouse,'' new keyboards join Thermaltake eSports lineup on TechReport. Roccat gaming mouse adds knuckle rocker, thumb paddle on TechReport. Kaveri APUs land in three HP EliteBook laptops on TechReport. Booth Babes Part 1 on TechWareLabs. Booth Babes Part 2 on TechWareLabs. Adata's next-gen SandForce SSDs break cover at Computex on TechReport. Capacitive keyboard, refreshed Nepton coolers coming from Cooler Master in July on TechReport. In Win's S-Frame may be the most beautiful case at Computex on TechReport. Cavium announces 48-core ARMv8 server processor on TechReport. EVGA's SuperNOVA PSU pumps 1600W, guaranteed for 10 years on TechReport. Kingston shipping its first M.2 SSD next week on TechReport. HyperX again claims new DDR3 frequency WR at 2282.8MHz on MadShrimps. Intel unleashed the Beast OC Event on MadShrimps. Final Press Conference on TechWareLabs. Thermaltake on TechWareLabs. Patriot on TechWareLabs. ASUS on TechWareLabs. Sunday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 8-June-2014  23:56:47 (GMT +10) - by Agg Audio Visual: Genius Zabius HS-G850 Gaming Headset on BenchmarkReviews. Roccat Syva headset on OCAholic. Storage: Crucial MX100 SSD on TechSpot. ADATA Premier Pro 128GB SDXC UHS I Class 3 Memory Card on Tweaktown. Kingston MobileLite G3 Memory Card Reader on APHNetworks. Patriot Supersonic Magnum 128 Gigabyte thumb drive on OCAholic. OCZ RevoDrive 350 480GB PCIe SSD on LegitReviews. Seagate Surveillance ST4000VX000 4TB HDD on Tweaktown. Buffalo Technology TeraStation 5400r WSS R2 8TB Storage Server on Tweaktown. Building Your Own NAS: Silverstone DS380 Chassis Tested, Reviewed on TechSpot. Corsair Force LX SSD (256GB) on HWHeaven. Software: Watch Dogs game on OCModShop. Transistor game on OCModShop. Motherboard & CPU: MSI Z97 XPOWER AC on Vortez. Intel Core i7-4790K - Devil's Canyon Review and Overclocking on PCPerspective. AMD Kaveri Mobile APU Preview - FX-7600P with Radeon R7 Graphics on LegitReviews. MSI Z97I Gaming AC Motherboard on ThinkComputers. Video Cards: NVIDIA GeForce GT 740: I'd Rather Have Maxwell on Phoronix. XFX R9 280 Black OC Edition on HWHeaven. PowerColor Radeon R9 295X2 on OCClub. MSI Radeon R9 290X Lightning on PCPerspective. Cooling: be quiet! Pure Wings 2 & Silent Wings 2 Case Fans on NeoSeeker. NZXT Sentry 3 5.4-inch Touch Screen Fan Controller on Tweaktown. Enermax Liqtech 240 & Liqmax 120 CPU Coolers on PureOC. be quiet! Dark Rock 3 & Dark Rock Pro 3 Cooler on NeoSeeker. Enermax Liqtech 240 Liquid CPU Cooler on Tweaktown. be quiet! 140mm Silent & Pure Wings 2 on OCClub. Input Etc: SteelSeries RIVAL Optical Gaming Mouse on NikKTech. Cooler Master Quickfire Rapid-I on LanOC. Tt eSPORTS Level 10 M Hybrid Gaming Mouse on MadShrimps. Power Supply: Kinkoo Infinite One 8000mAh Portable Backup Battery Charger on Tweaktown. Limefuel Nexus 5 2860mAh Battery Case on Tweaktown. Misc: Kingston HyperX Fury White DDR3-1866 2x4GB Memory Kit on NeoSeeker. XFX Type01 Bravo case on LanOC. Linksys WRT1900AC Router on Guru3D. ECS LIVA Mini PC Kit on TechPowerUp. Misc Pics (32 Comments) (link)  Friday, 6-June-2014  12:54:29 (GMT +10) - by Agg Have a great and safe long weekend - unless you're in WA, in which case just have a great and safe normal weekend. :) Friday Midday (6 Comments) (link)  Friday, 6-June-2014  12:49:38 (GMT +10) - by Agg AMD's Mobile Kaveri APUs have launched, with coverage on AnandTech. AMD has provided a compelling APU and platform solution for a couple years, but the perception is that AMD platforms are budget platforms, so basically almost every corner gets cut. I'll have more to say on that later, but it's still a major concern in my book. Regardless, since the desktop Kaveri launch we have been eagerly awaiting the release of the mobile incarnation. Meanwhile from Intel, a new "Devils Canyon" CPU at 4GHz, with 4.4GHz Turbo Mode. Last year, Intel launched two new processor cores -- the Core i7-4770K, based on the Haswell core, and the Ivy Bridge-based Core i7-4960X. Both chips were incremental updates over their predecessors; Haswell may have delivered impressive gains in mobile, but it failed to impress on the desktop where it was only slightly faster than the chip it replaced. Enthusiasts weren't terribly excited about either core, but Intel is hoping its new Devil's Canyon CPU, which launches today, will change that. More on ThinkComputers and Tech Report. I keep forgetting to mention this prototype self-driving car from Google. The subcompact two-seater, presented this week, is a totally new concept, without a possibility for the passengers to control direction, speed or braking. After entering the destination in the on-board computer, humans can only sit and observe the scenery, or watch the car’s progress on the electronic display. The top speed is limited to 40 kilometers per hour. Some motoring blogs are less enthusiastic, and Conan worries about minor bugs in the system. A small Australian business has been overshadowed by Apple's HealthKit in iOS8. It seems their headline product HealthKit already exists — in Australia. The Aussie version doesn’t just share the same name, it does much the same thing. You can officially use an Xbox One controller on a PC. Xbox Live director of programmer Larry Hyrb, better known by his online handle Major Nelson, announced the news this morning in a post on his blog that also contains links to download drivers for the controller. Wednesday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 4-June-2014  23:43:55 (GMT +10) - by Agg Input Etc: Sentey Phoenix Extreme Gamer Series Keyboard on OCClub. SteelSeries Rival mouse on Vortez. Audio Visual: Kingston HyperX Cloud Gaming Headset on LegitReviews. Plantronics RIG Gaming Headset and Mixer on HWHeaven. Philips Brilliance 239C4QHWAB Miracast-enabled monitor on Bjorn3D. Kingston HyperX Cloud Gaming Headset on Techgage. Pittasoft BlackVue Sport SC500 Action Camera on NikKTech. Motherboard & CPU: AMD A10 7850K + Dual Graphics on Vortez. ASRock Fatal1ty Z97X KILLER (Intel LGA 1150) on TechPowerUp. ASUS Z97I PLUS Mini-ITX (Intel Z97) on Tweaktown. ASUS H97-Pro on OCAholic. Portable & Prebuilt: ASUS MeMO Pad 7 ME176C 7-in Atom Z3745 Tablet on PCPerspective. Sony Xperia Z2 smartphone on TechSpot. AMD Kaveri Mobile Preview - AMD FX-7600P Performance on PCPerspective. A first look at AMD's Kaveri APU for notebooks on TechReport. AMD Kaveri Mobile APU, FX-7600P Performance Preview on HotHardware. Storage: Intel SSD DC P3700 PCIe on Anandtech. Toshiba Q Series Pro 256GB SSD on NikKTech. JMicron JMF667H Firmware Preview Testing with L85A, L85C and A19 Flash on Tweaktown. Thecus N4560 SOHO/Home NAS Server on MadShrimps. ASRock Z97 Extreme6 PCIe Ultra M.2 Storage Performance on Tweaktown. OCZ Vertex 460 240GB on OCClub. Crucial's MX100 solid-state drive on TechSpot. Crucial MX100 Affordable Solid State Drive on HotHardware. Crucial MX100 SSD (512GB) on HWHeaven. Crucial MX100 Solid State Drive on BenchmarkReviews. Samsung 845DC EVO Review (960GB) on TheSSDReview. Crucial MX100 2.5" SSD on PCPerspective. Intel 730 'Jackson Ridge' Raid 0 on Vortez. Intel SSD DC P3700 800GB on PCPerspective. Synology DiskStation DS414 4-bay NAS on Tweaktown. Netgear ReadyNAS RN312, RN314 & RN316 on LegionHW. Lenovo ThinkServer RD340 Server on Tweaktown. Video Cards: ASUS GeForce GTX 780 STRIX 6GB on Guru3D. Club3D R9 270 royalQueen on OCAholic. 4K Showdown: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB vs. AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB on Tweaktown. Power Supply: ADATA PV100 Power Bank Portable Charger on APHNetworks. SilverStone Strider Essential ST60F-ESG 600W PSU on PureOC. Software: Wolfenstein: The New Order on OCClub. Watch_Dogs on LanOC. Survival Horror Simulator "The Forest" on OCModShop. Cases: Bitfenix Ronin midi tower on OCAholic. BitFenix Shadow on BenchmarkReviews. Misc: Case Logic Griffith Park Backpack on MegaTechNews. be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 CPU cooler on TechPowerUp. Netis Wireless Adapters and Portable Router on TechWareLabs. Tuesday Morning (4 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 3-June-2014  11:43:36 (GMT +10) - by Agg Stephen Conroy has ranted in the Senate about the state of the NBN project. Stephen Conroy has accused the Coalition of perpetuating an “absolute fraud” on the Australian public through its drastic reworking of Labor’s NBN project, with the former Communications Minister pointing out that the Coalition could not guarantee speeds on its planned infrastructure, and that no other country globally was buying back its incumbent telco’s copper network. NBN discussion continues in this huge thread. NVIDIA have responded to AMD's GameWorks allegations, with more comments from AMD on PC Perspective. Using quotes from AMD directly, the author claims that NVIDIA is actively engaging in methods to prevent game developers from optimizing games for AMD graphics hardware. This is an incredibly bold statement and one that I hope AMD is not making lightly. We're getting closer to Star Trek's "universal translator", with Microsoft demoing Skype Translator. Skype Translator results from decades of work by the industry, years of work by our researchers, and now is being developed jointly by the Skype and Microsoft Translator teams. The demo showed near real-time audio translation from English to German and vice versa, combining Skype voice and IM technologies with Microsoft Translator, and neural network-based speech recognition. Apple have revealed iOS 8 at the WWDC. The keyboard in iOS brings an upgrade that Android users will find familiar: predictive typing. Suggestions for what you might be typing next appear above the keyboard. The suggestions can adapt depending on who you're talking to. For example, the sentence, "The meeting was..." could get suggestions like "rescheduled/cancelled" for one contact and "epic/awesome" for another. Tweaktown checked out the INWIN factory. Late last week we were invited to the INWIN HQ and factory in Taiwan to see how they make cases. Read on for video and lots of photos from our visit. A US ambassador has been sworn in by taking an oath on an e-reader. Ambassador Suzi LeVine was sworn in with an e-reader on Friday by Vice President Joe Biden at the White House, which was pre-loaded with a copy of the U.S. Constitution. She then placed her hand on the e-reader. LeVine starts the job on Monday. Modders-Inc have a 12-way CPU air cooler roundup. I put out a call to our vendors to send me some air cooler for a round up. I did not specify size, shape, number of fans, or price; just that it had to be air cooled. Some vendors sent one CPU cooler while others sent three. The coolers that you will see in this article are from Thermaltake, Cooler Master, Phanteks, Deep Cool, Noctura, BeQuiet!, and Enermax. Seagate have announced they will be aquiring SandForce along with the rest of LSI's flash business. LSI is a new property for semiconductor firm Avago Technologies, as it was purchased only last year for $6.6 billion. Avago must not be that interested in SSDs, as it’s letting the two SSD-related divisions go for a fire sale price. In its heyday SandForce was best known for supplying SSD controllers to third-party manufacturers. This business model has long since been discontinued, but it could very well be revived under Seagate. SpaceX have unveiled an early version of their first manned spacecraft. The Dragon V2 is capable of carrying seven astronauts for several days to and from the International Space Station, docking automatically with the station, and landing gently "almost anywhere on Earth" using its propulsion system. More here. Sunday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 1-June-2014  23:54:50 (GMT +10) - by Agg Cooling: Noctua Redux Fans on OC3D. Noctua NH-D15 versus Phanteks PH-TC14PE CPU coolers on XbitLabs. Enermax ETS-T40 White Cluster CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers. NZXT Sentry 3 Fan Controller on TechWareLabs. Noctua NH-D15 CPU coolers on Guru3D. Motherboard & CPU: Intel Core i7-4790, i5-4690, i5-4590, i5-4460, i3-4360, i3-4350 and i3-4150 on XbitLabs. Athlon 5350 and Sempron 3850 Processors (Kabini) and Socket AM1 on XbitLabs. ASUS Sabertooth Z97 Mark 1 on PCPerspective. ECS L337 GANK Drone Z87H3-A3X on OCClub. MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC on Guru3D. ASUS Z97-Pro Wi-Fi ac preview on OCAholic. MSI Z97I Gaming AC Mini-ITX preview on HWAsylum. ASUS Z97 Maximus VII Hero on PureOC. ASUS Z97-DELUXE NFC & WLC (Intel LGA 1150) on TechPowerUp. Gigabyte's Z97X-UD5H motherboard on TechReport. ASUS Z97I-Plus on OCAholic. MSI B85M Gaming Motherboard on HWAsylum. Power Supply: LUXA2 EnerG 8800mAh Portable Battery Bank on Tweaktown. Cougar MX500 and PowerX 550w on LegionHW. Cases: In-Win D-Frame Mini preview on HWAsylum. Phanteks Enthoo Pro on NeoSeeker. Cougar MX300 Gaming Case on MadShrimps. Video Cards: 4K Showdown: Sapphire Radeon R9 295X2 8GB vs. 295X2 8GB in CrossFireX on Tweaktown. Sapphire Radeon R9 290 4GB Vapor-X OC on Tweaktown. Radeon R9 290X vs. Radeon R9 270 CrossFire on OCAholic. Input Etc: Deck 87 Francium Pro Mechanical Keyboard on NikKTech. Genius Ergo 8800 Wireless Mouse on BigBruin. Gamdias Demeter GMS5010 Gaming Mouse on BenchmarkReviews. Vortex KBC Poker II Keyboard on HardCoreWare. Genius Ergo 8800 Wireless Mouse on OCModShop. Corsair Raptor M45 Gaming Mouse on HWHeaven. Logitech G502 Proteus Core Gaming Mouse on LegitReviews. EVGA TORQ X10 Gaming Mouse on BenchmarkReviews. Audio Visual: Genius Widecam F100 webcam on LanOC. AudioFly AF56 Earphones on TechWareLabs. CM Storm Sirus 5.1 headset on OCAholic. 4K for $649: Asus' PB287Q monitor on TechReport. Asus Xonar DGX 5.1 headphones on PCReview. D-Link DCS-825L HD Wi-Fi Baby Camera on TechWareLabs. Storage: Kingston FCR-HS3 Memory Card Reader on APHNetworks. SanDisk Extreme PRO 128GB on Vortez. Thecus N7710-G on TechPowerUp. Transcend 8XDVDS Portable USB 2.0 DVD Writer on Tweaktown. Thecus N2310 SOHO NAS Server on PCPerspective. Thecus N7710-G 10GbE 7-bay NAS on Tweaktown. Plextor M6 SSD Series: SATA, mSATA and M.2 Drives Tested on TechSpot. SanDisk Extreme PRO 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on NikKTech. Crucial M550 512GB 2-Drive SSD RAID Report on Tweaktown. Super Talent RAIDDrive II Plus PCIe SSD on TheSSDReview. Lexar High-Performance microSDHC UHS-I 32GB (633x) Card on MadShrimps. Portable & Prebuilt: Schenker Element 10.1in Tablet Video Review on HWHeaven. Lenovo B750 All-in-One 29-Inch Desktop on HotHardware. Microsoft Surface Pro 3 on HotHardware. Zotac ZBOX Sphere OI520 Plus mini-PC on Bjorn3D. Misc: Misfit Shine Wearable Fitness Activity Monitor on LegitReviews. TYLT Energi+ Backpack on Tweaktown. Netgear EX6200 AC1200 Wi-Fi Range Extender on Tweaktown. Watch Dogs game on Techgage.

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