November 2016

Tuesday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 29-November-2016  23:23:49 (GMT +10) - by booj Graphics Cards: XFX RX 480 GTR Black Edition on eTeknix. Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 Ti OC Edition on ThinkComputers. Storage: Intel 600p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD on TweakTown. MyDigitalSSD Boost 1TB USB 3.1 Portable SSD on eTeknix. Lexar Professional 1000x microSDHC UHS-II 32GB Card on Madshrimps. Kingston 256GB MicroSD XC card on PC World. Plextor S2G 512GB Entry-Level M.2 SSD on eTeknix. Cases: Cooler Master Elite 110 Mini-ITX Chassis on Funky Kit. NZXT S340 Elite on ocaholic. Audio: ASUS STRIX Wireless Gaming Headset on eTeknix. Cooler Master MasterPulse Pro Gaming Headset on APH Networks. Creative iRoar Go Bluetooth Portable Speaker on Madshrimps. Input etc: Dream Machines DM1 PRO S Optical Gaming Mouse on NikKTech. Razer Ornata Chroma on Vortez. Cooling: Scythe Mugen 5 Tower CPU Cooler on Funky Kit. Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 280 on OCC. Misc: HP Omen X Notebook on Ars Technica. TomTom Bandit 4K GPS WiFi Action Camera on ModSynergy. Lenovo IdeaCentre Y900 + Y27g RE (Razer Edition) on TweakTown. Crucial Ballistix Tactical 3000 MHz DDR4 (4x 8 GB) on techPowerUp. Pokeball Power Bank (1st & 2nd Generation) on TechARP. Monday Midday (7 Comments) (link)  Monday, 28-November-2016  12:07:13 (GMT +10) - by Agg ISPs in the UK are now required to keep a full list of sites visited by their customers and provide it to authorities upon request. The Investigatory Powers Bill, which was all but passed into law this week, forces internet providers to keep a full list of internet connection records (ICRs) for a year and to make them available to the Government if asked. Those ICRs in effect serve as a full list of every website that people have visited, rather than collecting which specific pages are visited or what's done on them. Expect a big upturn in VPN usage. There's another huge IBM and NVIDIA-powered supercomputer on the way. More than once during the SC16 supercomputing conference this week in Salt Lake City, the Summit system and its companion “Sierra” system that will be deployed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, were referred to as “AI supercomputers.” This is a reflection of the fact that the national labs around the world are being asked to do machine learning on the same machines that would normally just do simulation and modeling to advance science, not just to advance the art of computation but to make these systems all look more cool and more useful. We're definitely seeing another period of consolidation in the semiconductor market. In the past couple of weeks, Siemens signed a deal to buy Mentor Graphics for $4 billion, and Samsung purchased Harman, a Tier 1 automotive supplier for $8 billion. What’s different is that deals worth multiple billions of dollars—sometimes tens of billions—are no longer extraordinary. When Texas Instruments paid $7.6 billion for Burr-Brown in 2000, it was considered a jaw-dropping amount of money. Matt sent in this game bundle, with up to 151 games being offered for as little as $2 in total, raising money for a good cause. This is A Good Bundle. A bunch of creators are sharing their works to combat some of the ugliness in our world. 100% of the proceeds from this bundle will be split 50-50 between the ACLU ( American Civil Liberties Union) and Planned Parenthood. I don't often post press releases as news, but this one caught my eye. It's from FSP (who I should note are currently sponsoring OCAU) and it's for a new "Twins" PSU which gives you two redundant PSUs in a normal desktop ATX PSU form-factor. I don't think I've seen that before. See here for more info, or the pics below. click images to enlarge! Sunday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 27-November-2016  00:36:31 (GMT +10) - by aftahours Case: Antec Cube-Designed by Razer Mini-ITX Chassis on TweakTown HBT+ Gravity 6 Enthusiast Computer Case on Hardware Asylum DIY Arc Reactor Kit on FunkyKit Corsair Carbide Series 270R on Vortez ID-Cooling Stream 2 Chassis on FunkyKit Corsair Crystal Series 570X RGB on Ocaholic Keyboard/Mouse: Cooler Master MasterMouse PRO L Mouse on Vortez SteelSeries Rival 500 Optical Mouse on APH Networks Dream Machines DM 1 PRO S on techPowerUp EpicGear DeFiant EG MMS Mechanical Keyboard on Funky Kit Rosewill RK-9000V2 RGB mechanical keyboard on TechReport Razer DeathAdder Elite Gaming Mouse on Madshrimps Storage: Lexar Professional 128GB & 256GB UHS-II SD Cards on TweakTown QNAP TBS-453A-8G-960GB 4-Bay M.2 SSD NASbook on NikKTech Intel SSD 600p Series 512GB NVMe SSDp on Legit Reviews MyDigitalSSD BPX 480GB NVMe M.2 Solid State Drive on eTeknix Kingston 256GB MicroSD XC card on PC World Portable: Lenovo Yoga Book on Hot Hardware Asus Zenfone 3 on ocaholic Lenovo Yoga Book Android 2-in-1 Tablet on TweakTown Gigabyte AORUS X7 DT v6 GTX 1080 Gaming Laptop on eTeknix Huawei Nova Plus smartphone on PC World Videocard: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Quick Silver OC 8 GB on techPowerUp Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 Video Card on Hardware Secrets Motherboard: Asus X99 DeLuxe II motherboard on Guru3D BIOSTAR Racing Z170GTN Mini-ITX Motherboard on TweakTown Gaming PC: MSI Aegis Ti Gaming PC (Dual-GPU) on techPowerUp Lenovo IdeaCentre Y710 Cube Gaming System on Techarp Misc: Linksys LRT214 Business Gigabit VPN Router on eTeknix Thermaltake Toughpower DPS G RGB 850 W Titanium on LanOC ARC Reactor DIY Kit and Syllable D900 Mini Wireless Earbuds on FunkyKit Misc Pics (40 Comments) (link)  Friday, 25-November-2016  14:37:02 (GMT +10) - by Agg Thanks to HrdwrBoB we now have keyboard navigation for Misc Pics! You can use the left and right arrow keys to go from page to page. Thanks to danstoejam and t1mbot for this week's submissions! Forum Projects (2 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 24-November-2016  12:55:13 (GMT +10) - by Agg Here's a few cool projects from the forums: Zenator has a "Gears of War" themed watercooled PC mad_mic3 has a Hot Rod with a m-ITX system inside while @rt made a DIY QFH antenna for GPS StreekG spruced up a PC with some straight tubing Duality92 squeezed two complete systems into one case while alexciobanu has a WC PC built into a D-Frame 2.0 Thursday Midday (1 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 24-November-2016  12:03:18 (GMT +10) - by Agg Voice-enabled smart homes continue to get closer, with Amazon's Echo and others - but there's a new option from China, the LingLong DingDong. Certainly rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? Three commands wake the device: DingDong DingDong, Xiaowei Xiaowei (a girl’s nickname), and BaiLing BaiLing (skylark). The DingDong comes in Mandarin and Cantonese versions (the engines required to understand the languages are too complex to include them both in one device). Most people speak Mandarin, and the myriad accents and dialects present a Herculean challenge. Still, the company claims the DingDong understands roughly 95 percent of the population. Gigabyte have a video of an immersion-cooled server (FB video only, it seems). You might have seen servers, but you've never seen servers THIS COOL! Yes, it's a server! Yes, it's a server in a full tank, performance cooled! From the "OK, but why" department comes this video of DooM running on the new MacBook Pro's touch bar. I get the fun of making Doom run on everything from a potato to a toaster, but come on. If you’re confused by my incredulation, then that’s because you haven’t seen Doom running in the not-even-a-thumbnail-wide touch bar that comes with the new Apple Macbook Pro laptops. A new study seems to indicate a drop in piracy in Australia. TNS estimates that in the first three months of the year, 23 per cent of Australian Internet users aged 12+ consumed “at least one item of online content unlawfully” — equating to about 4.6 million people. The 2015 study found that some 26 per cent of Australians were believed to have unlawfully consumed online content. Steam are accepting nominations for game awards. For the first time in human history, our Steam Community will decide the nominees for the prestigious Steam Awards. This November you will get to choose nominees for 8 different categories as well as have the opportunity to create your very own award category. TechARP report on the past, present and future of the game industry, with an interview with Ian Livingstone. Level Up KL 2016 was a great opportunity for game developers in Asia to meet up, and learn from each other. Industry luminaries like Wan Hazmer and Rami Ismail gave talks on creating a triple A game title like Final Fantasy XV, and how a new developer can survive the development of their first game. But MDEC (Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation) saved the best for last – Ian Livingstone CBE. We were so fortunate to be able to meet him in person, and listen to him talk about the past, present and future of the game industry. Join us for this once-in-a-lifetime experience! Wednesday Lunchtime Reviews (1 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 23-November-2016  13:20:16 (GMT +10) - by Agg Motherboard & CPU: Gigabyte's GA-X99-Designare EX motherboard on TechReport. Intel Kaby Lake Performance: Surprising Jump over Skylake on PCPerspective. Cases: AeroCool Project7 P7-C1 Tempered Glass Edition on OCInside. Corsair Crystal Series 460X RGB & 570X RGB on Vortez. Audio Visual: SteelSeries Arctis 5 headset on LanOC. Kingston HyperX Cloud Revolver Gaming Headset on ThinkComputers. Storage: Patriot Hellfire M.2 480GB NVMe SSD on LegitReviews. Asustor AS6208T 8-bay NAS on TechPowerUp. Misc: Walabot DIY In-Wall Imaging Smartphone Sensor on BigBruin. Total War: WARHAMMER NVIDIA Linux Benchmarks on Phoronix. Speedlink Decus Respec mouse on Vortez. Origin EON17-X Gaming Notebook on Tweaktown. D-Link DIR-885L/R AC3150 Ultra Wi-Fi Router on MissingRemote. Tuesday Night Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 22-November-2016  22:52:43 (GMT +10) - by Agg Cases: Corsair 570X Tempered Glass RGB Mid-Tower on eTeknix. Corsair Crystal 570X RGB Tempered Glass Chassis on Tweaktown. Corsair Carbide 270R on Guru3D. Corsair Crystal Series 460X RGB Mid-Tower on Tweaktown. Corsair Crystal 570X on Guru3d. Corsair Crystal 570X Tempered Glass Case on LegitReviews. Corsair Crystal Series 570X Tempered Glass Case on PCPerspective. Corsair Carbide 270R Mid-Tower on Tweaktown. Corsair Crystal Series 460X RGB on TechPowerUp. Input Etc: Cooler Master MasterMouse Pro L RGB Gaming Mouse on eTeknix. Thermaltake Tt eSports Black FP Gaming Mouse with Fingerprint Security on FunkyKit. Mionix Naos QG Biometric Gaming Mouse on eTeknix. SteelSeries Apex M500 Mechanical Pro-Gaming Keyboard on NikKTech. Storage: Samsung's 960 EVO SSD on TechReport. Lexar Professional 1800x microSDHC UHS-II 32GB Card on MadShrimps. Portable & Prebuilt: The Dell Inspiron 13 5000 (5368 / 5378) 2-in-1 Laptop on TechARP. Zotac ZBOX Magnus EN1070 Gaming Mini PC on FunkyKit. ZenBook 3 Review: Asus made a faster MacBook that runs Windows on TechSpot. PC Specialist Spectrum Pro GTX 1050 Ti Gaming PC on eTeknix. Misc: EVGA PowerLink Cable Management on HWAsylum. Thermaltake Smart DPS G 750W PSU on NikKTech. Monday Afternoon (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 21-November-2016  14:35:40 (GMT +10) - by Agg People are concerned about new surveillance laws in the UK. The Investigatory Powers Act, passed on Thursday, legalises a whole range of tools for snooping and hacking by the security services unmatched by any other country in western Europe or even the US. It looks like the Windows command line may be replaced by PowerShell. Microsoft is continuing to clear out old code from Windows, making PowerShell the default command line shell in its latest Windows 10 release. PowerShell will start up via the file explorer in the latest insider preview build 14971 instead of the cmd.exe command prompt. HardOCP checked out Google Earth VR with AMD and NVIDIA GPUs. If you have ever experienced Google Earth, which you likely have, and were impressed with the experience, just imagine having a globe about 6 feet across that you can zoom into so close that you can then stand on the street and look up and appreciate the skyscrapers. So what kind of GPU do you need for this VR application? Backblaze have published another round of hard drive stats. As always this data should be treated with care, but it's interesting because it involves their migration to 8TB drives. The Seagate 8 TB drives are doing very well. Their annualized failure rate compares favorably to the HGST 2 TB hard drives. With the average age of the HGST drives being 66 months, their failure rate was likely to rise, simply because of normal wear and tear. The average age of the Seagate 8 TB hard drives is just 3 months, but their 1.6% failure rate during the first few months bodes well for a continued low failure rate going forward. ITNews have an interesting article about implementing blockchain technology in Australia. Westpac and the Australian Stock Exchange have taken very different paths on their journeys with blockchain, but they both agree on one thing: the technology is way overhyped. Blockchain has hit the “peak of inflated expectations”, according to Gartner’s 2016 hype cycle for emerging technologies, but is yet to reach the point of disillusionment, nor to achieve widespread adoption. Atlas V Launch (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 20-November-2016  10:32:32 (GMT +10) - by Agg If you're hungry for a space fix, Teddybear pointed out that the GOES-R weather satellite will launch on the back of an Atlas V rocket in a few minutes. GOES-R will be launched by United Launch Alliance (ULA), using an Atlas V rocket. The vehicle, which has tail number AV-069, will be flying in the 541 configuration, with a five-metre (16.4-foot) payload fairing, four AJ-60A solid rocket motors augmenting a Common Core Booster first stage, and a single-engine Centaur upper stage. Watch on NASA TV or YouTube. Sunday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 20-November-2016  02:17:39 (GMT +10) - by aftahours Audio: LG Music Flow P5 Bluetooth Speaker on APH Networks SteelSeries Siberia 840 Wireless Gaming Headset on Madshrimps HyperX Cloud Stinger Gaming Headset on BabelTech Cooling: Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 280 AIO Cooler on FunkyKit be quiet! Silent Base 600 on OCC XFX Hard Swap Quick Change Fan on OCC Be quiet! Pure Rock SLIM CPU cooler on Guru3D Storage: Synology DiskStation DS716+ NAS on ThinkComputers.org Mushkin Triactor 480GB SSD on Hardware Asylum Kingston SSDNow UV400 480GB SATA III SSD on TweakTown Apacer AS682 ARMOR+ 250GB Solid State Drive on eTeknix Lexar JumpDrive C20m and C20c 128GB USB 3.1 Flash Drives on FunkyKit Samsung SSD 960 Evo 500GB on Techspot Videocard: ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1060 Mini 3 GB on Tech Powerup Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 Ti OC Edition (4GB GDDR5) on FunkyKit XFX Radeon RX 470 Video Card on Hardware Secrets Keyboard/Mouse: Gamdias Hermes P1 Keyboard on Benchmark Reviews Zalman ZM-K900M Keyboard on techPowerUp Gigabyte Force K85 RGB on Vortez HyperX Alloy FPS Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on BigBruin EpicGear ZorA IR LED Gaming Mouse on FunkyKit Glorious Modular Mechanical Keyboard on Guru3D PSU: Corsair HX850i on LanOC SilverStone ST30SF & ST45SF SFX PSU on PC Perspective Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty X99 Professional Gaming i7 on techPowerUp Gigabyte Z170X-Ultra Gaming Motherboard on PC Perspective Gaming: Hitman First Season on OCC Titanfall 2 (PS4) on Gaming Nexus Misc: Logitech C922 Webcam on Vortez CalDigit USB-C Type-C USB 3.1 Dock on TweakTown Dune HD Solo 4k UHD HEVC Enabled Media Player on NikKTech D-Link DCS-2530L Wide Angle 1080p Wi-Fi IP Camera on TweakTown D-Link DIR-885L AC3150 Ultra Wi-Fi Router on Big Bruin Kingston HyperX Predator DDR4-3000 64 GB on Hardware Secrets NZXT Source S340 Elite Tempered Glass ATX Case on PC Perspective Huawei Honor 8 Smartphone on Hot Hardware Freshtech Solutions Aerocool DS230 GTX 1050 Ti Gaming PC on eTeknix Misc Pics (28 Comments) (link)  Friday, 18-November-2016  14:43:28 (GMT +10) - by Agg Posting from an airport cafe literally ten minutes after stepping off a plane.. the lengths I go to, to get you your Misc Pics fix! :) Wednesday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 16-November-2016  17:52:52 (GMT +10) - by aftahours Cooling: Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 280 AIO Cooler on Hardware Asylum Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 280 Liquid CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.org CRYORIG A40 Ultimate on Tech Powerup Cooler Master MasterLiquid Pro 240 and Pro 280 CPU coolers on Tech Report Misc: GEIL EVO X DDR4-3000 16GB Dual Channel Memory Kit on FunkyKit Kingston Cloud Stinger Gaming Headset on Ocaholic QNAP TS-853A NAS on Techspot Gaming: Small Radios Big Televisions on Gaming Nexus Sony’s PlayStation 4 Pro on Techgage Storage: Apacer Z280 240GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive on eTeknix Samsung 960 EVO on Vortez Samsung 960 EVO 1TB 1TB & 250GB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD on TweakTown Samsung SSD 960 EVO NVMe M.2 on Hot Hardware Samsung 960 EVO 250GB and 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD on PC Perspective Samsung 960 EVO M.2 1 Terabyte NVMe SSD on Guru3D Samsung SSD 960 EVO on Legit Reviews Samsung 960 EVO M.2 NVMe SSD on The SSD Review ADATA SE730 (2016) 250GB Portable SSD on TweakTown PSU: Thermaltake DPS-G RGB Gold 850W on JonnyGuru EVGA Supernova G3 1000W on JonnyGuru Tuesday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 15-November-2016  13:52:50 (GMT +10) - by Agg Networking: TP-Link Talon AD7200 802.11ad Wireless Router on Tweaktown. Rivet Networks Killer E2500 Gigabit Ethernet For Gamers With Advanced QoS on HotHardware. Input Etc: Fnatic Gear Clutch G1 Optical Mouse on APHNetworks. Corsair HARPOON RGB mouse on Vortez. Corsair MM800 RGB Polaris Mouse Pad on FunkyKit. Corsair Harpoon RGB Optical Gaming Mouse on eTeknix. Steelseries Rival 700 Gaming Mouse on eTeknix. Video Cards: ZOTAC GTX 1050 Ti OC Edition on Vortez. XFX Radeon RX 470 RS 4GB OC Black Edition on MadShrimps. Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 on HWSecrets. Galax GTX 1070 EXOC Sniper on OCClub. Portable & Prebuilt: iPhone 7 on LanOC. The honor 8 Aurora Glass Smartphone on TechARP. Software: Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope scales with multi-GPU on PCPerspective. Titanfall 2 Graphics Performance Tweak Guide on Tweaktown. Dishonored 2: PC graphics performance benchmark review on Guru3D. Dishonored 2: Performance Analysis on TechPowerUp. Misc: noblechairs EPIC Series Real Leather Gaming Chair on TechPowerUp. Mazda CX-9 Azami 2016 2.5T AWD: Vehicle Tech Review on Tweaktown. X2 Rindja 8020 PC Gamer Chassis on NikKTech. SteelSeries Arctis 5 7.1 Surround Sound RGB Headset on Techgage. Adata's Ultimate SU800 512GB SSD on Tech Report. Monday Evening (3 Comments) (link)  Monday, 14-November-2016  17:54:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg If you're in NZ, I hope you're not too badly affected by the series of earthquakes that have hit over the last couple of days. Aftershocks continued throughout Monday morning. Many schools and offices stayed closed while engineers checked the buildings, and ferries and trains were cancelled. Tonight and tomorrow night a super moon will be visible from Australia (and everywhere else). "Enjoy it, you don't need a telescope or binoculars, although they would make it look nice. "It's a free show and you won't see this again for a long time. "This was last seen in 1948 and won't be seen until 2034. Even if you couldn't give two hoots about the Moon, it's something you can do with the kids." I keep telling my kids that one day we'll be able to just ask an invisible computer questions, like on Star Trek - HWSecrets checked out Google Home, which launched recently. I must say that constantly calling the Home device “OK Google” was very tiresome. I felt like I was constantly doing an advertisement for Google. In comparison, talking to the Echo by calling the name “Alexa” did not bother me a bit and it made her feel like part of the family. One comfortable thing about the Home is that when you say “OK Google, Good Morning”, she will respond with weather, news, traffic and other personalized daily facts that you have chosen in the app. Or you could shortcut the whole thing with a brain implant. A paralysed woman has learned to use a brain implant to communicate by thought alone. It is the first time a brain–computer interface has been used at home in a person’s day-to-day life, without the need for doctors and engineers to recalibrate the device. “It’s special to be the first,” says HB, who is 58 years old and wishes to remain anonymous. She was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 2008. The disease ravages nerve cells, leaving people unable to control their bodies. Meanwhile Spotify has been thrashing storage. For almost five months—possibly longer—the Spotify music streaming app has been assaulting users' storage devices with enough data to potentially take years off their expected lifespans. Reports of tens or in some cases hundreds of gigabytes being written in an hour aren't uncommon, and occasionally the recorded amounts are measured in terabytes. The overload happens even when Spotify is idle and isn't storing any songs locally. Sunday Evening Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 13-November-2016  17:52:00 (GMT +10) - by booj Graphics Cards: ASUS STRIX Gaming GTX 1080 8GB on ocaholic. Gigabyte Radeon RX 480 G1 Gaming 8GB on ThinkComputers. XFX RX 460 Double Dissipation on Vortez. Storage: Toshiba OCZ TL100 SSD Review (120GB/240GB) on The SSD Review. Crucial MX300 750GB SSD on Hardware Asylum. Crucial MX300 750 GB on techPowerUp. Audio: Fatal1ty FXM 200 Gaming Headset by Monster on Legit Reviews. Cooler Master MasterPulse Pro Headset on Benchmark Reviews. Thermaltake Tt eSports Cronos RGB Gaming Headset on Funky Kit. Allocacoc audioCube Portable WOOD Edition on NikKTech. VR: Google Daydream and Daydream View on Techspot. Google Daydream VR on PCworld. Input etc: G.SKILL RipJaws KM570 MX mechanical keyboard on Guru3D. Steelseries APEX M500 Mechanical Keyboard on eTeknix. Corsair Harpoon RGB Mouse on techPowerUp. Corsair Harpoon RGB Gaming Mouse on Madshrimps. Corsair Gaming Harpoon RGB Optical Mouse on APH Networks. Misc: PlayStation 4 Pro on Techgage. Cooler Master MasterLiquid Maker 92 CPU cooler on The Tech Report. Team Group Vulcan T-Force 16GB DDR4-3000 Memory Kit on Funky Kit. Alienware 13 R3 on Hot Hardware. MSI X99A TOMAHAWK Motherboard on TweakTown. Philips Brilliance 28-inch 288P6 4K Monitor on eTeknix. Shuttle XPC Nano NC02U Barebone on Madshrimps. Misc Pics (23 Comments) (link)  Friday, 11-November-2016  13:59:34 (GMT +10) - by Agg Today of course is Remembrance Day. Remembrance Day (sometimes known informally as Poppy Day) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth of Nations member states since the end of the First World War to remember the members of their armed forces who have died in the line of duty. Bonus tidbit: it seems Humble Bundle are giving away Dirt3 today, for free. Thursday Afternoon (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 10-November-2016  16:09:28 (GMT +10) - by Agg So, Trump is (soon to be) president. Meanwhile, in Australia, a man may be fined for using a drone to get a sausage for a mate. A man who only wants to be known as "Tim" has admitted he was part of a team that flew a drone to pick up a sausage from Bunnings and deliver it to a friend waiting in an outdoor spa in Sunbury. Speaking of drones, GoPro's new Karma has been recalled. GoPro is committed to providing our customers with great product experiences. To honor this commitment, we have recalled Karma until we resolve a performance issue related to a loss of power during operation. We plan to resume shipment of Karma once the issue is addressed. New proposed legislation brings a national security twist to telco operations. Telcos will similarly be required to inform the department about any changes they plan to make to their systems or services that could have a "material adverse impact" on their obligation to secure their networks. Types of changes the government says it should be notified about include outsourcing or offshoring sensitive parts of a network, buying kit or services for a sensitive part of a network, and changes to the management of services. On a related note, Australia now has a cyber ambassador. Infosec academic and policy advisor Dr Tobias Feakin will become Australia’s first cyber ambassador, filling a diplomatic role created by the government’s April cyber security strategy. Feakin's appointment makes him a key counterpart to the Prime Minister’s special adviser on cybersecurity, Alastair MacGibbon, leading international efforts to stamp out cyber crime. Thursday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 10-November-2016  14:14:30 (GMT +10) - by booj Graphics Cards: ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1070 AMP! Extreme on Hot Hardware. Gigabyte GTX 1050 Ti G1 Gaming 4 GB on techPowerUp. GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1060 Xtreme Gaming 6G on Funky Kit. Storage: Crucial MX300 2TB SSD on Vortez. Micron 1100 256GB SSD on NikKTech. Input etc: Speedlink QUINOX Pro USB Gamepad on Vortez. Dream Machines DM1 Pro Optical Gaming Mouse on TweakTown. Tobii Tracker 4C on OCC. Azio MK Retro on LanOC Reviews. Feenix Vitesse Optical Gaming Mouse on TweakTown. HyperX Alloy FPS Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Legit Reviews. Audio: Cooler Master MasterPulse Pro Gaming Headset on OCC. Cooler Master Masterpulse Pro Gaming Headset on Funky Kit. Cooler Master MasterPulse Pro Gaming Headset on Think Computers. Cooler Master MasterPulse Pro Gaming Headset on Legit Reviews. Ozone EKHO H80 Gaming Headset on Funky Kit. Steelseries Arctis 5 Headset on ocaholic. Misc: Cooler Master MasterWatt Maker 1200 PSU on Guru3D. Cooler Master MasterLiquid Maker 92 AIO Watercooler on Hardware Asylum. Archeer Foldable Solar Charger on Benchmark Reviews. Intel Kaby Lake Linux Testing With MSI's Cubi 2 Mini PC on Phoronix. US Election (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 9-November-2016  11:29:49 (GMT +10) - by Agg The results from the US election are coming in now. If you're watching (or can't look away from the train wreck), follow along with this thread in our Politics & Policies forum. Project Orthrus (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 8-November-2016  15:08:04 (GMT +10) - by Agg I've always had a fondness for powerful mini-PCs, but I missed this one from back in July. LukeD_NC's "Project Orthrus" is a tiny custom mATX case, into which he's squeezed an SLI setup: click for the thread! Tuesday Afternoon (4 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 8-November-2016  13:45:01 (GMT +10) - by Agg Centrelink are red-faced after sharing customer info - twice. When the department realised it had disclosed the email contact details of hundreds of its customers on October 24, it tried to recall the email containing the information, but only succeeded in sending it again. PC World spent some time at PAX in Melbourne over the weekend, and have a huge photo gallery, as well as a report on the best VR demos. There was a variety of scenarios for the VR rigs to use: MSI had its VR One backpack PC on show. Melbourne outfit ?VFC? used a bespoke fishing rod contraption, Origin PC used monster screens so that everyone around could see what was happening. Virtuix displayed its VR treadmill. Sony had a living room couch setup and ?Depth VR? had people thinking they were diving with Sharks. Scootre points out that Apple have dropped the pricing on their USB-C dongles, perhaps in response to the user backlash over the new MacBook Pros lacking USB. Apple killed and switched all its ports over to Thunderbolt 3 the new MacBook Pros – except, ironically, the headphone jack – so now pretty much everyone has to connect their external devices via a dongle. Even your iPhone. Also from Scootre, a cool mixing deck interface for Lightroom. Most of us can get by just fine in an image editing program like Adobe Lightroom using only a mouse and keyboard. Those who edit by trade, however, will likely tell you that using such all-purpose tools can be impractical, ergonomically poor and time consuming. Those are the issues Mikko Kesti ran into, thus prompting him to search for a more efficient tool for the job. After coming up empty-handed, Kesti assembled a five-person team and set about building the ultimate editing tool. PC Case Gear are in hot water, with a $250k settlement to Microsoft over licensing issues. OEM reseller PC Case Gear was allegedly infringing Microsoft's copyright by obtaining 4000 Microsoft Windows 7 Certificates of Authenticity (COAs) that belonged to the Microsoft Authorised Refurbisher Program (MAR). Microsoft claims this happened over 12 months, and that PC Case Gear would have obtained those COAs from an "unauthorised party". A few people sent word of a new broadband provider arriving in Australia, with a different approach. An overseas internet start-up that Telstra's former chief executive considered a real threat to the telco industry will launch in Australia this month offering one plan – unlimited data at speeds of up to 100 Mbps. Tuesday Midday Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 8-November-2016  12:59:15 (GMT +10) - by Agg Input Etc: MadCatz's RAT 1 gaming mouse on TechReport. AUKEY KM-G3 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Tweaktown. Tesoro Sharur Spectrum on OCAholic. CHERRY MX Board 6.0 Mechanical Keyboard on MadShrimps. GIGABYTE XM300 gaming mouse on Vortez. The $40 Mechanical Keyboard: Is It Any Good? on TechSpot. Cases: Corsair Carbide Air 740 High Airflow ATX Cube Case on PCPerspective. Aerocool DS230 Mid-Tower Chassis on eTeknix. Misc: Drobo 5Dt – Turbo Edition (DAS with Thunderbolt) on FunkyKit. Cooler Master MasterFan Pro 120 and 140 Cooling Fans on APHNetworks. Seasonic PRIME Series 750 W PSU on TechPowerUp. Surface 4 Pro - A Real Laptop Replacement on HWSecrets. Monday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 7-November-2016  13:27:30 (GMT +10) - by Agg Audio Visual: VicoVation Vico-MF3 Extreme Car Camcorder on NikKTech. The Fujifilm X-A3 Mirrorless Camera Hands-On Preview on TechARP. Fujifilm X-A3 Mirrorless Camera & Wonder Photo Shop Launch on TechARP. Kingston HyperX Cloud Stinger Gaming Headset on APHNetworks. Video Cards: GTX 1050 Ti x 3 Overclocking Showdown vs. RX 460 on BabelTechReviews. GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Video Card Roundup - EVGA, MSI and ZOTAC on LegitReviews. Storage: Lexar 128GB Professional 1066x CompactFlash Card on TheSSDReviews. HyperX Savage 240GB SSD Review and RAID Performance Testing on HWAsylum. Patriot Hellfire 480GB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD on Tweaktown. QNAP TS-451A 4-bay Dual-core NAS with QuickAccess on MadShrimps. ADATA SE730 External SSD Review (250GB) – USB Type-C on TheSSDReview. Portable & Prebuilt: The Exclusive Huawei Mate 9 Preview + Launch Dates on TechARP. Motorola Moto G4 Play on TechARP. SHARP Z2 & SHARP M1 Hands-On Preview on TechARP. The Exclusive Huawei Mate 9 Preview on TechARP. Cases: Thermaltake Core G3 Slim ATX Chassis on Tweaktown. In Win 303 ATX Mid-Tower on MadShrimps. Fractal Design Define C on ThinkComputers. Software: Titanfall 2 Review And PC Benchmarks Quick Take: Fantastic Mech Fun on HotHardware. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare PC graphics benchmark on Guru3D. Call of Duty Infinite Warfare: Performance Analysis on TechPowerUp. Misc: Netgear Nighthawk X4S D7800 AC2600 WiFi VDSL/ADSL Modem Router on NikKTech. ID-Cooling ICEKIMO AIO CPU Liquid Cooler on FunkyKit. Misc Pics (23 Comments) (link)  Friday, 4-November-2016  14:26:51 (GMT +10) - by Agg Friday again! Win a $3000 Scorptec PC (27 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 3-November-2016  14:57:10 (GMT +10) - by Agg Scorptec and In Win are giving away a $3000 Gaming PC! You just have to join their mailing list and answer a couple of easy questions. Good luck! click for details! Thursday Afternoon (3 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 3-November-2016  14:40:29 (GMT +10) - by Agg HWInfo have compared 22 huge HDDs. While the price of SSDs continues to drop, the ‘old’ hard drive is still the cheapest way to store a lot of data. Especially in a NAS or Mini-ITX system, where there is limited physical space you probably want a drive with as much capacity as possible. In this article we take a look at 22 models with a capacity between 6 and 10 TB. If you're into VR or AR, being Augmented Reality, a new Lenovo phone might be of interest. Now a few months after the game’s launch, the first fully capable AR smartphone has started shipping. It’s Lenovo’s Phab 2 Pro, and under the hood it contains the hardware and software neccesary to use Google’s Tango AR technology. Pokémon Go didn’t accelerate Tango’s consumer timeline, which has been in place since the team began discussions with Lenovo last year. Tweaktown have been playing with video card vs ssd upgrades in an older PC. For the last month or so, we've been playing around with a new form of benchmarking, as I had talked with NVIDIA Australia on a look at upgrading your PC in two different ways. First, was the graphics card - of course, NVIDIA is a GPU company, guys. They sent us over their older GeForce GTX 760 2GB, while we used our new Pascal-based GeForce GTX 1060 6GB as an upgrade. upgrade-test-gtx-760-vs-1060-ssd-hdd-system_301 But it's the storage upgrade that had me excited, and which shows an incredible value for money upgrade for your gaming needs - so we ran Windows 10 on a mechanical HDD, and then again on an SSD with a bunch of games. Valve are requiring Steam developers to use real in-game screenshots, not misleading pre-rendered or edited concept art screens. Over the years, there’s been heaps of controversy around screenshots proudly touting features that don’t exist or impossibly stunning visuals. Recent case in point: whether you love it or hate it, you gotta admit that No Man’s Sky’s Steam screenshots are, as Kotaku’s own Kirk Hamilton puts it, “hogwash.” They’ve only served to fan the flames of ire lapping at the game’s procedurally generated eyeball ankles. ThinkComputers checked out the Zotac Factory in Dongguan, China. The factory tour took place in Dongguan, China at the PC Partner facility. PC Partner is actually the holding company of Zotac. This facility is where all of the Zotac graphics cards and mini PCs are made. Through the factory tour Zotac showed us exactly how their graphics cards and Mini PC’s are produced from start to finish. MSI are holding a big giveaway to celebrate their 30th anniversary. Seems a Facebook account is required though. Thursday Afternoon Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 3-November-2016  13:53:54 (GMT +10) - by Agg Input Etc: Fnatic Gear Clutch G1 Gaming Mouse on MadShrimps. A technology overview of the Aimpad R5 analog keyboard on TechReport. Audio Visual: Logitech Prodigy G231 Gaming Headset on PCPerspective. 360fly Mobile VR Viewer headset on PCWorld. Zeiss VR One Plus Virtual Reality headset on PCWorld. The Groundbreaking Experience Offered by the Oculus Touch on HWSecrets. Portable & Prebuilt: Alienware 13 R3 With GeForce 10 And OLED Eats MacBook Pros For Lunch on HotHardware. The Sharp Z2 & Sharp M1 Smartphones Revealed on TechARP. Hands On And First Impressions Of The Microsoft Surface Studio AIO PC on HotHardware. Alienware 13 (2016) review: The first OLED gaming laptop on PCWorld. Cases: Fractal Design's Define C on TechReport. Fractal Design Define C on Guru3D. Fractal Design Define C on TechPowerUp. Fractal Design Define Mini C Windowed Edition on Modders-Inc. Fractal Design Define Mini C on OCAholic. NZXT S340 Elite ATX on BenchmarkReviews. Video Cards: Gigabyte RX 480 G1 Gaming 8GB on LanOC. $100-$150 Best Playable Roundup: AMD’s RX460 & NVIDIA’s GTX1050/1050Ti on Techgage. Software: Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary Edition World Tour on GamingNexus. Titanfall 2 Benchmarked: Graphics & CPU Performance on TechSpot. Battlefield 1 PC Performance and Quality Report on Tweaktown. Misc: Amazon Echo Dot Second Generation on Tweaktown. WD My Passport Wireless Pro on HotHardware. Biostar Racing B150 GT3 Motherboard on FunkyKit. Wednesday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 2-November-2016  08:59:24 (GMT +10) - by booj Motherboards: ASRock X99 Professional Gaming i7 on OC inside. ASUS X99-E-10G WS on TweakTown. ASUS Sabertooth Z170 S on Legit Reviews. GIGABYTE Z170X Ultra Gaming on Funky Kit. ASRock X99 Taichi on TechPowerup. Storage: Lexar JumpDrive S25 128GB and S45 64GB Flash Drives on Funky Kit. Toshiba OCZ VX500 512GB SSD on APH Networks. Audio: SteelSeries Siberia 840 Bluetooth Gaming Headset on Funky Kit. Master & Dynamic ME01 Earphones on Bigbruin. HiFiMAN HE-1000 V2 Planar Magnetic Headphones on Techpowerup. Cooling: Cooler Master MASTERAIR PRO 3 on TweakTown. Cooler Master MasterAir Pro 4 & MasterAir Pro 3 CPU Coolers on ThinkComputers. Cooler Master MasterAir Pro 3 & Pro 4 CPU Cooler on Legit Reviews. Cooler Master MasterAir Pro 3 and MasterAir Pro 4 CPU coolers on The Tech Report. Thermalright Le Grand Macho RT CPU Cooler on NikKTech. MSI Core Frozr L CPU cooler on Guru3D. Input etc: SteelSeries Apex M500 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Madshrimps. AZIO MK Retro Mechanical Keyboard on Hardware Asylum. Notebooks: MSI GT73VR-Titan on PC World. MSI GS63-VR on PC World. PowerColor Devil Box on OCC. Misc: MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Quick Silver 8G OC on Guru3D. AK Racing Prime Gaming Chair on NikKTech. DeepCool GamerStorm Genome on Neoseeker. honor 8 Aurora Glass Smartphone on TechARP.

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