Although GlobalFoundries has licensed 14nm FinFET manufacturing technology from Samsung Electronics back in May, 2014, it looks like the company may have to delay mass production using the fabrication process. According to a media report, the company has stopped installation of equipment required to make chips using 14nm FinFET technology. …
Read More »iTunes now offers refunds in Europe
Apple has changed the iTunes refund policy making it so that Europeans can return almost any digital item bought from the store within two weeks of purchase. However, as you would expect, there are some caveats in place to avoid abuse of the system. If you open an app, or …
Read More »Microsoft may launch a new web browser for Windows 10
Microsoft is reportedly working on an all new web browser to launch alongside Windows 10 in 2015. The project is currently codenamed ‘Spartan' and will see the company move away from Internet Explorer, which has garnered up quite a bad reputation over the years. According to ZDNet, the new app …
Read More »Apple Pay to arrive in the UK next year following tricky negotiations
Apple Pay is due to arrive in the UK next year but according to new reports Apple's negotiations are being held up as some banking executives fear that the mobile payment service could serve as a “beachhead for Apple's invasion of the banking industry”. Additionally, at least one of the …
Read More »Microsoft improves Xbox One performance with new SDK
When Microsoft Corp. formally introduced its Xbox One video game console in 2013, it faced a rather massive amount of criticism from enthusiast gamers because the system’s graphics processing horsepower was considerably lower compared to that of Sony’s PlayStation 4. Apparently, the company has taken critics seriously and is trying …
Read More »Apple’s new MacBook Air 12-inch to sport Core M chip, USB 3.1, retina display
One of the key selling points of Apple’s next-generation MacBook Air laptop is expected to be very slim form-factor, fanless cooling and long battery life. However, it turns out that the new system from Apple will also sport a number of technological breakthroughs that will hit the market for the …
Read More »AMD could use GlobalFoundries’ SHP process technology for GPUs
Although Advanced Micro Devices wants to cease using special process technologies for its products in order to cut-down their manufacturing and development costs, it looks like next year the company will have to use GlobalFoundries’ 28nm super high-performance (SHP) technology for its Radeon graphics processors in order to ensure their …
Read More »Toshiba to consider overseas location for new chip plant
Toshiba Corp. said last week that it would consider an overseas location for its next NAND flash memory chip plant because currently demand for this memory type exceeds supply. While the company did not reveal where it could build its next fab, it is highly likely that the plant will …
Read More »Halo 5: Guardians beta launches today
Those of you that own an Xbox One along with a copy of the Halo Master Chief Collection will be able to check out the Halo 5: Guardians multiplayer beta test later today. This test will last three weeks and is there to help 343 Industries to tweak gameplay based …
Read More »Xbox Live and PSN back online following Christmas day attacks
Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network are back online following the Christmas period DDOS attacks which saw both services suffer from issues for a few days. The attack was carried out by Lizard Squad, a group of ‘hackers' that threatened to take down Microsoft and Sony's respective online services earlier this …
Read More »Game of Thrones crowned as most pirated show of 2014
Game of Thrones has managed to become the most pirated show of 2014, continuing its annual winning streak. This year's season was downloaded more than eight million times via BitTorrent, steaming ahead of the rest of the competition. The Walking Dead came in at a distant second place with just …
Read More »Sale bargains – check those labels carefully
Walking around the Boxing Day bargains, some KitGuru readers were keen to share their experience of what appears to be some quite blatant product mis-labeling. Naturally, we investigated, here are the initial results. Over the years, there have been some classic mis-labeling incidents across the tech world. Some are legitimate, …
Read More »OCZ ARC100 SSD’s all pass 22TB warranty point
Regular readers will know of the challenge submitted to KitGuru by OCZ – to kill 5 of their ARC 100 Solid State Drives. If you need a recap, then head back to this page posted on December 10th. Since then, we have been stress testing the drives to see if …
Read More »Independent cinemas rally round The Interview
One of the most interesting aspects of the whole hacking of Sony and the debacle that is The Interview movie, has been that when the big cinema chains backed out of showing it over fears of box office losses and viewer endangerment, many independent theatres stepped up. Cinemas like the Alamo …
Read More »Festive tidings from the KitGuru team!
2014 has been a great year for KitGuru and I wanted, on behalf of the team, to thank you all for the support throughout the year. Before you fall asleep fat and happy on the sofa watching the TV, never fear, our content hasn't quite stopped for the year – …
Read More »be quiet! Advent competition ending soon!
If you haven't entered the Christmas Advent competition from be quiet! You only have a couple of days left to do so, as it comes to an end this Saturday. It's been running all throughout December, with special prizes being awarded to lucky Facebook fans every Sunday and this one …
Read More »Samsung Smart TV’s to get PlayStation Now game streaming
In an announcement today Samsung and Sony declared a partnership that will see the PlayStation Now game streaming service being built into select Samsung Smart TV's next year. This will allow customers in the United States and Canada to stream games directly to their Samsung TV without any need for downloads. When this is launched …
Read More »Irish government and European parliament member side with Microsoft
Today, Microsoft is set to gain two more allies in its defense against the United States government, in an ongoing court case regarding a US warrant for customer data that is being stored in servers in Ireland. Both the Irish government and an European MEP, have now filed amicus briefs in support of the stance …
Read More »U.S. ITC to investigate Samsung’s complaints against Nvidia, others
The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) on Tuesday said it will investigate Samsung’s accusations against patent infringements by Nvidia Corp. and its partners. If the ITC finds Nvidia and its allies guilty of patent infringements, it may stop sales of their products in the United States. The products at issue …
Read More »Biostar to protect mainboards from lightning strikes, electrical surges
Biostar, a well-known maker of mainboards, said this week that its mainboards will be equipped with a technology that helps to protect personal computers against power surges in Ethernet networks as well as against electrostatics. It is not a secret that PC components can be damaged or even destroyed by …
Read More »Sapphire Technology teases NFC brand
Sapphire Technology on Wednesday uploaded a teaser video to its account on YouTube, teasing, possibly, new graphics cards featuring mysterious NFC technology. Like with many viral videos, Sapphire’s video does not explain what exactly it advertises. “Passion is hard,” says the voice in the video. “Sometimes it hurts. People tell …
Read More »Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic has landed on Android
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic has finally landed on Android, some time after the mobile version's iPad debut. It is available on the Google Play Store and right now it is half price to celebrate its launch, costing £3.20. This is the full KOTOR experience and has not …
Read More »Scientists are using 200 PS3 consoles to research black holes
The last generation consoles may still be useful after all as scientists have configured 200 PlayStation 3 consoles together to create a low cost super computer, which is being used to help research black holes. The console array was first created all the way back in 2007, featuring just 16 …
Read More »It turns out that The Interview will be shown on Christmas day afterall
It turns out that Sony will be letting some theaters show The Interview on Christmas day after all. The film's Thursday release was originally cancelled following threats from a hacking group tied to North Korea. However, it looks like Sony has changed its mind following public criticism. The owner of …
Read More »Samsung begins mass production of LPDDR4 memory for 4K phones
Samsung Electronics has announced that it has started mass production of 8Gb LPDDR4 memory chips for next-generation smartphones based on advanced application processors. The new handsets will feature displays with ultra-high-definition resolutions as well as new-generation system-on-chips, such as Qualcomm Snapdragon 810. At present Samsung manufactures 8Gb and 6Gb LPDDR4 …
Read More »Lego Pillar of Autumn replica took 3.5 years and $7000 to build
It took a fair few years and upwards of $7000 but we finally have a massive replica of the Pillar of Autumn, one of the huge spaceships from the Halo games. Over all, the Lego replica weighs 100kg and measures in at 2.15 meters long. The Pillar of Autumn is one of …
Read More »Intel: Half of Xeon chips for cloud datacenters will be custom in 2015
It is a well-known fact that owners of large datacenters, such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Corp. and other, have very diverse requirements for servers and microprocessors inside their servers. In the recent years both Intel Corp. and AMD offered custom central processing units to large clients in order to …
Read More »Bandai Namco is blocking access to the Dark Souls 60fps mod
It turns out that Bandai Namco is currently blocking access to the Dark Souls I port fixing mod, DSFix, and serving Dropbox accounts with DMCA take down notices in order to have it removed. However, unconfirmed reports are popping up, claiming that this was indeed a mistake. The DSFix mod …
Read More »Kim Dotcom 2012 mansion raid deemed legal by Supreme Court
It seems ridiculous at this point, but Kim Dotcom is still awaiting his extradition trial, despite the fact that he was originally arrested almost three years ago, during a 20th January raid on his mansion. In the raid's aftermath, we learned that helicopters and heavily armed (though oddly not armoured) …
Read More »Patriot hacker The Jester to retire persona
Even though the '80s and '90s taught us to fear the power of hackers with their cereal box whistles and surprisingly visual interfaces, the '00s and beyond have really brought them to the fore. Not only have we heard about the covert underground of state sponsored hacking on a much …
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