The number of independent flash controller developers decreased in the recent years as large makers of solid-state drives as well as products featuring NAND flash memory acquired designers of controllers to improve their products. As it appears, there is a new kid on the block, Tidal Systems, which is formed …
Read More »Google to create Play-like hardware store for Project Ara smartphones
Google plans to build a special online store that will sell components for modular smartphones that belong to the Project Ara initiative. The intention means that Google will certify modules for smartphones and ensure their quality, which is a rather hard task. Besides, small-volume manufacturing of custom modules will mean …
Read More »Google and Oxford University team up to work on AI
Google and a small team of Oxford University professors and graduates are set to work together on advancing machine learning and AI technology at the university's Dark Blue labs. In return, Google will provide funding for the research. Professor, Mike Woolridge, head of the Department of Computer Science, said: “Machine …
Read More »Amiibo ad makes Smash Bros look like a grind fest
Oh Nintendo, will you just get the marketing for your current-gen system right? You have a decent console. It's got some good, unique games and it's cheaper than all of the others. It even does 1080p and 60 frames per second in some titles, so why aren't you making a bigger …
Read More »Witcher 3 opening cinematic revealed
CD Projekt Red has revealed the opening cinematic to The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, the first title in the series to feature a fully open world. The game is set to release at the end of February next year. The cinematic debuted at the Golden Joystick awards, which takes place …
Read More »Google’s search down ranking heavily reduces torrent site traffic
Google recently announced its intention to down rank torrent sites on its search pages. These new anti-piracy measurements have since kicked in and as a result, some popular torrent sites have seen a large drop in traffic. However, while large sites are seeing a downturn in traffic, some smaller torrent …
Read More »WildStar developer hit with layoffs
It looks like WildStar, Guild Wars and City of Heroes publisher, NCSoft, is running in to some trouble and as a result, the company, along with several developers have been hit with layoffs. Guild Wars developer, Arenanet, is unaffected whereas WildStar developer, Carbine, has had to let go around 60 people, cutting …
Read More »Oculus ‘grossly underestimated’ resources required during Kickstarter campaign
The Kickstarter campaign for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset seemed to be very successful but founder, Palmer Luckey, has since revealed that he had actually “grossly underestimated” resources and as a result, he lost money on the crowd funding campaign. Raising $2.5 million didn't do justice to the project. …
Read More »First images of Microsoft Lumia smartphones’ elements published
Microsoft Corp. on Friday published the first images of Lumia smartphones that lack Nokia brand. As it appears, the future handsets from the world’s largest software developer will carry Microsoft trademark. The company also said Friday that the first Microsoft Lumia smartphones will be released shortly. Microsoft does not plan …
Read More »Microsoft managed to sell 2.4 million Xbox consoles during Q3
Microsoft has finally released some Xbox One sales figures, showing that the company managed to ship 2.4 million Xbox consoles to retailers during the third quarter of this year, which ended on the 30th of September. The company's statement appeared to suggest that it had sold 2.4 million to consumers …
Read More »Piracy Crime Unit PIPCU secures funding until 2017
The City of London's Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) is a government funded organisation dedicated to clamping down on intellectual property and copyright infringements, most notably online piracy. It's been in operation for a few years now and clearly the government is pleased with its progress, as it's now …
Read More »Ubisoft confirms Assassin’s Creed Unity high system requirements
Update: Ubisoft has since confirmed that PC owners wanting to play Assassin's Creed Unity should have at least a GTX 680/ Radeon HD 7970 GPU and an Intel Core i5 2500K/ AMD FX-8350 CPU. a 64-bit OS is also required. Also, laptop GPUs aren't “officially supported”. It is still recommended that you …
Read More »Amazon shares drop after near half billion loss announcement
Amazon might have spent much of this quarter aggressively expanding and introducing new services like Prime member streaming music and same-day deliveries in the UK, suggesting growth and prosperity, but its books paint a much less successful picture of the same period. According to the latest earnings report, Amazon lost …
Read More »Long armed dinosaur mystery solved
If there was one joke that often gets brought up about many dinosaurs, it's that if they had arms, they were often short. Not all of them though, and one dinosaur in particular with exceptionally long arms for its kind has been puzzling palaeontologists for decades, but no longer. Deinocheirus mirificus …
Read More »Smash Bros Wii U will have eight player battles
I love massive local multiplayer. Four players is great and all, but if you can ever find a game that supports more than that and get enough people in a room, chances are you're in for a treat. It's why I'm still hoping Mutiny! somehow hits its funding target and …
Read More »Sony to focus on high-end smartphones and developed markets
Sony Corp. is expected to stop making entry-level and mid-range smartphones in the future, a news-agency reported on Thursday. The company is projected to cut its annual sales target for smartphones for the second time this year. Originally Sony planned to sell 50 million smartphones this fiscal year (which ends …
Read More »Nintendo to design key chips for next-gen consoles in the U.S.
Historically, Nintendo developed key technologies and processors for its video game consoles at its research and development facilities in Japan. However, it looks like for its next-generation game systems the development of key system-on-chips will be carried out at Nintendo Technology Development, a subsidiary of Nintendo based in the U.S. …
Read More »Asus begins to sell Windows 8.1 tablet that weighs 330 grams
Asustek Computer has quietly begun to sell the world’s lightest tablet that runs Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 8.1 operating system. Asus VivoTab 8, which weighs only 330 grams, is now available in Japan, but shortly it will make to other markets as well. Surprisingly, the slate is not very expensive. Asus …
Read More »Rockstar confirms enhanced Grand Theft Auto San Andreas release
Yesterday we reported that an Xbox 360 achievement list for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas leaked online, suggesting that Rockstar may be re-releasing the game in HD. The studio has now confirmed that the decade old game will be re-releasing digitally, replacing the original Xbox version in the Xbox Live …
Read More »More world records broken at MSI MOA overclocking event
For the second time today we've seen an overclocking world record broken at the MSI MOA overclocking event. This time 8-Pack has managed to break 40,000 marks in 3DMark using the MSI X99S XPower AC motherboard. The new world record 3DMark Fire Strike score is 40052, with help from MSI's …
Read More »Couple arrested for selling hard drives filled with illegal music
A man and a woman have been arrested today by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit after they were suspected of earning £350,000 by selling hard drives filled with illegally downloaded music. The couple would sell drives containing around 200,000 songs and music videos, the scheme made them a pretty …
Read More »AMD Chief Gaming Scientist responds to the OcUK forum
When you've been working in gaming since you left university – and you were a key member of the team that helped create DirectX in the first place – then you have opinions on just about everything. We partnered with the folks on the Overclockers.co.uk Forum to get the toughest questions possible for AMD's …
Read More »Nvidia driver update adds Dynamic Super Resolution support
Many of our readers have been quick to point out to us that Nvidia's latest driver update has added support for Dynamic Super Resolution, making downsampling easier for everyone. The new graphical feature was introduced with the launch of the GTX 980 and 970 GPUs but has since expanded to …
Read More »Windows 10 provides new ways to protect against Internet data breaches
Windows 10 is set to safe-guard users against data breaches by implementing multiple factor authentication for PC logins. According to Microsoft, the new OS will optionally treat a device as on authentication factor when signing in to a local or internet based account, a pin code or biometric reader will …
Read More »Intel preps Broadwell- and Skylake-based Xeon E3 for 1P servers
Intel Corp. plans to release two new generations of Xeon central processing units for uniprocessor (UP) servers and workstations next year. The chips will be based on the code-named “Broadwell” and “Skylake” micro-architectures and are expected to feature improved performance, integrated graphics, power efficiency as well as memory controllers. Intel Xeon …
Read More »Vintage Apple I computer sells for $905,000
A British auction house has managed to sell a rare Apple I computer for $905,000, almost double the $500,000 it was expected to go for. The winning bid came from the Henry Ford Museum, which said that it will put the 1970s era machine on display for the public. Museum …
Read More »Champions crowned at MSI MOA overclocking event
It's that time of year again folks, where MSI's Master Overclocking Arena brings together some of the best overclockers in the world to see if they can push commercial hardware to complete benchmarks and produce raw numbers faster and higher than anyone else. Over a couple of days of frantic …
Read More »AMD slashes prices on select A-series desktop APUs
Advanced Micro Devices this week quietly updated its official price-list and published the new prices of its A-series accelerated processing units. In addition to updating its official price-list, AMD also notified several web-sites about price-cuts on low-end models not listed at the company’s web-site. For the first time since the …
Read More »Air New Zealand releases Hobbit inspired safety video
New Zealand has been cashing in on the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit franchises for over a decade now. It's proven to be a great boon for the tourist industry specifically, so it's no surprise that with the last Hobbit movie just around the corner, some companies are looking to …
Read More »Yahoo grows Tumblr audience by 40 per cent
Often times when it comes to social networks and online communities, the big ones people talk about are Facebook, Twitter and Reddit and yet there are others out there with many, many millions of users that are growing at an impressive rate. Tumblr is one of them and considering Yahoo …
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