Companies that sell invasive spying software to oppressive regimes around the world, should be held accountable. That's according to the Coalition Against Unlawful Surveillance Exports (CAUSE) which has just been launched in Brussels, Belgium. Made up of representatives from a variety of other rights organisations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights …
Read More »Sapphire shows off R9 290 Vapor X GPU
AMD GPU partner Sapphire has announced a new addition to its R9 line up of graphics cards, known as the R9 290 Vapor X. Featuring an advanced cooling system designed with performance as well as noise levels in mind, this card should offer longer product life, as well as better …
Read More »Creative Assembly on making Alien: Isolation sound authentic
Whatever your thoughts on Gearbox's Aliens: Colonial Marines, one thing they did get right with it, was the sounds of the assault rifles and that's commendable, even if the rest of the game isn't. And that's because sound in the Alien universe is incredibly important. The original film's orchestral score …
Read More »Survival of the fittest: Galaxy S5 vs. Galaxy S4 drop/crash test
One of the most important features of modern smartphones is, without any doubts, their ability to survive during drops, falls and other incidents. The new Samsung Galaxy S5 is clearly better than the Samsung Galaxy S4 from 2013 when it comes to performance and design. But which one is more …
Read More »ImgTec MIPS-based platform for wearable electronics announced
With the introduction of Google Android Wear operating system, hardware makers developing ultra-low-power chipsets started to unveil their platforms for wearable devices, such as smart-watches or smart-eyewear. Imagination Technologies, a leading designer of general purpose processing cores as well as multimedia and graphics processing engines, said this week that it …
Read More »Intel reveals code-named ‘Braswell’ microprocessors for low-cost PCs
Intel Corp. this week revealed the name of its new-generation code-named Braswell system-on-chip that will power upcoming value notebooks and desktops. The new chip will be made using a leading-edge process technology and will combine relatively high performance, small footprint, low power consumption and low cost. Intel did not reveal …
Read More »Cooler Master debuts Quick Fire Rapid-I keyboard
Cooler Master has announced a new miniature keyboard design, with a standard layout (minus the numpad extras) and mechanical switches. But the real selling point, is the fancy LED effects it can put out thanks to its onboard, 32bit ARM processor. Unfortunately beyond a little mouse-over light show on this …
Read More »Plextor’s first PCI Express SSD finally available next week
Plextor is about to start selling its first solid-state drives with PCI Express x16 interface next week. The new-generation Plextor M6e PCIe SSD will be available starting next week exclusively via a store in the U.S. and then will go for sale worldwide starting the 14th of April. Plextor M6e …
Read More »Microsoft officially announces its answer to Siri- Cortana
It has been rumoured for a while but Microsoft has finally officially revealed Cortana, the Windows Phone version of Siri or Google Now. The Halo AI inspired voice assistant will be available in the next Windows Phone 8.1 update which is due to arrive in the US in beta form …
Read More »Hearthstone has started rolling out on iPad
Blizzard's popular free to play collectible card game, Hearthstone, has begun rolling out to iPads. The developer is referring to this as a ‘soft-launch' as it is currently only available in select countries in order to test the app's stability but global availability is expected to come soon. Right now …
Read More »Microsoft Studios’ staff are being laid off
Following on from news that Xbox has a new boss, Phil Spencer, with plans to merge multiple departments together, including Microsoft Studios, the game development arm of the software giant is being hit by layoffs, with several staffers posting confirmation on Twitter; some of them, with links to their new …
Read More »Amazon’s Fire TV isn’t guaranteed a UK release
Amazon's recently revealed set top box, the Fire TV, might not make it outside of the United States as the company currently has no plans to release in other countries. Selling a streaming device is never easy as licensing agreements need to be made with copyright holders in order to …
Read More »Intel demonstrates reversible USB 3.1 type-C connector
Intel Corp. this week demonstrated the new reversible USB 3.1 type C connector that represents the future of the standard. The USB 3.1 type-C offers the same capabilities as the latest specifications do, but in a form-factor that is much more convenient to use. The key feature of the USB …
Read More »NSA admits to loophole spying on Americans
When the NSA spying revelations were first revealed, it was clear American metadata was being used when it came to tracking down terrorists – though it wasn't particularly useful – but Obama and others made bold statements that suggested “nobody [at the NSA] is listening to [American] telepohone calls.” However now …
Read More »Matrix like stomach bugs could perform surgery in space
One of the most horrifying parts of The Matrix, wasn't that we were being grown and harvested like cattle, in a situation that makes you wonder, “why not just use cattle?” but that if you gave the robots any problems, the agents would impregnate you with a little, belly button …
Read More »Age of Mythology: Extended Edition gets extended features
Age of Mythology (AoM), while not quite as well remembered as Age of Empires, is one of the PC's classic RTS titles, and like Empires, it's getting a re-release on Steam. However, as well as being updated for modern PC compatibility, it's also getting a few tweaks to make it …
Read More »NZXT Source 530 Case Review
Today we are going to take a look at the NZXT Source 530 case which has been designed to offer a balance between features and affordability. It is available for around the £80 mark, targeting a mass audience. There are a number of other manufacturers who have strong offerings around …
Read More »Shadow of Mordor trailer shows good reason for ork slaying
Beyond the obvious racism of the Lord of the Rings, the protagonist for upcoming Assassin's Creed, Tolkein mashup, Middle Earth: Shadows of Mordor, has a very good reason for killing the Elvish abominations, which we get to see first hand in the latest trailer for the Monolith developed game. [yframe …
Read More »Microsoft to drop Windows license fees for select devices
Microsoft Corp. announced at the Build 2014 conference on Wednesday that it would waive licensing fees for special versions of Windows operating systems for select devices. Microsoft wants to enable partners to offer lower-cost systems in the highly competitive smartphone, tablet and PC categories. Microsoft Windows will be available for …
Read More »Micron starts volume production of DDR4 memory
Micron Technology, one of the world’s leading makers of dynamic random access memory, said Wednesday that it had started to produce next-generation DDR4 memory in volume. The company and its partners will begin to officially ship servers featuring Intel Corp.’s Xeon E5-2600 v3 and Micron’s DDR4 memory in the second …
Read More »Microsoft readies ‘Windows on Devices’, teams up with Intel
What do smartwatches, intelligent coffee mugs, robots and smart goggles have in common? It looks like Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. have an answer: Intel chips and Windows software inside. At the Build 2014 conference, the two companies indicated they would team up for wearable devices, tiny intelligent electronics, robots …
Read More »Amazon unveils Fire TV: easiest way to enjoy movies, games and music
Amazon on Wednesday introduced its first set-top-box, the Amazon Fire TV. The new STB combines powerful hardware with one of the world’s richest collections of digital content and video games. The STB supports an external gamepad controller to make it more appealing to gamers. The novelty will cost $99 in …
Read More »Gamer Jack diagnosed with cancer, builds tiny Titan Black SLi system
Many of you guys know me as Carl from the Kitguru Facebook page – we share a lot of fantastic looking reader systems every month, but every so often these systems have a fascinating story behind them. Reader Jack McBride from the United Kingdom sent this one into us today …
Read More »Microsoft unlikely to budge on ID@Xbox launch requirement
Microsoft has been keeping the Indie developers in mind this generation with its ID@Xbox publishing programme. Unfortunately, in order for your game to qualify it must launch on Xbox One first or at the same time as other platforms, a requirement that is causing some developers trouble. While there has …
Read More »Chromebook shipments totaled just around 2.1 million units in 2013
Although a number of PC makers are pretty vocal about the success of notebooks based on ChromeOS operating system, actual sales of such computers are pretty low, according to market analysts. Apparently, the global market share of Chromebooks in 2013 was about 0.6 per cent. ABI Research estimates that 2.1 …
Read More »EA apologises for April Fools Wii U jab
EA has apologised for some April Fool's tweets that came from the Frostbite Engine Twitter account yesterday, branding them as “unnecessary” and “stupid. The Wii U taunting tweets have been deleted but EA COO, Peter Moore, has still apologised on behalf of the company. Gamers will know of the Frostbite …
Read More »Xbox’s Ed Fries thinks VR will be a bust, like 3D
There's a lot of talk of Virtual Reality at the moment, with the announcement of Facebook's Oculus acquisition, Sony's debut of the Morpheus prototype and the news that there's a new kid on the block, the next year is looking quite exciting for VR enthusiasts. However, not everyone thinks the …
Read More »Square Enix investigating Thief save file corruption
You might want to check that your Thief save is okay as reports began popping up yesterday suggesting that lots of gamers are currently losing their save files to corruption or just flat out losing them altogether. Square Enix has begun investigating the problem but some have managed to fix …
Read More »GlobalFoundries to make semi-custom APUs, CPUs, GPUs for AMD
Advanced Micro Devices on Wednesday announced plans to slightly boost its purchase commitment from GlobalFoundries by around $50 million this year compared to last year. As part of the agreement, the contract maker of chips will manufacture not only its traditional central processing units (CPUs) and accelerated processing units (APUs) …
Read More »Twin Galaxies settles down after ownership disputes
We broke the story recently that the sorry tale of Twin Galaxies was shadier than anyone had imagined, with the ownership of the company in question and several parties fighting it out, ultimately resulting in the fans of the long-time video game score keeping organisation getting hit worst of all. …
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