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Global internet maybe shut down over next 48 hours!!

2018-10-15T02:44:00.004-07:00

Internet connectivity across the globe is likely to remain affected for the next 48 hours in view of the routine maintenance of the key domain servers.

© Provided by Khaleej Times

"The Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is responsible for maintaining the registry of domain names and IP addresses, will be changing the cryptographic key that helps protect the Domain Name System (DNS) or the internet's address book," Russia Today said.

"To further clarify, some internet users might be affected if their network operators or Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have not prepared for this change. However, this impact can be avoided by enabling the appropriate system security extensions," ICANN said.

Smart contact lenses get closer to reality as Novartis teams with Google

2014-07-16T04:01:00.001-07:00

Novartis, the Swiss healthcare firm, has announced it will license Google’s exciting smart contact lens technology, initially unveiled by the Google X team at the beginning of this year. This is the first step in making the revolutionary lenses a reality, and potentially helping millions worldwide understand and manage certain medical conditions more effectively.

Under the new agreement, Google will bring its experience in miniaturized electronics, microfabrication, and low power chips to the table. It’s Novartis’ eye care division Alcon that will provide the medical expertise, from understanding how the eye works, to developing and then successfully marketing a cutting-edge healthcare product.

When Google first talked about the smart lens, it specifically mentioned how it would help anyone with type 1 or 2 diabetes. Instead of taking a blood sample, the smart lens would monitor glucose levels using tear fluid from the eye, then transmit the data to a smartphone or other device. Amazingly, the lens is powered by a static electrical charge, meaning it doesn’t need a battery.

In addition to helping those with diabetes, Alcon also wants to develop lenses to combat presbyopia, a condition which stops the eye from focusing on close-up objects. The smart lens could help bring back this ability to quickly focus, and negate the need for corrective surgery, bifocal glasses or special soft contact lenses.

The collaboration is exciting, but the chance to buy a set of Alcon/Google smart lenses is still a way off. There’s no mention of when either company expects to have a commercial product ready for release, only that the partnership will “accelerate product innovation based on Google’s smart lens technology.”

فيروس جديد يخطف ملفات الكمبيوتر ويطلب ثمناً لإعادتها

2014-07-15T02:54:00.002-07:00

ظهر أحد فيروسات الكمبيوتر في الآونة الأخيرة لينتشر مثل الطاعون بين أجهزة المستخدمين، وهذا الفيروس يعمل على إقفال جهاز الكمبيوتر وعدم السماح لصاحبه بالدخول إليه، إلا عند دفعه مبلغاً معيناً، وهو من الأنواع التي يصعب التخلص منها، بحسب تقرير نشرته شبكة "سي إن إن CNN" الإخبارية.

وقد عمل مكتب التحقيقات الفدرالي على إيقاف عملية عرفت باسم "Cryptolocker" في مايو الماضي، لكن يبدو أن جهودهم في استبدال كمبيوترات المصدر الذي تتبعوه بعد "اختطاف" أجهزة عدد من المستخدمين، كان مجرد عملية إيقاف بسيطة للفيروس.

ويقول الخبراء إن استبدال مكتب التحقيقات الفدرالي أجهزة القراصنة بأجهزتهم لم يقتل الفيروس، بل غير الطريقة التي ينتقل بها، إذ ستعود السلطات الفدرالية إلى مربع الصفر عند تعديل القراصنة لشيفرة الفيروس جزئياً واستخدامهم أجهزة أخرى.

وهذه العملية ليست بسيطة إذ تمكن القائمون على "Cryptolocker" من اختطاف ملفات أكثر من 400 ألف شخص خلال تسعة أشهر، وطالبوا كلاً منهم بدفع 300 دولار بمهلة ثلاثة أيام للحصول على كلمة فك الإقفال، ورغم أن جزءاً بسيطاً منهم قد دفع مقابل الحصول على ملفاته مجدداً، إلا أن المجرمين تمكنوا من تحصيل أربعة ملايين دولار، ومن لا يتمكن من الدفع فإن ملفاته ستمحى للأبد.

ويقول الخبراء في مكتب السلامة الأمنية للمعلومات بشركة "Dell" إن عينة صغيرة أخذوها من مجموع أجهزة الولايات المتحدة أظهرت إصابة أكثر من تسعة آلاف جهاز، وبمعدل يمكن أن يبلغ النصف في أميركا، وقد قدر أحد باحثي المكتب، كيث جارفيس، أن القائمين على هذه العملية يجنون ما يقدر بـ 150 ألف دولار أسبوعياً.

Remove the Lag from DOTA 2

2014-06-23T05:46:00.004-07:00

Many players face this problem, the LAG problem and its sux..!!!!
now i will show you how to remove it very fast very efficient, please follow the video step by step,,,, subscribe... :)

>>>>>>>If you have a userconfig.cfg in that directory, open it. If you do not already have a userconfig.cfg:
Right-click in the folder
Go to: New> Text Document
Rename the file userconfig.cfg
Open the file with Notepad
Type into the document clientport 270XX where XX are the last two digits of the clientport number. Acceptable values include 05 - 19 and 21 - 32
Save your userconfig.cfg
Launch your game

Intel 18 Core and 36 Thread “Xeon E5-2699 V3″ CPU Spotted And Tested

2014-06-02T03:44:00.005-07:00

*please check the links at the right*

Everyone knows that Intel’s Xeon processors offer a crazy level of CPU performance: the current flagship part, the E5-2697 V2, has a whopping 16 cores and 32 threads. With Haswell-EP, that’s the next generation of Xeon CPUs taking advantage of Haswell architecture instead of the current Ivy Bridge-EP based parts, that max core count gets bumped up to 18 cores and 36 threads. The new flagship part, the E5-2699 V3 has been spotted and it has a staggering 18 cores, 36 threads and 45MB of L3 cache running at 2.3GHz with a 145W TDP.

Interestingly this CPU has popped up at an Italian retailer selling for €3960.26 with alleged availability from June 12th. What’s even more interesting is that the same CPU part has shown up on the Chinese Chiphell forums giving an indication of its performance, which you can see below. Note that the below image is indicative of a dual CPU socket motherboard hence why the counts of cores and threads are doubled.

There are more details on other Haswell-EP parts that suggest there will be a:

Intel Xeon E5-2690 V3 which has 8 cores, 16 threads and a 2.9GHz clock speed
Intel Xeon E5-2692 V3 which has 12 cores, 24 threads and a 2.0GHz clock speed
Intel Xeon E5-2695 V3 which has 12 cores, 24 threads and a 2.2GHz clock speed

Those CPUs have shown up at Chinese retail site Taobao and you can find those here, here and here respectively. Intel’s Haswell EP platform will be the first Xeon platform to take advantage of native Quad Channel DDR4 support with a base support speed of 2133MHz which is a bump from the DDR3-1866 of the current Ivy Bridge-EP platform. Haswell-EP will get a third revision of the LGA 2011 socket expected to be called LGA 2011-3. The processors for this socket will range from 70W to 145W in TDP with special 160W workstation parts. Rumour has it that the new Haswell-EP Xeon line up is likely to be released at Intel’s IDF 2014 event on the 9th-11th of September. However, given the information provided by certain retailers we may indeed see these parts sooner.

*please check the links at the right*

This article was copied from eteknix.com thnx for them

Forget fillings, scientists just discovered how to regrow full teeth using lasers...!!!

2014-06-02T03:03:00.006-07:00

*please check the link on the right*

Good news for all you taffy addicts and crystal meth smokers out there — a Harvard-led team of scientists has just devised a way to regrow teeth. If developed further, this technology could spell the end things like fillings and dentures, and even lay the groundwork for other regenerative procedures like wound healing, bone regeneration, and more.

Published yesterday in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the procedure used to achieve this tooth regrowth sounds like it’s taken straight out of a science fiction novel. The team used a low-power laser beam to trigger human dental stem cells and encourage them to form dentin: the hard, bone-like tissue that lies underneath a tooth’s enamel and makes up the bulk of a tooth’s mass.

This is groundbreaking because up until now, stem cells –undifferentiated cells that have the ability to become different, more specialized types of cells– have proven difficult to manipulate with much precision. Scientists have long been fascinated with stem cells because of their potential to repair or replace damaged or worn out tissues, but generally speaking, medical researchers have struggled to figure out ways to coax them into becoming the specific types of cells, like dentin or skin, for example.

Pinning down the mechanism that causes a stem cell to transform into a particular type of new cell is tough. Previous techniques required scientists to isolate stem cells from the body, manipulate them in a lab until they grew into the particular kind of cell that was needed, and then return them to the body. Not only are these methods difficult and time-consuming, but they also face a number of regulatory hurdles, so progress in this area has been relatively slow.

This new laser-based method, however, is considerably faster and vastly less invasive. Furthermore, the new technique was proven to work on multiple lab and animal models, which is extremely promising. We’ll let you dig into the technical details on your own, but the big takeaway here is that this was a big step for stem cell research, and will hopefully accelerate the pace at which next-gen restorative medicine is developed.

*please check the link on the right*

This article was copied from digitalrtends.com thnx for them

The lowdown on DDR4 RAM: When will it get here, and what will it do once it arrives?

2014-06-02T01:25:00.000-07:00

*please check the link on the right*

Over the past few years, nearly every PC component, including storage drives, graphics accelerators, motherboards, and CPUs, has seen significant performance updates—everything except the DDR (double data rate)DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chips used as system RAM in our laptops, PCs, servers, and some tablets. The current DRAM standard, DDR3, was launched in 2007, and it has been the primary memory chip used in a wide range of computing devices for most of that time.

How fast is DDR4?

Later this year, Intel will release its Haswell-based (Haswell-E) X99 chipset with support for DDR4: the new, faster memory chip standard. After being in development for five years, the new chips, which will provide roughly 50 percent more bandwidth, and consume about 30 percent less power. According to Intel, they’ll bedeployed in new motherboards in the “second half of 2014.”

Not only will the X99 motherboard support DDR4, but it will also host 8-core processors—twice the number in the current Intel Core CPUs. The top DDR4 bus speed will be 3200MHz, compared to DDR3’s 2400MHz, and it will support data transfer rates of up to 3.2 billion transfers per second, which is twice the transfer speed of DDR3. Furthermore, the new chips use only 1.2 volts of power, compared to DDR3’s 1.5 volts. If those benefits aren’t enough, DDR4 also provides improved diagnostic and debugging tools for increased overall reliability.

When will we see DDR4?

Samsung and a few other chip makers have already started manufacturing DDR4 memory sticks. Samsung Semiconductor says it’s churning out 32GB sticks for the premium server market, as well as what the company claims this is the world’s smallest and highest performing 4GB RAM chip. It’s expected that we’ll start seeing DDR4 chips first in high-end database and enterprise resource planning (ERP) servers, with DDR4-powered laptops and desktops coming to market in 2015. In addition, Samsung announced a low-power version of DDR4 (LP-DDR4) for mobile devices back in January 2014.

According to the Joint Electron Devices Engineering Council (JEDEC), the organization that sets memory standards, DDR4 also supports deep power down, which allows it to go into a mode of sleep that requires no memory refresh. Plus, it can refresh a single chip on a DIMM, instead of forcing a refresh of the entire DIMM. These, and some other power enhancements, allow DDR4 to use up to 40-50 percent less standby power.

DDR’s last dance

Most experts believe that DDR4 is the last generation of DDR DRAM that will be made. A few other types of non-volatile memory that can retain data, such as phase-change memory, MRAM (magneto-resistive RAM), and RRAM (resistive RAM), are under development, and look promising.

Phase-change memory, or PCM/PRAM, provides higher read/write bandwidth, higher endurance, and lower latency than DRAM does. According to memory maker Micron, “it [PCM] addresses the growing performance gap between DRAM and nonvolatile memory technologies.”

With faster processors, and soon-to-be-released SATA Express solid state drive technology making our computing devices faster, it won’t be long before we need faster memory to keep up. DDR4 should fill that gap for the immediate future.

*please check the link on the right*

This article was copied from digitaltrends.com thnx for them

Apple officially confirms the acquisition of Beats for $3 billion

2014-05-29T02:13:00.001-07:00

Apple officially announced that it will acquire Beats Music and Beats Electronics. The Cupertino giant will pay $3 billion for the purchase ($2.6 billion in cash and $400 million in stock), not the initially circulated $3.2 billion.

*please check the link at the right*

Under the terms of the deal, the co-founders of Beats Audio Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre will join Apple’s executive ranks. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in Q4 this year.

Unsurprisingly, both parties expressed their satisfaction with the deal. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook tweeted a photo sharing a laugh with the new members of the company’s executive team. See it below.

Sharing a laugh with Jimmy, Dre, and @cue. Excited to welcome the #Beats team to#Apple. It's all about the music. pic.twitter.com/ZwyWgHFwhO

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) May 28, 2014

Jimmy Iovine, the Beats co-founder and one of the most respected figures in the music industry had the following to say:

“I’ve always known in my heart that Beats belonged with Apple. The idea when we started the company was inspired by Apple’s unmatched ability to marry culture and technology. Apple’s deep commitment to music fans, artists, songwriters and the music industry is something special.”

Both Beats Audio and Beats Music will keep operating on their after the acquisition. However, Apple’s top executives Eddy Cue and Phil Schiller will run the duo of businesses.

Furthermore, Tim Cook confirmed that the recently launched Beats Music streaming service will remain available for Android and Windows Phone devices after the acquisition. Beats Music is widely regarded as one of the main reasons for Apple’s interest in the transaction.

*please check the link at the right*

This article was copied from gsmarena.com thnx for them

How to make money online

2014-04-26T04:46:00.005-07:00

How to make money online

The first step is to stop Googling things like, "how to make money online." Not because you shouldn't want to make money online, but because the stuff you're going to find by doing that is going to help you lose money online. Sort of like asking a casino owner how to make money in Vegas...
Don't pay anyone for simple and proven instructions on how to achieve this goal. In particular, don't pay anyone to teach you how to write or sell manuals or ebooks about how to make money online.
Get rich slow.
Focus on the scarce resource online: attention. If you try to invent a way to take cheap attention and turn it into cash, you will fail. The attention you want isn't cheap, it's difficult to get via SEO and it rarely scales. Instead, figure out how to earn expensive attention.
In addition to attention, focus on trust. Trust is even more scarce than attention.
Don't worry so much about the 'online' part. Instead, figure out how to create value. The online part will take care of itself.
Don't quit your day job. Start evenings and weekends and figure it out with small failures.
Build a public reputation. A good one, and be sure that you deserve it, and that it will hold up to scrutiny.
Obsessively specialize. No niche is too small if it's yours.
Connect the disconnected.
Lead.
Build an online legacy that increases in value daily.
Make money offline. If you can figure out how to create value face to face, it's a lot easier to figure out how to do the same digitally. The web isn't magic, it's merely efficient.
Become the best in the world at something that people value. Easier said than done, worth more than you might think.
Hang out with people who aren't looking for shortcuts. Learn from them.
Fail. Fail often and fail cheaply. This is the very best gift the web has given to people who want to bootstrap their way into a new business.
Make money in the small and then relentlessly scale.
Don't chase yesterday's online fad.
Think big, act with intention and don't get bogged down in personalities. If it's not on your agenda, why are you wasting time on it?
Learn. Ceaselessly. Learn to code, to write persuasively, to understand new technologies, to bring out the best in your team, to find underused resources and to spot patterns.
This is not a zero sum game. The more you add to your community, the bigger your piece gets.

Hands on: Samsung Galaxy S5

2014-02-25T01:19:00.002-08:00

*please check the link on the right*

   I’ve covered tech for years, but Samsung’s Galaxy S5 announcement in Barcelona was the largest product unveiling I’ve ever seen. I was one of thousands of journalists herded into a ballroom that could only be outsized by a stadium. There was pushing, shoving, and much anticipation.

    Why all the fuss? Because of the number Samsung showed before it said anything else: 200 million. That’s how many Galaxy S phones have sold around the world. The Galaxy S5 will carry that torch for the next year, and from our early impressions, 201 million is just around the corner.

A Galaxy packed with new sensors, and waterproofed…ness

     Hardcore geeks may be disappointed in the Galaxy S5’s spec sheet, which breaks no new ground this year. It appears to be as powerful as top devices like the Galaxy Note 3, LG G2, and Sony Xperia Z1S, but no more so. It also looks almost identical to last year’s Galaxy S4. But this is because Samsung is focusing on other kinds of hardware advancements this time around. The GS5 has an IP67 waterproof and dustproof rating, a heart-rate monitor under its rear camera, and a fingerprint sensor inside its Home button. These are all real advancements that could be useful to real people. This is in stark contrast to Samsung’s Galaxy S4 unveiling, where it concentrated on numbers and a bunch of apps that nobody wanted or cared about.

    Waterproof: Last year, Samsung released the GS4 Active as a waterproof and dustproof variant of the Galaxy S4 model. It one of our favorite phones on AT&T, and we’re very excited to see the standard S5 pick up this superpower. You won’t have to worry about your phone if it’s raining, you’re shoved into a pool (it can happen), you drop it in quicksand, or you want to check if Stacy in Sales returned your Facebook message while you’re in the shower. Less worries means more happy.

    Heart-rate monitor: Not everyone will use or care about this feature, but if you want to check your heart rate after a workout, or for medical reasons, you can easily do so with the GS5. It has a small red light that shines through your finger on the back of the phone. The built-in S Health app will record your heart rate every day.

    Fingerprint scanner: We weren’t able to test this sensor properly, but Samsung’s new Home button doubles as a fingerprint scanner that works a lot like one from CrucialTec we demoed last year at MWC. Yes, it’s an iPhone 5S rip off, but if biometrics are going to take off, they have to be widely accepted. Samsung is launching fingerprint scanner with the ability to make payments over its system or PayPal, which is more than Apple is letting anyone do. This could be a huge addition to the GS5.

Same look, but a cleaner inside

We like new bells and whistles on the outside of a phone, but we also appreciate that Samsung has cleaned up the inside, too. The Galaxy S5’s user interface is simpler and cleaner than previous devices. It’s easier to find features, and the Settings menu has a new gridded view that makes a lot of sense.

Even the Recent Apps screen and Notification menu seem simpler. And if you want a real simple mode, you can make the icons extra big by turning on an old-folks mode that comes with a built-in magnifier.
Since there is only 16GB of space on the phone, we’re very happy that the unit we tested only had 42 apps installed on it. That’s opposed to about 80 on phones that came out late last year. Samsung has kept a lot of its own apps intact, but isn’t shying away from Google apps, either.

Ultra Power Saving Mode is a winner

We briefly tried out Samsung’s new Ultra Power Saving Mode, which will help you conserve battery life in a jam. It’s the most intense battery-saving mode we’ve ever seen. It shuts down all services except a few vital ones, and turns the screen black and white. But according to Samsung, it can squeeze a full 24 hours out of a nearly empty battery.

Glam? We don’t think so

Samsung used the word “glam” and “modern” several times to describe the pitted, soft-plastic battery cover on the GS5. We don’t really see it. There’s nothing bad looking about the new GS5, but there is nothing “glam” about it either. Samsung has succeeded in creating another Galaxy that’s mostly devoid of personality, but also won’t offend the tastes of many. It should sell well, is what we’re saying.

Conclusion

The Galaxy S5 looks like a fantastic phone. It doesn’t look different, which will turn off journalists and elate iPhone fans the world over, but there’s a lot to love. For the first time, Samsung is innovating like Apple, instead of just mimicking it. Last year we got a bunch of new apps, and with the Galaxy Pro tablets at CES we saw a stupid new interface, but with the GS5, Samsung has taken a hard look at what people really want from its phone and tried to deliver a compelling new product. We can’t wait to get a Galaxy S5 in for review.

Highs

Fast, powerful processor
Clean, redesigned interface
Runs Android 4.4 KitKat with less bloatware
Waterproof and dustproof
Built-in fingerprint scanner, heart-rate monitor
Feels comfortable to hold
MicroSD support
Removable battery with new Ultra Power Saver Mode

Lows

Stale design

*please check the link on the right*

This article was copied from digitaltrends.com thnx for them.

iPhone 6 Design Rumored To Be Finalized, Will Included Bigger Display?

2014-01-23T07:02:00.004-08:00

*Please check the link on the right*

    It seems with every new year there are new rumors about what the next iPhone will be like. There has been plenty of rumors floating around recently and while nothing will be set in stone until Apple makes its announcement about the iPhone 6 there are several reliable sources that in the past have been close to accurate with their information about the upcoming release of the latest iPhone. It looks like, according to these numerous sources that we will be getting two new iPhone models in 2014, these will be an iPhone 6 and a new larger iPhone with a display that will be a mix in size between phone and tablet more commonly known as a phablet. While the debate about what size each of the new iPhones will be it seems a new report has come out claiming that the iPhone 6 design has now been finalized.

    Several sources have all claimed to have insider knowledge these being DisplaySearch, Respected Apple analyst Peter Misek and KGI Securities analyst Ming-chi Kuo. Display search are saying that the new iPhone 6 display will have a 4.7 inch screen with a 1,600 x 900 pixel resolution, while Apple analyst Peter Misek say it will have a 4.8 inch display. However Ming-chi Kuo from KGI Securities who has had without a doubt the best track record when it comes to Apple’s plans would only say that the display on Apple’s new iPhone 6 would be between 4.5 and 5 inches.

    While all this is speculation one thing that we can be sure of is that what ever the size of the display being used in the iPhone 6 is, it seems Apple have already finalized it. This news comes from Cowen and Company analyst Timothy Arcuri. This information came from a note to clients on Wednesday that was picked up by Apple Insider, with Arcuri stating that the iPhone 6′s design has been locked down and will have a 4.8 inch display.

    For a complete list of features in the new iPhone 6 we’ll have to wait until it’s launch which should be fall this year, although there is speculation that the iPhone will debut this summer at Apple’s annual WWDC conference.

*Please check the link on the right*

*This article was copied from eteknix.com ... Thnx for them

تسبب فشل كبدي .."الصحة" تمنع تداول بعض منتجات بناء الأجسام في فلسطين..!!!!

2013-12-30T23:54:00.002-08:00

*الرجاء الضغط على الرابط على اليمين*

      أعلنت الإدارة العامة للصيدلة في وزارة الصحة الفلسطينية، منع تداول جميع منتجات بناء الأجسام ، وذلك بعد تحذير من منظمة الغذاء والدواء الأميركية (FDA)، حول منتج بناء العضلات المسمى "Mass Destruction"

      واتضح من أبحاث (FDA) أن هذا المنتج يتسبب في حالة فشل كبدي تحتاج إلى زراعة كبد وتأثيرات سلبية أخرى، لاحتوائه على ستيرويدات بنائية (Anabolic steroids) التي يؤدي تعاطيها إلى تدهور في وظائف الكبد (مثل ارتفاع أنزيمات الكبد وحدوث الصفراء وأورام الكبد الحميدة أو الخبيثة)،واختلالات هرمونية في كلا الجنسين يمكن أن تؤدي إلى عقم وارتفاع في ضغط الدم وتضخم عضلة القلب، الشيء الذي يسبب قصورًا في الشرايين التاجية والتعرض لجلطات في القلب أو المخ وحالات وفاة مفاجئة.

       وأكدت مديرة الإدارة العامة للصيدلة رانيا شاهين ، أن استخدام هذا النوع من المنتجات أكثر ما يكون في الفئة العمرية (16- 25) عامًا، بغية بناء الأجسام، لكن لا يُمنع صرفه لعدد من المرضى الذين يتناولونه لأسباب أخرى تتعلق بنقص الهرمونات.

      وبناء على دراسات المنظمة الأميركية، منعت وزارة الصحة الفلسطينية استخدام أو تسويق كل منتجات بناء الأجسام التي تحوي الستيرويدات المذكورة أو الهرمونات الذكرية سواء في المراكز الصحية أو الرياضية، وعلى مستخدمي هذا المنتج ضرورة مراجعة الطبيب أو أي مقدم رعاية صحية إن ظهرت عليه أعراض تعب أو آلام في الظهر أو البطن أو تغير لون البول أو أي تغير غير مفسر في حالته الصحية، وفق التعميم الذي نشرته دائرة المعلومات الدوائية في الإدارة العامة للصيدلة عبر موقعها الإلكتروني.

*الرجاء الضغط على الرابط على اليمين*

المصدر : وطن للأنباء

LG G Flex Review

2013-12-07T00:27:00.005-08:00

*please check the link on the right*

LG may have just released the G2, but it doesn’t seem content to stand still. Like Samsung, LG is always experimenting, and the G Flex is the latest creation to spring from its labs. The G Flex is LG’s biggest phone yet, with a 6-inch screen that’s curved and a few other little tricks. But can a lot of small gimmicks add up to make a good phone? We’ve been testing the G Flex for the last few days to find out.

The first 6-inch phone we want to hold

If you buy a Galaxy Note 3 or its other gigantic contemporaries like the HTC One Max, you’re putting up with their enormity for the sake of some screen real estate. They aren’t all that comfortable to hold. They’re like giant tiles: big, square, and flat.
I’ve never made the leap to a phablet-sized phone. They’re just too big for me. But after using the G Flex, I may have found a phone that manages its size well.

Thanks to the curved screen – which bends top to bottom like a banana – and LG’s button placement, the G Flex is the most comfortable phablet I’ve ever held.
The curve of the screen is subtle and the overall design feels a lot like a bigger, better Galaxy Nexus. Remember that phone? Like the G Flex, it supposedly had a curved (not that you could tell) OLED screen with a peculiarity to it. That’s where the similarities end, though. As we’ll discuss later, the G Flex has the battery life of two or three Galaxy Nexus’s.
So why is it comfortable? Believe it or not, that small curve helps. Instead of your hand molding around a rigid brick, the G Flex bends with it. It’s far more comfortable to hold to your face and take calls than an HTC One Max.

Like the LG G2 (our favorite Android phone of 2013), the power and volume buttons on the G Flex are on its back, directly in the center. Every other phone you’ll use has volume and power buttons on the sides. LG’s decision to move these buttons will jar you at first, but it makes life with a giant 6-inch phone far easier. It’s more of a stretch than on the G2, but thanks to the power and volume button placement, you can press them while also reaching the navigation buttons (Home, Back, Menu) with your thumb. You can also reach up and pull the notification window down without shuffling your grip. At some point, shuffling a phone around your palm always leads to a drop, so we’re glad LG takes grip and hold so seriously.

Finally, LG’s KnockOn feature, which lets you turn the phone screen on or off by tapping on it twice, also makes one-handed use more possible, as does the option to shrink the keyboard.
For a massive phone, the G Flex is remarkably comfortable. Did we mention the power button lights up? We have no reason to, but we like it.

So, what about that curved OLED screen?

There’s no practical reason why you’d want to look at a curved screen, but it is fresh. Looking at videos and items scroll further and closer to you as they move up and down the screen brings with it a small, subtle joy. We found it a little jarring to go back to flat screens after using the curved G Flex. There’s nothing technically superior about it; it’s just different. We don’t think it will bother you or blow you away.

Though LG has heavily criticized Samsung for using AMOLED screens, the G Flex does have an OLED display. You can tell when you’re using an OLED screen because the colors are sometimes more saturated (some say too vivid, to the point of discoloration) and blacks are extremely black. On LCD screens, when black is displayed, it’s still being shown on a lit-up pixel. In OLED, because each pixel is lit independently, black pixels are actually completely turned off. You can’t get blacker than that.

We like the OLED screen on the G Flex, but its 1280 x 720 pixel resolution is a step down from 1920 x 1080 pixel displays seen in most high-end phones, including the G2. We’re blaming the curve for this. You’ll also have to get used to a grainy texture in the background. Like the Galaxy Nexus (and some other AMOLED devices) there is a noticeably grain behind all your screens. This doesn’t bother us, but it might bother you. Make sure to hold and look at menus on the phone (the keyboard is a good test) to make sure it doesn’t drive you nuts.

Small bonus: Thanks to the curve of the screen, the G Flex will (barely) stand up on its side, making Netflix and Hulu watching much easier.

About the “Flex” and healing in G Flex …

One of the G Flex’s tricks is that if you set it screen down, you can put up to 88 pounds of pressure on it and it will bend, not break. We tried this out and … success! It does flex a few millimeters and appears more durable than non-curved phones in that way. LG has employed special types of batteries to achieve this bendability.

The other super power that LG touts is the ability for the plastic back of the phone to heal itself. There’s a special, urethane-like coating on the plastic that apparently re-aligns its own molecules to repair small scratches. This may save your phone from a scratch or two in your pocket, but we were more impressed with the feature in this video than in practice.

In reality, it felt like the coating on the back of the G Flex is more prone to small scratches than other phones. This is fine, because with a few minutes to a few hours (depending on if its warm outside), these scratches seem to disappear. We also made the mistake of putting a key to the phone a little more directly. If you cut through the thin self-healing film, no amount of molecule reorganizing is going to save your phone.
It’s fun to have a phone that flexes and heals, but these are not reasons to buy the LG G Flex. They won’t help you out in a bind.

A new interface built for a new screen

In an attempt to add more black to its design and take advantage of the gorgeous color that can come from an OLED display, LG redesigned its TouchWiz interface for the G Flex. It now looks a lot like Google’s default Android design, with more pizazz. Icons are simpler and colored in pastels, and there’s a lot more transparency throughout the interface. LG attempts to make it look like the grainy background is party of the interface as well, which is good. Mostly, things operate the same as the LG G2 and Optimus G Pro. If you’ve used a Samsung Galaxy phone in the last couple years, nothing will be rocket science to you.

We’re disappointed that the G Flex is only running Android 4.2, especially since it’s a year old now and Android 4.4 KitKat has already hit the streets. Hopefully an update will come by the time this device hits the United States in early 2014 (we presume).

As usual, the big downside to an LG or Samsung phone is the amount of bloatware. We were shocked when the LG G2 came with 62 apps preinstalled, but the G Flex blows this away. There are 84 apps pre-installed on this device, taking up 8GB of the 32GB of onboard memory. Most of them are unneeded. Again, we hope the American version will have less bloatware.

Powerful

The G Flex is powerful. We’ve already talked about its 6-inch 1280 x 720 pixel OLED screen, but under the hood it packs a punch with 2GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel camera, and a 2.26GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, which is the best gig in town right now. The rear speaker is also fairly clear and powerful for a phone.

We can’t say with any accuracy how powerful it is anymore because LG is probably juicing its benchmarking stats like Samsung and HTC. Regardless, in our Quadrant test, the G Flex came out with a 19,825, making it the second highest scoring phone we’ve tested yet, outpacing the LG G2 by a couple thousand points and narrowly losing to the Galaxy Note 3, which managed to break 20,000 (or so we think). Most high-end phones this year achieve scores of about 9,000 to 14,000.
In practical use, we found the G Flex to be extraordinarily snappy and fast. We have yet to find an app or situation that will bog it down. In the past, LG’s camera app has proven a little tricky for its phones, but here it can focus on nine things at once with no problem.

We haven’t spent enough time with the G Flex to fully rate its battery performance, but with a 3,500mAh battery and an OLED screen, we believe LG’s claims of two to three days of battery life on a single charge. Other than a Droid Maxx, there is no other phone that likely matches the battery life in the G Flex. More than anything, this is a big reason to consider buying it.

Camera

The camera in the G Flex appears to be the same one that was in the LG G2, meaning it’s a fast and effective 13-megapixel shooter. We didn’t experience the lag and slowdown when attempting to use 9-point auto-focus like we did in the G2, and most of our shots came out as good as you’d expect on a bland, cloudy day.

Though it doesn’t hold a candle to the 41-megapixel shooter on the Nokia Lumia 1020 (no phone does), we did find the low-light performance on the G Flex to be better than average. You’re not going to see in the dark here, but LG picked up about as much light as our unadjusted eye did in dark situations.

Conclusion

The G Flex is a fantastic phone, and the first phablet to ever feel natural in our hand. We do wish it had the stylus features of the Galaxy Note series, but LG has packed a lot into this device. It gets 2-3 day battery life, has a fun curved OLED screen, can withstand some bending, has a new interface, and it’s the fastest phone out there. The only downside is that it costs the equivalent of $940 in Korea. We are hoping it will come to the United States soon. If it’s priced down near the $700 range, LG may just put the Galaxy Note 3 on notice.

Highs

One of the most powerful phones we’ve tested
Very comfortable for a 6-inch phablet
2- to 3-day battery life
Gorgeous curved OLED screen
Great rear speaker

Lows

Too expensive
No built-in stylus
OLED screen has a grainy background
Too big for some hands
Scratch-healing doesn’t work well

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AMD A10-7850K and A10-7700K Kaveri A-Series APU Specs Revealed

2013-12-03T04:49:00.003-08:00

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A little over a month now until AMD would release the Kaveri A10 series, and specs for them have been revealed. The A10-7850K has four Steamroller cores and 512 GCN stream processors, with a max compute of 856 GFLops compared to 779 GFlops on the Richland A10-6800K APU.

The clock speed of the APU is maintained at 3.7 GHz which is presumably the base clock while Turbo clock would push the speeds beyond 4 GHz barrier. The GPU which is positioned in the R7 2**D series is clocked at 720 MHz while the APU itself has 4 MB of L2 cache. The GCN graphics die would feature 8 GPU cores which represent a total of 512 stream processors. The TDP for the A10-7850K would be set at 95W. AMD A10-7850K will support both Mantle API, DirectX 11.2 and OpenGL 4.3 and feature dual graphics functionality with the AMD’s Cape Verde based discrete GPUs.

Taking a look at the A10-7700K, another unlocked chip, we see it featuring the Steamroller core architecture with a max boost clock of 3.8 GHz and base clock of 3.5 GHz. It has 4 MB of L2 cache plus HSA features and True Audio technology support. The GPU side ships with a GCN graphics die featuring 6 shader units equaling to a total of 384 Stream processors clocked at 720 MHz. This part may possibly feature a lower TDP of 65W due to the cut down graphics die but still pack a mean punch in terms of performance.

The Kavri A10 series would be released on 14th January 2014 on the desktop FM2+ platform. The prices are set to be below the $150 / €110 / £92 range.

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everything about the Galaxy S5

2013-11-27T02:37:00.003-08:00

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The Samsung Galaxy S4 barely rolled off the production line before we started hearing about its inevitable successor. A few months later, and the persistent noise emanating from the Galaxy S5 rumor mill is hard to ignore. If you’re wondering what the next flagship smartphone from Samsung might have in store then you’re in the right place. Here are the most notable Galaxy S5 rumors so far.

It may come in January, but probably March or April

The annual release schedule for smartphone flagships has become pretty standard in recent years. The Galaxy S2 was unveiled in February and released in May, 2011. The Galaxy S3 was revealed and released in May, 2012. The Galaxy S4 was shown off in March and released in April, 2013. We expect to catch a first glimpse of the Galaxy S5 around March 2014, with the release likely to be about a month later.

It’s possible that Samsung will try to push it forward after disappointing S4 sales. There has been talk of a January release and some suggestion that the S5 will show itself at MWC in February, but this is pure speculation right now, and we’ll be surprised if the South Korean manufacturer deviates much from its usual release schedule.

This one comes in metal

The idea that Samsung might break with tradition and produce a flagship with a metal body instead of plastic first surfaced way back in June. It was a vague notion to begin with, but in August the S5 metal chassis rumor got some meat on its bones when Korean news site ET News suggested magnesium and aluminum as possible materials.

Criticism of the Galaxy range has long focused on what some perceive as a “cheap, plastic feel” and many other flagship smartphones in the same price bracket have opted for aluminum designs. Should Samsung decide to switch to metal it would likely mean a heavier, more expensive device, and it could spell the end of the removable battery.

It’s worth noting that this new metal Samsung phone could be the mysterious Galaxy F, a stop-gap in the flagship calendar that may land a few months before the S5. A report at GalaxyS5Info suggests just that, and also reckons that the faux leather polycarbonate of the Note 3 could make an appearance on the S5.

There’s also a chance that the S5 could use carbon fiber in its construction. Android Beat reported a partnership between Samsung Petrochemical and SGL Group (one of the largest producers of carbon fiber in the world). It’s an extremely light and extremely strong material, so it could be ideal.

Brand new design

Even if the Galaxy S5 doesn’t end its love affair with plastic that doesn’t mean it won’t look different from its predecessors. The Galaxy S line has stuck to a certain design aesthetic, the S3 and S4 are especially alike, but if the patent that Patent Bolt turned up is anything to go by then the S5 could ditch the home button and adopt a new angular form factor.

64-bit processor, like the iPhone 5S

Not long after the iPhone 5S was revealed Samsung’s mobile head, JK Shin told the Korea Times, “our next smartphones will have 64-bit processing functionality.” It’s a safe bet that the Samsung Galaxy S5 will want to match or beat the iPhone 5S in terms of performance and so it will likely have a 64-bit chip.

According to Digital Daily in Korea, the S5 could sport an Exynos 6 processor, a new 14nm chip with 64-bit support and ARM’s Cortex A53/A57 Big.Little octa-core configuration. Whatever the specifics, we can safely assume Samsung will be gunning for the top spot in performance benchmarks.

We would expect at least 3GB of RAM to back that up, but Samsung is already producing 4GB LPDDR3 mobile DRAM, so that’s always a possibility.

Eye scanning security?

According to AndroidSAS, the Galaxy S5 could one-up the fingerprint scanner on the iPhone 5S and take the lead in biometric security with an eye-scanning sensor. The idea is that S5 owners will be able to scan their eyes in order to unlock their smartphones. This would supposedly offer a higher level of security, but the sources are unnamed and there’s nothing to substantiate the rumor. We’ll be sure to keep an eye on this one.

No fingerprint scanner

We’ve already seen a report from the Korea Herald in which a Samsung official is quoted as saying “We never officially admitted that Samsung was weighing the fingerprint system and Knox for Galaxy Note 3 for security functions. We are not yet developing the technology.”
Still, this is Samsung we’re talking about. We wouldn’t be shocked to see a fingerprint sensor of some kind. Samsung knows how to move fast on new tech. Of course, if the eye scanning rumor has any truth to it then fingerprints are out the window.

Multi-person video conferencing, using both cameras

A patent uncovered by GalaxyClub.nl hints that Samsung may be updating its ChatON messaging service to include multi-person conference calls. The listing, which includes the screenshot you see here, indicates the software may enable both front and rear video cameras, along with multiple streams visible along the bottom of the screen. It sounds a little like Google’s own conference call system available through Hangouts, which can support ten different feeds at the same time. Should the software being included with the Galaxy S5, it may come as either a part of ChatON, or a new TouchWiz feature.

Galaxy S5 could run Tizen OS

Samsung has not given up on its own Tizen operating system. The International Business Times reckons the company may release a Tizen version of the Galaxy S5. Would Samsung release two different versions of the S5, one with Tizen and one with Android 4.4 KitKat? It doesn’t seem likely, and we don’t think Samsung is ready to ditch Android for its own platform yet. Maybe the Tizen version may be limited to specific markets, if it exists at all. We’ll have to wait and see.

A 16-megapixel camera

There were early suggestions that the Galaxy S5 would sport a 13-megapixel camera, possibly with optical image stabilization, but now we’re hearing different. ET News predicts that Samsung will opt for a 16-megapixel sensor that’s capable of better low-light performance than the competition.

The new sensor will be produced in-house and it will feature Samsung’s ISOCELL technology which, “substantially increases light sensitivity and effectively controls the absorption of electrons, resulting in higher color fidelity even in poor lighting conditions.”

Waterproof comes standard

Smartphones are getting tougher. At the start of this new flagship cycle the Xperia Z made a splash with its waterproof and dustproof credentials. Samsung released the Galaxy S4 Active as a waterproof variant of its flagship, but ET News thinks the Galaxy S5 may take things one step further and be waterproof and dustproof straight out of the box. According to the report, “industry sources” say the Galaxy S5 will meet the same standards as the S4 Active, which will bring into line with some of the other top Android smartphones.

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PlayStation 4 vs. Xbox One head-to-head comparison

2013-11-23T02:43:00.002-08:00

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Despite being designed with different philosophies, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are more alike than their predecessors. There are some key differences that people will debate for years to come, but both systems overlap more often than not. For a full breakdown on the specs, check out the comparison at the bottom of this article.

But that doesn’t mean you should simply flip a coin and buy one. Having spent a considerable amount of time with both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, we’re ready to take a closer look at differences.

There are quantifiable things we can point to, categories where one system has a clear edge. From controllers to app availability, each system has clear strengths and weaknesses today. These might all change in the next few years as these systems grow and evolve – the reality is that the best games for either system won’t be out for years to come. But for now we put the two systems head to head and see which comes out ahead.

Fight!
If you haven’t already, we highly encourage you to check out our reviews on both systems. They break down the consoles and could help determine which is a better fit for you specifically, rather than which is a “better” piece of hardware.

PlayStation 4 review
Xbox One review

Apps at launch (Tie)

In the next few months, the Xbox One may win this category, but for now the number of “coming soon” apps on each system is keeping the two catalogs balanced.

For the Xbox One you have ESPN, but you need to be a subscriber of an “authorized” cable provider. The same goes for its NFL app. The PS4 has its own Music and Video services featuring all content Sony had a hand in (which is an awful lot), but they require paid subscriptions as well.

Game streaming is a different story. The PS4 can stream games right now, directly to Twitch and Ustream, with the press of a single button. The Xbox One will also be able to stream gaming video, but for now it is still “coming soon” and won’t be available until next year. This category will likely change again and again over time, but given the way things are right now, we call it a tie.

As a media device (Xbox One)

How times change. The PS3 was (and still is) an excellent media device, capable of streaming music and video from a PC and playing or displaying content off of a USB-connected device. The PS4, however, does none of those things. Sony has hinted strongly that these functions are coming, and their omission was simply a matter of launch timing, but the result is a console that is less capable as a media device than its predecessor. There are always the apps, but this is still a chink in the PS4’s armor.

The Xbox One, on the other hand, is designed to integrate with media, specifically cable TV.

If you are a cable TV subscriber, your experience is improved by connecting it to the console. Both consoles can play Blu-ray discs, but only the Xbox can integrate your cable guide right into the system menu and switch over to TV. At the moment, this is really no contest.

Controller (PS4)

One thing many (although certainly not all) gamers can agree on is that the Xbox 360 controller is one of the best ever released. It’s just a better design than the DualShock 3, especially for people who play first-person shooters – of which there are many. The next-gen controllers change that dynamic, though.

The Xbox One controller retains many of the core elements of the 360 controller, plus it adds two more rumble motors and loses the bulky battery pack on the back. It also has smaller thumbpads on the analog sticks, which is step back when you find yourself losing your grip. The DualShock 4, on the other hand, is improved all around. It is bigger, offers better, outward-curving triggers, features a clickable touchpad on the front, and the lightbar has multiple functions. Plus the thumbpads are normal human-sized. This round goes to Sony.

Design (PS4)

This is one of the easiest categories to pick a winner for. The PS4 is slim, sleek, and lightweight, featuring an attractive light bar on the side and a sloping front and back. The Xbox One is a much bulkier box. It isn’t ugly by any means, and it sort of resembles one of the new-generation cable boxes, but put the two next to each other and you have to wonder why it is so much bigger, especially since it still requires a brick for the power cord, where the PS4 does not.

Games (Xbox One)

Console launch titles are generally a race to the middle. Still, at the moment there is a clear leader.

Although the PS4 has several downloadable games and a handful of disc exclusives like Killzone: Shadow Fall and Knack, the Xbox One has Forza Motorsport 5, Dead Rising 3, and Ryse: Son of Rome, plus its own downloadable games. And although it isn’t out just yet, you can’t ignore the fact that Titanfall is coming in March to PC, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. For now, the edge goes to Microsoft.

Setup (PS4)

When it comes to ease of setup, Sony’s console wins hands down here. Even if you discount the extra step of hooking the Xbox One up to a cable box, the install process is just much easier on the PS4. So is updating the firmware, something both systems require to unlock their full functionality – or in the case of the Xbox One, any functionality.

Beyond that, learning how to use and speak to Kinect may help in the long run, but it can be confusing at first if you don’t take the time to learn the peripheral’s unique vocabulary. Sony’s menus, on the other hand, are immediately intuitive and easy to grasp.

Price (PS4)

This may seem like an obvious one, but there is more to it than just the price of the console itself. The Xbox One costs $100 more than the PS4, but it also comes with Kinect. The PS4 offers the PlayStation Camera as a separate $60 purchase, but it is not as necessary to the PS4’s operation as the Kinect is to the Xbox One. It’s worth owning and it will only get better over time, but after dropping $400 it’s nice to wait a bit before spending even more money.

Then there is the cost of cable TV, which the Xbox One is designed to interact with. To get the most out of your system, you need to pay the monthly cable fee, which is rarely cheap. It’s something to consider. Regardless, the PS4 is just a less expensive investment all around.

Peripherals (Xbox One)

This really comes down to the cameras each system offers. It’s nice that Sony allows you to purchase one at a later date for $60, and the PlayStation 4 Eye does offer some nice gesture controls through the Move integration with the DualShock 4. But really, there is no contest here.

The new Kinect is a remarkable piece of technology. It goes so far beyond just gesture controls. The voice commands are integral to the Xbox One interface, and the camera’s multiple imaging functions means it can even be used as a tool – not just a gaming peripheral – in judging things like exercise. It can accurately judge your movements, estimate your heart rate through how flushed your skin is and more. The list goes on and on, just like the camera’s potential.

User interface (Xbox One)

The PlayStation 4’s interface is designed to be accessible. It’s simple and anyone can figure it out. It lacks customization though, so the games and apps you have used at some point are displayed in an increasingly lengthy horizontal display. The more games and apps you have, the longer it will take to go through.

On the other hand, the Xbox One’s UI is a bit more complex, but it’s also more robust and functional. Built on Windows 8′s Modern user interface, it may take some time to acclimate to it, but once you do you’ll see why Microsoft decided to go in this direction, especially if you’re using the Kinect’s voice command options to elevate it.

Conclusion (Tie)

OK, this might seem like a bit of a copout and, well, that’s because it is. But not for the reasons you might think!

There is no right or wrong here, no best or worst console, no matter what the chorus on the Internet tells you. Sony and Microsoft both released systems that are similar, and yet they each appeal to a slightly different group. To put it in vastly oversimplified terms, The PS4 is a machine made specifically for gamers first, while the Xbox One is designed as an entertainment center for gamers.

Both consoles are forward-thinking devices, and what you see now is going to ultimately be completely different from what the systems become years down the line. So choose your system based on the potential and what you plan to use it for. This generation of consoles is already shaping up to be one of the most interesting gaming battles in history. You probably won’t regret purchasing either system, but choose wisely.

Spec Comparison

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Xbox One Launch Kicks Off The Battle Against Sony’s Playstation 4

2013-11-23T01:53:00.003-08:00

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The wait is over and the time has now come for eager fans around the world to collect their Xbox One and immerse themselves in the next generation of console gaming from Microsoft. New Zealand was one of the first countries to have the console available at midnight of the 22nd November, and even hours before hand, fans were queuing up outside Shed 10 on the Waterfront in Auckland, New Zealand ready to pick up their pre-orders.

A little closer to home for us here at eTeknix, the UK also saw their launch at midnight last where over 300 game shops and more than 100 Tesco’s supermarkets stayed open late into the night for sales and pre-order collections to be made. Whilst the PS4 is not yet here in the UK until the 29th of November, Over in the US Sony’s launch of the Playstation 4 is now a week behind us and so the battle over there has started to see who will be crowned victorious as the must have games console this Christmas.

Whilst the Xbox One is going to cost you around £80 more than the PS4, it seems that this has not put any fans off as Microsoft see record numbers of pre-orders being made, beating that of the Xbox 360 a number of years ago. The two consoles, as we have seen, do pack somewhat similar specifications to each other – although there has been word that Sony may just have the upper hand on graphics as reports come in that Battlefield 4 and Call of Duty: Ghosts has a better game play in terms of resolution. Whilst this may be a major selling factor to a small number of people, the challenge really is going to be based on who has the most loyal fans on their side, however this is not as plain sailing as you may think. Since the launch of the Xbox 360 and Sony’s PS3, there has been a dramatic shift in the games market as we see many avid gamers moving away from the console platform and over to the PC gaming side of things. This has been mainly down to the massive improvement in graphics performance that we have seen from both NVIDIA and AMD in the last 2-3 years.

With games console now offering much more than just a gaming experience, with social and entertainment media becoming more and more popular, the is certainly more than one reason to pick either console and as the Christmas rush comes into full swing, it is anybody’s guess at the moment as to who will be at the number one spot at the end of the year.

If you’ve just got an Xbox One or PS4 (or are waiting for the PS4 in the UK), let us know your thoughts on the new consoles in the comments section below.

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Gran Turismo 7 Could Be Out In 2014

2013-11-23T01:47:00.000-08:00

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Great news gaming fans, Gran Turismo 6 isn’t here for another two weeks and it looks like development on Gran Turismo 7 has already started a long time ago! Now it seems like we could even see the next-gen racer as soon as next year as the developers don’t want to take too long bringing the series to PlayStation 4.

This is obviously awesome, Gran Turismo has long been a staple of the PlayStation diet, and since Gran Turismo took such an appallingly long time to hit the PlayStation 3 it is no wonder the developer doesn’t want to repeat the same process again.

In an interview with world famous motoring magazine Top Gear, Kazunori told them that the next iteration of the series could see a release next year.

“We don’t want to take too long on Gran Turismo 7. Best-case scenario? Next year. In GT6 we really had to tune the software 100 per cent to maximise the PS3′s architecture, but of course the PS4′s hardware is much better, so I think the overall quality of the game across the board will be boosted when you come to play it.”

Then on Twitter we’ve seen that the tech demo has been shown behind closed doors, something we wish we could get our hands on right now, that’s for sure.

“GT 7 tech demo. Nothing to describe other than it looked amazing. It was snowing and at night. Cockpit view, then turned to outside the car.
— Ahsan Rasheed (@thuway) November 19, 2013“

Now all we have to do is sit and wait, because one thing is for certain, it will not be out early next year. Gran Turismo 7 sounds like it is chasing a Christmas release for 2014, but given the delays the series has been known for, 2015 sounds more realistic.

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Optical Output On Xbox One Limited To Stereo Only

2013-11-23T01:36:00.008-08:00

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The Xbox One has literally just become available, however there is news going around that anyone with a surround sound headset will not be able to use them to their full potential at this moment in time. This is going to be severely bad news for a large number of people who own a high-end headset from the likes of Turtle Beach and Tritton to name only a couple as the new consoles optical output will only support two channel audio until an unknown date.

Albert Panello, the Director of Product Planning at Microsoft has made a statement that indicates that there will be an update coming in the future that will unload the full Dolby capability of the optical output, thus allowing surround headsets to run at their full potential. In the statement, he did specify however that if you were to own a Dolby only HDMI receiver then you should be able to get uncompressed 5.1 or 7.1 sound to your speakers as this has been made available.

“Dolby Digital is coming post launch. This was a SW scheduling issue pure and simple, and I know people are disappointed, but we will have it. Anyone with a HDMI receiver should be fine, as we pass the uncompressed 5.1 and 7.1 through HDMI as well as DTS. Even if you have a Dolby only HDMI receiver, you will still get 5.1 or 7.1 sound since those receivers should accept uncompressed surround. For the Dolby only headsets, my understanding is that these will work but you will only get stereo audio since we only pass Stereo and DTS through the optical port. I have not tested this myself, but I’m told it works. Regardless, I understand this is an inconvenience, but again we’re going to have Dolby coming.”

There is not any mention as to why full surround capability has been left out from the Xbox’s optical jack and there could be a number of reasons why, but there is the reassurance giving that it will be coming – we just don’t know when this will be at this moment in time.

With the battle against the PS4 just kicking off, there is the possibility that there will be some disgruntled customers who can’t use their existing hardware to its full capabilities, however this will become clear over the next week or so.

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Broadwell Based Intel CPUs To Feature Iris Pro Graphics

2013-11-23T01:23:00.004-08:00

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Intel is rumored to release the first desktop “Broadwell” microprocessors closer to the end of next year. Codenamed Broadwell-K, the CPUs will feature a 1150 socket platform.

The CPUs will also have unlocked clock multiplier and the most interesting feature of new products will be Iris Pro (GT3) graphics with integrated 128 MB eDRAM memory, which will add an 80% graphical performance increase compared to the Core i7-4770K.

The latest Haswell CPUs currently available at retail have lower-performance Iris graphics hardware and CPUs with Iris Pro graphics are only available to manufacturers in quantities of over 1,000 units.

Broadwell-K processors will have 4 CPU cores and support Turbo Boost technology and will arrive in two versions, a Core i5 and a Core i7. The Core i7 parts will come with 6 MB L3 cache, and will have Hyper-Threading enabled, while the Core i5 microprocessors will have 4 MB of level 3 cache with no Hyper-Threading.

The CPUs will also require a new 9-series chipset motherboard to support the 1150 socket. This is where Intel announced two new motherboards as well, the Z97 and H97 which will be released at the same time as the new Broadwell-K.

Pricing for both the CPU and motherboards has not been revealed just yet, but we hope to get more insight later on next year.

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Thank you CPU World for providing us with this information

Opens Up the Xbox One To See What It’s Really Made Of

2013-11-22T13:41:00.003-08:00

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When you look inside the Xbox One, you cannot help but think that it is an all too familiar sight. We all know that the consoles coming out this month are using standard PC hardware to power them, but the stuff inside is even more standard that most people were expecting.

Normal looking hard drives, SATA II ports and a whopping big cooler make up the most obvious parts. In fact, if you’re brave enough to get inside this thing, avoiding any damage to the wireless module and the internal speaker, you could easily just plug in any 2.5″ hard drive of your own. But remember that you’ll be kissing your warranty goodbye, something you never want to do on a launch console unless you have a lot of spare cash lying around.

The huge fan takes up a quarter of the console, no doubt about it, this thing can shift some serious air! Not to mention keep things cool at low RPM inside the Xbox One, something that will help it stay nice and quiet.

The Blu-Ray drive looks pretty much off the shelve too, with a thick casing that you see in many desktop units and with the large fan, the chunky optical drive, SATA cables etc, you have to wonder that Microsoft could have easily stripped back a few things to make the console smaller. However, it is also likely that cost was an issue and as things become more profitable there is easily room to save space here, Xbox One Slim anyone?
iFixit awarded an 8 / 10 for repairability to the Xbox One, placing it on par with the PlayStation 4.

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Thank you PocketLint for providing us with this information.

Microsoft Xbox One review

2013-11-20T01:55:00.005-08:00

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If there’s one word that defines Microsoft’s approach with its new Xbox One, it’s “disruptive.” The new hardware challenges our notion of what a video game console can and should be, for better and for worse. Kinect is now analogous to a new button on your controller. Microtransactions are most definitely in. Even without the debatably useful Snap feature, multitasking is a foundational element.

This is an all-in-one box with promise, a first step toward something bigger than itself. The Xbox 360 was always struggling to do too much within a limited design spec. Even something as simple as a user’s friends list was locked at 99 names for the life of the hardware. The Xbox One will no doubt struggle to keep up down the road too – it’s the fate of all video game consoles – but it’s extremely well-equipped to handle any big changes we can currently see on the horizon.

Before you begin

Prepare for the dreaded launch-day update. Your Xbox One will basically be a shiny brick until you can get the update installed. It’s hard to say how big it’s going to be on day one, since there have been multiple updates released over the course of the review period. Set aside an hour for initial setup, but don’t be sad if it goes longer.

Beyond that, make sure you have a clear space for the Kinect, either above or below your TV. If you plan to run your cable box through the Xbox One – and you should – don’t worry too much about positioning the Kinect so that it can “see” your cable box. The motion-sensing peripheral’s built-in IR blaster is powerful enough to reach your cable box even if there’s not a direct line of sight on it.

Features and design

Despite a sleek mix of matte and gloss black, there’s no hiding the fact that the Xbox One is a bulky box. It’s physically larger than the most recent model of Xbox 360 by an inch or more on each side, and unlike the PS4, there’s still a hefty power brick attached to the power cord. It’s also designed to only sit flat, so you might have to do some rearranging in your media center.

Microsoft went with touch-sensitive strips rather than buttons for the Xbox One’s power and disc eject switches. They’re both very sensitive and flat against the face of the unit, which makes it easy to accidentally brush against one and turn the console off or pop the disc out of the drive. A soft beep sounds when you make contact with one of these “buttons,” but that’s all the feedback you get … until your console turns off or spits a disc out. It runs very quietly, but you can tell it’s powered on when you see a backlit “Xbox” logo on the right side of the unit.
The dashboard unsurprisingly resembles Windows 8′s Modern UI. Longtime 360 users should prepare for a learning curve. Certain basic functions – new ones and old ones alike – aren’t immediately intuitive. Joining or creating a party, for example, now requires you to “turn party chat on” from the associated menu after you’ve invited people to join, or joined one yourself. Snap, the new feature that allows for two apps to be visible on the screen simultaneously, offers no obvious way to jump between the two portions of your split screen … at least not until you learn how to incorporate Kinect into your life.

Kinect-ed

The second-gen Kinect is Microsoft’s gigantic gamble on the Xbox One. While you can disconnect the peripheral and store it away once you’ve set up your console for the first time, it is highly recommended that you don’t. Imagine trying to navigate around the Xbox dashboard with a controller that’s missing its trigger buttons. That’s what happens when you try to go without Kinect on the Xbox One. You’re essentially turning off a very useful button.

Forget motion controls; they’re still an option, but Kinect v2 is all about voice commands. Speaking to your Xbox One makes it considerably easier to navigate the dashboard, multitask, play with the Snap feature, and many other basic features. However, you’ll need to learn the peripheral’s admittedly limited and occasionally unintuitive vocabulary.

Take the “Xbox Select” command, which allows you to speak the name of any tile on the dashboard screen to select it. There’s no way someone would naturally figure out that saying “Xbox Select” brings up and overlay to enable this. There’s an “Xbox Help” menu that provides assistance, and – to be fair – there are plenty of completely sensible voice commands as well, but prepare for a learning curve as you grasp how to communicate with your Xbox.

Fortunately, Kinect now handles natural, regular-volume speech much better than its predecessor did,, though it’s still not perfect. Kinect sent us somewhere other than what we asked for – or didn’t respond at all – only a handful of times during our week-long review period. Following on with the “Kinect-as-a-controller button” comparison, you expect your gamepad to work 100-percent of the time. Kinect understands roughly 99-percent of what you’re saying. Improvement is needed – and it will come as Microsoft processes more voice samples over time – but this is a strong starting point.

It’s difficult to gauge just how impactful Kinect voice commands will be in the long run, but cable TV integration could be the clincher to selling it for a mass audience. Being able to say “Xbox, watch ESPN” and be tuned into the sports network just a few seconds later amounts to an ease of use that every user can comprehend, even a non-gamer.

Motion controls are less impressive. Microsoft’s minimum recommended distance from the Kinect is 4.6 feet, which is harder to find in a New York City apartment than you might think. There are motion commands for Snap, opening notifications, and various other features – including the same hand cursor that the original Kinect offered for dashboard navigation – but the hardware’s ability to translate physical movement to the screen isn’t unreliable if you’re at a distance of four feet or less from the camera.

Controller

The Xbox One controller is roughly the same size and shape as its Xbox 360 predecessor, though some new internal mechanisms make it slightly heavier. There’s now trigger-specific rumble, which allows developers to code games so that, say, pulling a trigger to fire a gun only shakes the pulled trigger. Four individual rumble motors afford developers a much more nuanced level of control over force feedback.

The Xbox 360′s Back/Start buttons are now the View/Menu buttons, though they serve largely the same purpose. The guide button is also right where it always was, though it’s slightly smaller and flatter. Pressing it now brings you directly to the dashboard, since multitasking eliminates the need for the Xbox Guide as we’ve come to know it.

In terms of physical design, the Xbox One controller is both a step back and a step forward. The D-pad is significantly improved, as are the larger, flatter face buttons. The triggers have a shorter pull than they did previously, and they curve outward a little more now, giving you a better grip. The battery housing is also flush with the back of the controller now, eliminating the awkward bump that fingers constantly collided with on every wireless 360 controller.

What’s not so good then? The left and right bumpers are much click-ier now, meaning you’ve got to exert more pressure to press one. On the flipside, the shoulder bumpers take up more real estate than LB/RB did before, making it easier to slide a finger onto one as needed. The redesigned analog sticks are more of a problem; the thumb grips on the top of each one are considerably smaller than they were before, to the chagrin of fat-fingered gamers across the world.

Performance

The Xbox One OS highlights the power of the new hardware within. Switching from a game to an app or TV then back to the game is quick and seamless; the screen simply fades out and then immediately fades back in. The last three apps used are kept in active memory, though the load time on most apps launching fresh is negligible, measured in seconds. Some games – Dead Rising 3 for example – took longer than expected to launch, but every game plays silky smooth once you’re in. No slowdown, no texture pop, nothing.

The hardware is more powerful, sure, but the smooth game performance is also a result of the fact that all games now require installation, even when you’ve got a disc version. Install times vary, though they’re considerably longer on the Xbox One than they were on the 360. No surprise, given the double-digit gigabyte sizes of most next-gen games. That said, whether you’re downloading or on a disc, you’re able to fire up most games while they’re still installing within minutes.

Software and online capabilities

Many of the Xbox One’s online features are still in the process of being finalized, so this section may change in the coming days. We’ve been able to try Forza Motorsport 5 and Ryse: Son of Rome online, and both felt generally smooth (though one Forza race disconnected midway through). We’ve also sampled party chat using the pack-in headset; it sounds much better than it did on the 360, and game audio is remarkably absent from the background.

It’s worth mentioning that all of the Xbox One’s first-party launch titles place some amount of emphasis on microtransactions. This is purely the domain of the publisher and developer delivering the game, of course. Dead Rising 3, a rare third-party exclusive in the Xbox One’s launch lineup, features nothing of the kind, but first-party offerings integrate microstransactions to a surprising degree. Some, like Killer Instinct, adopt a sensible free-to-play approach. But with a game like Crimson Dragon, a pay-to-play game with an economy that also emphasizes micropayments, it’s off-putting.

Apps are still a question mark. Most of them are just coming online this week, with Netflix, ESPN, NFL, Machinima, and Upload Studio all having gone live less than 24 hours before the console review embargo lifted. Our experience so far with the apps – mostly just Netflix – has been smooth, but there’s still more to explore. We’ve yet to see, for example, how having the ESPN and NFL apps enhances the Sunday NFL football experience. Stay tuned for more soon.

Conclusion

The Xbox One is an outstanding step forward for Microsoft’s gaming brand, even if it’s not an entirely perfect machine at launch. That’s the beauty of the new Xbox though: It’s built to be flexible. This was the big lesson of the last hardware generation. There’s no way to fully plan for what’s to come. The Xbox One works right out of the box, and it works well, but it’s just a foundation. Whatever the direction it grows in from here, Microsoft’s message remains clear: Gaming isn’t just for the Gamers anymore.

Highs

Powerful OS is user-friendly and built for seamless multitasking
Kinect v2′s well-implemented voice recognition is a new “button” for your controller
Improved internal hardware translates to smooth game performance
Cable box interconnectivity is great for TV watchers

Lows

Limited, occasionally non-intuitive voice commands
Bulky, hefty form factor
Snap same-screen multitasking is debatably useful

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This article was copied from digitaltrends.com thnx for them.

How To Install An SSD Into The PlayStation 4

2013-11-18T13:39:00.002-08:00

[Quick & Easy]
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Peter over at Gamespot has decided to dismantle a bit of his brand new PlayStation 4 to do something that many people have been wanting to investigate, can you install a high performance SSD in place of the stock PlayStation 4 hard drive? Yes you can!

Replacing the hard drive in the PlayStation 4 is not a difficult task, a simple pop off cover is removed, a single screw with some cool Sony branding on it is undone and bam! You have access to the hard drive. Slot the drive out, pop in the new SSD and turn on the console, it really is that simple.
Sony allowed us to upgrade the hard drive on the PlayStation 3 and that trend is easily set to continue, many may be put off by swapping out the hard drive on a technical level, but it really is a 1 minute job at best.

In the video we see how easy it really is, not only that be we see a definite increase in performance when he boots up a game on the SSD equipped PlayStation 4 vs the standard hard drive. Of course the only issue here is that price per GB of an SSD is a lot higher than a mechanical hard drive, so if you do want faster performance it may be worth just getting a better mechanical drive so you can balance an improvement in speed with an increase in capacity without hurting your wallet too much.

Samsung Pulls Android 4.3 Update For Galaxy S3 From The Market

2013-11-18T13:26:00.003-08:00

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Samsung launched the latest Android update last week for its Samsung Galaxy S3 series, but after it was released many users’ encountered problems and now the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update has been pulled from the market while rumors are that the Note 2 update will be delayed.

The Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update for the Samsung Galaxy S3 yesterday hit the UK and it was available for unlocked version of the device via an OTA update. Phone Review had such a device but did not update to the Android 4.3. Apparently, after checking the device again this morning, the update was gone and the Galaxy S3 notified it already had the latest software update (which was not Android 4.3 of course).

The conclusion is that the Android 4.3 update was pulled from the store for the device and could also mean that the same software will be delayed for the Galaxy Note 2 that looked ready to be released. The issues confronted by users with the Galaxy S3 running on Android 4.3 consist of the handset becoming unresponsive after the update especially the lockscreen, and battery life getting worse.

Other problems included a patchy Wi-Fi connection or the handset locking up completely needing the battery to be pulled to restart the device. Considering the handset has been sitting on Android 4.1.2 for a while now it’s a poor performance by the company when you take into account how long Android 4.3 Jelly Bean has been available.

The update had also reached some carrier versions of the handset in the UK that included O2 and Three, and you would have thought these have been pulled as well and hopefully Samsung quickly provides a fix for those that have already installed the software and commences the rollout of the update.

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One Great Feature Of PlayStation 4 Most People Overlook

2013-11-18T13:20:00.004-08:00

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Many PlayStation 4 owners will no doubt already be using this feature, many will already know about it in general and some may have heard it as a rumour earlier in the year. Heck, even Shuhei Yoshida confirmed that you can do it a few weeks back, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t met a bunch of people who didn’t have a clue!

The DualShock 4 is a featured packed little beast, with a touch panel, light bar and motion control tech, a small microphone, a built in speaker and more, but the best part of all has to be the headphone jack.

Not only can you use this headphone jack for your bundled PlayStation chat headset, but you can plug in any pair of 3.5mm headphones that you own. This means that you can use your favourite headphones while gaming and this only gets better if you own one that features a 4-pole connection and a microphone, because you can even use it for in-game chat.

Most headsets have 4-pole connections these days, pretty much any mobile phone headset with a 3.5mm jack will work, for me personally I can use my MadCatz F.R.E.Q.7 and detachable microphone right from the controller.

The PlayStation 4 can stream game audio and chat direct to the controller, meaning you no longer have to worry about wireless headphones with a custom send/receive unit.

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