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Nickels and Dimes: AT&T to Charge Wireless Customers $0.61 Administrative Fee

News — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:31:48 GMT

The sly bean counters at AT&T figured out that by charging its wireless customers a nominal monthly administrative fee, it could generate hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue per year. Such is the power of numbers and how quickly they add up, assuming customers stick around for the ride. The ones that do will be charged 61 cents per month beginning May 1, The Wall Street Journal reports.

AT&T could stand to gain more than half a billion dollars by imposing this new "below-the-line" fee, so called because these types of charges usually appear at the bottom of the bill where they may not be noticed by customers.

Image Source: Flickr (zombiette)

According to AT&T, which gave customers 30 days notice of the new charge, the fee will cover "certain expenses, such as interconnection and cell-site rents and maintenance." That's on top of a "regulatory cost recovery charge" that's in the neighborhood of 50 cents per line.

AT&T isn't alone here. Verizon charges an administration fee of 90 cents per line along with a regulatory charge of 16 cents. Sprint Nextel charges $1.50 and 40 cents, respectively, and T-Mobile charges a regulatory fee of $1.61 per line (it doesn't tack on an administrative fee).

While small, these fees add up to big bucks. Spread across 70.7 million on-contract wireless subscribers, AT&T would collect an additional $518 million in 2014 from the new fee, and that's without adding a single new customer.

Intel Claims Haswell Architecture Offers 50% Longer Battery Life Versus Ivy Bridge

News — Fri, 24 May 2013 17:30:41 GMT

With its soon-to-be-released Haswell microarchitecture, coming to us in the form of the 4th generation Core CPUs, Intel hopes to reaffirm our belief that it's the leader in processor technology. Haswell's launch comes at a time when the company is trying its hardest to make a major impact in the non-notebook mobile markets, and as this microarchitecture is designed to be extremely scalable, we'll assuredly be seeing some Haswell-equipped tablets later this year.

As we learned at Intel's Developer Forum last fall, the company's aiming to "Reinvent Mobility" with Haswell. As with any major microarchitecture launch, we'd expect the usual 10~15% performance gains, but here, Intel has put its efficiency focus into overdrive. Haswell should provide 2x the graphics performance, and it's designed to be as power efficient as possible - it even puts previous generations to relative shame.

As Marco mentioned in his report from IDF, "The goal during Haswell’s design phase was to not only increase performance per watt, but to do so while improving power efficiency by roughly 20x with some workloads" - that's rather staggering. As we can now share, the company has further gone on to state that Haswell should enable a 50% battery-life increase over last year's Ivy Bridge. If the company delivers on this promise, then users stand to greatly benefit while its leading competitor might have to go back to the drawing board.

There are a couple of reasons why Haswell is so energy-efficient versus the previous generation, but there's one major one: the moving of the CPU voltage regulator off of the motherboard and into the CPU package, creating a Fully Integrated Voltage Regulator, or FVIR. This is a far more efficient design than before; integration consumes less power and it greatly improves operational efficiency. In addition, because we're once again moving something off of the motherboard, we're inching our way towards even smaller products, or motherboards of the same size that may have added functionality.

Thanks also to the use of "enhanced" tri-gate transistors, current leakage has been reduced by about 2x - 3x versus Ivy Bridge - an enormous improvement for just a single generation.

Based on the paper specs alone, Intel looks to have a winner with Haswell. The promises of battery-life being improved by up to 50% is just one thing, but there's so much more to like. The fact that Haswell can also idle for up to 20x as long in a deep-sleep mode is also important. Just imagine what this could do for tablets, a la Microsoft Surface.

Given all you know so far, are you planning to make the upgrade to Haswell?

Examining Intel's Solid State Drive 525 Series

News — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 15:26:50 GMT

It has been quite a while since we last an mSATA solid state drive (SSD) under the microscope. It's actually only been about two years, and if you care to jump into our time machine, you can see what we had to say about Intel's 310 Series mSATA SSD in 80GB form. The idea then was the same as it is now -- to offer full-size SSD features and performance in a smaller form factor that can wiggle into increasingly thinner Ultrabooks and mini PCs like Intel's Next Unit of Computing (NUC). Intel's forging ahead with mSATA SSD production and just recently released its 525 Series (Lincoln Crest), essentially a smaller version of the company's high octane 2.5-inch 520 Series...

Examining Intel's Solid State Drive 525 Series

Microsoft Xbox One Used Games Market to Offer Publishers a Cut

News — Fri, 24 May 2013 17:02:25 GMT

The always-on controversy surrounding what we now know as the Xbox One has quickly taken a backseat to a semi-related topic: Used games. Specifically, how is Microsoft planning to approach the used games market since titles will be installed directly to the hard drive, and just as important, will a used game market even exist? The answer to that latter question is "yes," though GameStop and other used games retailers may not like the details.

First, a refresher. In an emailed statement to Wired earlier this week, Microsoft said that all game discs are installed to the Xbox One's hard drive to play. Each disc would be tied to a unique Xbox Live account, and while gamers would be free to bring it to a friend's house to play, they'd need to use their existing profile to do so. Otherwise, the friend in question would have to pay a fee to play the game.

As for the used games market, Microsoft's Larry Hryb, Director of Programming for Xbox Live, clarified things just a tad.

"While there have been many potential scenarios discussed, today we have only confirmed that we designed Xbox One to enable our customers to trade in and resell games at retail," Hryb explained. "Beyond that, we have not confirmed any specific scenarios. Another piece of clarification around playing games at a friend’s house – should you choose to play your game at your friend’s house, there is no fee to play that game while you are signed in to your profile."

Since then, more details have come to light. MCV claims to have heard from various sources within the retail chain that Microsoft is briefing key partners on how it intends to handle the pre-owned games market. Short and sweet, Microsoft and publishers will receive a percentage of each used game sale, in theory creating a win-win-win-win situation among consumers, used game retailers, publishers, and of course Microsoft. You trade your game in to GameStop or wherever, it gets wiped from your Live account, and then it's resold, only now with multiple hands dipping into the used games cookie jar.

Unfortunately, there's only so many crumbs to go around, and unconfirmed reports have suggested that used games retailers could end up with as little as 10 percent of the sale. That would decimate the used games market, which undoubtedly would make publishers happy, but could potentially put GameStop out of business and spark a backlash among gamers.

That's getting ahead of ourselves. We'll have to hope that Microsoft did its research and came up with a financially feasible plan that works out for all involved, lest it shoot itself in the foot.

Microsoft’s “Sculpt Comfort Mouse” Has Built in Windows Start Button

News — Fri, 24 May 2013 16:33:59 GMT

On the lookout for the ultimate Windows mouse? Well, given that's how Microsoft touts its Sculpt Comfort Mouse, the company looks to have you covered. Microsoft calls the mouse "Sculpt" because it's designed to fit perfectly in your hand, with a contoured left side - unfortunately, lefties are once again ignored. Also on the left side is what sets this mouse apart from all the rest: a Windows touch tab.

This blue button has multiple functions. You can click it to switch between your desktop app and the Windows Start screen, swipe up to cycle through all open apps (in the Start screen) or down to reveal the All Apps section of the Start screen.

As someone who's come to rely heavily on back / forward buttons being situated on the left side of a mouse, I'm not too sure I'd be able to use the Sculpt Comfort Mouse without slowly going insane. Interestingly, Microsoft also offers a mobile version of its Sculpt mouse which moves the Windows key to the top - you just lose out on swiping capabilities, and there are still no side buttons.

If this mouse had side buttons for back / forward and implemented the Windows touch tab to beneath the scroll wheel, it'd be then that I'd be able to get behind the "ultimate Windows mouse" statement. What about you?

The Original Killer App Killed. Lotus 1-2-3 Goes EOL

News — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:25:24 GMT

Say your goodbyes, folks, Lotus 1-2-3 is being forced into retirement. For those of you old enough to remember Lotus 1-2-3, you might be shocked to learn that it was still on the market after all this time. Many people got their introduction to spreadsheets courtesy of IBM's legacy software, though Lotus 1-2-3 wasn't actually the first spreadsheet program to hit the PC. VisiCalc, which was originally released for the Apple II, beat Lotus 1-2-3 to the punch.

Several other spreadsheet programs would follow, though none more popular back in the early and mid-1980s than Lotus 1-2-3. It was considered IBM's first "killer application," and indeed it quickly killed VisiCalc in sales after its debut on January 26, 1983. It wasn't until Excel and Quatro Pro came out that Lotus 1-2-3 would start to fall in favor. It was such a popular tool that it was even used to stress test PC clones for compatibility with the IBM PC that it was written to run on.

A later version (9.3) of Lotus 1-2-3 running on Microsoft's Windows XP platform.

Fast forward to today and there's not much reason to cling to the 30-year-old spreadsheet. IBM agrees and decided to discontinue support for the program and related software, including Lotus SmartSuite and Lotus Organizer, noting that "Customers will no longer be able to receive support for these offerings after September 30, 2014. No service extensions will be offered."

IBM will, however, continue to market and sell the program until June 11, 2013, in case you really want to own a piece of history. After that, it's time to move on and look alternatives for your spreadsheet needs, like Excel, Google Docs, and so forth.

Intel Core i7-3970X Sandy Bridge-E CPU Review: Intel's Flagship 6-Core

News — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:32:58 GMT

It’s no secret that Intel is readying processors based in its Haswell microarchitecture. The new chips are due to be released in the not too distant future and feature a number of noteworthy enhancements, including a much more powerful integrated graphics core.

When Haswell arrives though, it will supplant current Ivy Bridge-based processors, which target more mainstream market segments than the product we’ll be showing you today. For the foreseeable future, Intel’s big dog remains Sandy Bridge-E, the monstrous six-core beast which utilizes the X79 Express chipset and socket LGA 2011.

Prior to the arrival of Haswell, we figured it would be a good idea to show you just what Intel’s current flagship desktop processor can do. That processor is the Core i7-3970X...

Intel Core i7-3970X Sandy Bridge-E CPU Review: Intel's Flagship 6-Core

Lenovo's Quarterly Profit Swelled 90 Percent on Record PC Sales

News — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:28:19 GMT

Don't tell Lenovo the PC market is in a slump. The OEM apparently hasn't gotten the memo, and as they say, ignorance is bliss. In this case, it's also quite lucrative. Lenovo this week announced record full-year sales of $34 billion, up 15 percent year-over-year, and record earnings of $635 million, up more than a third compared to last year.

Lenovo's record-setting behavior didn't stop there. It's fourth fiscal quarter revenues grew 4 percent to $7.8 billion. What makes those numbers even more remarkable is that the industry average among PC makers was a 13 percent year-over-year decline. This is the 16th consecutive quarter Lenovo has been able to buck the trend.

The OEM said it shipped a record 52.4 million PCs to claim a market-leading 15.5 percent share of the global market. As a result, Lenovo's profits soared 90 percent in Q4.

"Despite a challenging macro-economic environment and ongoing PC industry transformation, Lenovo delivered a strong performance in the 2012/13 fiscal year. Not only were we the fastest growing among all major PC players, with record market share, revenue and profitability, more importantly, our smartphone and tablet businesses saw dramatic growth," said Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo Chairman and CEO. "In fact, smartphone shipments were 3.7 times greater than last year globally and we are now number two in the China smartphone market. This has laid a solid foundation for the successful transformation of Lenovo into a PC Plus leader. Going forward, we will focus our investments on the fast-growing tablet, smartphone and enterprise hardware areas, while working to enhance the profitability of our core PC business. We are very confident in our ability to achieve success in these new areas, just as in the PC business."

To say Lenovo is firing on all cylinders is an understatement. Somehow or another, the company continues to defy the industry. For example, Lenovo's desktop PC shipments were flat worldwide year-over-year, which doesn't sound all that impressive until you realize that the industry as a whole declined 12.2 percent.

Microsoft Ad Uses Siri to Poke Fun at iPad

News — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:55:29 GMT

As much as I've wanted Microsoft to hit a homerun with its advertising efforts, I haven't been super impressed its commercials the past few years. I didn't really care to see Seinfeld shopping for shoes or Bill Gates talking about churros, neither of which were worthy retorts to Apple's Mac vs PC ad spots. And let's not even talk about Microsoft's ads in other parts of the world.

I bring this up because Microsoft's finally showing signs that it can produce a comical commercial that's both informative and disparaging of the competition, but in a tasteful way. Check it out for yourself.

One of the chief complaints about the iPad since its introduction is that it's poorly suited for productivity chores. Things have improved a bit since the first iPad, but here we are nearing a fifth generation iPad announcement and, for the most part, many of the same shortcomings exist. There's no microSD card slot, no USB port, and as the above video points out, good luck trying to edit PowerPoint presentations (it can be done, but the available options all have their shortcomings).

None of this means Microsoft can rest on its laurels. Though the ad makes a strong, albeit humorous point about the iPad versus Windows 8 tablets, the latter have yet to really resonate with customers. That could change as prices come down, but for now, the iPad is still the most popular family of tablets out there.

Upcoming Apple I Computer Auction Will Open at $116,000

News — Fri, 24 May 2013 13:07:39 GMT

History tells us that when the next Apple I (or Apple-1, if you prefer) goes up for sale this weekend at an auction house in Germany, it will fetch an obscene amount of money for what amounts to an obsolete system. It's not that anyone is buying these things to run legacy software, mind you, they're doing it to own a piece of history, and they're paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process.

This is the same auction house that sold a working Apple I computer on November 24, 2012 for a record $640,000. Prior to that, the record sat at $374,500 for a system that was auctioned off by Sotheby's in New York. Pretty crazy for a computer that originally sold for $666.66 back in 1976 when it debuted (or $2,700 in today's currency after accounting for inflation).

Image Source: Breker.com

Auctioneer Uwe Breker tells The New York Times that the reserve price for this weekend's Apple I is $116,000. He conservatively expects it to sell for anywhere from $260,000 on up to $400,000, though there's always a chance it could set another record, especially since this is working rig.

One reason why these systems command such a premium among collectors is that they're incredibly scarce. It's believed that no more than 200 Apple I computers were ever made, of which less than 50 may remain.

Early Adopter Loses $1,500 Google Glass at Airport

News — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:26:38 GMT

It's not always desirable to be first. Luke Wroblewski, a digital product design and strategy guy living in Silicon Valley knows this as well as anyone. Poor Luke managed to misplace his Google Glass, earning him the distinction of being the first to do so, according to Google.

"So according to @googleglass support, I have the dubious honor of being the first person to lose a Google Glass. #yahme," Luke posted on this Twitter account.

Losing a Google Glass at this stage is troubling for a number of reasons. There's the financial hit, which is quite significant at $1,500, but there are also privacy concerns; Luke had linked his Google Glass to various accounts. Lucky for him, Google allows users to delete data from Glass remotely, though he's hoping a do-good citizen finds them and returns them.

Unlike early iPhone prototypes that have a tendency to be left behind in bars, Luke lost his Google Glass at an airport, according to VentureBeat, which communicated with Luke via email. He thinks it may have slipped out of his bag when going through airport security. Should he get them back, he said he'll used a zippered pocket next time.

From Desktop to Tabletop, HP's ENVY Rove 20 is a Portable All-In-One

News — Thu, 23 May 2013 04:51:28 GMT

In case you haven't noticed, the line is becoming increasingly blurred between varying types of PCs that used to have a single purpose. Not anymore. Following the introduction of Windows 8, we've seen several hybrid convertibles, including some funky designs, and that flexible approach to computing is being extended wherever OEMs feel there's a market. For HP, that means releasing an all-in-one (AIO) desktop that is anything but stationary.

HP's new ENVY Rove 20 is being billed as a mobile AIO -- the company's first, in fact -- that's no longer tied to the desk. It goes from being upright to completely horizontal for a tabletop entertainment experience, HP explains. So, when dad or mom finish working, they can tote it into the living room and play a game with the kids, or some other utopian vision OEMs have in mind for such systems. It should be made clear that HP isn't advertising this as a tablet that you'll take on the train or even out of the house. At around 12 pounds, it's meant to roam about your abode from room to room.

"Customers are looking for mobility and flexibility in their computing devices to give families new ways to bring generations together," said Ron Coughlin, senior vice president and general manager, Consumer PCs and Consumer Solutions, HP. "HP is evolving to meet our customers’ needs by designing next-generation form factors, like the Rove mobile all-in-one PC, which will enable people to connect, share and create in ways they never imagined."

Balancing the dual-use scenario HP lays out is a 20-inch 1,600x900 IPS (in-plane switching) LED panel with wide viewing angles and 10 points of touch. Specific specs are a little light at this stage, but we know it comes equipped with 4th generation Intel Core processor options (Haswell) and built-in Beats audio.

The HP ENVY Rove 20 will be available in July. Pricing has yet been announced.

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto V Collector's Editions Stuffed with Extras, Up for Pre-Order

News — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:54:37 GMT

Consider Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto franchise a guilty pleasure, and we're willing to admit we're looking forward to the next major installment, Grand Theft Auto V. Unless something went terribly wrong in the design phase, you can expect more in-game violence and blatantly illicit jobs set in the franchise's biggest open world to date, which will task us with running around doing things that we'd never do in real life (for the most part, anyway.

As if gamers weren't already looking forward to GTA V's release, Rockstar Games has begun accepting pre-orders and is tossing in extra goodies at each tier. There are three versions to choose from: Standard Edition, Special Edition, and Collector's Edition.

The Standard Edition is for just the game itself, which is being released to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on September 17, 2013. If you pre-order a copy of the retail version, you'll ensure access to the Atomic Blimp in-game vehicle. Pricing for the Standard Edition is $59.99.

Should you pony up for the Special Edition ($79.99), you'll receive the game, access to the Atomic Blimp, a collectible SteelBook with exclusive artwork, a 21.5-inch by 26.76-inch map of Los Santos and Blaine County, and digital extras (stunt plane trials, special ability boost, bonus outfits and tattoos, and additional weapons).

And for you diehard fans, the Collector's Edition ($149.99), which is a GameStop exclusive, contains the same items as the Special Edition plus a t-shirt, Los Santos baseball cap, GTA V security deposit bag with logo key, unique vehicles and garage property, and custom characters for online play.

Internal Components of the Next iPhone Revealed

News — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:10:01 GMT

Apple's in a bit of pickle. The Cupertino company has to figure out how to regain its mojo in the mobile space by releasing a smartphone with fancy new features, but not go so far overboard that it ends up alienating its rabid fan base. If you recall, the initial reaction to the iPhone 5 was somewhat subdued, not because it wasn't a great smartphone -- it was, and still is -- but because consumers have come to expect so much from Apple. Will the next iPhone generate the kind of excitement that the iPhone 5 failed to elicit?

We'll find out soon enough. In the meantime, the folks at Boy Genius Report (BGR) somehow obtained high-resolution photos supposedly of several internal components used in the design of the next iPhone. Here's a look at one of them:

Image Source: BGR

What you're looking at above is a newly designed vibrating motor that's different in design from the one included in the iPhone 5. Other photos show a redesigned ear speaker bracket, a new loud-speaker bracket, Wi-Fi flex cable ribbon, and two different SIM card trays, which look thinner than the current generation iPhone 5.

There have been all kinds of rumors relating to Apple's iPhone plans, including one that suggests the Cupertino outfit will launch a lower-cost model made from polycarbonate plastic rather than metal and glass. More recently, a supposedly leaked ad showed an iPhone 6 model with a Retina-class display and edge-to-edge glass.

HTC EVO 4G LTE Android Smartphone Review

News — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 15:52:42 GMT

It's no secret that HTC has had a rough time competing with other big name smartphone manufacturers in the last couple of years. It looked like the company might be turning things around with its One series and the EVO 4G LTE for Sprint, but then the company got hit with another delay thanks to a U.S. Customs review. The EVO 4G LTE is finally here though, and Sprint customers can finally pick up this new, highly anticipated smartphone.

The HTC EVO 4G LTE sports many of the high-end features you'd want in a smartphone today including Android 4.0, a 4.7-inch HD display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, an 8-megapixel camera, and 4G LTE connectivity. The phone also comes with s kickstand built-in...

HTC EVO 4G LTE Android Smartphone Review

Google Sends Street View Cameras To The Galapagos Islands

News — Fri, 24 May 2013 04:38:19 GMT

You may have not been there, but The Galapagos Islands are known around the world as being some of the most unique, precious islands on the planet. From a biological standpoint, you'll find ecosystems here that you won't find anywhere else, and in fact, it's becoming a bit more difficult for average folks to visit because of efforts that are ongoing to protect those very ecosystems. The Ecuadorean Government, local conservation groups and scientists are working to protect the Galapagos from threats posed by invasive species, climate change and other human impacts.

So, what to do? Get Google out there to capture everything right now, so that images can be shared with the world at large. Google announced this week, n partnership with Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) and the Galapagos National Parks Directorate (GNPD), that is has collected panoramic imagery of the islands with the Street View Trekker. These stunning images will be available on Google Maps later this year so people around the world can experience this remote archipelago.

Google took a 10-day trek to the islands to capture 360-degree images of the unique wildlife and geological features of the islands with the Trekker. 10 locations were picked, and those 10 were pored over using body-mounted cameras. Even underwater ecosystems were captured. Google's now putting the collection together, and should be ready to introduce it to the world in short order. What would we do without the Internet to educate?

Hisense Bringing Low-Cost Android Tablets To Walmart Starting Today

News — Fri, 24 May 2013 04:30:16 GMT

Wondering if tablets have officially become a mainstream commodity? Well, here's your answer: they're flooding Walmart. While iPads and select Android tablets have been around on Walmart shelves for a bit, you know these things are getting popular once a brand like Hisense gets approved. It's spectacularly diffcult to convince Walmart to give you shelf space, and somehow, Hisense has managed to do just that. Hisense today entered the tablet marketplace with the Sero 7 Series. The Hisense Sero 7 PRO ($149) and the Sero 7 LT ($99) are available in Walmart stores and on Walmart.com starting today, and at those low price points, might just make it into a lot of carts through impulse buys.

Hisense Sero 7 PRO is a 7-inch 1280 x 800 High Definition touch screen powered by NVIDIA's Tegra 3 quad-core processor and runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. Other features include 1GB of RAM, 8GB of on-board memory, a 2MP front camera, 5MP rear camera, mini-HDMI, an SD slot, USB port, and a 10-hour battery. It's also Bluetooth-enabled. The $99 sibling runs Android 4.1 and ships with a 7" (1024x600) display, Wi-Fi, 1GB of RAM, and 4GB of internal memory.

AMD 2013 A and E-Series Kabini and Temash Mobile APUs

News — Thu, 23 May 2013 04:17:58 GMT

AMD has been pretty open about discussing certain product in the roadmap. In fact, we've disclosed a number of details regarding the main products we'll be talking about in this article, Kabini, Temash, and Richland over the last few months.

It was all the way back at CES that we first showed you Kabini, Temash, and Richland-based products in action in a number of prototype notebooks at tablets from Vizio, HP, Asus and others. And AMD actually talked about the foundation of two these products (Kabini and Temash)-its Jaguar CPU core microarchitecture-at Hot Chips in April of last year. If you're unfamiliar with Kabini and Temash, they are the codenames given to AMD's next-gen, low-power APUs targeted at notebooks and ultra-mobile form factors. Kabini and Temash are not simple updates to existing products, however. They feature newly designed CPU cores fused to a Graphics Core Next-based GPU, and are designed to improve performance considerably, while also operating at lower power...

AMD 2013 A and E-Series Kabini and Temash Mobile APUs

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Apologizes for Accidental Pro Photographer Diss

News — Wed, 22 May 2013 20:39:54 GMT

If we're being honest, we can all admit to at one time or another suffering from foot-in-mouth disease. Unintentionally saying the wrong thing can happen whether you have the gift of gab or not, and those in the public eye are especially prone to such incidents when every word is scrutinized. Hence Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is asking for forgiveness from professional photographers after she made a statement that appeared to disparage their profession.

Yahoo held a press event in New York City to celebrate the opening of a new office and to unveil a revamped Flickr service that now offers users 1TB of storage space for free. With so much space up for grabs, Yahoo no longer offers a Flickr Pro subscription, and comments related to that decision are what landed Mayer in hot water with photographers.

"There's no such thing as Flickr Pro, because today, with cameras as pervasive as they are, there is no such thing really as professional photographers, when there's everything is professional photographers," Mayer said. "Certainly there are varying levels of skills, but we didn't want to have a Flickr Pro anymore, we wanted everyone to have professional quality photos, space, and sharing."

Image Source: DeusXFlorida

Mayer's comment was hit with a wave of negative reactions across the web, some posting to her own Flickr account and others taking to Twitter asking for clarification. Did she really mean what she said?

"It was a misstatement on my part and out of context. Was about the terabyte on Flickr and how many photos everyone takes," Mayer explained in a Twitter post. She followed it up with another tweet saying, "I worded my answer terribly. I really apologize for what it sounded like outside of the context and notion of Flickr Pro."

It's not a stretch to believe she's being sincere, as it wouldn't make sense for Mayer to alienate professional photographers immediately after relaunching a photo sharing site. Sure, criticize her for signing off on Yahoo's $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr, but let's give her a pass for fumbling her words.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Review

News — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:59:50 GMT

When NVIDIA introduced the GeForce GTX Titan a few months back, the company created a huge gap in its single-GPU product line-up. With its GK110 GPU and massive 6GB frame buffer, the GeForce GTX Titan was easily able to outrun the GK104-based GeForce GTX 680 and it hung with the dual-GPU powered GeForce GTX 690 as well. That gap between the GeForce GTX 680 and GTX Titan could have potentially been filled by a scaled down GK110 with a smaller frame buffer, and in fact, one of the first questions we asked of NVIDIA during our briefing on Titan was if a more affordable version of the card was in the works, but company reps were expectedly mum at the time. It’s not like NVIDIA to comment on unannounced products, but we took a shot anyway.

NVIDIA’s talking now, though. Today marks the arrival of the GeForce GTX 780, a graphics card that is essentially a GeForce GTX Titan, with a scaled down GK110 GPU and a smaller, but still relatively large, 3GB compliment of video memory...

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Review

Innodisk Reveals New nanoSSD With Sizes Ranging From 4GB to 64GB

News — Thu, 23 May 2013 03:14:01 GMT

It's pretty amazing how much we can store digitally on miniscule flash devices. Just look at Innodisk's latest creation, touted as the planet's first industrial-embedded industry's first SATA device in accordance to SATA µSSD standards – nanoSSD. Through the integration of a control chip, flash memory and peripheral power components into a single ball grid array (BGA) package, Innodisk has managed to reduce the size of the nanoSSD to approximately 1% the size of a 2.5" SSD. With dimensions of only 16 x 20 x 2 mm (WxLxH), a weight of only 1.5g, SATA III support, capacities ranging from 4 to 64 GB and both x86 and ARM compatibility, nanoSSD can be incorporated into a wide variety of applications where a small form-factor and high transfer rates are important, including industrial mobile devices, embedded systems, tablets, high-end smart phones and Ultrabooks.

Designed according to MO-276 standards, the JEDEC standard for SATA microSSDs, nanoSSD is a single-chip SATA implementation which allows for easy design-in. This product is fully compliant with the industrial-embedded industry's standards, including: thermal sensor implementation, -40°C to 85°C wide operation range, shock-resistance and ATA security and military (MIL-STD-810F/G) compliant quick erase standards.

There's no clear word when it comes to pricing or a commercial release, but hopefully we'll see it trickling out soon.

OCZ Vertex 450 Solid State Drive Review, and That's a Hat Trick For The Day

News — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:31:00 GMT

In Boston Bruins-like fashion, we have our third, yes third full performance review for the day. And that's what you call a "geek hat trick."

OCZ already offers a wide array of popular, high performance SSDs, but to the company’s credit, it’s not resting on its laurels. After employing SandForce controllers on some of the earlier Vertex SSDs, OCZ snapped up Indilinx and is using what is now its own proprietary silicon in many of its drives.

Thus, the brand new OCZ Vertex 450 SSD we'll be showing you here today with an Indilinx Barefoot 3 M10 series controller inside is very much a “vertical” effort, with the Indilinx and OCZ-owned PLX teams building both the silicon and firmware.

The 256GB version, which is the model we put on the test bench, has sequential read/write speed ratings of 540/525 MBps and 85,000/90,000 4KB random read/write IOPS. In terms of numbers, that puts the Vertex 450 just slightly slower than the Vertex 4 for read speed and slightly faster than its write speed, as the 256GB Vertex 4 (with last fall’s firmware upgrade) is rated for 560/510 MBps read/write.

Come take a look at the new OCZ Vertex 450...

Activision and Bungie Release Impressive "Law of The Jungle" Destiny Trailer

News — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:44:45 GMT

We got a taste of “Destiny”, a new MMO being developed by Activision and Bungie, back in February, and now the companies are teasing the game even more with a trailer called “Law of the Jungle”.

Directed by Jon Favreau and featuring Giancarlo Esposito, the trailer teases what appear to be cut shots interspersed with a bit of gameplay action. There are three protagonists fighting side-by-side against an invading alien force, and each of the three has a different look and different weapons. For example, one has a hood and cape while another has a quasi Boba Fett-style helmet.

In terms of weaponry, we see that there’s a Street Fighter II-esque ball of energy that the player can shoot from his hands (wouldn't it be awesome if he yells “hadouken!” when he fires it off?); a handgun that appears to shoot explosives, among other ammunition; and a heavy-duty machine gun.

Our protagonists

Presumably, these three individuals aren’t necessarily the only three characters you can be in the game; rather, (we hope) that they’re just indicative of the type of fighter each player can draw up and customize for themselves.

In any case, the trailer is pretty clear about the fact that you and your comrades are a “wolfpack” that will need to work together to shoot the bejesus out of earth’s invaders, which sounds like a lot of fun.

Admit it, you'll watch anything with this guy in it.

Destiny will be officially revealed in full at E3, on June 10th--notably, during Sony’s PlayStation press conference--and the trailer will air on TNT on May 25th during the NBA Western Conference finals.