Rumors say NVIDIA might launch Pascal in April in time with Oculus VR headsets
Written by Sean Kalinich
Yesterday we talked about the possibility that AMD will launch a Dual-GPU R9 Fury X card geared for 4k and VR. This is certainly welcome news for most AMD fans and for fans of virtual reality. It was no coincidence that the first time we are seeing this in operation was at a big VR event in LA or that the launch is rumored to coincide with the launch of Oculus and HTC’s Vive headsets. This move would be a very high-end AMD card on the market around April/May of this year.
AMD talks up VR and the R9 Fury X dual-GPU card at VRLA
Written by Sean Kalinich
AMD says it’s a VR thing now. Well ok, not really, but AMD is leveraging the increased memory bandwidth in their high-end R9 Fury cards to push both 4k and VR. They showed off the R9 Fury X dual-GPU reference design working for the first time at VRLA (Virtual Reality Los Angeles). This card will feature two 28nm Fiji GPUs plus an estimated 8GB of 2.5D HBM 1.0. The memory would be split between the two GPUs at 4GB each.
Cyber Sex in the… well really anywhere you want now with VR and connected devices.
Written by Sean Kalinich
The “adult toy” has been around for a very, very long time. They have examples of them going back to the Egyptians and earlier. For thousands of years they were pretty much the same with a few add-ons to make them a little more fun. All of that changed in the 20th century when electronics got smaller along with motors and other items. In the 21st century the addition of small personal area networks and the connected device brought a whole new game to this multi-million dollar industry.
The Jabra Eclipse Bluetooth headset sounds off in the lab Featured
Written by Sean Kalinich
The market for hands-free devices is growing very quickly. This growth has been driven by multiple factors including legal ones. In some states they are required for driving which has been pushing the market forward. Sadly, the market has not really moved forward over the last few years. The devices have gotten smaller, but the feature set and battery life has not changed much. Jabra has been working on changing that over the last year and have come out with some great new hands-free kits including the Jabra Eclipse which is what we are taking a look at today.
Taking a delicious look at the Charbroil Simple Smoker Featured
Written by Sean Kalinich
Connected products are a big thing now and have been for a while. We have seen everything from lightbulbs to egg trays that have some sort of internet connection and notification service. We have been very concerned about the rapid growth and relative insecurity of these products for since they hit the scene. Recently we read about a new connected product from Char-broil that caught our attention. It is a WiFi connected smoker line. We were very intrigued by this for multiple reasons and reached out to them to see if we could arrange a simple of one. Char-broil was nice enough to send us their Simple Smoker to play around with. We took it for a spin over a weekend and can give you some insight into how well they work.
The Brewie auotmated brewing machine is a standout connected device for 2016
Written by Sean Kalinich
2016 is going to be a year where the connected device really explodes. We thought that IoT (Internet of Things) was bad in 2015, well that is just peanuts compared to what we are going to see in 2016. Everything from lightbulbs to sex toys are going to connect to something for remote control. We took a look at a sampling of products shown off at CES 2016 and will be covering them in a little more detail. We have already looked at some of the better connected adult toys and are now going to take a look at the adult beverage side of things.
In the fast paced and insanely stupid argument between privacy advocates and national security advocates we often hear how we need to give up one or the other. The security guys say that privacy will block criminal activity so we need to give up some of that. On the other side the Privacy gang feels that giving up privacy is only hurting the people that are not doing anything wrong. They also feel it has an impact on free speech and limits discourse. What neither side is getting is that they both are right. Strong privacy protections and encryption allow for better and more secure communication. The complement each other in a way that no one seems to get.
California Lawmakers push to ban the sale of encrypted smartphones
Written by Sean Kalinich
You would think that in 2016 the people in power would either understand technology, or would have been replaced by someone that does. Sadly, this is not the case in… well just about every place there is an elected official. Over the past few years we have seen some very stupid bit of technical legislation come over the wire. Everything from kill switches in smartphones to backdoors in software and encryption standards. All of the legislation proposed read like they were written by someone that has no clue about technology, but might watch a lot of TV… and bad TV at that.
AMD is delaying the launch of Zen until the end of 2016
Written by Sean Kalinich
AMD is delaying the launch of their new Zen based CPUs until the end of 2016. The news comes on the heels of a rather subdued, if optimistic, earnings report in which Lisa Su, AMD CEO, focused on AMD’s commitment to innovation and highlighted improved R&D spending. It is true that AMD’s operating loss has dropped massively when compared to Q4 2014, but much of this is due to cut backs in operating costs over actual revenue. This is despite claims that AMD’s GPU and Semi-Custom sales were to thank. During 2015 we saw AMD start to pull back from other products (and product lines) to conserve money and focus on creating a compelling product. Zen is the hope for AMD’s future along with moving to a 14nm process.
CyberPowerPC Debuts 2-in-1 Gaming & Streaming PCs, 34-inch Curved Screen AIO, SK-X Notebooks at CES 2016
Written by Sean KalinichLAS VEGAS, NV (January 6-9, 2016) – CyberPower Inc., www.cyberpowerpc.com, a global manufacturer of custom gaming PCs, gaming laptops, and performance workstations, will unveil some PC gaming eye candy when it debuts a new series of 2-in-1 gaming & streaming PCs, a 34-inch curved screen All-In-One, a new line of gaming laptops, and several gaming PC series that are “VR Ready” at CES 2016.
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GIGABYTE introduces the all-new P57 laptop along with its full Skylake lineup at CES 2016
Written by Sean Kalinich-For immediate release-
GIGABYTE introduces the all-new P57 laptop along with its full Skylake lineup at CES 2016
The highly anticipated GIGABYTE Skylake laptop lineup was announced at the CES 2016 exhibition including the all-new P57 and its exciting new anti-ghosting 30-key rollover keyboard, as well as its swappable bay. GIGABYTE offers a variety of options based on preference while providing GTX graphics, the latest 6th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 Processor, and industry leading Skylake features: M.2 PCIe SSD storage with PCI-Express 3.0 x4, providing a read speed of 2000 MB/s; long-anticipated DDR4 memory, providing faster frequency at a lower power demand; USB 3.1 with Type-C connection redefining the standard for data transfer and I/O connectivity. And finally, upgraded HDMI 2.0 with HDCP 2.2, that allows 4K display output at a 60Hz refresh rate, providing a massive upgrade in the user experience. The entire GIGABYTE gaming laptop range now includes a 3-month premium license of XSplit Gamecaster for each laptop, giving users the ability to share their games with the world.
CES 2016 sees connected Sex Toys on display in Sin City
Written by Sean Kalinich
CES 2016 has not really started yet, but there are already multiple member of the press on the ground and the vendors are arriving in droves. Along with these arrivals are the oppress releases and news updates. Our in boxes have been blowing up since Wednesday of last week with announcements, launches, invites (to parties and booths) along with a flood of news from CEA (the Consumer Electronics Association) that would make Noah antsy. With all of this news it is pretty clear what the focus of CES 2016 will be: The Connected Lifestyle.
Remember the Hive-CM8 group we told you about the other day? Well it seems that they have pulled their dump servers down. The reason is not clear, but it could be related to information that has gotten out to the web tied with a few articles about how the copyright groups caught some movie pirates in the UK. I guess we should fill in some gaps in the story now. Hive-CM8 is a group that has been tied to 11 public DVD screener releases and promised to push 29 more out to the world.
Firefall Developer Red5 Misses Holiday Payroll
Written by Sean KalinichYou know things are bad when you cannot afford to pay employees, but to miss payroll over the holidays seems just that much worse. However, that is what has happened to Red5 the developers behind Firefall. As is usually the case this event is not the first indication of financial troubles. In November the company laid off about 40 employees and then another 2-3 around the 23rd of December. Red6 was founded in 2005 and contained a number of Blizzard employees. Red5 was bought by a Chinese Publisher called The9 around 2010.