From The Blog
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ConnectWise Slash and Grab Flaw Once Again Shows the Value of Input Validation We talk to Huntress About its Impact
Written by Sean KalinichAlthough the news of the infamous ConnectWise flaw which allowed for the creation of admin accounts is a bit cold, it still is one that…Written on Tuesday, 19 March 2024 12:44 in Security Talk Read 710 times Read more...
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Social Manipulation as a Service – When the Bots on Twitter get their Check marks
Written by Sean KalinichWhen I started DecryptedTech it was to counter all the crap marketing I saw from component makers. I wanted to prove people with a clean…Written on Monday, 04 March 2024 16:17 in Editorials Read 1587 times Read more...
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To Release or not to Release a PoC or OST That is the Question
Written by Sean KalinichThere is (and always has been) a debate about the ethics and impact of the release of Proof-of-Concept Exploit for an identified vulnerability and Open-Source…Written on Monday, 26 February 2024 13:05 in Security Talk Read 1122 times Read more...
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There was an Important Lesson Learned in the LockBit Takedown and it was Not About Threat Groups
Written by Sean KalinichIn what could be called a fantastic move, global law enforcement agencies attacked and took down LockBit’s infrastructure. The day of the event was filled…Written on Thursday, 22 February 2024 12:20 in Security Talk Read 1096 times Read more...
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NetSPI’s Offensive Security Offering Leverages Subject Matter Experts to Enhance Pen Testing
Written by Sean KalinichBlack Hat 2023 Las Vegas. The term offensive security has always been an interesting one for me. On the surface is brings to mind reaching…Written on Tuesday, 12 September 2023 17:05 in Security Talk Read 2141 times Read more...
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Black Kite Looks to Offer a Better View of Risk in a Rapidly Changing Threat Landscape
Written by Sean KalinichBlack Hat 2023 – Las Vegas. Risk is an interesting subject and has many different meanings to many different people. For the most part Risk…Written on Tuesday, 12 September 2023 14:56 in Security Talk Read 1867 times Read more...
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Microsoft Finally Reveals how they Believe a Consumer Signing Key was Stollen
Written by Sean KalinichIn May of 2023 a few sensitive accounts reported to Microsoft that their environments appeared to be compromised. Due to the nature of these accounts,…Written on Thursday, 07 September 2023 14:40 in Security Talk Read 2138 times Read more...
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Mandiant Releases a Detailed Look at the Campaign Targeting Barracuda Email Security Gateways, I Take a Look at What this all Might Mean
Written by Sean KalinichThe recent attack that leveraged a 0-Day vulnerability to compromise a number of Barracuda Email Security Gateway appliances (physical and virtual, but not cloud) was…Written on Wednesday, 30 August 2023 16:09 in Security Talk Read 2107 times Read more...
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Threat Groups Return to Targeting Developers in Recent Software Supply Chain Attacks
Written by Sean KalinichThere is a topic of conversation that really needs to be talked about in the open. It is the danger of developer systems (personal and…Written on Wednesday, 30 August 2023 13:29 in Security Talk Read 1901 times Read more...
Recent Comments
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Apple Evidence Against Samsung Found Inaccurate
Written by Sean Kalinich
It looks like Apple may have made a serious blunder in their EU case against Samsung. As we have told you previously Apple has made the claim that Samsung copied the iPad2 in their design of the Galaxy Tab 10.1. As such they have sought an injunction and been granted a preliminary one banning sales of the Tab 10.1 in all areas of the European Union except the Netherlands.
However, we are hearing now that some of the evidence presented was inaccurate. According to Macworld and WebWereld.nl the images used do not show the Tab 10.1 properly. According to Samsung’s site the Tab 10.1 has dimensions of 257.7 x 175.3mm this represents an aspect ratio of 1:1.46. Careful review of the image in Apple’s complain reveal that it has an aspect ratio closer to 1:1.36 putting it very close to the dimensions of Apple’s iPad2.
Now the question is whether Apple actually manipulated this image or if they used outdated images (knowingly or not). If it is the former then Apple is in serious trouble as they have presented false evidence in a legal proceeding. If it is the later then they will still face some serious consequences as it is the plaintiff’s responsibility to present accurate information in any litigation (even in the EU). Samsung has filed an appeal to the original injunction and with this new evidence they have a very good chance of winning. No matter the cause I am sure that the Court System will be keeping a closer eye on Apple in the future. Let’s remember Apple’s presentation during the “grip of death” problem and the iPhone 4 where they cherry picked three phones to prove the grip issue was global. After that incident it was shown that even with those phones the issue was very limited and not the same as what Apple was trying to show. It actually prompted statements and the threat of legal action from Samsung and HTC at the time. So we would honestly not be surprised to find that Apple knowingly used an outdated image of the Tab 10.1 in their evidence to further their case.
Picture Credit WeWerld.nl
It will be interesting to watch the outcome of this one.
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Credit to forum member Kelevmor for passing this one along.
Intel Offers CPU Upgrade Plan, For some CPUs..
Written by Sean Kalinich
Intel is offering another upgrade plan for some of their Core i3 and Pentium G CPUs (the Core i3 2312 and 2102 and the Pentium G622). This is similar to an upgrade offer that was given last year for another group of CPUs. For a small fee (it was $50 last year) you can purchase a code that will unlock features in the CPU to increase performance. These features are reportedly able to bring an alleged 11-15% performance boost over the “locked” CPUs.
Of course the fact that Intel locked off those features to begin with have some a tad bit annoyed, but a quick look around finds that most of these are not retail CPUs but OEM ones. This means a quick and easy upgrade for just about any consumer. We do not have any information on how much this will cost, but it should not be more than $50-$60. Check out Intel’s site for more information.
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What will Windows 8 mean to Apple’s Litigation Spree?
Written by Sean Kalinich
Apple has been having a blast dropping patents for vague concepts and even an entire device type (with their pending Pico Projector patent) regardless of prior art and at times regardless of if the patent is actual technology or not (the look and feel of something). Then they take these patents and wave them in the face of judges that have no real idea of what the patent is (or is not) covering asking for injunctions and outright bans on products from companies that are relatively underfunded in the legal department. If you ask Apple about this they will stand and say that they are protecting their Intellectual Property (which in many cases was “borrowed” from another company that cannot afford a legal fight with Apple like S3). This abuse of the patent and copyright system is detestable, but is an article for another day.
The question I am wondering is, why has Apple not gone after Microsoft? Windows 7 on a tablet has Pinch to Zoom, finger gestures and even the same “look and feel” when you scroll with your finger. Now, I could be wrong, but if Apple is trying to protect their IP you would think they would be going after Microsoft in a big way. I am also pretty sure they would be adding Asus (who has one of the best-selling Windows Based Tablets on the market right now) to their legal wish list as well. So, why do they leave these two obvious copy cats out of the litigation arena?
Well, here are a few reasons that we were able to come up with based on research. Microsoft is safe simply because they have bailed out Apple multiple times in the past and also have several patents and items that Apple needs to survive (Office for Mac is still a huge seller). Whether the Apple faithful and Steve Jobs want to admit it or not Apple owes it very existence to their rival; without Bill Gates and Microsoft we would be talking about Apple in the past tense. Right now Adobe is wishing they had dropped money into that bailout instead of just spending time and money making their products work on Apple’s RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) based systems (the PowerPC days). If they had, they perhaps they would have some leverage in the whole HTML5 Vs. Flash competition. This also applies to Microsoft’s net generation operating system Windows 8. In fact is applies even more as Microsoft is writing it to work on ARM based CPUs. The previews that we have seen also make it very tablet friendly and an obvious threat to Apple’s weakening hold on the tablet market. Yet, we have heard no call to arms from the Apple legal team over this.
So, what about Asus and their tablets? Asus is also untouchable right now because they also have something that Apple wants; A manufacturing facility. Apple has been looking for alternatives to Foxconn due to the bad press surrounding the company’s many suicides. The world now knows that the iPhone, iPod and many other Apple products are assembled there and with the many deaths over working conditions at these plants the eyes are turning to look at Apple. The question has already been raised by many humanitarian groups “why has Apple done nothing about this?” You would think that a company that claims to be so “Green” and Earth Friendly would be appalled by what is happening over there. However, other than a few press releases (which usually tame the faithful) Apple has done nothing. At least on the surface, we have heard rumors that Apple is courting Pegatron as an alternative manufacturing site for the next generation of iToys. If this is true (and as of now we have no evidence to the contrary) then Apple would not want to get Asus upset. After all Asus owns Pegatron. It is their manufacturing company.
So then next time you hear an Apple press representative standing on the soapbox and loudly declaiming how they are protecting their Intellectual Property from the masses of thieves and copy-cats out there, just remember that they are only throwing this around at the companies they feel they can bully into submission. In the end no one likes a bully, and bullies usually reap what they sow in the long run.
We Put the Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H B3 Through its Paces Featured
Written by Sean Kalinich
After a look into the design and features of the Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H we are now diving into how well it performs. Unlike the MSI Z68A-GD80 we do not have any indications that we will run out of PCIe lanes, however we are still a little concerned about how well the Z68X will perform when we drop in the HD5870. We are also more than a little curious to see how the touchBIOS will work on the real world. So, let’s dive in and get to testing the Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H.
Looks like things are heating up between Apple and Samsung. I am not talking about anything like a war between the two companies or anything like that, but in the realm of stupid and asinine complaints. We kick off things with Apple’s complaint that Samsung “Copied” the iPad and iPhone. They base this in the fact that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 looks like the iPad and that some of Samsung’s phones look like the iPhone… (their words not mine). Apple then goes on to say that Samsung copied the look and feel of the iOS (where have I heard that before).
I hate to say this but, if you were to pick up 20 smart phones they would all be very alike. They are all around the same size and shape and the UI’s are also very close. If you dig deeper, the way they operate are also nearly identical; after all how many different ways can you swipe or tap with your finger? No, this one smells of Apple trying to delay a product that has a very good chance of hurting their sales. There is no other reason to ask for the injunction. The funny thing is that there are almost no real patents being bandied about here by Apple. This is because if they throw those out Samsung has a few of its own to drop on Apple some that could even be tied to the A4 SoC in the original iPad…
For Samsung’s part they are making the claim of “Nuh-Uh!” followed by the “you never said that!” defense. As it stands right now they are pushing for a rehearing on the claim that an injunction was not mentioned or requested in the original complaint. They are also claiming that the judge that approved the temporary ban did so without allowing Samsung to present evidence in its defense. This is very hard to believe as it represents both an unethical and illegal move by the judge in question. It is even harder to believe considering that an injunction and ban is exactly what Apple went for in Australia.
To be honest both companies are acting a little childish and unprofessional. If you ever wanted to see just how arrogant companies can be here it is, and to top it off you get to see just how ignorant the legal system is to how technology and the tech industry as a whole works.
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Everyone talks about Apple innovation and how they are great designers and creators. They have come up with some amazing ideas; marketing ideas. If you look at the history of Apple they have really not “created” much. They have taken ideas and concepts and made them work and in some cases even made them better, but for the most part they have not really created anything new.
For those that are going to nay-say this let’s look at a few items. The original Apple, was based off of concepts that were seen at Xerox and also on the IBM “PC” concept that was out. The Original iPad was taken (as proved in court) from the Creative Nomad MP3 player. The iPod was a much better product, but it was based on the Creative design. You can look back and see this trend in almost all of Apple’s devices. I am not calling apple out on anything new here as this is also the trend with most companies.
Where Apple does things different though is to file a patent on their way of doing things and make those patents so vague and broad that they can easily be extended to encompass almost anything in the event that Apple feels threatened. A case in point on this is one of the core patents in the Apple Vs the world of Android suits around the world. The Patent that was granted by to Apple actually covers “the look and feel” of the way a touch screen works. Excuse me? The look and feel? How to you patent that? Maybe I am wrong, but I thought patents were for technology. As such they should be about the actual hardware and workings involved not the concept or thought. Still Apple has managed to push these through even with prior art in evidence and on the books.
So Apple’s success (and bank roll) comes from being able to market old ideas as new and innovative, and to patent concepts and ideas that are so broad that they can sue anyone that even tries to invent a competitive product. Considering they are getting away with it on a massive scale it is really not a bad business model.
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nVidia talks up power efficiency on their Quad Core Kal-El Tegra processor
Written by Sean Kalinich
About three or four years ago nVidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang made the bold announcement that he wanted nVidia’s ARM based SoC (System on Chip) named Tegra to become 50% of nVidia’s revenue. One of the products that has had at least good success has been Microsoft’s ZuneHD. We were given the chance to play around with one of these and found it to be a great product. Unfortunately between the launch of the Tegra and the Tegra 2 was a serious delay. This had something of a negative impact on the market acceptance for this processor. When you combined these delays with the issues (and rumors) around the Fermi GPUs things did not look good for nVidia’s dream.
However, since that time they have managed to turn much of that around and pulled off some great design wins. We have found nVidia’s dual core Tegra 2 in devices such as Asus’ Transformer and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Both of these devices have grabbed the market’s interest and have begun to nibble away at the strangle hold that Apple has on the tablet market (and prompted a number of lawsuits from Apple).
Now with the Tegra 2 still tumbling out into the market nVidia is talking Kal-El a quad core Tegra that is reportedly faster and more power efficient than the Tegra 2. Now, having a power efficient quad core ARM based SoC is a very cool feat, but if nVidia is to be believed then the Kal-El Tegra will use less power than the current dual core Tegra 2. For those that will sat that the Android based Tablet and phone is in serious trouble due to Apple’s recent lawsuits and patent complaints do not worry. According to Huang, nVidia is still investing heavily in Android and also looking forward to Microsoft’s Windows 8. Windows 8 will be the first Windows operating system for ARM based SoCs.
We have some questions into nVidia to see just what they see as the future for Terga and the whole world of the Tegra and Smart device. We hope to hear back from them soon on this, but for now… it will be interesting to watch and see if nVidia can get Kal-El out of the gate soon and not repeat the same mistakes that plagued Tegra 2.
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Kingston Wi-Drive Wins Best of Show at Flash Memory Summit
Written by Sean KalinichKingston Wi-Drive Wins Best of Show at Flash Memory Summit
Wireless, Portable Storage Solution for Apple Devices Recognized as
“Most Innovative Flash Memory Consumer Application”
Fountain Valley, CA -- August 11, 2011 -- Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, today announced that Wi-Drive™ has been chosen by the Flash Memory Summit as a Best of Show award winner for 2011 in the Most Innovative Flash Consumer Application category. The award was handed out last night at the Flash Memory Summit Best of Show Awards event in Santa Clara, Calif.
“We are honored to have received the Best of Show award this year as Wi-Drive is truly an innovative Flash memory-based wireless solution that extends the storage capacities of Apple devices,” said Andrew Ewing, Flash memory business manager. “Wi-Drive allows users to wirelessly view documents and media files, and choose to share them with others, while on the go for work or pleasure.”
The Flash Memory Summit conference, held once a year, is dedicated entirely to Flash memory and its applications. The summit features exhibits and technical sessions that bring together Flash vendors, engineers, system designers and other professions. Wi-Drive was reviewed by a panel of industry experts prior to the show. Winning products were evaluated according to the following criteria:
- Distinctiveness of the application, technology, or product
- Central use of Flash memory as a solution or innovation
- Technical and business significance to the general marketplace
“The judges of the Flash Memory Summit Awards Committee had the daunting task of selecting the Most Innovative Consumer Application from such a large pool of quality submissions,” said Tom Coughlin, Summit Chairperson and President of Coughlin Associates. “We are proud to select Kingston Digital’s Wi-Drive as a wireless, portable storage device that allows users of the Apple iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch® to expand their storage.”
Wi-Drive began shipping in July and is available in both 16GB and 32GB capacities. Through the Kingston Wi-Drive app from the App StoreSM, three users can simultaneously watch movies, listen to music and view photos or documents. Its sleek, extremely portable and functional design allows users to view their files anywhere, without having to rely on cloud-based technology or Internet access.
To learn how users can easily enhance the storage capabilities of the Apple iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, a video demonstration and more information is available at www.kingston.com/flash/wi_drive.asp
For a complete list of all the Flash Memory Summit Best of Show awards winners, visit www.flashmemorysummit.com
Kingston can be found on:
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/kingstontechmemory
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/kingstontechnology
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/kingstonhq
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/164609?trk=tyah
About Kingston Digital, Inc.
Kingston Digital, Inc. (“KDI”) is the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the world’s largest independent manufacturer of memory products. Established in 2008, KDI is headquartered in Fountain Valley, California, USA. For more information, please visit www.kingston.com or call 800-337-8410.
About Flash Memory Summit
Flash Memory Summit is the only conference dedicated entirely to flash memory and its applications. It is intended for system designers, analysts, hardware and software engineers, product marketing and marketing communications specialists, and engineering and marketing managers. It features forums, half-day tutorials, paper and panel sessions, and expert tables. Subjects include harsh environments, laptops, enterprise storage system applications, consumer products, performance, product design, caching methods, design methods, software, new technologies, market research, testing and reliability, and security. The Summit also includes exhibits of the latest products and product awards. For more information, visit www.flashmemorysummit.com. Twitter: flashmem Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Flash-Memory-Summit/72498807894
About Conference ConCepts, Inc.
Founded in 1994, Conference ConCepts is a full-service professional conference and association management company that provides extensive capabilities in all aspects of technical conference management. Conference ConCepts develops and produces events both on its own, and in partnership with associations, corporations, and publishers. The skill sets of the company’s employees and contractors, representing over 200 cumulative years of experience, enables Conference ConCepts to offer clients a choice of services, ranging from assistance with a single aspect of a conference to the complete development and administration of a full-fledged “turnkey” event. For more information about Conference ConCepts, visit: http://www.confconcepts.com
Starbucks mobile cards do not care what phone they are actaully on
Written by Cindy Kalinich
Jonathan Stark was curious about something. As a gadget-laden mobile app developer with a thirst for Starbucks, he wondered how he could associate a single Starbucks mobile card with more than one mobile device. He tried this workaround for Starbucks limit: he took a screenshot on one device and emailed it to another. Turns out Starbucks doesn’t mind, displayed barcodes all scan the same.
He uploaded the photo to his blog and his lucky followers were treated to this bit of information, as well as a cup of coffee on him. Before the end of the day, his initial $30 was down to $1.26. He reloaded $50 “for his friends on the west coast” and it was depleted again in hours.
Here’s where it gets interesting: a friend of Jonathan’s did him a solid and reloaded the card. It also turns out Starbucks will not only let anyone with an image of the card use it for coffee, they also don’t care who reloads it as long as they’ve got the barcode.
Being the developer he is, he quickly wrote a bot that scrapes the Starbucks site and updates a Twitter account he created for the card. Jonathan figured if you’re getting on board, you can follow the card tweets and decide whether to get a latte, or maybe help the next guy out.
Once the idea took off, more than his blog followers were playing along and his idea got the notice of more than just the tech sites for its uniqueness. The card’s Twitter account currently has over 9000 followers and in just the past hour includes seven tweets about reaching a zero balance, and 21 for positive amounts. Jonathan admits the transactions and reloads are not aggregating correctly, so it’s impossible right now to tell how often and for how much the card is being used. We’re confident he’ll figure it out though and update his followers, who have surely grown by the hundreds – full of developers, retailers, and philanthropists alike.
Links:
http://twitter.com/#!/jonathanscard
http://jonathanstark.com/images/sbux-card.png
http://jonathanstark.com/blog/2011/07/14/broadcasting-mobile-currency/#more-1486
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Editor's Note: This article, while fun does show how dangerous these mobile purchasing and mobile wallet applications can be. If someone can skim information off of your phone Via Bluetooth, Free Wilress etc you can be subjected to serious theft.
FTC checking to see if Google is restricting Android Phone makers
Written by Sean Kalinich
There are things that I find ironic but that seem to go unnoticed by many (mostly the press). Today I read an article that the FTC is looking into claims that Google might have put restrictions in place for manufacturers that make Android based smart phones. Now, I have no lover for Google. I think they do not care about people’s privacy, ignore laws and worse. However, to see the FTC starting to investigate them for antitrust issues is laughable when this same commission said there was no credible evidence that Apple was doing this. It is funny that the investigation appears to be looking into if Google is preventing the use of services such as mapping, navigation etc. other than their own on Android based phones. After all wasn’t it Apple that put a stipulation to app developers that they could not develop an app that reproduced core functions of the phone?
Then there was Steve Job’s rather public rant about never allowing flash on the iPhone, their arbitrary app approval process and many other items are even more conclusive. To me this illustrates that our federal regulators have no clue what is going on and only do what they are told by the person throwing the most cash around The Hill. Interestingly enough that used to be Michael Schmidt and Google, but now we see Google’s charm wearing off.
Still I am glad to see that the FTC is looking into some of the advertising and search practices that Google is participating in. For years it has pretty much been common knowledge that Google stacks some of the search results and their ad placement is something of a joke. Maybe some good will come of this, but they really need to stop turning a blind eye to companies like Apple and begin to actually do their jobs and protect the public from ALL companies that participate in this type of activity.
Source Cnet
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Chino, CA – August 9th, 2011 - Cooler Master’s CMHD.tv Blog is celebrating the addition of three new “PC Guru” writers from the PC enthusiast community with a big giveaway! The company maintains a presence in many popular forum communities such as EVGA, Overclock.net, Hardware Canucks, and many others. Now it’s time for these communities’ members to have a voice of their own. These new blog writers will be writing informative and helpful tips and tricks to help you better manage system cables, setup custom water cooling builds, compare performance, and much more. The CMHD.tv Blog Writer Launch Giveaway may include:
- Cooler Master HAF X Full-tower Chassis
- Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1200W
- CM Storm Sentinel Z3R0-G Palm-grip Gaming Mouse
- CM Storm Spawn Claw-grip Gaming Mouse
Entrance is as simple as signing up for a CMHD.tv account and commenting on what you’d like the CMHD.tv Blog writers to cover. For more details on how to enter the giveaway, head on over to the blog and read the announcement post. It ends Friday, 8/12/2011 so make sure to enter soon!
Enter Here
Cooler Master was founded in 1992 to provide the world’s best thermal solutions. Since its establishment, the company continues to invest in product development to provide leading-edge innovations. Cooler Master’s line-up includes heat sinks, fans, chassis, power supplies and computing accessories. Headquartered in Taiwan with branch offices located across Europe, America and APAC, Cooler Master offers unsurpassed service to our customers. For more information on Cooler Master, please visit www.coolermaster.com.
Anonymous has announced they intend to bring the social networking (notworking?) site Facebook down on November 5th. You might be wondering why Anon would go after Facebook when its founder Mark Zuckerberg has been idolized as a geek and a hacker in many biograph
ies and books.
Plus isn’t Facebook a place where information is freely shared by those that want to share it? Most would have thought that Facebook of all places would be safe. However, it is not and here is why.
This first thing is that Facebook has in the past taken liberty with its user’s images, personal information and has been rumored to pass information along to government agencies in people or groups that may use, let’s say inflammatory language. It has also been rumored (one that no one has been able to confirm) that Facebook maybe allowing advertiser (or governments) to view users preferences and possibly actual pages. We do know that Anonymous believes this at the very least. Now all of this would be good enough reason for the group of hackers with a cause, but there is more and this is possibly one of the real reasons. You see Facebook is getting ready to launch a facial recognition API that can pull data on people tagged in pictures from sources around the net. It is also rumored to be able to match aliases from dating sites, forums, etc. as long as the API can link the real name with the screen name. This massively privacy invading bit of software has already been declared illegal in Germany and w
e have hopes that other countries will follow. We believe this is what Anonymous is actually alluding to when they say “for the sake of your own privacy”.
Much of the rest of their press release (shown in its entirety below) also has truth in it. According to the same German lawmakers that want the Facial Recognition API removed, Facebook makes the removal of the data collected by the software almost impossible to delete even after the image that person was tagged in it removed from the profile. We think this is what Anon is talking about when they say “your personal info stays on Facebook and can be recovered at any time”, but it is also true that what you put in Facebook stays on Facebook even when you leave.
So will Anon bring down Zuckerberg and his social networking/ information collection site, or is this another threat that the group will lose interest in before the date they have set aside. A date that hold special meaning to the British and which was immortalized in the move “V for Vendetta”. Will Zuckerberg prepare and harden the Facebook servers? I guess we will see on November the 5th.
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Overclockers Push Sandy Bridge to New Levels of Performance
Written by Sean KalinichOverclockers Push Sandy Bridge to New Levels of Performance
Futuremark® Announces Winners of Palit Overclocking Contest
HELSINKI, FINLAND – AUGUST 8, 2011 – In June Futuremark® ran a worldwide overclocking competition to push the limits of performance for PCs using Sandy Bridge chipsets. Today, Futuremark congratulates the winners of the contest that saw thousands of entries from more than 60 countries.
SANDY BRIDGE Z68 INTEGRATED GRAPHICS OC CONTEST
This contest segment was restricted to PCs with Intel's new Sandy Bridge Z68 chipset with integrated Intel HD Graphics.
Alva "Lucky_n00b" Jonathan smashed through the P4000 limit to set a new world record of P4419 using 3DMark Vantage's performance preset. His set-up consisted of an Intel Core i7-2600K with MSI Z68A-GD80 motherboard. To better appreciate Alva's skills, with factory settings his set up would score around P2200.
SANDY BRIDGE PLUS PALIT DISCRETE GRAPHICS OC CONTEST
The second contest segment was open to any PC using a Sandy Bridge-based CPU together with a single card, single GPU Palit brand discrete graphics card.
Giorgioprimo took the honors, and collected the $1000 cash top prize, with a score of P10734 using 3DMark 11 performance preset. His set up included an Intel Core i7-2600K processor paired with a Palit GeForce GTX 580 graphics card. At factory settings, this set up would score P6600.
TOP SCORES, TOP PRIZES
Palit Overclocking with Sandy Bridge is one of a number of overclocking competitions Futuremark holds each year. For details of upcoming contests please visit http://www.3dmark.com/competitions/ or follow Futuremark on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Futuremark
###
About Futuremark® Corporation
Futuremark® Corporation creates the world's most popular benchmarks and PC performance tests. Futuremark's free 3DMark®, PCMark® and Peacekeeper™ tests have helped millions of people measure and improve their PCs' performance for games, media, applications and web. Futuremark Games Studio creates original games with new and entertaining gameplay such as Hungribles™, a skill shot puzzle game for iPhone® and iPad® and Shattered Horizon, a zero gravity FPS for PC. The studio is currently developing Unstoppable Gorg for PC, Xbox LIVE® Arcade and iPad® and has one further unannounced title in development. Futuremark has offices in Saratoga, California and Helsinki, Finland. http://www.futuremark.com/
About Palit® Microsystems Ltd.
Established in 1988, Palit Microsystems Ltd is well-known for manufacturing stable, excellent, and innovative graphics accelerators. As one of the top PC components manufacturers, Palit continues to provide industry-leading graphics cards with reliable and excellent quality. With branch offices in America, Europe, and Asia, Palit has developed a worldwide sales network which cooperates closely with our customers.
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Ugh! I know people love Apple and they do make some cool gadgets, but it is getting ridiculous when they continue to go after company after company with patent lawsuits while illegally violating other’s patents. Now Apple the ITC is reviewing a complaint claiming that rival HTC has violated Apple’s patents with even more phones and a tablet. Apple wants an injunction to prevent HTC from being able to import these devices into the US (I guess that is one way to beat the competition).
At the same time they are doing this they have been found to be illegally using patents held by graphics company S3 (now owned by HTC). I have an idea for the legal system… how about you not allow any lawsuits by ANY company not in compliance with patent laws themselves. Make them prove they are not violating the same laws they are trying to abuse before you even let them in the door. My bet is that this will stop a ton of these useless and anti-competitive wastes of time and money long before they start.