LG's new 4K HDR monitor with USB-C debuts at CES 2017

Anthony Garreffa | Displays & Projectors | Dec 14, 2016 4:31 AM CST

LG is prepping for a massive CES 2017, with one of the more interesting products to debut at the show being a new 4K monitor with HDR capabilities - oh, and it'll have USB-C connectivity.

LG's latest 32UD99 will be a 32-inch monitor with a native 4K resolution and supports the HDR 10 standard. HDR is something relatively new to PC monitors, and AMD has been pushing HDR technology for a while now at its various events and tech days. The new HDR-capable PC monitors are finally hitting the market, with LG being the first.

The new 32-inch 4K HDR display will rock an IPS panel that will display over 95% of the P3 color gamut, and with the USB-C connectivity you'll be able to plug it into your laptop and charge your smartphone (like the Google Pixel) over a single cable.

Continue reading: LG's new 4K HDR monitor with USB-C debuts at CES 2017 (full post)

Oculus CEO and co-founder Brendan Iribe steps down

Brendan Iribe, the co-founder and CEO of Oculus has just stepped down, saying: "You do your best work when you love what you're working on. If that's not the case, you need to make a change".

Iribe took to the Oculus blog to announce the sudden departure from Oculus' reality, where he said: "Changing the world ... has required us to also scale Oculus at warp speed. With our growth and product strategy, we've decided to establish new PC and mobile VR groups to be more focused, strengthen development and accelerate our roadmap".

He added: "Looking ahead and thinking about where I'm most passionate, I've decided to lead the PC VR group - pushing the state of VR forward with Rift, research and computer vision. As we've grown, I really missed the deep, day-to-day involvement in building a brand new product on the leading edge of technology".

Continue reading: Oculus CEO and co-founder Brendan Iribe steps down (full post)

45-year-old spends stolen $1 million on Game of War

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Dec 14, 2016 12:16 AM CST

You know how it is... you steal $4.8 million and instead of flying to a private island and living your life playing Overwatch (what, that's what I'd do) - you blow $1 million in Game of War.

45-year-old Kevin Lee Co used the embezzled money on in-game goods in Game of War, after starting with Caterpillar machine dealer Holt in 2008, Lee Co became the boss of Holt's accounting department within a year. He hid financial transactions right through until March 2015, leaving the company one month later.

In that time, he used his company credit card to buy cars, season tickets, and even plastic surgery - falsifying and manipulating Holt's records to hide his purchasing habits. If the bank queried the charges, Lee Co would simply say that the charges were approved - as he was the person signing on the dotted line, and securing millions in the process.

Continue reading: 45-year-old spends stolen $1 million on Game of War (full post)

Win this awesome Activision console gaming pack!

Ben Gourlay | Contests & Giveaways | Dec 13, 2016 11:16 PM CST

To coincide with the release of the TweakTown 2016 Holiday Buyer's Guide, we have a prize pack of the hottest, must-have games to give away thanks to our friends at Activision - a ready made gift with something for the whole family!

One lucky winner will take home an Activision prize pack as featured in the Holiday Buyer's Guide consisting of:

1x Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (PS4)

Continue reading: Win this awesome Activision console gaming pack! (full post)

Vega 10 should ship with 8GB HBM2, Titan X beating perf

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Dec 13, 2016 10:11 PM CST

Now that AMD has let the Radeon Instinct cat out of the bag, with the Radeon Instinct MI25 accelerator powered by a Vega GPU, we can begin putting some of the pieces together. We don't know much about Vega 10 itself, but we can look at the servers that will be powered by the MI25 accelerator, and do some math.

We also now know that the Vega 10 with its 8GB of HBM2 is capable of running DOOM at 4K 60FPS+, which is impressive for a pre-production, very early board.

AMD teased the upcoming Inventec K888 server with Radeon Instinct MI25 accelerators (4 of them) capable of 100 TFLOPs of GPU power, meaning a single Vega-based Radeon Instinct MI25 has 25 TFLOPs of performance (MI25 = Machine Intelligence 25 TFLOPs, or at least that's how it seems to me). One big caveat here is that AMD is claiming FP16 performance, so we should expect 12.5 TFLOPs of single precision (FP32) performance.

Continue reading: Vega 10 should ship with 8GB HBM2, Titan X beating perf (full post)

Warner developing a female DC Comics villain film

Ben Gourlay | Celebrities & Entertainment | Dec 13, 2016 6:30 PM CST

While Marvel continues to execute their carefully planned cinematic universe, DC keeps churning out expensive but forgettable flicks like 'Batman v Superman' and 'Suicide Squad', and today's news won't fill fans with much more confidence in we're their going next.

Despite the behind-the-scenes battles and extensive reshoots of 'Suicide Squad', Slash Film is reporting that the director has been entrusted with another DC film called 'Gotham City Sirens' which is set to revolve around the bad girls of the universe, including Harley Quinn, Catwoman and Poison Ivy. If that's not all, Will SMith's charmless Deadshot is getting a spin-off film, and a second 'Suicide Squad' film is in early development.

Meanwhile, the next feature in the DC Comics stable, 'Wonder Woman' is set to hit hit 2D, 3D and IMAX cinemas worldwide on June 2nd 2017.

Continue reading: Warner developing a female DC Comics villain film (full post)

Nintendo Switch was designed by younger generation

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Dec 13, 2016 5:10 PM CST

Nintendo's new Switch handheld-and-console hybrid is a fresh new take that unifies multiple platforms together. It's original, unique, and bold--and it was designed by a younger generation of Nintendo employees, not the company's clandestine old guard.

Nintendo Switch was designed by younger generation

Nintendo's old guard doesn't really understand the industry any more--we saw evidence of this with the Wii U's terrible failure, and the strange obsolete business models that the company is only starting to break today. The biggest way Nintendo is breaking these outdated shackles is with the Switch transforming console-and-handheld hybrid. But the Switch itself was actually designed and pushed by a new younger blossoming generation that will help Nintendo catch up with the times.

"We have these younger people in the company who are taking the lead on Switch development and it's really been them that have put this forward and designed this system," Nintendo alum Shigeru Miyamoto said in a recent interview with Glixel.

Continue reading: Nintendo Switch was designed by younger generation (full post)

Apple's AirPods are finally available after a delay

Lana Jelic | Audio, Sound & Speakers | Dec 13, 2016 4:22 PM CST

Apple's AirPods, the wireless ear buds that are somewhat of a replacement for the lack of a headphone jack on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, are finally available for sale and shipping, the company announced.

The AirPods are available to order online and will be arriving at Apple stores next week.

The company had some unspecified problems with the AirPods, and they missed their initial deadline of October. Back then, Apple said that AirPods aren't ready for customers without further explanation.

Continue reading: Apple's AirPods are finally available after a delay (full post)

AMD's next-gen Ryzen: biggest leap in CPU tech in years

Anthony Garreffa | CPU, APU & Chipsets | Dec 13, 2016 3:00 PM CST

AMD Tech Summit 2016 - AMD has made its next-gen CPU family official, dubbed Ryzen, and we're only scratching the surface of what it's capable of.

AMD flew a very select number of tech press to Sonoma, California for its annual Tech Summit - where we were quickly briefed on Ryzen, AMD's new CPU family based on the Zen architecture.

The enthusiast SKU of Zen will arrive in the form of "Summit Ridge", which will be an 8-core/16-thread CPU clocking in at 3.4GHz minimum. We also have 20MB of L2+L3 cache, and AMD's newly-touted "Sensing and Adaptive Technology".

Continue reading: AMD's next-gen Ryzen: biggest leap in CPU tech in years (full post)

Corsair reveals ultra-fast Force MP500 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD

Derek Strickland | Storage | Dec 13, 2016 2:19 PM CST

Corsair today unveiled its fastest-ever Force MP500 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD lineup that delivers speeds up to five times faster than traditional SATA III 6Gbps SSDs.

Corsair reveals ultra-fast Force MP500 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD

The Force MP500 rocks Phison PS5007-E7 NVMe controller and high-bandwidth PCIe Gen. 3 x4 M.2 2280 interface to deliver insanely fast transfers of up to 3,000 MB/s read speeds and write speeds of up 2,400 MB/s. Corsairs Force MP500 lineup comes in three different sizes: 120GB, 240GB and 480GB, all set in the sleek and minimalist M.2 form factor.

The drives have built-in SmartECC, SmartRefresh and SmartFlush tech designed to thwart corruption, and the Force MP500 is also fully compatible with Corsair's SSD Tool Box which allows for easy SSD health, maintenance and secure drive wiping.

Continue reading: Corsair reveals ultra-fast Force MP500 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (full post)