| Firefox Aiming to be Free from NSA's Gaze Posted: 14 Jan 2014 12:35 PM PST 
Possibility of a browser free from NSA surveillence Mozilla Foundation chief technology officer Brendan Eich believes that Firefox can be free from surveillance by government organizations. In a recent blog post, Eich pointed out that other browsers will be unable to offer such an assurance explaining, "Every major browser today is distributed by an organization within reach of surveillance laws." Eich went on to say that many governments and their agencies might force service operators to allow surveillance, pointing to the Lavabit case as an example of this predicament. Governments could not only force services to enable surveillance, but issue a gag order preventing these services from informing their users. As a solution to this problem, Eich offers that Firefox's open-source nature gives it a "critical advantage" over other browser vendors because security researchers are able to compare and vary its executable bits with the official distribution. Because of this advantage, Eich went on to provide several actions that, if enforced by security researchers and organizations, could prevent anyone from "injecting undetected surveillance code into Firefox." According to Eich they will need to, "Regularly audit Mozilla source and verified builds by all effective means, establish automated systems to verify official Mozilla builds from source, and raise an alert if the verified bits differ from official bits." Eich concluded, "Through international collaboration of independent entities we can give users the confidence that Firefox cannot be subverted without the world noticing, and offer a browser that verifiably meets users' privacy expectations." While all of this sounds promising, do you think that Firefox could be surveillance-free if these steps are taken? |
| U.S. Appeals Court Deals Blow to Net Neutrality Proponents, Renders FCC's Rules Invalid Posted: 14 Jan 2014 12:22 PM PST  Court says FCC lacks authority to impose net neutrality rules on ISPs
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia pulled the rug out from under the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by ruling on Verizon v. FCC that the agency doesn't have the legal power to impose net neutrality laws on Internet Service Providers (ISPs). What this ultimately means is that ISPs are free to allow certain types of Internet traffic run faster than others or even block services altogether rather than treating it all the same. If you have the time or inclination, the 81-page ruling can be found in its entirety on Scribd.com, but to the point, Judge David Tatel said that ISPs aren't classified as "common carriers," therefore they're not subject to same rules and regulations that the telecommunications industry must follow. Proponents of net neutrality fear that ISPs will abuse their power to treat Internet traffic different, and indeed Judge Tatel voiced his own concerns. "In support of its conclusion that broadband providers could and would act to limit Internet openness, the Commission pointed to four prior instances in which they had done just that. These involved a mobile broadband provider blocking online payment services after entering into a contract with a competing service; a mobile broadband provider restricting the availability of competing VoIP and streaming video services; a fixed broadband provider blocking VoIP applications; and, of course, Comcast's impairment of peer-to-peer file sharing that was the subject of the Comcast Order," Judge Tatel wrote. Be that as it may, the rules were written specifically for common carriers and not ISPs. That said, the court did agree that the FCC should hold some authority to regulate service providers. In addition, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said this isn't over, vowing to "consider all available options, including those for appeal." Image Credit: Flickr (martinbowling) Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Intel Rumored to Launch Several New Haswell Processors in Q2 Posted: 14 Jan 2014 09:57 AM PST  More Haswell options are on the way
The big news in processors today is the official launch of AMD's Kaveri APUs with Radeon R7 graphics, but if you'd rather wait to see what Intel has up its sleeve, you'll have to get cozy for a few months. Word on the web is that Intel is preparing to refresh its Haswell processor line with nearly two dozen new CPUs sometime in the second quarter of 2014, likely starting in May. According to Digitimes, May is when the new parts will hit the retail channel. That will include 20 new processors, including the Core i7 4790, Core i5 4690, Core i3 4360, Pentium G3450, and Celeron G1840. Intel will also launch some low power CPUs, such as the Core i7 4790S, Core i5 4590S, and Core i3 4150T. Slipping into retail a month ahead of time will be Intel's new Z97 and H97 chipsets. This will give board partners like Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, and ASRock time to build silicon around the new chipsets before the refreshed Haswell processors land on store shelves. Finally, Digitimes says Intel will follow this up by refreshing its Haswell K series and Haswell-E in the third quarter, while phasing out its Core i5 3350P, Core i3 3225, and Core i3 3210 processors in Q1. Beyond that, the news and rumor site didn't provide any information on pricing. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Post CES 2014: Silverstone Shows Off a Bunch of Cases [Video] Posted: 14 Jan 2014 09:24 AM PST  Our CES coverage concludes with a look at Silverstone's enclosures
Officially, the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) concluded last Friday, but for us, the festivities don't come to an end until Silverstone pays us a visit with its latest cases in tow. That's our story, anyway -- another explanation why Silverstone had to come to us post CES is because, well, have you ever seen The Hangover? Replace the setting with CES and insert Gordon and Jimmy as two of the characters, and you begin to see why we'd prefer to keep those videos under lock and key. In any event, Silverstone was kind enough to make the trip and take us through a tour of its cases, starting with two brand new models, the Raven RV05 and Fortress FT05. The newest Raven is smaller than the original, which Silverstone was able to accomplish by getting rid of the 5.25-inch drive bays, though there is a slot-fed bay if you still rely on optical media. Take a look: Next up, Silverstone gave us a glimpe of its SG12 and DS380 cases. These are both small form factor (SFF) cases, the SG12 being a micro ATX with a single 5.25-inch drive bay and a sturdy handle on front, and the new DS380 being a hybrid mini ITX chassis primarily intended for NAS duties. It has eight 3.5-inch drive bays up front and four 2.5-inch drive bays inside. Take a gander: Moving right along, Silverstone gave us a look at a bunch of NUC-like case and an external graphics cabinet, the latter of which the case maker worked on with Asus. Inside is a full size graphics card, 450W SFX power supply, fan, and PCB. It uses a Thunderbolt connector to hook up to your NUC or laptop for a boost in graphics performance. Here's a closer look: Finally, Gordon got a close up look at Silverstone's new HTPC (GD09 and GD10) and micro-tower (RVZ01 and ML07) enclosures. Any of these cases are home brewed Steam Machine candidates. Check them out: Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| NZXT H440 Case Ditches Optical Drive Bays for a Cleaner Look Posted: 14 Jan 2014 08:19 AM PST  Say goodbye to 5.25-inch drive bays
NZXT's latest computer case, the H440, is a forward looking enclosure that encourages you to retire your optical media. That's because it doesn't come with any 5.25-inch drive bays, so if you want to save data to discs or install games and applications the old school way, you'll need an external optical drive to get the task done. NZXT made the sacrifice in order to facilitate a cleaner design. "NZXT has taken a bold step and completely removed the antiquated and often unused 5.25-inch optical bays to make room for a host of chassis improvements and innovations. Looking through the H440's massive full-view window will reveal an interior specially engineered to make any build seamless and beautiful," NZXT says. The H440 sports an integrated power supply shroud that completely conceals cables and offers a ton of space to tuck those wires out of sight. Just above the shroud are a pair of mounted SSD trays with cable routing coutouts. Four steel HDD trays further assist storage chores. For cooling, the H440 is the first case to come with NZXT's next generation case fans, the FN V2. These come in the form of a 140mm rear exhaust fan and three 120mm front inake fans. There's also room for two 140mm or three 120mm fans on top. In addition, the top and front panels are "Kraken" ready and will fit radiators up to 360mm in size. The H440 is avialable to pre-order now for $119. To go along with the case, NZXT also announced a matching mechanical keyboard, the Shine 3. This is an "extremely limited edition" plank available in black/white and black/red color options (same as the H440) featuring Cherry MX Red switches and robust LED backlight options. It's available now for $150. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Newegg Daily Deals: Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD, Western Digital Green 4TB HDD, and More! Posted: 14 Jan 2014 07:50 AM PST  
Top Deal: Do you feel the need, the need for speed? Sure you do, and if 1980s movies taught you anything, it's that you shouldn't wait too long to pull the trigger, lest things quickly spiral out of control, Goose dies, and you end up divorcing Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman, and Katie Holmes. Wait, what? We might have veered off course here a bit. Getting back on track, to satiate your need for speed, have a look at today's top deal for a Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB Solid State Drive for $195 with shipping for $1 (normally $200 -- use coupon code: [EMCYTZT5439]). This is one of the fastest 2.5-inch SATA 6Gbps SSDs available with rated sustainted sequential read and write speeds of up to 540MB/s and 520Mb/s, respectively. Other Deals: WD Green 4TB Internal Hard Disk Drive for $155 with free shipping (normally $169 - use coupon code: [EMCYTZT5443]) NZXT Switch 810 ATX Hybrid Full Tower Gaming Computer Case for $128 with shipping for $10 (normally $160 - use coupon code: [EMCPWPA43]) Asus P8Z77-V Pro LGA 1155 Intel Z77 ATX Intel Motherboard for $158 with free shipping (normally $175 - use coupon code: [EMCPWPA43]; additional $30 Mail-in rebate) NZXT White Steel Ultra Tower Silent Case for $120 with shipping for $20 (normally $150 - use coupon code: [EMCPWPA43]) |
| AMD Launches "Kaveri" APU with Radeon R7 Graphics Posted: 14 Jan 2014 06:33 AM PST  Low power, high performance
The boys and girls at AMD officially launched the company's 2014 A-Series Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) with integrated Radeon R7 graphics. You know the parts by their codename "Kaveri," which AMD says is representative of a major architecture improvement. Kaveri sports completely redesigned cores, new Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) features, new accelerators, and enhanced power management on a new 28nm manufacturing process. Kaveri boasts up to 12 compute cores (4 "Steamroller" CPU cores + 8 GCN GPU cores) on a die measuring 245mm2 with 2.41 billion transistors. AMD made a concerted effort to improve the graphics in Kaveri, which include the latest technologies found in Hawaii -- Graphics Core Next (GCN), TrueAudio, Eyefinity, UVD, and VCE technologies. One thing that's interesting with AMD's focus on graphics is that the chip designer is embracing its role as a preferred choice among virtual coin miners. Apparetly Kaveri parts will be good at digging up Bitcoins, Litecoins, and other virtual currencies. "AMD maintains our technology leadership with the 2014 AMD A-Series APUs, a revolutionary next generation APU that marks a new era of computing," said Bernd Lienhard, corporate vice president and general manager, Client Business Unit, AMD. "With world-class graphics and compute technology on a single chip, the AMD A-Series APU is an effective and efficient solution for our customers and enable industry-leading computing experiences." 
The other big focus is on performance per watt. Kaveri will push better battery life on notebooks. AMD says Kaveri can scale up or down to other segments, such as embedded and server platforms, while bringing new features to small form factor (SFF) desktops. 
AMD is kicking off the Kaveri launch with its A10-7850K and A10-7700K APUS, both available this month and both coming bundled with Battlefield 4. Sometime later this quarter, AMD will release its lower end A8-7600 APU. As far as we know, the A8-7600 will not come with a game bundle. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
