Compu Hub

Remember a couple of weeks ago when ASRock announced that it would be showing off a Mini-ITX board with the X99 chipset at CeBIT? Well, CeBIT has now passed and ASRock did show it there, but now the company has slapped a price tag on it and unveiled all of the juicy specifications. The X99E-ITX/ac is a one-of-a-kind motherboard, as no other motherboard vendor currently has a Mini-ITX X99 offering. Th e reason for this is quite simple – putting X99 on a Mini-ITX board doesn't entirely make sense, as it doesn't have the expansion slots to fully use all the PCI-Express lanes that Haswell-E CPUs have, and you won't be able to actually run quad-channel memory due to the board physically only having room for two DDR4 memory slots. Further, the LGA2011-3 socket is huge, and that doesn't necessarily leave much room on the board for all the I/O, audio hardware, VRM circuitry, and more. One thing worth noting about the board is that it does come with the smaller,...

YouTube recently tested new features for its videos, such as 360-degree videos and a multi-angle feature, but the popular video site is also looking to meet the demands of new technology before it becomes widely accepted. YouTube's latest experiment shows six videos playing at 4K resolutions and 60 frames per second. The videos, which can only be viewed on Google Chrome, feature a variety of content from a  volcano eruption to a fan-made film shot in the space-based game Star Citizen. These videos look beautiful on a full HD display at 1080p and 60 frames per second, but problems arise when you switch to 4K resolution. The obvious issue is that it won't display properly since most people don't even own a 4K display yet. Another issue is bandwidth; the sheer amount of data put into 4K videos will have you watching the buffer loading icon for quite some time. Like HDTVs in the past, 4K needs time to become affordable to be the new standard for display resolutions, ...

A recent report by Ara Labs claims that a news strain of malware is misusing routers to inject ads and pornographic content into websites, and once a router is compromised, the malware will load third-party content onto almost any website visited by the user. The attack alternates between loading ads and directly loading content from pornographic websites. In both cases, it's functioning as a basic adware at tack, redirecting targets as a pay of generating paid traffic for a client. According to the Verge, the attack works by targeting the DNS system. Since DNS information is typically communicated through the router, the attackers used the hacked routers to reroute requests to their own bogus IP addresses. When the target tried to connect to Google Analytics, the hacked router sent the request to the attackers' server, which answered the request by injecting its own content onto the pages in question. Google Analytics is so widely used that the attack was ...

The Logitech Performance Mouse MX was targeted more towards the office worker looking for a great mouse that can perform multiple functions with many buttons as opposed to gamers. It was designed to feel great ergonomically, and it can also perform on any surface, including glass, due to what Logitech calls its Darkfield Laser Sensor. However, the company believes it can make an even better mouse, and annou nced today the replacement for the Performance Mouse MX – the MX Master. The MX Master is slightly larger than its predecessor, at 3.4 x 5 x 2 inches (HWD) compared to 3.29 x 5.05 x 1.85 inches (HWD), yet it's slightly lighter at 5.1 ounces compared to 5.19 ounces. It also has five buttons compared to the Performance Mouse MX's nine. Its design looks slightly similar to the Performance Mouse MX in that it has that same outstretched area on the left side of the mouse as a thumb rest. However, the MX Master added a gesture button to the rest area. By pressing the gestur...

OCZ Storage Solutions, a Toshiba Group Company, released the new Vector 180 series today. The Vector 180 is a continuation of the Vector 150 theme that adds new features to make it more cost-competitive and reliable. The Vector 180 utilizes the same OCZ-proprietary Barefoot 3 controller found in the Vector 150 but switches from first-gen Toshiba 19 nm to second-generation Toshiba A19 nm NAND. This may appear to be a small change, but it will result in a more competitive price point for the end customer. Performance metrics remain fairly static at 100,000 / 95,000 random read/write IOPS, and sequential speed remains near the limit of SATA 6 Gbps at 550 MBps and 530 MBps sequential read/write. OCZ also expanded capacity by adding a beefy 960 GB model to the existing 120 GB, 240 GB and 480 GB capacity points. OCZ's reputation for reliability took quite the beating prior to the Toshiba acquisition, but in fairness, this was largely due to the nature of being a third-party ma...

Looking to purchase a new monitor for your desktop? Why not take the plunge into the curved display market, as Samsung has added five new models to its curved monitor family, ranging from 23.5 inches to 29 inches. These include the SE790C Series, the SE590C series and the SE591C Series. Samsung indicated in its Samsung Tomorrow blog that the monitors have a curve that complements the human eye, meaning users may have a more c omfortable experience when viewing the contents on the screen, even in the dark. In essence, the displays are designed to provide less eye strain and a reduced amount of reflections. For instance, the eye-saver mode lowers eye strain by reducing the amount of blue light emitting from the screen. The panels also use Samsung's flicker-free technology, which reduces the amount of flickering that's associated with your typical monitor. Add these two technologies together, and users presumably can sit in front of the screen with less eye fatigue and fo...

Last week, AMD's FreeSync was finally made available for consumers. Six companies already announced monitors that would support the new product. Among those was Acer, which announced today that its FreeSync-compatible monitor, the XG270HU, has an official price tag and is now available for customers. Just like the Acer's G-Sync supported model, the XB270HU, the XG270HU features a resolution of 2560 x 1440 on a 27-inch screen and a refresh rate of 144 Hz. However, it offers DisplayPort, Dual-link DVI, and HDMI 2.0, while the XB only supports DisplayPort. Another big difference is the response time; the Freesync-supported monitor has a response time of 1 ms compared to the XB's response time of 4 ms. The FreeSync model also has built-in audio speakers, while the G-Sync variant only includes a USB port. The biggest difference between the two, other than one supports FreeSync and the other supports G-Sync, is the panel technology. The XG still uses TN film while the ...

In early March 2015, security researchers discovered a SSL/TLS vulnerability attack and dubbed it "Freak." This vulnerability allows an attacker using a Man In The Middle attack to force communications into using a weaker 512-bit encryption, as opposed to the more secure 1024-bit. In turn, this weaker encryption could be broken in a matter of hours. Originally identified as affecting web browsers on  Google's Android and Apple's iOS and OSX, Freak's security flaw now extends to almost every browser, according to the team of computer scientists from University of Michigan, who maintain  freakattack.com.  This includes many versions of Internet Explorer, Chrome and Safari. On Windows operating systems, only Internet Explorer was affected; Chrome and Firefox remain on the safe list. Along with the browser vulnerability, Microsoft revealed that Windows servers are susceptible to the attack. Any server that can "accept RSA_EXPORT cipher suites" i...

Virtual reality has experienced a surge in momentum in recent months, including increased availability and selection of display technology, graphics hardware, and software support, making the imminent leap to mainstream retail seem closer than ever before. Brands such as Sony, HTC, Microsoft, Samsung, Oculus VR, Google, and a slew of others have announced or released a VR display device, while Nvidia and AMD will fight for supremacy to drive the best framerates and details for enthusiasts with the recently released TITAN X and an unannounced Radeon R9 flagship graphics card. With display technology and graphics horsepower driving the fledgling VR market, Next Galaxy humbly seeks to truly crack the mainstream barrier and add a fourth dimension to the VR experience by introducing the CEEKARS 4D Headphones, finally filling an audiovisual gap in immersion technology. Unlike traditional headphones that are designed for predefined scenarios using 2D perspective or fixed direction...

Acer recently claimed "the industry's fastest" with the launch of its updated Acer Chrome 15 (C910), which now packs a 5th-generation Intel Core i5-5200U "Broadwell" processor. The previous C910 Chromebook models included slower 5th-generation Core i3 and Celeron processors. Like the models before it, the updated Chromebook is designed for commercial use, meaning it's an ideal laptop solution for sc hools and businesses. Acer said that the C910 was designed to take the physical punishment of students, as it can withstand up to 130 pounds of force and features corners that can withstand drops of up to just under 18 inches. Acer indicated that the Chromebook can handle more twisting and stress than other solutions on the market. Slated for an April release, the updated Chromebook features a 15.6-inch LED-lit anti-glare screen with a 1920 x 1080 resolution, a 16:9 aspect ratio and wide viewing angles. Backing this screen is the Intel Core i5 processo...

California-based Serafim has launched a new project on Kickstarter to build ODiN Aurora, the "world's first" projection mouse. So far this project has reeled in 1,000 backers pledging nearly $59,000, already surpassing the goal of $50,000. At press time, the project still has 49 more days to go. The main selling point of ODiN Aurora, it seems, is the reduction of carpal tunnel. With a traditional mouse, the  wrist may be angled and the thumb typically "grips" the mouse. With the ODiN Aurora, the hand rests flat on the table or any other surface the virtual mouse is projected. The ODiN Aurora projects a virtual mouse onto a flat surface measuring 3.15 inches square. This projection supports multipoint controls and includes both the left- and right-click buttons, a mouse wheel in the form of a triangle, and what appears to be a thumb button. The ODiN Aurora can do anything a regular mouse can do, including scrolling, dragging windows, move the cursor an...

Most OneDrive users utilize the cloud-based software to store documents or photos, but now it also includes music storage. With Microsoft combining the Xbox Music app with OneDrive, you can now put songs in your cloud and listen to them on your Xbox or other Windows device. The easiest way to put music in OneDrive is by placing songs in the Music folder. Then, the songs show up  on the Xbox Music app as part of your collection, and you can download them so they're available for offline playback. Fortunately, OneDrive supports multiple music file formats such as MP3, M4A (AAC), and WMA. As for devices, the feature works on any computer or tablet running Windows 8.1. Mobile devices using Windows Phone 8.1 can also use it via the Music app, and both the Xbox One and Xbox 360 gaming consoles have access as well. If you don't have any of the listed devices above, then the music can be accessed through a web browser of your choice on the Xbox Music website. Unfortunately, ...

TRENDnet is preparing to ship the TEW-828DRU, a new router with the 802.11ac standard and triple-band transmission support. This new router will be the flagship model for TRENDnet's 802.11ac line. The key features that set this router above TRENDnet's AC1900 are the ability to transmit three wireless bands simultaneously and a higher-performance dual-core internal processor running at 1 GHz. The naming of these devices might make some users who already have AC1900 devices think that performance will increase substantially with this router. Although the AC3200 router is rated to transmit 3.2 Gbps and the AC1900 routers are only rated for 1.9 Gbps of data, that 3.2 Gbps is the total amount of data across all bands. Being able to transmit over three wireless bands at the same time is a useful feature, as it helps to reduce internal network traffic, which can help performance, although it doesn't necessarily increase bandwidth. Inside of a network, many devices a...

For mini-ITX cases, people want a compact setup that can deliver performance while still keeping all the components cooled without too much noise. Cougar believes it can deliver on all fronts by announcing the QBX, its latest mini-ITX case. The QBX measures 178 x 260 x 368 mm, which won't take up too much space on your desk. Even with its size, you can fit a graphics card up to 350 mm in lengt h, and it also allows enough space for up to five drives (HDD or SSD) for ample storage. Although it's becoming more of a rarity in PC builds, the QBX does come with a slim optical disc drive. Cougar's release materials say that it has USB 3.0, which we presume to mean that it has at least one front USB 3.0 port. The case supports ATX PSUs up to 140 mm long. Additionally, the PSU has a dedicated airflow route so that the heat surrounding the unit doesn't spread to other components. For overall cooling, Cougar claims that it has the best cooling setup "for...

Today at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California, Dell unveiled its new Precision Appliance for Wyse, powered by Nvidia's Quadro and GRID GPU technology. The company also announced the availability of the Dell Engineered Solution for VMware EVO:Rail, Horizon Edition as well as an updated Dell XC Web-Scale Converged Appliance, powered by Nutanix. The Precision appliance comes in a 2U rack, utilizing Dell's Precision Rack R7910 workstation and VMware's Horizon virtualization software. The virtual workstation uses PCoIP and has been ISV certified, which simply means that Dell worked with the independent software vendors (ISVs) to ensure users get the same experience that they would on a traditional workstation. Customers have the option of enabling two GPU modes at the time of initial configuration: A dedicated GPU mode, which uses a direct agent and requires no broker; And a shared GPU mode, which leverages Horizon 6 as the broker. The dedicated GPU ...

Ransomware  is the biggest threat that has ever hit customers says Bogdan Botezatu, senior threat analyst at Bitdefender , and worse is coming according to him. "It is ironic that encryption, a technology designed to keep us safe, is being used against the customer," he said. Encryption-based ransomware is essentially someone transforming your files into a mish-mash of bytes that need a key to be translated. And it is only the perpetrator that can provide you with that key - for a fee. "Interestingly, most of the time they are giving the encryption key to the victim if they pay," Bogdan added, "except when they go to jail first." Mobile hostages And don't think that ransomware is limited to desktops only. Yes, it is very prevalent in that segment because customers tend to take security very lightly (think Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6) but the  threat is very rapidly coming to mobile . Only one in fifty smartphones on the market ha...

Although most iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users may be content with using Apple's default Safari browser, it’s good to know that there are alternative browsers available for the iOS platform, such as Opera's Opera Coast browser. The app was just updated to version 4.1, and the company hopes one of its recently-added features will make watching videos on mobile devices more convenient. The feature i s called video boost, and it compresses the overall size of the video data to reduce the number of times the video has to buffer. You can keep it on all the time, automatically activated when the network is crowded or the Internet connection is slow, or you can turn it off completely. The smaller video size also means that you don't have to pay a lot of money on your next phone bill when streaming video using cellular data. The software responsible for video boost is Opera's own video, audio, and data optimization engine called the Rocket Optimizer. The cloud-ba...

One of the big annoyances about using the Internet is remembering all those darn passwords. Many people avoid this headache by using the same password on each site. And as we've preached in the past, that's nothing but bad news, as hackers can gain access to all of your accounts if only one password is used throughout them all. Creating different passwords is a pain, we know, but necessary. Yahoo seems to agree that multiple passwords can be a burden. To remedy this annoyance, the company revealed a new service that provides passwords on-demand. That's right: for Yahoo, at least, users will not need to remember a password to gain access to their account. To set this up, Yahoo account holders must sign into their  Yahoo.com account, click their name at the top-right corner of the main page, select "Account Security" in the left bar, and click the "Get Started" link. After that, users will need to verify their mobile number by entering a verifica...