Thursday ARM revealed a new GPU built for high performance devices like superphones, tablets and smart-TVs. Called the ARM Mali-T658, this latest edition to the Midgard architecture-based GPU family promises to deliver up to ten times the graphics performance of the Mali-400 MP GPU which is found in a wide range of today’s mainstream consumer products. It also promises four times the GPU Compute performance of the Mali-T604 GPU.

“Next generation consumer devices based on the Mali-T658 GPU will address the growing user expectation for slick user interfaces and desktop-class graphics,” said Pete Hutton, general manager, Media Processing Division, ARM. “Intuitive user interfaces will mean that consumers can access the full functionality of their connected devices, for richer user experiences. This includes HD gaming and new compute-intensive applications, such as augmented reality.”

Did you catch that key description desktop-class graphics? According to ARM, the GPU supports a wide range of graphics and compute APIs including Microsoft DirectX 11, Khronos OpenGL ES, OpenVG, Khronos OpenCL, Google Renderscript and Microsoft DirectCompute. That’s right: a “superphone” GPU capable of rendering DirectX 11 graphics!

Thursday in a press release ARM said the new GPU has been designed to work with the Cortex-A7 and Cortex-A15 processors either in standalone modes, or when they’re combined in big.LITTLE processing mode.

“The autonomous nature of the Mali Job Manager, and its ability to carry on graphics processing with a reduced load on the CPU, means it is very well suited to work alongside a big.LITTLE CPU system,” the company said. “By using the right processor for the right task the Mali-T658 is able to handle GPU compute tasks in parallel with the CPU handling the always-on always-connected tasks. The ability of the Mali-T658 GPU to scale up to eight cores provides unprecedented energy-efficiency, flexibility and scalability to match the CPU and GPU performance points through one coherent interface.”

For more information on the new Mali-T658 GPU, head here.

Valve Software’s Gabe Newell sent out a message to all Steam users around an hour ago warning about a hack into the database and the possible theft of personal information. Here’s the entire message:

Our Steam forums were defaced on the evening of Sunday, November 6. We began investigating and found that the intrusion goes beyond the Steam forums.

We learned that intruders obtained access to a Steam database in addition to the forums. This database contained information including user names, hashed and salted passwords, game purchases, email addresses, billing addresses and encrypted credit card information. We do not have evidence that encrypted credit card numbers or personally identifying information were taken by the intruders, or that the protection on credit card numbers or passwords was cracked. We are still investigating.

We don’t have evidence of credit card misuse at this time. Nonetheless you should watch your credit card activity and statements closely.

While we only know of a few forum accounts that have been compromised, all forum users will be required to change their passwords the next time they login. If you have used your Steam forum password on other accounts you should change those passwords as well.

We do not know of any compromised Steam accounts, so we are not planning to force a change of Steam account passwords (which are separate from forum passwords). However, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to change that as well, especially if it is the same as your Steam forum account password.

We will reopen the forums as soon as we can.

I am truly sorry this happened, and I apologize for the inconvenience.

Gabe.

Swiftech has released two liquid cooling kits, the H20-220 Edge HD and H20-320 Edge HD, which utilize the new Apogee HD CPU waterblock.

The liquid cooling system comes with Swiftech’s new flagship waterblock, the Apogee HD. The waterblock is precision-machined from C110 copper. Thermal design of the cooling engine is characterized by Swiftech’s fin/pin matrix composed of 225 µm (0.009″) micro structures with two inlet and two outlet ports.

The liquid cooling systems utilizes a patent pending heat exchanger, the MCR 220 Drive Rev3 or MCR 320 Drive Rev3. These feature a built-in reservoir with dual fill-ports and caps, a MCP35X PWM controlled pump, and include two and three 120mm fans, respectively. The units can be purchased without the installed pump, which allow users to use any of Swiftech’s MCP3X pumps (MCP350, 355, 35B, 35X).

Swiftech’s coolers provide support for Intel sockets out of the box (including LGA 2011), and can be hooked up to AMD chips via a mounting kit that is provided free of charge upon request.

The H2O-x20 Edge HD kits are shipping now to Swiftech dealers worldwide. You can learn more about the H2O-x20 at the product page.

In short: everyone expected an iPhone 5, we got an iPhone 4S. A lot of the letdown and confusion was the result of rumor mill over-grindage, but Business Insider says the iPhone 5 was real—and Apple scrapped it.

According to their report—which is based on completely anonymous, unsubstantiated claims—Apple had an iPhone 5 prototype floating around, with the big screen and new form we had all counted on. Sure, sure—same old guesswork put in the microwave and served up before Thanksgiving. Even the crew at BI says “You should probably still read this post with a nice fat dose of salt.” Right. The requisite sodium dose might kill you.

But what is interesting is their buried claim that the iPhone 5 was spiked because Jobs thought a new, differing screen size would ruin the iPhone line. It’d fragment it. It’d Android-ize it—and anything resembling Android would be anathema to Jobs.

Of all the non-technical reasons we’ve seen behind the iPhone 5′s absence, perhaps this is the most likely. We know what Jobs worshipped: minimalism and uniformity were chief among them. So to create a branch in the iPhone family—many with smaller screens, one with a larger display—would be to end the lineage’s uniformity. The phones wouldn’t resemble each other. Apps wouldn’t look the same from a 4 to a 5. And most poignantly, the seal would’ve been broken; Apple would have signed off on differing designs, opening an aesthetic future of variance upon variance. A Jobsian nightmare.

True or not, the rumor makes us consider whether, with Jobs’ specter over Apple’s design squad, the iPhone will ever diverge significantly from its current screen size. A redesign is inevitable, of course—I’d love to see that glass on the back swapped out for something a little more practical than glass—and of course the thing will slim down.

On the other hand, phones are getting bigger. People are liking bigger phones. People are buying bigger phones. And the longer Apple stays on the 3.5-inch trajectory, the more of a design legacy—and more rigid precedent—they’ll face fragmenting.

SOURCE via Business Insider

A pillow to the face is a good way to silence the snorer you sleep with. Unless you’re the snorer. In that case you’d probably prefer to share a bed with Jukusui-kun, a robot polar bear that doubles as an intelligent pillow, gently waking you by tickling your face so you’ll roll onto your side.

Developed by Wasaeda Univeristy’s Kabe Lab, and demonstrated at the International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo, Jukusui-kun, which translates to deep sleep, doesn’t just listen to how loud someone is snoring. Since it’s designed to be a serious tool to help those suffering from sleep apnea syndrome, the user also wears a pulse oxygen meter on their hand, which sends readings to a terminal monitoring their vital signs. When their oxygen level drops, indicating they’re having a hard time breathing, the polar bear’s arm reaches over and gently tickles their face, causing them to subconsciously roll on to their side where it’s easier to breathe while sleeping.

I’m assuming the use of an adorable polar bear is also strategic, since it makes it harder for those who really don’t like being disturbed in the middle of the night to simply tear the bear’s head off. It wouldn’t stop me, but I’d probably be happy with just forcefully removing its arm after the first tickle.

Compact pack rifles are usually designed to be carried for emergencies, and this ultra lightweight aluminum and carbon fiber model, from Mountain View Machine & Welding, will greatly improve your chances of survival since it can also be transformed into a telescoping fishing rod.

Weighing in at just under a pound, the .22 caliber single-shot bolt-action rifle is not only light and easy to carry, but the use of aluminum and carbon fiber make it weather resistant too. When you’re hungry, or when the local wildlife decides that they are, you don’t want a little rain to get in the way of putting this to good use.

The rifle breaks down into two main components in just a couple of seconds, making it easier to stash in a backpack. And with the addition of a reel screwed onto the pistol grip, and a rod that extends from the stock, you’ve got yourself another survival tool in the same $425 package. Let’s see your corkscrew-packing Swiss Army knife do that.