If you go back far enough in the computer industry, there have been many successful video card companies. Back before the whole 3D craze kicked off, some of the fastest 2D video cards came courtesy of Matrox, and while they made some attempts at producing compelling 3D graphics cards, they were never able to grab the performance crown from NVIDIA or ATI. Their last real attempt at the 3D graphics market came in 2002 with the Parhelia-512, and as was the case with previous efforts it basically ended up falling short. Interestingly, the Parhelia-512 supported "surround gaming" long before AMD's Eyefinity, and that may have opened the gates for what would become Matrox's core focus over the next decade: multi-display video cards.

Since 2002, there haven't been many reviews of Matrox cards because the focus shifted to industries that need not just two or three but potentially a dozen or more displays all running from a single system. Their last graphics card update was in 2009, and since then the top product has been the M9188, a single card capable of driving eight DisplayPort or DVI connections, with the possibility of using two cards to drive 16 displays. Who needs that many displays? Well, the financial and security markets are two easy examples, as they both have use cases where six or more displays is "reasonable", and digital signage is another category where Matrox can provide useful technology. These are all professional markets, and the M9188 is priced accordingly ($1500+), but if you were looking to build a system with good graphics performance, Matrox basically hasn't been relevant as their cards seem to focus almost exclusively on 2D performance these days.

That might be changing with future products given today's announcement, as Matrox will be switching to AMD-designed GPUs for their next generation of multi-display products. These will continue to support Matrox's PowerDesk desktop management software, but what's not clear is whether Matrox will be doing much in the way of customized hardware. The announcement states that "key features of the selected AMD GPU include 28nm technology with 1.5 billion transistors; DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.4 and OpenCL 1.2 compatibility; shader model 5.0; PCI Express 3.0 and 128-bit memory interface."

From that we can surmise that Matrox will be using a variant of the Cape Verde GCN core, which is one of the lower performance GCN parts from AMD. In fact, Matrox may actually be using AMD's FirePro W600 cards, only with custom Matrox-developed software applications. This would also mean Matrox is looking at a maximum of six display outputs per graphics card (compared to eight on the M9188), but AMD already has the ability to run up to six GPUs in a system with the appropriate motherboard meaning up to 36 displays off a single system is theoretically possible.

The hardware is of course only part of the equation, and Matrox's PowerDesk software is something that benefits many businesses and professionals. Matrox notes that "critical productivity-enhancing features available with Matrox PowerDesk software will continue to be supported on the next line of Matrox graphics cards designed with AMD GPUs." These features include the ability to configure and manage multi-display setups, which can get tricky once you move past two or three displays. PowerDesk has tools to configure stretching, cloning, pivot, bezel management, and other items that are important for a professional multi-display configuration.

There are plenty of upsides to this announcement. For one, it allows Matrox to reallocate resources that are currently going into hardware development and instead focus on their core competency, which at this point is multi-display solutions. PowerDesk is well regarded in their target market, and this will allow Matrox to continue to improve the platform without trying to design their own hardware. AMD benefits as they're able to partner with Matrox and potentially sell their GPUs at higher "professional" prices, and they may also increase their share of digital signage and other multi-display markets.

And of course the customers that purchase the cards benefit as they get to move to a modern platform with support for all the latest DirectX, OpenGL, and OpenCL libraries. Long-term, this also opens the doors for Matrox to offer substantially higher performance 3D solutions from AMD for customers that need such features. Overall, this announcement isn't likely to affect most computer users, but it's good to see Matrox still hanging around after several decades in the computer graphics industry, something many of their competition from the 90s didn't manage to achieve.

Tesla Motors

On Wednesday, a source speaking with the Associated Press said that Tesla has chosen an industrial plant outside of Reno, Nevada, to be the location of its $5 billion battery factory. The factory, which will be built in conjunction with Panasonic, will produce batteries for Tesla's forthcoming Model 3 line of low(er)-cost electric vehicles.

The AP's source spoke anonymously because no official announcement had been made. That source said that work on the factory will begin soon and that “Nevada still must approve a package of incentives Tesla negotiated.” Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval is scheduled to make a "major economic development announcement" tomorrow afternoon, and Tesla representatives say the company will be present.

Ars contacted Tesla about the report, and a spokesperson wrote, “We continue to work with the state of Nevada and we look forward to joining the Governor and legislative leaders tomorrow in Carson City. More details to come tomorrow at 4 PM Pacific.”

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L Church

If you want a role model for work ethic in the animal kingdom, you’d do well to pick the ant. Maintaining tunnels, gathering food, and defending the colony are all in a solid day’s work. Now you might be able to cross off another item on the ant to-do list: pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

Over geologic timescales, the Earth has a convenient regulator on its thermostat: the weathering of many minerals. During their breakdown, they react with carbon dioxide, which converts them into a clay mineral while also producing carbonate. In a warmer climate, weathering ramps up, removing more CO2 from the atmosphere. This provides a cooling influence. In a cooler climate, weathering slows and CO2 can accumulate in the atmosphere, nudging temperatures upwards.

Some of this is simply the result of physical weathering of exposed rock at the surface, but living organisms contribute as well. Tree roots penetrate cracks and pry rocks apart. Lichens and fungi in soil slowly dissolve rock. Burrowing things move material around.

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The world’s largest PC maker arrived at the IFA trade show in Berlin with quite a few new products. Today Lenovo announced an 8” tablet, a 17” gaming laptop, and a gaming desktop PC.

Lenovo Devices   TAB S8 Y70 Touch ERAZER X315 Form Factor 8" 1920x1200 IPS Touchscreen Tablet 17.3" 1920x1080 Touchscreen Laptop Desktop CPU Intel Atom Z3745 (1.86 GHz quad-core) up to Haswell Core i7 quad-core AMD Kaveri A8-7600 (3.1GHz quad-core)
AMD Kaveri A10-7850K (3.7GHz quad-core) Memory 2GB LPDDR3 Up to 16GB DDR3L A8: 8GB DDR3
A10: 12GB DDR3 Graphics Intel HD Graphics Up to NVIDIA GTX-860M 4 GB VRAM A8: AMD Radeon R9 255 2 GB VRAM
A10: AMD Radeon R9 260 2 GB VRAM Storage 16 GB eMMC Up to 1 TB + 8 GB SSHD or 512 GB SSD A8: 1 TB + 8 GB SSHD
A10: 2 TB + 8 GB SSHD Connectivity Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n; BT 4.0; Optional LTE Optional BT4.0; 802.11ac/bgn Wi-Fi; 1G LAN 1G LAN, 802.11ac Wi-Fi Dimensions 209.8 x 123.8 x 7.9 mm
8.1 x 4.8 x 0.31 inches 422.9 x 190.6 x 25.9 mm
16.6 x 11.4 x 1.1 inches 375.9 x 360.7 x 175.3 mm
14.8 x 14.2 x 6.9 inches Weight 299 g
0.65 lbs 3.4 kg
7.5 lbs 7.48 kg
16.5 lbs

The Lenovo TAB S8 is an 8” Android tablet with a 1920x1200 resolution “Infinity” screen, which is the marketing term for the thin bezels surrounding the 16:10 dispay. Powering this tablet is the Intel Atom Z3745 SoC which has four Bay Trail cores at up to 1.86 GHz. There are dual front speakers, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, and optional LTE data. There is an 8 MP rear camera with F/2.2 aperature, and a 1.6 MP fixed focus front facing camera. Lenovo claims the 4290 mAh battery will last up to seven hours. The TAB S8 is available in ebony, blue, canary yellow, and white, and starts at $199 with availability in September.

Moving from the 299 gram (0.65 lb) tablet, we hit the other end of the spectrum with the 3.4 kilogram (7.5 lb) Y70 Touch gaming laptop. This is the first gaming laptop from Lenovo to be offered with a 17” screen size – in this case a 17.3” 1920x1080 touchscreen. This behemoth of a laptop is powered by up to a Core i7 quad-core processor, has up to 16 GB of DDR3L, and can be equipped with a NVIDIA GTX-860M GPU with 4 GB of dedicated memory. Storage options are up to 512 GB Solid State Drive (SSD), or up to a 1 TB Solid State Hybrid Drive (SSHD) which has 8 GB of SSD cache. Audio on the laptop should be a highlight feature, with JBL stereo speakers and an integrated 3.0 watt subwoofer built in. Wireless options are 802.11ac, and a gigabit Ethernet connection is also included. Battery life is rated for only 5 hours, but with a curb weight this high, this is not the kind of machine you would take and use on the go anyway. The only optical disc option is an optional external DVD/Blu-ray drive. A backlit keyboard with red lighting completes the experience. The Y70 Touch will be available in October with a starting price of $1299.

The final announcement today is the ERAZER X315, which Lenovo considers an affordable gaming desktop. With a starting price of $599, they could be right. Lenovo went with the AMD Kaveri for the X315 series, with choices of the A8-7600 (3.1 GHz quad-core) or A10-7859K (3.7 GHz quad-core) APUs. Memory is up to 8 GB for the A8 version, and 12 GB for the A10, and GPU options are the AMD Radeon R9 255 with 2 GB of memory for the A8, or an R9 260 with 2 GB memory for the A10. Storage options are both SSHD drives, with 1 TB for the A8 and 2 TB for the A10. This desktop also includes four USB 3.0 ports (with one always powered), two USB 2.0 ports, HDMI input, and wireless connectivity with 802.11ac supported in addition to the Ethernet port. The case includes front lighting and a “knight’s armor” design. The ERAZER X315 will be available in November. 

Lenovo has announced three devices aimed at three completely different markets. The tablet looks to have a great display for the $199 price. A 17” laptop with a 1080p display seems like a low resolution offering for this day and age, but for a gaming device it makes sense with the amount of GPU power available in a mobile device. The desktop looks to be a decent gaming machine for a starting price of $599, but we will have to wait for a review to know for sure.

When ASUS introduced the first EeePC back in 2007, it became a huge hit and essentially ushered in the era of the netbook. Using Linux as the core OS and sporting low-end hardware in order to target a price of $200 (though it ended up shipping at $300 initially), the ultraportables world was forever changed. Google essentially revised and reinvigorated the netbook market with their Chromebook initiative, which brought us $200 laptops in 2011 that again used an alternative OS. Considering the $200 Chromebooks have been one of the highest volume laptops for the past year or two, others are looking to get a piece of that market. Now ASUS is teaming up with Microsoft to release a Windows 8.1 with Bing laptop that hopes to steal some of the thunder from budget Chromebooks.

As you'd expect from any full laptop selling for $200, the components are going to be relatively low-end. ASUS is using an 11.6" 1366x768 LCD – and no, it is not a touchscreen – the first sign of compromise. The processor comes courtesy of Intel's quad-core Atom platform (Bay Trail), and the X205 will ship with 2GB RAM and 32GB onboard storage (plus two years free of 500GB ASUS WebStorage). It also features two USB 2.0 ports, 802.11n WiFi, micro-HDMI, and microSD support. There will also be a version with 64GB of storage at a slightly higher price point. In other words, this is sort of like what would happen if you took a basic tablet and converted it back into a laptop, and then used Windows 8.1 instead of Android.

The overall quality of any $200 laptop is obviously going to be a concern, as that price point is far below what we usually see for Windows laptops. For those that want a higher performance computing device, this is obviously not going to fit their needs, but Windows 8.1 has taken steps to improving performance on low memory devices, and you still get a full keyboard and presumably decent battery life. You also get full compatibility with the existing library of Windows applications, which is going to be the real selling point. Is the market still interested in such a device, or have most people moved on to tablets and Chromebooks? We'll find out how well the X205 does at retail in the coming months.

President Obama has urged members of the Nato alliance to send an unmistakable message backing Ukraine, in the face of what he called "brazen aggression" by Russia.

Today at IFA ASUS announced a couple of new laptops. The first continues the refinement of the Zenbook line with an update geared around Intel's Core M line of processors. Andrei is at IFA Berlin and can hopefully provide some hands-on impressions later, but the design language looks similar to the existing 13.3" Zenbook. The big news outside of the Core M processor is that the display has been upgraded yet again, this time to a 3200x1800 QHD+ panel. Other aspects include three USB 3.0 ports, an SD card reader, micro-HDMI, and 802.11ac WiFi connectivity.

We'll have more information on the Core M processors as well coming next week at IDF, but in the meantime it's interesting to note that ASUS has made the switch from the U-series line of Intel CPUs to what is effectively the Y-series Broadwell replacement. This is even more surprising as the UX301 shipped with the Core i7-4558U, which was a 28W CPU with a GT3-based Iris Graphics 5100 GPU. What we know of Core M suggests that the TDP has been cut way down, and the UX305 may actually be fanless, though it's likely Intel will have configurable TDP support as well. In any case, we may very well see a regression in performance from the UX301 to the UX305, though battery life should improve in the process.

Pricing and availability on the UX305 has not been announced, but there should be 128GB and 256GB SSD models, and likely multiple CPU SKUs. We'd expect the price to be similar to the existing UX301 – i.e. $1500+, depending on model – but the switch to Core M may result in prices being closer to $1000. For students and businesses that need highly portable laptops, the UX305 may be exactly what they want.

In the wake of the release of stolen, intimate photos from a number of celebrities’ cell phones this past weekend on 4chan’s /b/ Web forum, the site has added something to its rules and policies—a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown policy. While 4chan previously relied on its rapid expiration of content to keep 4chan LLC and site founder Chris “moot” Poole out of trouble, the heavy scrutiny that came from the latest round of celebrity exposure has pushed the site to adopt more formal measures to avoid litigation. (Victims of photo theft could use copyright claims to seek damages from publications and websites that publish them.)

Under the policy, 4chan will now remove content when notified of a “bona fide infringement” under the law. The site will also contact the individual posting the content to tell this user it has been removed. “It is the Company’s policy…that repeat offenders will have the infringing material removed from the system and that the Company will terminate such content provider’s, member’s or user’s access to the service,” the policy reads. Those who believe their content has been taken down improperly can file a counter-notice with 4chan.

The DMCA policy post designates a DMCA agent for the company (though not by name) at Corporation Service Company in Wilmington, Delaware. Corporation Service Company is an organization that acts as a corporate office and compliance agent for Delaware-registered companies.

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NEW YORK CITY—We're still in New York, where Samsung has dumped a bucket load of devices on us for the holidays. You've seen the liveblog and the official announcements, and now that the festivities are over it's time to see just what Samsung's new products are like in person.

With a whopping four devices and only a limited time for each, we didn't have much time to get very in-depth with each one, but we can at least whet your appetite for the full reviews, which will come once the devices have been released.

The Galaxy Note 4—Or, alternatively, the “Note 3S”

Left: The Note 3, Right: The Note 4. They're practically identical.

7 more images in gallery

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CN.dart.call("xrailTop", {sz:"300x250", kws:["top"], collapse: true});First up is the Note 4. Have you seen a Note 3? If so, you're about 95 percent of the way there. The Note 4 looks almost identical to the Note 3—it's a big, 5.7-inch rectangle done in Samsung's typical style.

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Very powerful PSUs may not be all that useful to most users, but they certainly are the pride of any company. Today we're looking at the new pinnacle of Seasonic's retail PSUs, the Platinum XP3 series, products designed with very advanced users and cryptocurrency miners in mind. Their advertised performance seems amazing, especially when combined with their reasonable retail price. How well can they perform though? We will find out in this review.

A man who spent 30 years in prison for rape and murder says he has "no anger" over his wrongful conviction, after DNA evidence proved his innocence.

I'm writing this in a hotel room entered through two doors. The hall door is the normal kind: you stick a card in a slot, a light turns green, and the door unlocks. The inner one is three inches thick, has no lock and serves a single purpose: protection from an explosion. more>>

It's getting nasty between Sega of America and Gearbox. 20th Century Fox

The class-action lawsuit pitting angry gamers against the producers of critical stinker Aliens: Colonial Marines nearly reached a conclusion last month, when game producer Sega of America tentatively agreed to a $1.25 million settlement. However, on Wednesday, over a month after game developer Gearbox filed a motion distancing itself from any financial obligation—namely, to avoid paying $750,000 to bring the settlement's grand total to $2 million—Sega responded with its own motion insisting that Gearbox was just as responsible for any payout responsibility.

Ars obtained a copy of the motion, filed by Sega's lawyers in the Northern District of California Court. It included copies of e-mails, contracts, and correspondence that reinforced a particular sticking point in the case: that Gearbox was just as responsible for the game's promotional efforts—which were tagged as "misleading" in the class-action suit—as Sega was. Many of the dozen-plus letters hinged on Gearbox pushing forward with screens, videos, and other details that hadn't been cleared or approved for reveal by Sega, either on Gearbox's official website or at community events. Sega's attitude about this had deteriorated by October 2012, with a Sega PR rep blaming "persistent panel leaking" of game details on "Randy [Pitchford, Gearbox director] doing whatever the fuck he likes."

One e-mail, titled "Gearbox is announcing things," detailed a number of game facts and video preview footage revealed in June 2011 that hadn't been approved by Sega. In another, a Sega PR representative called out Pitchford for "talk[ing] a LOT beyond what was in there" at an event. And in yet another e-mail, Pitchford was quoted as saying "A:CM will curbstomp Dead Space," a prediction that we're comfortable saying never came true.

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CN.dart.call("xrailTop", {sz:"300x250", kws:["top"], collapse: true});We're just a couple of days away from the official start of the IFA trade show in Berlin, but a lot of companies are trying to get out ahead of the noise and announce their biggest products early (this rush to announce early creates plenty of noise all by itself, but whatever).

IFA is usually where the Windows PC makers unleash their wave of holiday-season computers, and this year is no exception. Today we've got announcements from Toshiba, Lenovo, Acer, and Asus—we'll tell you about the most interesting PCs here, pointing out trends along the way, and we'll continue to cover new announcements as other companies take the wraps off of their new systems.

Toshiba

Toshiba's got a couple of new Windows systems, along with the new Chromebook 2 that we already covered earlier. The most significant of them is probably the Toshiba Encore Mini, a full Windows 8.1 tablet that will run you $119.99.

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Robyn Lee

On Tuesday, a Ninth circuit appeals court ruled that Yelp's ad sales strategies do not extort small businesses and merely amount to “hard bargaining” by the company.

Yelp lets anyone review a business, and businesses can't opt out of being reviewed. So when Yelp's ad sales team began calling around asking companies to buy advertising in exchange for displaying a chosen review more prominently, some storefronts cried foul. In 2010, four small business owners banded together to sue Yelp for extortion after they refused to buy advertising from Yelp and allegedly found that bad reviews were displayed more prominently.

Two of the business owners also alleged that Yelp authored negative reviews to induce them to advertise or in retaliation after the business declined to buy advertising.

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Today ASUS threw their hat in the ring of Android Wear smartwatches with their new ASUS ZenWatch. All of the Android Wear watches sport a common hardware platform and the ZenWatch is no exception. It sports a 1.63" curved 320x320 AMOLED display, and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad Cortex-A7 part running at 1.2GHz, paired with an Adreno 305 and 512MB of RAM plus 4GB of NAND. ASUS claims that the internal 1.4Wh battery will get a user through the day, and the IP55 rating for dust and water resistance should resist environmental hazards but not to the extent of other smartwatches like the Sony SmartWatch 3.

Android Wear watches typically have to compete on price or on design and build, and it looks like the ZenWatch has chosen to go with the latter. The stainless steel design with the curved cover glass and leather strap all convey a more premium feel than other plastic smartwatches. Of course, this also means that the ZenWatch is priced as one of the more expensive smartwatch options at 199 euros. ASUS expects that the ZenWatch will be put on sale sometime during the second half of 2014.

Source: ASUS via The Verge

Autodealers in Georgia are trying to kick Tesla out of the state and prevent it from selling its Model S sport sedan and upcoming Model X SUV.

The move by the Georgia Automobile Dealers Association comes amid a flurry of fighting over Tesla selling directly to the public without the middleman, or franchise dealership.

The association is seeking to revoke "Tesla's existing dealer license" and to block "any attempt by Tesla to renew or reapply for a dealer or manufacturer license."

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A father and son storm-chasing team talk about the moment one of them was struck by lightning.

"GreatLand Connections" is the United States' next cable company, potentially coming to 2.5 million subscribers currently served by Comcast in 11 states.

Comcast decided to spin off part of its territory to help persuade US regulators to approve its acquisition of Time Warner Cable and a related transaction with Charter. Until today, the new company had been referred to generically as "SpinCo" or "Midwest Cable LLC," but now it has an official name.

"GreatLand Connections Inc., a new, independent, publicly-traded company, will own and operate former Comcast systems serving approximately 2.5 million customers across the Midwest and Southeast," Comcast wrote. "At its inception, it is expected to be the fifth largest cable company in the United States."

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Version:next-20140903 (linux-next) Released:2014-09-03