Inside Out goes to the lab to investigate what is in e-cigarettes while we unwrap the arguments surrounding them.

Meet the New Boss. Same as the Old Boss.

If you had told me 15 years ago that I would one day be the Editor in Chief for AnandTech, there’s a very good chance I would have called you crazy. Having read AnandTech since 1998, it seemed obvious to me at the time that I could never know enough to match wits with Anand. Even in the early days of the site Anand brought a high degree of skill and thoughtfulness that few people could ever match, a quality that kept me reading the site for so many years.

Consequently, to be here writing my first comments as Editor in Chief borders on the surreal. Having read AnandTech for 15 years and having worked for Anand for almost 10 of those years, it was until recently hard to imagine reading AnandTech and not seeing articles by Anand, or to be writing for AnandTech but not be writing for Anand himself. Anand has been a constant in the tech world both as a source of news an analysis for us all, and as a mentor to me. These days I can happily say I was wrong about not being able to match wits with The Boss, and now I am going to get to put that to the test.

AnandTech has been Anand’s baby since Anand practically was a baby, having built it up from the ground in the last 17 years and spanning countless generations of technology not to mention the economic booms and busts that come with it. Words cannot express how humbling it is to be asked to be the next Editor in Chief – to be the first person that Anand trusts and believes in to run AnandTech and keep his baby going. It’s an awesome privilege and an awesome responsibility, and it is a task that I aim to do as well as The Boss himself.

When it comes to taking on the duties as Editor in Chief, I suppose it’s the fact that Anand and I are cut from the same cloth that even makes this transition possible. While I wasn’t born to teachers, writing for AnandTech has been a job I have loved for nearly a decade because I love learning just as Anand does. And though it’s a gross simplification of the job, being a journalist for AnandTech ultimately means learning about technology and sharing what we have learned with the rest of the world, which is the ideal job for anyone who loves learning. What this means is that although we’re not interchangeable – I am probably a bit more excitable than Anand – it means that the same force that drives us both, and it’s that same love of learning that will continue to shape AnandTech.

To our readers, we wouldn’t exist without you, and it is my first and foremost goal to continue driving AnandTech to bring the kind of high quality content that you come here for. That content comes from passion, skill, and taking the time and care to do things right, and these are core values that will not be changing. At the same time the editors working for us are among the best, and I know that they will continue writing fantastic articles across the broad range of technologies we cover. AnandTech may no longer have Anand, but it will have the same quality content that it has always had.

To our editors, what little is there to say about you that Anand has not? An Editor in Chief is only as good as the people working under him, and it is the fact that I have you that makes me confident that I can take on this role and fill Anand’s big shoes. You deserve nothing less than the best leadership, and to you I vow to do as well for you as Anand has done over the last 17 years.

And to Anand, it has been an honor working for you for the last decade. To say that I have learned everything I know from you is only the slightest exaggeration – so much of what I know about both technology and journalism comes from what I have learned from you over the years. To be the new Editor in Chief is incredibly humbling, and I intend to prove that AnandTech is still in good hands.

For 17.5 years now the path of AnandTech and the path of Anand have been one and the same. And though that is no longer the case as Anand retires, it is my sincere goal that the next 17.5 years will continue down the same path that Anand has set. And that is to create and curate the kind of high quality content that enlightens and informs all those who wish to learn about technology.

Thanks,
Ryan Smith
@RyanSmithAT

Before I leave, there's one more thing I wanted to write about and something that took me until now to be able to do. I don't talk about the business side of things often here but AnandTech is represented by a 3rd party sales and marketing company known by the name LMCD. They've been our exclusive partner since 1999 and we've got a long history with them. They handle the ads, we handle the content and the two stay separate.

I've worked with the team there for most of my life and last year they unexpectedly lost a member of the family - Cara Hamm. She was only 39 and passed away suddenly without warning or explanation. I remember the day vividly. I had just landed at SFO about to head to Intel for a Bay Trail reviewer's workshop. That week was going to see the release of the iPhone 5s and the debut of the AnandTech Mobile Show at IDF. Cara had passed away between the time that I took off from RDU in the morning to the time that I landed at SFO. I got the call before we pulled into the gate at SFO and began what can only be described as a blur. She left behind her wonderful husband Mike and two sons, Cody and Dylan.

Cara was easily our biggest fan. She believed in the site more than anyone else. She believed in me and exuded so much confidence in me whenever she was around. The reality is that's the effect she had on everyone. Cara could and would take an interest in everyone, she'd make you feel like you could accomplish anything and that your problems and feelings were the most important in the world. She was ridiculously thoughtful, caring and wouldn't take no for an answer.

I remember being at a CES dinner several years ago and discussing our challenges being taken seriously in the mobile market. We were having issues with getting HTC to sample us (a problem that eventually got fixed) and just as we were discussing this Peter Chou, CEO of HTC, walked by our table on the way to his. We recognized him and I remember Cara walked straight over to him, introduced herself and gave him a pitch on working with AnandTech. She did something I don't even think I would've done. She had the courage, confidence and ambition to do anything.

For the longest time I was only able to write to Cara, not about her, in her passing. Cara was a huge part of my life for over the past decade and although most of you never knew her, I wanted to make sure I left behind something remembering her. She was truly our biggest fan and the biggest AnandTech supporter I've ever known. We all miss you very much Cara. If you knew her or if you want to leave some kind words for her family, please feel free to do so here.

Both of my parents were teachers, and for as long as I can remember they both encouraged me to do something in life that would help others. I figured being a doctor would be the most obvious way to do that, but growing up around a pair of teachers must’ve rubbed off on me. My venue wouldn’t be the classroom but rather the Internet. On April 26, 1997, armed with very little actual knowledge, I began to share what I had with the world on a little Geocities site named Anand’s Hardware Tech Page. Most of what I knew was wrong or poorly understood, but I was 14 years old at the time. Little did I know that I had nearly two decades ahead of me to fill in the blanks. I liked the idea of sharing knowledge online and the thought of building a resource where everyone who was interested in tech could find something helpful.

That’s the short story of how I started AnandTech. There’s a lot more to it involving an upgrade to the AMD K6, a PC consulting business I ran for 2 years prior and an appreciation for writing that I didn’t know I had - but that’s the gist.

I’m 32 now. The only things that’ve been more of a constant in my life than AnandTech are my parents. I’ve spent over half of my life learning about, testing, analyzing and covering technology. And I have to say, I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.

But after 17.5 years of digging, testing, analyzing and writing about the most interesting stuff in tech, it’s time for a change. This will be the last thing I write on AnandTech as I am officially retiring from the tech publishing world. Ryan Smith (@RyanSmithAT) is taking over as Editor in Chief of AnandTech. Ryan has been working with us for nearly 10 years, he has a strong background in Computer Science and he’s been shadowing me quite closely for the past couple of years. I am fully confident in Ryan’s ability to carry the torch and pick up where I left off. We’ve grown the staff over the course of this year in anticipation of the move. With a bunch of new faces around AnandTech, all eager to uphold the high standards and unique approach to covering tech, I firmly believe the site can continue to thrive for years to come.

It’s important for me to stress two things: this isn’t a transition because of health or business issues. I am healthy and hope to be even more so now that I won’t be flying nearly 130,000 miles every year. The website and business are both extremely strong. We’ve expanded our staff this year to include a number of new faces contributing to both mobile and more traditional PC categories. Traffic is solid, we are looking forward to a bunch of very exciting launches especially in the final quarters of 2014. On the business side we continue an amazing run of being self sustaining, profitable and growing for every since year since 1997. We don’t talk about business affairs much on the site but we set a number of records in 2013 and expect that to continue. In other words, you don’t have to worry about the ability of the site to continue to operate.

Even though I’ve been doing this for nearly 18 years, we’ve evolved with the industry. AnandTech started as a site that primarily reviewed motherboards, then we added CPUs, video cards, cases, notebooks, Macs, smartphones, tablets and anything else that mattered. The site today is just as strong in coverage of new mobile devices as it is in our traditional PC component coverage and there’s a roadmap in place to continue to support both sides of the business. Our learnings in the PC component space helped us approach mobile the right way, and our learnings in the mobile space have helped us bring the PC enthusiast message to a broader audience than would’ve ever seen it before.

Over the past year I’ve transitioned many of my personal coverage areas to other ATers. Ian took over CPUs not too long ago and Josh has been flying solo with our mobile coverage for a bit now. Even the articles I helped co-author with Josh were 90% his. Kristian has more or less been running our entire SSD review program at AnandTech for a while now and he’s been doing a tremendous job. I remember editing one of his pieces and thinking wow, this kid knows more than me. In fact I’d go as far as to say that about all of our editors at this point. We’ve got a sea of specialists here and each one of them knows more than me about the area in which they cover. I’m beyond proud of them all and honored to have worked with them.

On a personal level I’ve made myself available to all AnandTech editors for advice and guidance, however I have fully removed myself from the editorial process. I can offer a suggestion on how to deal with a situation so long as describing the situation does not reveal any confidential information to me.

Thank You All

To everyone I worked with in the industry - thank you for the support and help over the years. You were my mentors. You showed kindness and support to a kid who just showed up one day. I learned from you and every last one of you influenced me at a very formative period in my life. The chance you all took on me, the opportunities, and education you provided all mean the world to me. You trusted me with your products, your engineers and your knowledge - thank you.

To Larry, Cara, Mike, Howard, Virginia, Hilary and the rest of the LMCD team that has supported (and continues to support) AnandTech for almost its entire life, I thank you for making all of this possible. I learned so much about the business side of this world from you all and it helped give me perspective and knowledge that I could have never gotten on my own. For those who don't know them, the LMCD crew is responsible for the advertising side of AnandTech. They've made sure that the lights remained on and were instrumental in fueling some of our biggest growth spurts. 

To the AnandTech editors and staff, both present and past, you guys are awesome. You are easily some of the hardest working, most talented and passionate enthusiasts I've ever encountered. Your knowledge always humbles me and the effort that you've put into the site puts my own to shame. You've always been asked to do the best job possible under sometimes insane time constraints and you've always delivered. I know each and every one of you will have a bright future ahead of you. This is your ship to steer now and I couldn't be happier with the crew.

To the millions of readers who have visited and supported me and the site over the past 17+ years, I owe you my deepest gratitude. You all enabled me to spend over half of my life learning more than I ever could have in any other position. The education I’ve received doing this job and the ability to serve you all with it is the most amazing gift anyone could ever ask for. You enabled me to get the education of a lifetime and I will never be able to repay you for that. Thank you.

I’ve always said that AnandTech is your site and I continue to believe that today. Your support, criticism and push to make us better is what allowed us to grow and succeed.

In the publishing world I always hear people talk about ignoring the comments to articles as a way of keeping sane. While I understood the premise, it’s not something I ever really followed or believed in. Some of the feedback can be harsh, but I do believe that it’s almost always because you expect more from us and want us to do better. That sort of free education and immediate response you all have provided me and the rest of the AnandTech team for years is invaluable. I’m beyond proud and honored by the AnandTech audience. I believe we have some of the most insightful readers I’ve ever encountered. It’s not just our interactions that I’m proud of, but literally every company that we work with recognizes the quality of the audience and the extreme influence you all exert on the market. You’re paid attention to, respected and sometimes even feared by some of biggest names in this industry. By being readers and commenters you help keep our industry in check.

I hope you will show Ryan and the rest of the AnandTech team the same respect and courtesy that you’ve shown me over the past 17.5 years. I hope that you’ll continue to push them as you did me, and that you’ll hold the same high standards you have for so long now.

In our About Us page I write about the Cable TV-ification of the web and the trend of media in general towards the lowest common denominator. By reading and supporting AnandTech you’re helping to buck the trend. I don’t believe the world needs to be full of AnandTech-like publications, but if you like what we do I do firmly believe it’s possible to create and sustain these types of sites today. The good news is the market seems to once again value high quality content. I think web publishing has a bright future ahead of it, as long as audiences like AnandTech’s continue to exist and support publishers they value.

As for me, I won’t stay idle forever. There are a bunch of challenges out there :) You can follow me on Twitter or if you want to email me I’ve created a new public gmail account - [email protected].

Thanks for the memories and the support. I really do owe you all a tremendous debt of gratitude. I hope that my work and the work that continues at AnandTech will serve as a token of my appreciation.

Take care,
Anand

Kogan's Agora 4G (right) is like a larger version of the Moto G (left). Andrew Cunningham Specs at a glance: BenQ/Kogan Agora 4G Screen 1280×720 5.0-inch IPS (294 PPI) OS Android 4.4.2 CPU 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (quad-core Cortex A7) RAM 1GB GPU Qualcomm Adreno 305 Storage 8GB NAND flash expandable via microSD Networking 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, 2G 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900MHz, 3G 850 / 900 / 2100MHz, 4G 900 / 1800 / 700MHz Ports Micro-USB, headphones Camera 8MP rear camera, 2MP front camera Size 5.63" × 2.87" × 0.35" (143 x 73 x 9.0 mm) Weight 4.76 oz. (135 g) Battery 2520mAh Starting price $229 off-contract

You don't have to pay $600 for an unlocked smartphone anymore. That much was true before the $179 Moto G won our hearts late last year, but that phone was one of the first examples of a new class of smartphone, the kind of device that could give you a budget phone that didn't feel like a budget phone.

The problem is that there still isn't a whole lot of choice in this segment yet. Heavy hitters like Samsung, HTC, and LG continue to price their flagship devices as they always have, and going for cut-down "mini" versions of the same phones generally only saves you $100 or $150. So if you like larger phones—say, five inches and up—but you didn't have a lot of money to spend, your hands were tied by the options available.

That's one of the reasons why we were intrigued by the Kogan Agora 4G when it was announced earlier this month. It's got a bit of an odd pedigree—it was actually built with BenQ, but it's branded and sold by Australian retailer Kogan—but it's an unlocked phone available in the US that sells for $229. That's more expensive than the $179 Moto G base model, but within spitting distance of the $219 Moto G LTE. It also comes with a five-inch screen, though, and this makes it look and feel more like a Samsung-esque flagship than a nice-but-cheap midrange phone.

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Stack Exchange

This Q&A is part of a weekly series of posts highlighting common questions encountered by technophiles and answered by users at Stack Exchange, a free, community-powered network of 100+ Q&A sites.

CaptainCodeman asks:

I recently had a job interview in which they gave me an hour to write some real code. It wasn't a huge amount, probably less than 100 lines. After about 45 minutes, I compiled, ran it, and got it to work. I may have spent 5-10 minutes working out compile errors and a couple minor bugs, but overall it was very smooth. (Incidentally, I did get an offer from them.)

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This week, the man responsible for what is probably the biggest cryptographic failure in military history died—just a few months before he was due to be released from prison. John Walker Jr. led a family spy ring that exposed a vast trove of classified data to the Soviet Union for 18 years by giving them access to Navy cryptographic materials. He passed away in a North Carolina federal prison hospital on Thursday after a long battle with cancer. He was 77 years old.

John Walker Jr. started spying for the Soviets while he was a chief warrant officer in the US Navy—to help get out of debt from a failed bar. He kept doing it for 18 years. As a newly commissioned Navy officer, I was sent to a school at Newport, R.I. to be trained as a “CMS custodian,” and indoctrinated into the arts of managing the Communications Security Material System. It was 1986, just a year after Walker stood trial, and the instructors jokingly referred to the course as the “John Walker Jr. Memorial Stay Out Of Prison School.” A good portion of the course involved training videos detailing how Walker had managed to break the chain of custody created around the Navy’s single-use code sheets and secret them off base in his trunk—mostly to hammer into us how important that chain of custody was.

Walker’s Cold War spying for the Soviets started in 1967, when he was selling information about US Navy communications systems and the encryption codes used to configure Navy communications gear for secure transmissions over the Fleet Broadcasting System. The information he provided, some claim, led directly to the North Korean seizure of the US Navy intelligence collection ship USS Pueblo, as the Soviets apparently spurred the attack to gain access to the hardware used with the material Walker provided just a month earlier.

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Employees at the Department of Homeland Security may be feeling a bit less secure about their personal data.

On Aug. 2, Department of Homeland Security officials revealed that the agency's contractor for conducting security clearance background checks had been hacked, and an unknown number of DHS employees' personal data from those investigations had been stolen—potentially by a state-sponsored hacker. Now the DHS has a handle on how many records were stolen from contractor USIS: at least 25,000.

The Associated Press cites information from an unnamed DHS official, who spoke with the service under the condition of anonymity. "Homeland Security will soon begin notifying employees whose files were compromised and urge them to monitor their financial accounts," the Associated Press' Joce Sterman reported.

USIS is, as the Washington Post reported, the largest contract provider of background investigations to the federal government. The attack on USIS comes after the March revelation that the US Office of Personnel Management had been attacked by hackers based in China, potentially giving them access to the personal information of millions of government employees—though OPM offficials say that no personal data appeared to have been taken in the attack before it was detected.

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A researcher has refined an attack on wireless routers with poorly implemented versions of the Wi-Fi Protected Setup that allows someone to quickly gain access to a router's network.

The attack exploits weak randomization, or the lack of randomization, in a key used to authenticate hardware PINs on some implementations of Wi-Fi Protected Setup, allowing anyone to quickly collect enough information to guess the PIN using offline calculations. By calculating the correct PIN, rather than attempting to brute-force guess the numerical password, the new attack circumvents defenses instituted by companies.

While previous attacks require up to 11,000 guesses—a relatively small number—and approximately four hours to find the correct PIN to access the router's WPS functionality, the new attack only requires a single guess and a series of offline calculations, according to Dominique Bongard, reverse engineer and founder of 0xcite, a Swiss security firm.

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Some 230 members of an Orthodox Jewish group begin leaving a village in western Guatemala after a bitter row with the local indigenous community.

An Ebola vaccine, which has been tested on primates, will now be trialled on humans.

September is only a few days away, which means it is only a few days before the next round of games become available at no cost to PlayStation Plus members. Once again, two of the free games will be brand new to the PlayStation Store which is great perk for PlayStation owners.

PlayStation 4 Velocity 2X

The first game for PS4 owners is one of the games that is brand new to the store. Velocity 2X is a sequal to Velocity Ultra, and comes from the developer FuturLab. This space based game lets you pilot the Quarp Jet again in space combat. The original game received very favorable reviews, so let’s hope the sequel can live up to that name. Velocity 2X will also be available on the PS Vita.

“Use the Quarp Drive teleport to outsmart the evil Vokh in race-tuned space combat, then dock your ship, jump out and continue the fight on foot! Velocity 2X is the visually dazzling action packed sequel to Velocity Ultra, featuring amazing puzzle-platforming action alongside award-winning shooter gameplay!”

Sportsfriends

The next game comes from Danish indie developer Die Gute Fabrik. Sportsfriends was released in May 2014, and is a collection of mini-games which include BaraBaraBall, Hokra, Super Pole Riders, and Johann Sebastian Joust. This local multiplayer game received a 82 Metascore, and 7.3 User Score on Metacritic, and this game is also available on the PS3.

“Sportsfriends is a compendium of award-winning local multiplayer games for living rooms, parties, and even backyards. Featuring: retro-styled fighting game BaraBariBall, QWOP-like pole vault dueling game Super Pole Riders, high-velocity sports game Hokra, and face-to-face physical party game Johann Sebastian Joust. All the games are playable with the DualShock®4 wireless controller, while Johann Sebastian Joust can be further enhanced by the PlayStation Move Motion Controller (sold separately).”

PlayStation 3 PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale

The first game from the PS3 owners is PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale from developers SuperBot Entertainment in conjunction with SCE Santa Monica Studio. This fighting game was first launched November 20th, 2012, and allows up to four players to battle using, as you guessed from the name, PlayStation All Star characters such as Kratos from God of War and Rachet and Clank. This game received a 74 Metascore and 7.5 User score on Metacritic. PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale is also available on the PS Vita.

“From Kratos to Sly Cooper, Sweet Tooth to Parappa the Rapper, Sony characters from all over the gaming spectrum are brought together in a fighting adventure that’s both easy to play, and hard to master. Take the battle online for competitive multiplayer action, or go head to head with a group of friends on the couch and prove once and for all who’s really the best!”

Hoard

Originally launched on the PS3 on November 2nd, 2010, Hoard was developed by Big Sandwich Games Inc. This action-strategy game combines a shooter with a real time strategy game. Hoard won the IGN award for “Best Quick Fix” in 2010, and scored a 75 Metascore and 6.1 User Score on Metacritic.

“HOARD is an innovative fast-paced arcade action-strategy title from Big Sandwich Games that puts you in control of conquering a medieval kingdom. Your goal is to build a giant pile of gold to sleep on in your lair. YOU ARE THE DRAGON: Scare villages! Burn castles! Collect treasure! Roast pesky knights and thieves! Compete or co-operate with other dragons in epic multiplayer battles!”

PlayStation Vita Joe Danger

The first game for the PS Vita is the second game on this list that will be new to the Vita store in September. Independent developer Hello Games first launched this game in 2010 for the PS3, and combines the racing and platform genres. The PS3 version scored an impressive 86 Metascore and 7.7 User Score on Metacritic, so hopefully the Vita port will live up to the original.

“Take Joe on a ride from zero to hero in a game that lives up to its big brother with no compromises. Eye-popping super-smooth 60FPS graphics use only the very brightest colours on Vita’s lovely screen, and we’ve revamped the JD control scheme so it plays just as nicely, too, including touch controls for the editor modes!”

TxK

The final game for the Vita comes from developer Llamasoft. Originaly released on the Vita on February 11th, 2014, TxK is a spiritual successor to the Atari game Tempest and features great visuals and sounds. TxK received an 84 Metascore, and 7.9 User Score on Metacritic.

“Glowing vectors, explosive particle effects and a pulse-pounding soundtrack are core elements of many modern arcade shooters – a style that Llamasoft defined with its seminal 90s tube shooter. TxK is the spiritual successor to that genre-defining work and brings you 100 levels of engrossing score-chasing gameplay, married to an outstanding soundtrack that will have your head nodding as you blast your way onto the scoreboards.”

PlayStation has done a good thing for its users to offer new to the store games alongside classics which PlayStation Plus members may already own, and it makes for a great value add. It is also great to see them offer the game on multiple platforms at the same time if it is available. This month may not be the strongest for AAA content, but as always there is a good mix of classic games with new. If you missed last month’s games, be sure to pick them up soon before they are gone.

Source:
PlayStation Blog

Earlier today Nintendo announced an updated version of its Nintendo 3DS handheld gaming console. It's been over 3 years since the launch of the original 3DS, and with Nintendo taking fire from gaming capable smartphones an update to the 3DS is definitely necessary. The new models sport updated form factors and improved specifications. The new Nintendo 3DS replaces what is now the old Nintendo 3DS, and it's slightly thicker, larger, and 18 grams heavier than its predecessor. The new Nintendo 3DS LL (XL internationally) replaces the old Nintendo 3DS LL and it's slightly thinner, larger, and 7 grams lighter than its predecessor. Both models have increased display sizes which explains the increase in dimensions for both of them. Both models feature secondary ZL and ZR triggers as well as a secondary analog control stick, which addresses control problems that Nintendo had to address with the Circle Pad Pro accessory offered for the original 3DS.

Nintendo claims that the new models have faster processors and better camera tracking to improve 3D when looking at an angle. The new 3DS and 3DS LL also include support for NFC and shift from full sized SD support to MicroSD. Nintendo's entire list of improvements is laid out below.

• Better quality 3D.
• Second analog stick.
• NFC built-in.
• Gyro sensor.
• Two new bumper buttons.
• 7 hour battery life.
• microSD support.
• Wireless PC backup support.
• HTML5 browser.
• CPU clock increase.

According to some investigation done by 3dbrew, the internal amount of fast-cycle RAM (FCRAM) in both models has been doubled from 128MB to 256MB. An additional 4MB of VRAM was also discovered.

Nintendo has also announced a line of faceplates that can be installed on the new 3DS and 3DS LL. These range from various patterns to pictures of iconic Nintendo characters, and cost between 1000 and 1500 yen each..

The new Nintendo 3DS and 3DS LL will be available on October 11th in Japan for 16000 and 18800 yen respectively. A launch in Europe and North America can be expected for 2015.

Source: Nintendo via Crave Online

Samsung has lots of ammunition against Google, but will it ever pull the trigger?

Samsung and Nokia have signed an agreement to bring Nokia's HERE mapping service to just about every Samsung device imaginable. Nokia announced that HERE for Android will be exclusive to Samsung's Galaxy smartphone line, and it will also be bringing a mini version of HERE to Samsung's Tizen-based smartwatches, including the newly-announced Samsung Gear S.

Nokia HERE's origins lie in Nokia's Ovi mapping service and the company's 2007 purchase of Navteq. HERE data is one of the main competitors to Google Maps—besides the in-house app, the data also powers Yahoo Maps, Bing Maps, Amazon Maps, and Garmin GPS devices. This Nokia has nothing to do with Microsoft, which only bought Nokia's "Devices & Services" division. The remaining parts of the company deal with maps, cellular networking technology, and R&D.

The move is Samsung's latest attempt to distance itself from the Google ecosystem. "What will you do without Google Maps" is one of the biggest questions any company (or customer) needs to answer if it wants to ask itself how it could survive a Google-free existence. While it's not very difficult to dump the Play Store or Gmail for a different client, Google Maps is much harder to replace.

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In what has to be one of the most unique designs ever, Alienware announced the revamped Area-51 model which features a triad-designed chassis. True to their name, Alienware has always had a desktop case that appeared to be from another world, but the new triad version is the most interesting yet in my opinion.

According to Alienware, the design of the case is for both thermal management, and ergonomics. Though we will need to wait for reviews to see how they accomplished both, looking at the angled front of the case does make it seem easier to use if the tower is on the floor like my own PC, but with a case so unique, you may want to keep it on your desk just to admire it. Another ergonomic improvement is the case is designed to be pivoted forward to allow easier access to the rear connections, which might work quite well. The case is also designed to be easy to get into for system upgrades in the future.

The second goal, according to Alieware, is thermal management, and here we will just have to wait and see how it performs. The claim is that the larger area at the rear makes it easier for hot air to escape. Internal cable management is also claimed to not impede airflow any more than necessary, but any system with the cost of an Alienware should have good cable management anyway.

The unique shape of the case also does not get in the way when it comes to graphics card installation, with the new Area-51 supporting up to three full-length double-wide GPUs, or up to quad-GPUs assuming smaller cards are obtained. According to the manufacturer, this new Area-51 can then support up to three Ultra HD (4K) monitors for a very immersive experience and an overall resolution of 11520x2160.

The announcement today of the Area-51 was no accident, with the new model featuring the Haswell-E processor with up to 8 cores, and the X99 chipset, both which were just revealed today. Other notable features is support for up to 32 GB of RAM, a 1500 watt power supply, both SSD and HDD, plus 802.11ac wireless.

Finally, on the software end, the Area-51 comes with Command Center 4.0 which allows both overclocking and customization of the case lighting with up to twenty colors in nine zones to make the device your own. I used to own an Alienware M11x R2, and I have to admit one of the coolest things about it was being able to customize the color layout of the keyboard and other lights, and you can also have per-user customizations so that everyone has their own.

Pricing and availability are not yet known, with the system only as “Coming Soon” so if you are in the market for an OEM gaming system, be sure to check this one out.

Source:
Alienware

The crush as Gencon's main exhibition hall opens. Nate Anderson

INDIANAPOLIS, IN—"The Reavers in your bed," sang the kilted duo, "are going to eat your face!"

Sitting in the back row of a windowless conference room packed with 125 Firefly lovers, I listened to this demented lullaby while duly jotting down the chorus: eat... your... face. And I wondered, not for the first time, what I was doing among the 50,000 other attendees at Gencon.

I mean to say, when your job involves listening to a percussionist with more than a passing resemblance to Smee play a djembe while singer Marc Gunn strums an autoharp and belts out Irish drinking songs with lyrics like, "It's good to have Jayne Cobb on your side," certain questions inevitably arise. Chief among them: after seeing this, could I even call myself a 'nerd' anymore?

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Nato has accused Russia of blatantly violating Ukraine's sovereignty by sending troops and weapons over the border.

Image from page 400 of "Breeder and sportsman" (1882). Internet Archive Book Images

Earlier this year, communications technology scholar Kalev Leetaru began culling over 14 million images from the Internet Archive’s public domain ebooks and uploading them to the Internet Archive’s Flickr account. As of today, 2.6 million images are now easily searchable and downloadable.

When the Internet Archive originally scanned the books, they used Optical Character Recognition (OCR), which made the book text searchable, but that didn’t mean much if you were looking for images. So Leetaru wrote some software to take advantage of the OCR program that the Internet Archive had used to scan public domain works published and written between 1500 and 1922.

According to the BBC, the OCR program scanned the books and discarded sections of the text that it recognized as images. Leetaru had his software go back and find those discarded portions of text, automatically converting those sections into Jpeg images and uploading them to Flickr. "The software also copied the caption for each image and the text from the paragraphs immediately preceding and following it in the book,” the BBC wrote.

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While it was easy to make an educated guess that the Galaxy S5 LTE-A Broadband had a PenTile subpixel layout to support the higher pixel density, I didn't get visual confirmation of this until now. While this picture is rather boring, it's much more interesting to see the display when turned off.

There are a few observations to be made from this photo. While it definitely looks disconcerting and creepy to some, it's possible to make out that there's something set in between the green subpixels when viewed diagonally. This appears to be where the transistors are placed to control a given subpixel. It also seems that the deposition process isn't perfect, as there's noticeable variance in shape and size among subpixels of a given color. This probably explains why the display isn't quite uniform when viewing it at near-black levels. It also appears that there may be an upper bound to how tightly Samsung can place two distinct emitter materials together, as this arrangement has noticeable levels of dead space in between subpixels. In order to better see the full picture, I've included a short gif of the display turning on and off.

The original design of Apple's 5th Avenue NYC store, which stood from 2006 until 2011. Flodigrip / flickr

The late Apple CEO Steve Jobs and several other Apple employees are listed as inventors on a newly granted design patent, which describes the design of the company's flagship New York City retail outlet. Jobs is listed as one of the seven co-inventors of the design, although he passed away about a year before the application was filed in October 2012.

The company is an enthusiastic proponent of patenting and trademarking just about everything it can, and its retail stores are no exception. Apple actually acquired a US trademark on its interior store design last year, and it has patented other elements of the stores, such as their special architectural glass panels and floating glass staircases.

Apple's newest patent grant shows that it was especially proud of its iconic Manhattan store on 5th Avenue. The actual store exists beneath a 32-foot glass cube, an older version of which is pictured above. Its subterranean entrance is open 24 hours a day.

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