Latest GeForce Drivers Target Metro: Last Light

The GeForce 320.14 beta drivers focus on the upcoming game Metro: Last Light. Single GPU and SLI performance is boosted by up to 10%. The drivers also incorporate the many improvements that were implemented in the previous 320.00 beta drivers. The previous release contained improvements and compatibility enhancements for Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, Dead Island: Riptide, and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon among others.

Source: NVIDIA

Adobe Rebrands Creative Suite as Creative Cloud; Unveils Two Tablet-Specific Items

Adobe took the wraps off some new gear earlier today, although one of them should be pretty familiar for most users. The company announced its Creative Suite is being rebranded into Creative Cloud, which was first introduced last year as a subscription-based model for the Adobe product stack. What it means is users have access all of Adobe's tool, with the latest updates, for a monthly fee. Everything is stored and synced online, so your settings are never far away whether you're on a desktop, laptop, or mobile device. It also allows for greater interaction with other Creative Cloud users to get feedback on whatever you're making. All the Creative Cloud products are receiving a plethora of new features, and even adding some from Photoshop Extended to Photoshop CC, like 3D editing and conditional actions.

However, the only downside is Creative Suite 6 is the last of the line for the CS products. Those are still going to be available and Adobe plans to support them, including releasing bug fixes when needed, just CS6 is giving way to CC. The monthly subscription for Adobe Creative Cloud should still be $49.99, while current owners of CS3 or higher can drop that to $29.99.

The other new stuff Adobe showed off today is for the mobile crowd, specifially tablet owners. Neither one is ready for the primetime and could have a name change when available, but the two are known as Project Mighty and Project Napoleon. Project Mighty is a stylus that pulls information from your Creative Cloud settings in a way to lessen the divide between software and hardware. It offers various pressure sensitivity levels (exact ones unknown), and has a rechargeable battery, Bluetooth, and built-in memory. Project Napoleon, on the other hand, is a high-tech straight edge, as it projects straight lines to help keep things even when drawing on a tablet. Information is a little light on both so far, but you can check them out at the source below.

Sources: Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Projects Mighty and Napoleon

3DMark Gets an Update

Futuremark has released an update for the latest version of the popular benchmarking software 3DMark. The software will now be compatible with systems that have up to four GPUs. The company had hoped to have the fix out much sooner but it turned out to be more than a simple driver issue. Also added in v1.1 is the Ice Storm Extreme benchmark, a more intensive test for mobile devices including tablets and ultrabooks.

Twitter Developing App to Work With Google Glass

The latest innovation from Google, Google Glass, gives users a pair of glasses that allow them to interact with their environment and opens up a new way to access technology. A recent post on social networking site Twitter hints at an app being worked on by the company. Developers have already been given access to the devices to help with availability of software when the device is released to the public. The photo that was posted appears to be high quality and indicates that the system should be robust and that a number of big name companies are likely on board with the initial launch.

Source: Digital Trends

3DMark 11 and 3DMark Vantage Updated

A number of minor updates have been released for 3DMark 11 and 3DMark Vantage, mainly addressing compatibility issues. 3DMark 11 has been updated to v1.0.5, which includes resolution to an issue with compatibility between SystemInfo and some newer hardware, as well as some bug fixes with display identification with systems with a number of supported display modes. 

3DMark Vantage has recieved more updates, one of which resolves a number of compatibility issues with Windows 8. The SystemInfo component of 3DMark Vantage has also been updated to the latest version used in 3DMark 11. The PhysX software included in 3DMark Vantage has been updated, and a number of bugs in the program GUI have been resolved. As well as these changes, there is some added functionality to the Professional edition, including support for infinite looping and saving results through command line.

The update will not affect benchmark scores, and the installers are available for download now from the Futuremark website.

Bing Apps for Windows 8 and Windows RT Updated

Microsoft has updated the Bing apps for its Windows 8 operating system. Affected apps include Bing News, Maps, Finance, Travel, and Sports apps. Most of the updates add extra functionality, while a few make current features easier for users to access.

Changes to the News app include an option allowing users to select the different news categories that appear in the app, as well as the option to select a specific source or RSS feed to appear on the users 'Featured sources' list. The app bar has also been modified to allow easier access to a number of features of the program. The Maps app has also been updated to allow users to find local businesses such as restaurants, hotels and banks. The update also adds integration to the People app, allowing users to find the location of their contacts.

A new addition to the Finance app is the addition of a 'Tools' menu, which features a number of utilities designed to assist users in the planning of their financial life such as a mortgage calculator, a currency converter and a number of others. Like the news app, the Finance app bar has been modified to allow users to easily access news from financial sources, as well as a number of other minor changes. Finally, the Travel and Sports apps have had minor modifications to their app bar, such as options to specify travel news sources in the Travel app, and sports news sources in the Sports app.

These updates are available for install directly through the Windows Store for Windows 8 and Windows RT.

Source: CNET

Steam Box Software Beginning to Take Shape

The team at Linux enthusiast site Phoronix has discovered some software packages that can be found on the SteamPowered web-server in a repository, similar to those used by Debian based Linux distributions. This new repository contains some basic packages including an experimental NVIDIA Linux graphics driver and a new boot splash screen. Previously, only the Steam application and launcher were available on the public repository. This further enhances speculation that the Steam Box will be based on a version of the Ubuntu distribution, and I am even more excited at the prospect of not having to use Windows.

Source: Phoronix

New NVIDIA 314.22 WHQL Graphics Driver Offers Improvements for BioShock Infinite, Tomb Raider, and Others

BioShock Infinite is upon the gaming masses at long last, and so is a new NVIDIA graphics driver to ensure the game looks its best. The 314.22 are WHQL-certified, so in addition to better performance in BioShock Infinite, it's a good idea for all NVIDIA users to run them. Performance is improved up to 41% in the latest BioShock game at 2560x1600 (even higher for smaller resolutions), while Tomb Raider sees up to a 71% improvement, Civilization V increases by 30%, Sniper Elite V2 jumps up 22%, and Sleeping Dogs wakes up by up to 12%. There are also new SLI profiles for Dungeons & Dragons: Neverwinter, Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army, and Resident Evil 6; new 3D Vision profiles for Brutal Legend, MUD, and Tomb Raider; and finally a new Ambient Occlusion profile for BioShock Infinite.

The GeForce 314.22 WHQL drivers can be downloaded from GeForce.com or through GeForce Experience.

Source: NVIDIA

Microsoft Plans Updates to Mail, People and Calendar in Windows 8

Microsoft is beginning to update many of the basic apps built into Windows 8, such as Mail, People, and Calendar. The updates will be available from the Windows Store, and are said to boost performance, as well as provide additional functionality not previously available. One such change is found in the 'Mail' app, giving users the ability to filter e-mails by read status, as well as changes to make it easier to modify folders. 

In addition to the updates to the Mail, People and Calendar apps, Bing is also planning updates to its own Weather, News and Sports apps that are also preinstalled with Windows 8, however exact release dates for these updates have not been confirmed. Unfortunately, many of the other apps appear to have been overlooked by Microsoft as they planned these updates, such as Xbox Music, but sources suggest that Microsoft is still working on these updates.

Sources: CNET

AMD Partners with Aviary for Optimized Photo Editing

AMD has announced a collaboration with software company Aviary to create an optimized version of its photo editing software for Windows 8 tablets and PCs. The Aviary software development kit (SDK) was modified to take advantage of unique properties of AMD APUs. The Aviary SDK offers a "library of photo editing effects and filters for the easy incorporation of the photo editor into applications." Corporate VP at AMD Manju Hegde said, “Aviary is becoming the standard in mobile and online photo editing with over 3 billion photos edited thus far,” and also added, “By bringing Aviary to Windows 8, it enables the next billion photos across an even broader range of devices. AMD is committed to supporting the future of industry-changing innovators like Aviary through investment by AMD Ventures and by enhancing user experiences on our award-winning APU platforms.”

3DMark 11 Now Compatible with Windows 8

Futuremark has released update 1.0.4 for 3DMark 11 that makes it compatible with Windows 8, as well as addressing a few more issues. The company has reported that scores won't be affected and there shouldn't be any different when compared to previous updates. The update has also fixed some bugs including improved multiple GPU detection, prevention of Windows going into sleep mode during tests, and an updated DirectX redistributable.

ZOTAC Releases FireStorm Overclocking Software

ZOTAC has released a new overclocking utility for its GeForce based GPUs called FireStorm. Users will have a number of options for enhancing the performance of their GPUs, which ZOTAC has divided into novice and advanced capabilities. Novice capabilities include clock speed adjustment, fan speed monitoring and adjustment, and temperature monitoring. Among the advanced features are NVIDIA GPU Boost control, voltage adjustment and monitoring, and load monitoring. Senior Director Carsten Berger also added that, “Enthusiasts with the latest ZOTAC GeForce GTX TITAN graphics card can take advantage of display overclocking too.”

IE10 Now Available for Windows 7

Microsoft has released an update for Windows 7 containing the latest version of Internet Explorer to date. The update is available for download through the Microsoft site, however will also be installed automatically through Windows Update within the next few weeks.

IE10 many enhancements over its predecessor, with Microsoft boasting the new web browser has a 20% speed boost over its predecessor, IE9. It also supports a number of features such as support HTML5 and CSS3, as well as support for touch input, although some of these features are also available in previous versions. With the release of IE10, Microsoft have also announced the IE10 Test Drive site, which allows users to stress their browser with a number of complex tests and benchmarks. The tests show on average a 15% performance increase over IE9, which is reasonable for a new web browser.

Source: MSDN Blog

UNIGINE Announces Valley Benchmark

UNIGINE is the company behind the very popular Heaven benchmark that is used for GPU stress testing, and it has now announced the release of an all new benchmark entitled Valley. Lead technical artist Andrey Kushner said, "Living in Siberia, we wanted to show how beautiful the nature is here. It is full of contrasts, and flowers can grow through the deadfall right next to brutal mountains." The benchmark is compatible with Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux and features 64,000,000 square meters of terrain to explore. It is available with a free version, an advanced version for $19.95, and a pro version for $495 with each version offering an increasing array of features.

Source: UNIGINE

Microsoft to Patch 57 Bugs on Tuesday

This Tuesday will see Microsoft release patches for 57 bugs for its software. This comes close to the record 64 bugs fixed on a Patch Tuesday in April 2011. The 12 security updates will address issues in Internet Explorer, Office, and several versions of the Windows OS. Five of the 12 have been deemed critical by Microsoft, while the remaining seven are classified as important. Be sure to grab the updates on Tuesday to keep your system safe if you use any of the affected software.

Source: Computer World

Flash Player Security Flaws Patched

Adobe has today issued an emergency update to patch two security holes in its Adobe Flash Player software. Links to sites hosting the malicious code are embedded in phishing e-mails aimed at the aerospace and manufacturing industry, and also against Mac OS X users.

The malware infects computers with a trojan virus in a number of executable files and a number of DDLs that allows virus distributors to remotely access the computer. Flash versions affected include Adobe Flash Player 11.5 on Windows and Mac OS X, and 11.2 on Linux. The security flaw also affects certain preinstalled platforms such as Flash in IE10 and Chrome, as well as Flash Player 11.1 on Android, although these will be automatically updated in routine software updates.

Source: threatpost.com

New 3DMark Arrives Next Week

Futuremark has been releasing screenshots and videos of the newest version of 3DMark for the past few months and the company has now given a release date for the popular benchmark software. It will be available on Monday February 4 for the Windows OS, but no launch date is yet available for Android, iOS, or Windows RT. Full details and preview images can be found on the company website.

Source: Futuremark

Mozilla Disables Automatic Browser Plugins in Firefox

The Mozilla foundation has announced in a blog post that it has opted to block certain browser plugins from running without user permission in an attempt to improve security and performance. Plugins affected by this change will include Silverlight, QuickTime, and Java that will prompt a pop-up to allow users to choose whether or not to run the plugin. Flash Player 11, however, is one of the few plugins that will remain unaffected by this change. Mozilla explains the change on its blog. 

"Poorly designed third party plugins are the number one cause of crashes in Firefox and can severely degrade a user’s experience on the Web. This is often seen in pauses while plugins are loaded and unloaded, high memory usage while browsing, and many unexpected crashes of Firefox. By only activating plugins that the user desires to load, we’re helping eliminate pauses, crashes and other consequences of unwanted plugins."

This move will also help the transition to newer web standards such as HTML5 that enable browsers to execute more complex tasks without plugins. It is hoped that these unified standards will eventually eliminate the need for browser plugins in the future.

Source: Mozilla Security Blog

New Video Codec Approved

With the recent unveiling of televisions featuring extremely high definition picture, such as 4K resolutions, the amount of video data required to display them will continue to increase. All of that extra data will need an efficient method of storage and transmission to fully take advantage of it. The H.265 video codec was just approved and could allow 1080p video streams to use half the amount of bandwidth that is currently used. The combination of this new codec and increasing broadband speeds could eventually lead to the ability to stream video with 4K quality resolution over the Internet.

Source: Tech Crunch

Windows 8 Pricing to Increase in February

If you haven't tried Windows 8 yet but want to purchase a copy of the software, you should probably choose to soon. After the first of February this year, the Windows 8 Pro upgrade will cost $200, instead of the $40 special offer currently available to users with a previous version of Windows installed. The Windows 8 Standard upgrade, however, will cost just $120. The change in pricing follows the end of the special offer announced at Windows 8's release to those with a previous version of Windows installed.

Users with any Windows 8 preview installed (be it Consumer Preview, Developer Preview or Release Preview) will also experience system restarts every hour until a standard RTM version of Windows is installed.

Another Java Vulnerability Discovered

Less than a week after Oracle patched a zero-day security vulnerability in its Java software, another exploit has been sold by hackers on the black web. The vulnerability potentially poses a threat to millions of PCs running Java. The US Department of Homeland Security advised users to disable the software just last week after another serious security vulnerability was discovered.

The current exploit is being sold by the hacker for up to $5000 each in both source code and weaponised variants. The effect of this exploit is not currently known, however security blogger Brian Krebs has suggested that this exploit may be more serious than the last, and is likely to remain under-the-radar for longer.

New GPU Overclocking Utility from PowerColor

A new GPU overclocking utility, PowerUp Tuner, is now available from PowerColor. Through this utility, users will be able to change a number of settings for their video cards including clock speed and voltage. Fan profile settings can also be created to have a number of different fan speed settings for different situations. Also included is the ability to monitor and save measurements such as temperature and clock speed, allowing for comparisons between applications.

Oracle Releases Patch to Fix Security Vulnerability

Oracle has released an emergency patch to fix a major security flaw in the latest edition of its Java software, Java 7. The vulnerability was first reported at the end of last week and allowed hackers to remotely execute code on infected machines. The patch is available for download from the Oracle website and it is recommended that all users download and install the update.

Oracle has also released an advisory statement that claims the update changes the way the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) interacts with web applets using the software. The default security level is also increased from 'normal' to 'high', which prompts the user before running certain unsigned applets.

Microsoft Plans to Shut Down Windows Messenger

The fruits of the Microsoft acquisition of Skype are about to be seen, as the company has announced plans to shut down the Windows Messenger service in favor of Skype. An e-mail was sent out to Messenger users stating that the service will be shut down on March 15. Microsoft is encouraging users to begin making the transition to Skype to familiarize themselves with the application and has added an upgrade button to Messenger that will uninstall it and install Skype.

Instagram Denies Having the Right to Sell Users' Photographs

Popular photo sharing app Instagram yesterday announced a number of changes to its terms of service that sparked an uproar among users. The changes appeared to suggest that Instagram could use any images on its servers for advertising purposes without the user's knowledge or consent. Since then, Instagram has said the changes were made to allow businesses to pay the site to advertise the business' account to increase its following. Users who also follow the business' page may have their profile picture and name featured alongside the advertisment, similar to Facebook's 'Sponsored stories'. 

The changes, due to come into effect on the 16th of January 2013, were announced six months after Instagram was purchased by social networking site Facebook. Kevin Systrom, Instagram Chief Executive, has released a blog post that apologises for the misunderstanding, and claims Instagram is "working on updated language" to ensure the site's intentions remain clear in the document.

Raspberry Pi App Store Launched

Since its release in February this year, there has been much interest in the credit card sized Raspberry Pi from developers and enthusiasts alike. Today, even more functionality has been added with the release of the Raspberry Pi App Store. The store is designed as a single place where apps, tutorials and games designed for the platform by third-party developers can be found. Users may also upload projects of their own to go on the app store after the project has been moderated to ensure it is suitable for younger audiences. 

The Raspberry Pi store, or simply the 'Pi Store', is similar to the Google Play store available on Android devices in that it supports both paid and free apps, and also features an option to donate to developers if users wish. Currently, the Pi store is home to just 25 titles, many of which are free, including office suite LibreOffice, FreeCiv and a Spotify app. It is hoped that with time, the Pi store will grow to feature a wide range of both free and payware apps for the device.

Google Maps Returns to iOS

Google Maps has made its return to iOS once again, and is already at the number one spot in the free apps category. The Google Maps app was originally removed from the app store on the release of iOS 6 in September this year. It was replaced by Apple's own mapping application that contained many bugs and was met with a somewhat critical reception. For this reason, the head of iOS 6 maps, Richard Williamson was reportedly fired by Senior Vice President Eddie Cue.

The new Google Maps app has been redesigned with the same essential features, but a 'cleaner' look. Navigation can be provided for walking, driving, or even using public transport systems, and street view is also available from within the app. There is no app designed specifically for the iPad just yet, but that appears to be the most significant flaw of the re-release of the popular mapping suite.

Futuremark Announces New DirectX 10 Benchmark

Last week Futuremark revealed that it was working on the next iteration of the 3DMark benchmark, focused on DirectX 11 graphics, and the company has just announced Cloud Gate, a new benchmark for DirectX 10 compatible hardware. Cloud Gate is included in the new 3DMark and uses a DirectX 11 engine, but will be compatible with DirectX 10 hardware as well. Screenshots of the new test can be found on the 3DMark website. The release of the new version of 3DMark has been pushed back to January 2013 for Windows, a decision the team made after gathering feedback from its Benchmark Development Program partners.

New 3DMark in Development, Teaser Trailer Available

Futuremark is nearing the end of development for the newest version of 3DMark, the go-to graphics benchmark, and the company has released a trailer for its newest test, Fire Strike. Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark designed to bring your hardware to its knees, featuring advanced rendering techniques that the company believes "are likely to become commonplace in PC games in two to three years time." You can view the trailer below, and it can be watched at the natively rendered resolution of 2560x1440 by selecting "original resolution" from the quality settings drop down on YouTube. Full details on Fire Strike and the other two new tests can be found on the 3DMark website.

Microsoft Security Essentials Loses AV-TEST Certification

For the second time since its creation, Microsoft Security Essentials has lost the AV-TEST seal of approval, having failed the firm's latest bimonthly test. Out of the 24 antivirus solutions tested on a Windows 7 machine, MSE was the only one to not pass the test. To meet the AV-TEST certification requirements, antivirus software is tested on three parameters: "protection", "repair", and "useability". There are a maximum of six points to be awarded for each attribute, giving an antivirus a maximum potential score of 18 points. In order for an antivirus to be AV-TEST certified, it must obtain a minimum of 11 points. Microsoft Security Essentials only managed to get 10.5 points, barely missing the minimum requirement for the certification. MSE was awarded 1.5 points for protection, the lowest score of all 24 tested antivirus software, 3.5 points for repair, and 5.5 for useability.