A recent survey suggested that many people preferred new video games to having sex, now a new survey is suggesting that 94% of UK adults would rather live without sex than live without their mobile phone.

This growing trend hardly surprises me as the mobile phone is becoming pivotal to everyone’s daily life and many people probably wouldn’t be able to live “normally” without it. The mobile phone is very much part of Western culture and the Western lifestyle. According to a survey (by mobileinsurance.co.uk) of 2570 adults across the UK aged between 18 and 30:

• 66% claimed they couldn’t live without their phone
• 65% of people asked said they couldn’t live without their phone
• 53% admitted they’re addicted to their handsets
• 12% had phone insurance

What’s more hilarious yet shocking are some of the other things people would rather live without, than their mobile phone. These included:

• Sex – 94%
• TV/Film – 82%
• Car – 71%
• My partner – 62%
• Bed – 55%
• Money – 47%
• Basic meals – 45%
• House – 32%
• Any other human contact – 23%
• Own children – 9%

The results are really quite surprising and you wonder how far detached from reality some people are – is your mobile phone really more important than your children, car, money or your house? I think a few days every now and then without a mobile phone is probably good for everyone’s health and sanity.

What do you think about these survey results? Can you live without your phone or are you addicted to it?

Source

The post 94% Of Adults Would Rather Live Without Sex Than A Mobile Phone Says Study appeared first on eTeknix.

Steve Wilhite, the one who invented the GIF format back in the late 1990s, has come out to publicly tell people that the Graphics Interchange Format is actually pronounced “JIF” not “GIF” when using its abbreviation.

Sure anyone could of found out this had they of bothered to do some research but for some reason “GIF” seems to have taken off a bit more instead of “JIF” and who really cares enough to investigate it, right?

“The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations. They are wrong. It is a soft ‘G,’ pronounced ‘jif’. End of story,” Wilhite said in an interview.

After 26 years of saying it wrong, the internet community needs to shape up its act. I am sure this revelation will have thousands of hardcore internet users needing to change there ways.

This isn’t the first term popularity has taken off over the true pronunciation. Take for instance the GNOME project. Most people pronounce it “nome” opting for a silent G, must like a garden gnome. However, it is actually pronounced “ge-nome” and the G is supposed to be pronounced.

Have you been saying GIF wrong all your life?

Source, Via

The post You’ve Been Saying GIF Wrong Says Founder, It is “JIF” appeared first on eTeknix.

Mini-ITX motherboards are becoming a bit of a trend in the PC enthusiast market, people want to see how much performance they can cram into small spaces. Z77 triggered a wave of mini ITX motherboards from the likes of EVGA, ASUS, Gigabyte and so on. But these weren’t just any mini-ITX motherboards they were mini-ITX motherboards ram packed with high-end features and aimed at enthusiasts. So far I haven’t really seen much in the way of Z87 mini-ITX motherboards until today when I saw the first pictures of Gigabyte’s Z87 mini-ITX motherboard the Z87N-WiFi.

The Gigabyte Z87N-WiFi unsurprisingly comes with an onboard WiFi solution, that uses 802.11ac WLAN technology. The motherboard uses the LGA 1150 socket and Z87 chipset for Intel’s Haswell processors that are due out next month. There is a four phase VRM for the CPU socket area and there are dual DDR3 DIMM slots to support one pair of dual channel RAM, probably up to 32GB. A full length PCI Express 3.0 16X slot is supported so you can add a beefy video card. The Gigabyte Z87N-WiFi also has four SATA III ports  for internal storage, that means all the included SATA ports are SATA III.

Over on the rear IO panel we’ve got two USB 2.0, a PS/2 combo port, four USB 3.0 ports, dual ethernet LAN, 8 channel HD audio,  DVI-D out and dual HDMI out.

No doubt this mini-ITX motherboard from Gigabyte will be a Z87 power house that will form the basis of many small form factor gaming rigs. I look forward to seeing what ASUS, EVGA and others offer in the Z87 mini-ITX space.

What are your thoughts on this offering from Gigabyte?

Source

The post Gigabyte Preparing Z87 Mini-ITX Motherboard appeared first on eTeknix.

When Nvidia launched this $1000/€1000 monster 3 months ago many people thought it would be a very niche product and wouldn’t sell well at all. Most people suggested that demand for this type of product had already been saturated by the GTX 690 and HD 7990 (non-reference) releases. Yet here we are, 3 months later, and the GTX Titan has sold more in 3 months than the GTX 690 has sold in over a year.

While very expensive, and total overkill for most people, the GTX Titan seems to be capturing the minds (and wallets) of the PC Gaming crowd. No doubt Nvidia’s marketing hype and advertising helped things along a bit, but they have always done this for all their video cards so nothing has really changed here. The GTX Titan continues to sell well, and sell out, at a lot of retailers and Nvidia just can’t make them fast enough.

“Even we were surprised just how popular the GeForce GTX Titan was and still is. Titan sold a lot more than the GTX 690, for example. It’s still selling very well,” said Ben Berraondo, the senior PR manager for GeForce at Nvidia.

Do you have a GTX Titan? What are your thoughts on it?

Source

The post Nvidia’s GTX Titan Outsells The GTX 690 appeared first on eTeknix.

Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) have announced that the Open Beta period for the free-to-play, massively multiplayer online role-playing game Dragon’s Prophet is scheduled to begin in North America on May 30, 2013.

Dragon aficionados are invited to join current Closed Beta players on that date to adventure through the vast, diverse realm of Auratia, and see if they have what it takes to become the next Dragon’s Prophet. All Dragon’s Prophet Founders will have access to the Open Beta phase one day early on May 29, 2013.

In conjunction with the announcement of the Open Beta date, SOE has also lifted the Dragon’s Prophet consumer Closed Beta Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). Beta testers can now openly share tales of their epic adventures in a land populated and ruled by dragon-kind. From escaping the scorching flames of enemy dragons to subduing winged-beasts found throughout their journey, players’ stories are not short of valor, danger and glory.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Developed by Runewaker Entertainment, creators of Runes of Magic, Dragon’s Prophet is currently in Closed Beta and is scheduled to begin Open Beta phase testing in North America onMay 29, 2013 for Dragon’s Prophet Founders. All other players will be able to join the Open BetaMay 30, 2013.

Players will be transported to the dragon-filled, beautiful world of Auratia, where they can capture, train, ride, and fight hundreds of unique dragons. Dragon’s Prophet features an action-based combat system that gives players visceral battle action gameplay. Set in a realm where dragons roam the land, sea and air, the game lets players band together to battle a variety of dragons as they work to restore order to the land from the evil Black Dragon that has escaped his eternal prison, and is more dangerous than ever.

Dragon’s Prophet will launch as a free-to-play MMORPG in 2013 for PC systems via digital download.

www.dragonsprophetthegame.com

The post Sonys MMO “Dragon’s Prophet” Gets Open Beta In North America Starts May 30th appeared first on eTeknix.

Muse Games’ Guns of Icarus Online has completed its Kickstarter project to create Adventure Mode, which expands the original co-op airship combat game to include full co-op player vs. environment (PvE) settings. This monumental step will take Guns of Icarus Online to the next level, allowing for player progression, questing, and an immersive setting within the Guns of Icarus world.

CEO Howard Tsao had this to say about where the funds will go and what features to expect, “First I would like to thank all of our supporters, including those that purchased our current game as well as those that are helping fund the next phase. We’re absolutely certain we can deliver a PvE experience that will live up to everyone’s expectations and be a blast to play and explore. On top of that we’re going to strive to deliver the Econo-Political structure discussed in the Kickstarter event, adding dynamic quest and political relations to the PvE framework. While we fell a little short of the funding goal for that addition, we believe it is still within our grasp.”

Guns of Icarus Online is the premier airship combat game where up to 4 players man a single ship in their attempt to coordinate with their team to bring down the enemies in a variety of game modes. Adventure Mode expands on this format, creating a living online world with true player, town, and meta progression.

I’m a big fan of the game and have been playing it ever since it’s initial beta release, when there were just a handful of us playing it comprised of the developers and a couple of members of the press and even then it was incredible fun and had stunning graphics, but Muse Games just keep on giving and even today the main multiplayer aspect of the game has grown exponentially, so I expect the Adventure Mode will be something truly special too.

www.GunsofIcarus.com

The post Guns of Icarus Online Adventure Mode Funded appeared first on eTeknix.

The Kinect device for the new Xbox One console is coming to PC and while this doesn’t come as much of a surprise to many of you, it’s still nice to get something official on the hardware and its components.

Kinect, by which I mean the original one for Xbox 360 has been working on PC for ages, you can download the software, mod like crazy and get it running on just about every major PC game to great effect, so having an improved Kinect with full Windows support can only be a good thing.

Microsoft missed out mentioning this in their press briefing, but for good reason, they only had one hour and the focus was mostly on the console, not the PC market. However, many company representatives have confirmed that the PC release of the Kinect One would be launching at some point after the Xbox One’s launch, but how long that would be is still unknown.

While speaking to Shacknews, Kinect program manager Scott Evans said “We will bring this to PC,” and “We will have more information soon.” and this statement was later confirmed by Ben Kilgore, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of interactive entertainment business, adding that the Windows release would be “at some point down the line.”

I’m sure of course that the current Xbox One Kinect device will connect to PC just fine, much like the current Kinect, the official drivers, tools and API however are what we really need.

Source

The post Xbox One Kinect Coming To PC appeared first on eTeknix.

Until a few months ago, I had quite a large reservation against the principle of powerline technology and up until this point I was hard fought when it came to recommending it. Thankfully though Netgear was able to change all this with the XAVB5201 kit and since then I’ve been totally converted and I can at last put my trust in the technology.

To move on from the simple principle of wired networking, where else is there to go? well the obvious answer is to eliminate the wires and this then in a way questions why one would want to use a powerline kit. Well in many instances wireless has its downfalls mainly due to signal coverage and speed and this is hence why signal boosters and wireless repeaters are available on the market. Truth be told though, wireless extenders still have their pro’s and con’s, the main one being loss of speed and increased ping. When I looked at Netgear’s WN1000RP, it did great in improving the range of my wireless network, but there was a notable drop in speed at the same time which is something that most repeaters do suffer from in varying degrees.

So this is where Netgear’s powerline WiFi Access point comes into play. Simply put it gives the best of both worlds with a point-to-point wired powerline, but also on the remote end, the plug also houses a wireless module that allows users to connect, well – wirelessly. By having the remote access point connected to the powerline directly, there is – in theory – no major loss in wireless performance.

Accompanying the two plugs that make up the powerline kit, Netgear also bundle in a pair of CAT5e patch leads, an installation guide, resource CD and conformity paperwork.

The post Netgear XWNB5201 500Mbps Powerline WiFi Access Point Review appeared first on eTeknix.

According to the leaked screenshot which you can see above, it is reported that Windows 8.1 will bring an option to have a fingerprint as a password. This would allow a lot more flexibility and convenience with the security of your Windows 8.1 device.

The evidence isn’t really “new” and comes from build 9385 that was released well over a month ago, but the feature can clearly be seen dormant in the system settings on the Windows 8.1 OS.

The fingerprint password security tool isn’t currently working and it is possible that it may never make it to the final build of Windows 8.1 but we can only wait and see what happens.

Microsoft will release the first public preview of Windows 8.1 on June 26th and the final retail version is expected in the August-October time frame.

What are your thoughts on the potential for a fingerprint password in Windows 8.1? A Good idea? Or are you worried that it might be abused?

Source, Via

The post Rumour: Windows 8.1 To Have Fingerprint Passwords appeared first on eTeknix.

We brought you the news of Google integrating its “Google Wallet” service into Gmail a few days ago. Now it seems that the rise of the Google Wallet service will be associated with the demise of the Google Checkout service.

Google is reportedly shutting down Google Checkout, the payment service that never really took off as it was always overshadowed by PayPal. In the next 6 months Google Checkout will be totally scrapped in favour of a sole focus on Google Wallet. The exact date for receiving (or sending) the last payment by Google Checkout is November 20th 2013.

Existing users of the Google Checkout service will be switched over to the Google Wallet service but this does not offer a true alternative in itself. This is because Google Wallet does not provide payment processing but a authentication and a front-end for buyers.

For merchants selling using Google Checkout, they are encouraged to switch to alternative payment processing methods like Braintree, Shopify and Freshbooks – all of which Google have arranged a special discount with for moving Google Checkout users.

For more information about what the Google Checkout closure could mean for you, see here.

Source, Via

The post Google Ending Its “Checkout” Payment Service In Favour Of “Wallet” appeared first on eTeknix.

EA Sports

EA took to the stage to detail their next-gen sports gaming engine, EA Ignite, said to bring more realism and detail unlike anything else before it. Naturally we’ll have to take their word on that for now because the live stream video quality was poor to say the least. But EA are set to bring their major sports franchises to the console within the next 12 months.

Forza Motorsport 5

Turn 110 were on show with Forza 5, which is said to be a launch title, although little was shown other than a cinematic race scene.

Quantum Break

Bullet time legends Remedy were on offer too, who have been working hard on their next-gen title, with a living, breathing and dynamic gaming world “quantum break” is set to be epic. The video showed a cruise ship ripping through a bridge after a little girl explaining why she was “special”, I can only assume she was responsible somehow, but other than that the trailer was pretty cryptic.

Halo

Bonnie Ross from 343i was on offer to talk about Halo and Forward Unto Dawn, we all know that Halo 5 and 6 are heading to next-gen but it looks like we’ll have to hold out for more details as Microsoft seem more interested in the other big announcement, a Halo TV series, with Steven Spielberg in charge, I Didn’t expect that!

Unfortunately that’s all Microsoft had to show, I wanted more! Yet I expected as much, Microsoft are just warming us up for E3 2013 and these vague game intros are all we are getting.

“15 Exclusive games within the first 12 months” and that “8 of which are brand new franchises” followed Quantum Break amongst mentions of the history of Halo and other major Xbox exclusive, many of which the developers have already said will be moving to Xbox One, expect Fable, Gears of War, Halo and more to make their appearance over the next few months.

NFL

Sports are a big focus for Microsoft and they plan to work very closely with NFL to push interactive sports, streaming, gaming and more direct to fans. Exclusive content for the NFL, fantasy football and user interaction will be a focus point and it’s certainly great news for sports fans.

Call of Duty: Ghosts

The game is definitely coming to the next-gen and Microsoft have grabbed a deal that gives them ALL DLC exclusive on the Xbox first, something that will no doubt annoy PlayStation and PC gamers endlessly.

A whole new world, a new game engine, new characters and more, this could finally be the first Call of Duty in years that actually offers something fresh and exciting. Still low latency, still 60FPS.

Release Date

Microsoft closed the event with comments about E3, promising lots of exclusives, lots of games on offer and more details to come. No solid release was given but Microsoft said without a doubt, they will launch in all markets this year.

The post XBox One – The Games & Release Date, What We Know So Far appeared first on eTeknix.

“Connected and ready” was the opening phrase for the Xbox One specification, lets get straight to it and see what Microsoft was willing to share.

Microsoft was quick to throw around words like “lag free”, “connected” and “the cloud”. It will be interesting to see if this holds true but one can only assume that the wireless technology is top notch compared to that of the current gen Xbox 360.

Microsoft has massively increased the server space for Xbox live and in their words, for the same price as current Xbox live, you will get all their improved cloud servers, game DVR service, editing and sharing, playing online and more. That’s right, Sony aren’t the only one to allow you to record your game footage!

Xbox One

• 64 Bit Architecture
• 8GB of Dedicated RAM
• Wi-Fi Direct
• Variable power states
• 5 Billion Transistors
• Virtually silent operation
• Blu-Ray

Kinect

• 2Gbps data transfer just from Kinect
• 1080p wide filter view
• Group skype calls
• Better skeletal recognition

Controller:

• Over 40 improvements in the controller alone
• New tactile feedback engine
• Refined controls
• A “proper” D-Pad (about time!)

Three Operating System In One, unified as “Xbox One”

• Xbox Live
• Windows Kernel
• Multi-Tasking Engine

No word on GPU and CPU specifics just yet, but the show is far from over and we still have plenty of time until release day.

The post Xbox One Hardware Details Revealed appeared first on eTeknix.

The next gen console race is now officially in full swing as Microsoft reveals the Xbox successor the “Xbox One”

Microsoft got off straight on their usual form with a montage video, like a cheesy infomercial format that only large corporations seem able to make happen, but such is the world of business.

“you and your TV are going to have a relationship” – Microsoft

Don Mattrick took to the stage first to talk about the success of Xbox and the Xbox 360, including Xbox live, Kinect and pretty much everything we’ve been using from Xbox over the last 8 years.

Don went onto discussing the future of Xbox and how Microsoft were inspired to create their future platform as an “All in One System”.

Then we had a run down video of the consoles design, as well as the controller and new connect device.

It seem many of the leaks were miles off the mark and some were bang on right, but no one guessed the name, no one guessed these features and well… I’m impressed and I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting to be anywhere near as impressed as I am.

The post Official Next-Gen Xbox Name, Design And Controller Revealed appeared first on eTeknix.

Microsoft are set to break their long lasting silence on their new console, and about time too given they were starting to get a reputation for being selfish with the details, especially in light of how open Sony have been about their next gen efforts with the PlayStation 4.

Sony aside of course, today is a day to celebrate all that is Xbox and Microsoft and those opportunities don’t come around often given that the Xbox 360 launched a staggering 8 years ago! So much for a 5 year console cycle! So what can we expect from the presentation this evening, what will Microsoft have on offer and will it be enough to win back some of the glory that is being lavished on Sony at this time.

Hardware

You can bet your last breath that Microsoft will be showing us what the console looks like and that they will be giving us the official product name, given that Sony has yet to show of the actual device that will make it to retail this will be the perfect opportunity for Microsoft to show something real, that people can touch, play on and of course start saving their money for. Expect to see the controller too, although it’s also likely that Microsoft could just use the standard Xbox controller for the time being.

Specifications

Also certain is that Microsoft will show off the hardware specifications, from the CPU, graphics card, storage, performance figures and no doubt a few technical demonstrations and a LOT of marketing nonsense. What we really want of course are the finer details of the hardware specs, much like we saw from Sony.

Optical Drives

DVD has been the weapon of choice for Xbox for a while, it is however highly rumoured that they could be using a Blu-Ray drive this time around, which makes sense, DVD as a format for gaming is dying fast and games developers need more than a DVD9 (dual layer discs) to keep things in check over the next few years.

DVR and Streaming

Microsoft is likely to make a big play on their unified systems, Windows 8, Windows Mobile, Smart Glass and how all these integrate with their online stores, movie and tv streaming services, recording of TV shows and maybe even the rumours HDMI-in port.

Gaming

Yes there will be games, no doubt a few announcement to get people excited and give us all something to gawk at, but don’t expect too much here, Microsoft is likely to focus on Hardware for the most part and get into the hardcore gaming side of things in a few weeks time at E3

Price and Release Date

Not a chance, this will likely be post E3 at best, we can expect a release window though something along the lines of “Holiday Season 2013″ but it’s unlikely to be an exact date, you can forget about the price tag for now too, I doubt even Microsoft knows the true final figure just yet.

Are you ready for the Next-Gen console announcement? What do you hope to see at tonights event?

www.xbox.com

The post Next-Gen Xbox Launch In 1 Hour – What To Expect appeared first on eTeknix.

Recharging batteries is the bane of many people’s lives. What could be worse than really needing to go out and do something, but you can’t because your battery on your smartphone, notebook or tablet is dead and it will take at least 3-5 hours to fully recharge.

Well one student has invented a “Supercapacitor” that promises to end this age-old problem we have had since we started using batteries in electronic devices. At Intel’s International Science and Engineering Fair, student Eesha Khare presented her supercapacitor and won a staggering $50,000 for aiding with the development of her invention.

This supercapacitor can recharge a mobile phone battery, on an iPhone for example, in under 30 seconds. In addition supercapacitors can hold 10,000 charge-recharge cycles, 10 times better than current batteries. The supercapacitor can also be weaved into fabric and bendable displays too.

However, all these things will have to wait a while because Eesha Khare still needs to add the finishing touches to the design of her supercapacitor. This new technology could be exactly what is required to kick start the use of electric cars. Eesha Khare has already been approached by Google, let’s hope she is not exploited by any big technology companies and is able to get the full rewards of her hard work and ingenuity.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What are your thoughts on the supercapacitor invention?

Source, Via

The post Student Invents “Supercapacitor” That Recharges Phones In 30 Seconds appeared first on eTeknix.