A fresh contender for your blow-out 2012 Olympic gaming rig: AMD’s first 28nm GPU, the Radeon HD 7970. It’s scheduled to arrive on January 9th, priced at $549 — nearly $200 more than its direct ancestor, the 6970. Then again, this newcomer packs some supremely athletic specs, including a 925MHz engine clock that can be readily OC’d to 1.1GHz, 2,048 stream processors and an uncommonly muscular 384-bit memory bus serving 3GB of GDDR5. At the same time, AMD hopes to make the card more practical than the dual-processor 6990 by bringing the card’s power consumption down to less than 300W under load and a mere 3W in ‘long idle’ mode, and promising quieter cooling thanks to improved airflow and a bigger fan. We’ll have to wait for benchmarks in January before we hand out any medals, but in the meantime NVIDIA’s forthcoming 28nm Kepler GPU might want to step up its training schedule.

Continue reading AMD announces next-gen Radeon HD 7970 for $549, says it ‘soundly beats’ rivals

AMD announces next-gen Radeon HD 7970 for $549, says it ‘soundly beats’ rivals originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AMD announces next-gen Radeon HD 7970 for $549, says it ‘soundly beats’ rivals

1sockchuck writes “A new data center project in Norway plans to use a fjord-powered cooling system, drawing cold water from an adjacent fjord to cool data halls. The fjord provides a ready supply of water at 8 degrees C (46 degrees F), eliminating the need for an energy-hungry chiller. The Green Mountain Data Center joins a small but growing number of data centers are slashing their cooling costs by using the environment as their chiller, tapping nearby lakes, wells and even the Baltic Sea.”

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The Fjord-Cooled Data Center

No interest in snapping up an iCade? No sweat. Jim VanDeventer has just pushed today’s app-to-end-all-apps into Apple’s App Store, and while it’s only been live for a few hours, iMAME is already on a mission to change the world. Built-in titles include Circus, Crash, Hard Hat, Fire One, Robot Bowl, Side Track, Spectar, Star Fire and Targ, and while it’s not officially endorsed by Nicola Salmoria or the MAME Team, you can certainly pretend. It’s available now in the source link for precisely nothing, and yes, both the iPhone and iPad (and iPod touch!) are supported. Get it while the gettin’ is good.

[Thanks, Gary]

iMAME emulation app hits the App Store, humanity cheers in unison originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Dec 2011 21:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iMAME emulation app hits the App Store, humanity cheers in unison

Plans are afoot to build a gigantic, state-of-the-art neutrino detector beneath the Mediterranean Sea. This particle-hunting behemoth would be taller than the Burj Khalifa and the second biggest structure ever built, second only to the Great Wall of China. More »

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Underwater neutrino detector will be the second largest structure ever built [Physics]

Amazon updates Kindle iOS app with new magazine options for iPad, built-in PDF reader originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon updates Kindle iOS app with new magazine options for iPad, built-in PDF reader

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has published a new guide, “Defending Privacy at the U.S. Border: A Guide for Travelers Carrying Digital Devices,” which explains how the law, good technology choices, cryptography and backups can be combined to keep your data safe while you travel, especially when crossing into the USA, where customs officials reserve the rights to search your laptop and mobile phone without a warrant and keep whatever they find.

“Different people need different kinds of precautions for protecting their personal information when they travel,” said EFF Senior Staff Technologist Seth Schoen. “Our guide helps you assess your personal risks and concerns, and makes recommendations for various scenarios. If you are traveling over the U.S. border soon, you should read our guide now and get started on taking precautions before your trip.”

Over the past few years, Congress has weighed several bills to protect travelers from suspicionless searches at the border, but none has had enough support to become law. You can join EFF in calling on the Department of Homeland Security to publish clear guidelines for what they do with sensitive traveler information collected in digital searches by signing our petition. You can also test your knowledge about travelers’ privacy rights and help spread the word about the risks by taking our border privacy quiz.

“We store detailed records of our lives on our laptops and our phones. But the courts have diminished our constitutional right to privacy at the border,” said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann. “It’s time for travelers to take action and protect themselves and their private information during international trips.”

Defending Privacy at the U.S. Border: A Guide for Travelers Carrying Digital Devices

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HOWTO keep your data safe at the US border

Those nauseating RIAA hypocrites were caught illegally downloading $9 million on TV shows. Now they are giving the same pathetic excuse given to them by the people they accused of pirating songs: “someone was using our IP address.” More »

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You Won’t Believe the RIAA’s Pathetic Excuse For Their Own Rampant Pirating [Piracy]

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from geek.com: “In 2009, a copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine found its way on to Megaupload a month before it was due to appear in movie theaters. The so-called ‘workprint’ copy was unfinished — so unfinished in fact, anyone viewing this copy saw green screens and wires attached to actors used to help with the more acrobatic movements during action scenes. Hugh Jackman even commented on the leak, describing it as like getting a ‘Ferrari without a paint job.’ The person who decided to share the movie illegally was tracked down, however. He is a 49-year-old New Yorker by the name of Gilberto Sanchez, and he’s just been prosecuted.” The New York Times’ 2010 interview with Sanchez is a good read, too.

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X-Men Origins: Wolverine Pirate Draws a 1-Year Sentence

It’s that pop song again — you know, the one that forces you to flip the radio to anything else. But still, you’re dying to know what it’s called, if only to avoid hearing it ever again. Boom Boom? Heartbeat? Shazam! Super Bass, by Nicki Minaj. If you haven’t used Shazam, chances are you know someone that does, and often. Gracenote’s new Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) technology takes that same concept and applies it to TV shows and movies, and it’s coming soon to a smartphone or tablet near you. A yet-to-be-named app will let your device “listen” to whatever you’re watching, identifying TV shows and movies based on dialogue or the soundtrack, then displaying a variety of info about whatever’s on screen. Gracenote is also expanding its audio offerings, showing off both HABU and MoodGrid, which are mood-based music curation services for mobile devices and in-car systems, respectively. Software groups songs based on emotional themes, then plays them back depending on your selected mood. Happy? Sad? Intrigued? We’ll need to wait until CES for the full scoop from Gracenote.

Gracenote launches ACR TV recognition, HABU mood-based music curation originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gracenote launches ACR TV recognition, HABU mood-based music curation