Author: Nic Boerma

Seagate says that they have made a breakthrough in hard drive storage that, they claim, will see HDDs reaching capacities of 60TB within the next decade. Seagate announced that they have managed to achieve a storage density of a terabit, or a trillion bits, per square inch, making them the first company to do so. This was reportedly achieved with heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR). Conventional recording technology, known as perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) has been around since 2006. According to Seagate HAMR is capable of improving considerably over existing technology. The company plans to introduce the breakthrough to consumers in…

A computer virus that is able to cross from tech to biological entities is within the realm of possibility according to Guillaume Lovet. Lovet is  the senior manager at the Threat Research and Response Center at Fortinet, a company that specialises in network security. During a keynote speech on the similarities between computer and biological viruses at the Black Hat Europe conference Lovet said, “We came to wonder if there can be some kind of convergence between human viruses and computer viruses. It may sound like a scenario for a bad Hollywood movie, but it is not such a stupid question.”…

Apple has announced that the company will begin paying dividends and buying back stock using some of the $100 billion in Apple’s coffers. The dividends and stock buybacks will consume funds to the tune of $45 billion over three years, according to reports. Starting from 1 July this year Apple will be paying out a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share. The stock repurchases have been allocated a budget of $10 billion and will commence from 30 September this year. Apple CEO Tim Cook has been quoted as saying, “We have used some of our cash to make great investments…

Samsung’s new Galaxy S III will boast a quad core Exynos chip according to an unnamed Samsung executive. The chip will reportedly sport LTE and WCDMA functionality on the wafer. Both of the preceding Galaxy S models housed Samsung Electronics-made Exynos chips so the inclusion of one in the Galaxy S III isn’t terribly surprising. The development of the still unofficial SoC (system-on-chip) is apparently complete and needs only to be jammed into devices. According to the source Samsung is attempting to lessen its reliance on Qualcomm hardware, which have powered several handsets from Samsung. Despite the information regarding the…

Sometimes you have the urge to scribble on a major landmark but actions like that are frowned upon by society and law enforcement officials in general. Wallit, an app for writing on things you wouldn’t normally write on, has you covered. The Wallit app, currently available for iOS devices that support version 4.0 and later, allows users to post messages on virtual walls located near landmarks, tourist attractions and other high traffic areas. The application lets viewers see what has been posted before and add their own views, messages or just plain graffiti to the virtual wall. “Wallit adds character…

A photographer has hacked a Piccolette Contessa-Nettel folding camera, circa 1919, onto his Canon 5D Mark II for no other reason than to see if he could. Photographer Jason Bognacki’s experiment might has met with poor results but the resulting images, bearing in mind that the lens is almost 100 years old, are impressively sharp and detailed under the correct lighting conditions. Images taken inside seem to suit the jury-rigged setup up best. Outdoor photograph doesn’t agree with the old folding camera all that much Source: Today’s Tomorrow via Gizmodo

Engineers from the University of Cambridge have created a technique to remove toner from paper which involves using a laser to heat up and vaporise printed areas of paper. The engineers have said that the process works with most paper types and toner inks and claim that ‘unprinting’ is more eco-friendly than conventional recycling processes. The process works by firing green laser pulses that last billionths of a second at the paper, which apparently results in toner being removed with little damage to the paper itself. There are reportedly minor byproducts from the process, including nanoparticles and “mostly harmless” gases.…

Toshiba will be releasing new SD cards in Japan this year that are capable of read/write speeds of 95MBs and 90MBs respectively. The line of memory cards will be marketed under Toshiba’s new Exceria branding, with the initial lot featuring three flavours. Slower models of Exceria card will go on sale in Japan in April this year while the high-speed variant will become available in that country in July. The fastest Exceria cards are expected to retail for the Japanese equivalent of around R1,400 for 32GB. Source: ComputerWorld

The new iPad has officially launched as of today and Gameloft is cashing in on the hype surrounding Apple’s latest device by putting several games on sale for a limited time. The twelve titles from Gameloft are all available for $0.99 at the moment. The sale includes the iPad and iPhone versions of the games and there is also a Mac title, Modern Combat: Domination, on sale for the same price. Below are the Gameloft titles in question, all of which are available on iTunes. Assassin’s Creed – Altair’s Chronicles BackStab Fast Five the Movie: Official Game Iron Man 2…

The German court overseeing the legal battle between Apple and Samsung has delayed the proceedings in order to wait for the German Patent and Trademark Office to finish hearing Apple’s pending case. Apple’s patent office hearing may result in “”the revocation, in whole or in part, of Apple’s slide-to-unlock utility model.” If Apple is unable to defend its claim to the slide-to-unlock utility model before the patent office there is a chance that the legal action in German’s Mannheim court will be thrown out. Source: CNET