It’s hardly a secret that AMD has stepped out of its x86 comfort zone to develop an ARM-based server chip , but now we know a little more about it. Going by the name of “Seattle” and scheduled for launch in the second half of next year, it’ll be built around ARM’s 64-bit Cortex-A57 in either 8- or 16-core configurations, which will likely be clocked at a minimum of 2GHz. In an apparent acknowledgement of ARM’s superiority at low wattages, we’re told that this design has the potential to deliver 4x the performance of AMD’s current Opteron X processors, with improved compute-per-watt. There’s a clear limit to AMD’s reliance on ARM, however, as it’ll use Seattle to up against Intel’s little Atoms , but will continue to sell its own x86 designs for higher-power applications

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AMD details first ARM-based server chip: up to 16 helpings of Cortex-A57 clocked at 2GHz

Tesla is to show off its new battery swap technology at an event at its California design studio on June 20th. Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to announce the event, confirming reports that the company would soon allow Tesla S owners to drive longer distances without needing to wait for the battery to charge at a local Supercharger station. Continue reading…

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Elon Musk to demonstrate Tesla battery swapping tech on June 20th

The Raspberry Pi-focused XBMC port Raspbmc’s June changelog is a lengthy one. Among the changes are new settings, new skins, support for the Stealth Nighthawk F117A device and changes to make booting up faster, among many other things. Getting this month’s update should only require rebooting one’s Raspberry Pi, and a few new mirrors that have joined the network should make downloading the updated software even faster. That’s not all however, because the July update is promising Linux kernel updates, Raspbmc “Cloud” features with automatic settings backup / restore across multiple devices and an unspecified “special announcement.” Filed under: Home Entertainment , HD Comments Source: Raspbmc

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Raspbmc’s June build brings a slew of tweaks: cloud backups and more coming in July

If the madness of E3 (and the promise of some big titles ) has recently pulled you back to Nintendo’s handheld, you might be greeted with a firmware update next time you open up that well-worn 3DS . Aside from improved stability and bug fixes, there’s new save data backup feature which will hold on to save files for your downloaded 3DS titles as well as Virtual Console games. Appearing already in Europe, version 6.0.0-11 also bundles in a new shop for the Mii Plaza, with StreetPass Squad, StreetPass Garden, StreetPass Battle, StreetPass Mansion all priced at 5 euros, or 15 euros for the whole set. No word on yet on when the update will arrive on the other side of the Atlantic, but given past form, we’d expect it to arrive some time this month

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Nintendo 3DS update adds save backups, new StreetPass game store

Microsoft has been experimenting with various new ways to create ad platforms on Windows 8 and Xbox, but this week the company is launching a new format designed to create interactive and panoramic adverts within applications. The software giant has teamed up with a number of agencies to create concepts that show off the potential for the new “Ad Pano” ad format. The new ads are a big change from the traditional pop up and banner ads found on the web.

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Microsoft’s iAd-like Windows 8 ads could entice clicks within apps

AMD is finally set to release an all-ARM processor next year, but rather than a low-power chip made for smartphones and tablets, “Seattle” is a 64-bit processor intended for use in servers . The American chipmaker, which has been Intel’s understudy in the x86 market for decades, previously announced it would integrate ARM into its processors , and has already done so with an x86-ARM hybrid chip meant for the “embedded ” market. “Seattle,” however, represents the first time the company has moved away from x86 entirely for a processor. It’s set to debut in 2014. Continue reading…

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AMD moves away from Intel with its first ARM processor

After a dribble of leaks , including one that was entirely accurate , HTC has thrown the Desire 200 live on its website. We’re still missing some key info on pricing and availability, but the specs have been laid out in full: a neat form factor housing a 3.5-inch, 320 x 480 LCD display; an aging Snapdragon S1 1GHz processor running an unidentified version of Android (likely 4.0) and HTC’s Sense skin; 4GB of expandable storage and 512MB RAM; a 3G modem for HSDPA speeds of up to 7.2Mbps; 5-megapixel camera; and, finally, a pair of “high quality” Beats Audio in-ears (although the webpage depicts a pair of Solos). If anything lifts it above other budget Androids, it’ll be the decent-looking build quality and styling, coupled with the small size, which we hope will come for a very functional price tag. Filed under: Cellphones , HTC Comments Source: HTC

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HTC Desire 200 goes official: 3.5 inches of low-end Android with Beats Audio and 5MP camera

Come June 28th, Wall Street outfits including the likes of Citigroup and Bank of America will be under siege — from fake hackers, that is. Representatives from a total of 40 companies along with the Federal Reserve, Securities and Exchange Commission, US departments of Treasury and Homeland Security will take part in Quantum Dawn 2: a simulated cyberattack on faux trading and information systems. Led by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, the drill will test the ability of participants to cooperate via email and phone to suss out what’s going on and hatch a plan.

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Banks brace for cyberwarfare drill Quantum Dawn 2

It’s been a mere few weeks since Shazam introduced those new location-based and tagging features for the tablet version of its iOS app, but the music-driven service isn’t stopping there. Reaching version 6.1 on Apple’s platform, today Shazam’s universal application is bringing a few more tidbits to both the iPhone and iPad. Handset users, for one, will notice speedier load times within the app and a rather fresh look that focuses on displaying more info on the tab bar — such as friend tags and chart updates. On the bigger screen, Shazam says it’s improved things by allowing users to more easily delete tags from Favorites and by adding under-the-hood tweaks which should make for a smoother experience while browsing the Friends feed. The bigger news, perhaps, is Shazam Pulse, a music discovery tool that’s making its way to the iOS app , one which allows folks to quickly see and sample the music currently being tagged by people

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Shazam for iOS updated with Pulse discovery feature, redesigned tab bar on iPhone

For Nuance, it’s not enough that Dragon Mobile Assistant spares Android users from pecking at the keyboard — with the app’s new 4.0 upgrade, those users can sometimes avoid contact altogether. Dragon Mobile Assistant can now detect when you’re in a moving car and automatically invoke a Driver Mode that relies solely on voice recognition and feedback, keeping your focus on the road. Accordingly, the upgrade builds in spoken notifications for inbound calls, messages, upcoming meetings and Facebook updates. There’s also voice-aware email and customizable wake up commands.

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Dragon Mobile Assistant 4 for Android adds driving mode, voice notifications

Of the nine major tech companies at the heart of Eric Snowden’s revelations about an NSA spying program called PRISM, over the past week, Facebook, Microsoft , and most recently Apple have all opted to publish the total number of data requests they’ve received from the government. Today, they’re being joined by Yahoo , which announced that over the past six months it’s received between 12,000 and 13,000 such requests. Because of the Obama administration’s requirement to obfuscate the data, that number includes ordinary law enforcement requests and secret FISA orders, without a further breakdown.

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Yahoo reveals some data request numbers, urges openness on secret FISA orders

The crowdsourced radiation monitoring project Safecast, which was launched in the weeks after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan , has reached a big milestone: they have collected and published over 10,000,000 individual data points .        

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Safecast, crowdsourced radiation monitoring project, logs 10 million data points

John Schwartz has a colorful profile of Bill Nye the Science Guy in the New York Times, exploring his evolution from science-lesson-explainer for kids, to a defender of fact-based reality against pundits on TV who say climate change, evolution, and, you know, evidence-based reasoning and science in general is a bunch of hooey.        

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Bill Nye, "Firebrand for Science," profiled in NYT

John sez, “Last fall, you guys ran a story about ‘Backyard Blockbusters,’ my feature documentary on fan films (such as ‘Troops’, ‘Hardware Wars’, ‘Star Trek: Phase II”, or the ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark” adaptation) and fan filmmakers.        

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Trailer for Backyard Blockbusters: doc about fan-films

Yahoo has just revealed just how many government requests for data it’s received in the past six months, and it’s beaten out Apple , Microsoft and Facebook . Marissa Mayer and General Counsel Ron Bell noted in a Tumblr post that the search giant received between 12,000 and 13,000 requests, “inclusive of criminal, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and other requests,” between December 1st, 2012 and May 31st, 2013. According to Mayer and Bell, the majority of requests relate to “fraud, homicides, kidnappings, and other criminal investigations.” Naturally, Yahoo notes that it can’t specify how many FISA requests are in that figure due to their classified nature , but it “strongly urge(s) the federal government to reconsider its stance on this issue.” Mayer and Co. also announced that their first “global law enforcement transparency report” will debut later in the summer, and will include data on the first half of 2013.

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Yahoo discloses US government data request stats: over 12,000 in six months

GEAK may be focusing its attention on wearable tech like the Ring and Watch , but it still has a pair of new offerings for those who like old-fashioned smartphones: meet the 5-inch Eye and 5.8-inch Mars. Both are tailored to photo junkies with 13MP, backside-illuminated rear cameras as well as strong front cameras that shoot at 8MP (Eye) and 2MP (Mars). Differences between the handsets revolve mostly around performance and screen size. The Eye keeps things modest with a 720p IPS display, a quad-core MediaTek MT6589 , HSPA+ data, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. Spring for the extra-large Mars and you’ll upgrade to a 1080p IPS LCD, a Snapdragon 600 and 2GB of RAM

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GEAK unveils Eye and Mars smartphones with 13MP cameras, budget prices

sciencehabit writes “Show a native-born Chinese person a picture of the Great Wall, and suddenly they’ll have trouble speaking English, even if they usually speak it fluently. That’s the conclusion of a new study, which finds that reminders of our home country can complicate our ability to speak a new language. The findings could help explain why cultural immersion is the most effective way to learn a foreign tongue and why immigrants who settle within an ethnic enclave acculturate more slowly than those who surround themselves with friends from their new country.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Trying To Learn a Foreign Language? Avoid Reminders of Home

“I have a boss now, I guess,” says Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe. “The board.” On Monday, the virtual reality headset company announced that it had finished raising $15 million in Series A venture capital led by Spark Capital and Matrix Partners, adding a new level of management in the process. Both Spark and Matrix will have seats on the Oculus board of directors, guiding the company from here on out. Will new money and new directors change any of the startup company’s plans, though? Oculus says no.

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Oculus VR says plans won’t change, as it raises $15 million in venture capital for its virtual reality dreams

Yes, Game of Thrones is over, but there are still a few other interesting shows on TV. While Futurama begins its farewell tour, Wilfred and Copper return for the summer and Discovery kicks off a new reality show that drops contestants off in the jungle with nothing — and by nothing we mean no clothes. Look below for the highlights this week, followed after the break by our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and videogames. Futurama Yes, sadly, Futurama has been canceled again .

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Must See HDTV (June 17th – 23rd)

A face. A word. A message. A consequence

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90 Seconds on The Verge: Monday, June 17th, 2013

Microsoft is pushing to get the Surface RT tablet into schools, and it’s using a massive price cut and a giveaway to do it. On Monday, the company cut prices by more than 50% for its 32GB Surface RT, as long as schools buy the tablet before September. A Surface RT normally sells for $499 at retail, but Microsoft will drop the price to $199 for schools.

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Microsoft offers Surface RT to schools for as little as $199

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy. Filed under: Misc , Apple , Microsoft Comments

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The Daily Roundup for 06.17.2013

While TiVo’s Premiere DVR hardware line is moving past its prime, signs indicate new, higher-performance models are headed to store shelves this fall. TiVo first alluded to “several” new devices earlier this year when petitioning the FCC to waive an archaic analog tuner requirement . Beyond supporting digital cable via CableCARD, TiVo intends some of these new products to also tune digital over-the-air (OTA) broadcasts via antenna.

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TiVo prepping next-generation DVRs with new remote control, up to six tuners

If you thought Microsoft’s effort to push Surface RT tablets into classrooms would stop with a 10,000-unit giveaway , you’d be mistaken. Ryan Lowdermilk, a technology evangelist for the company, revealed that it’s offering 32GB Surface RT slates to K-12 and higher education institutions in 25 countries for $199, more than 50 percent off the $499 retail sticker price. Dropping $249 for each unit will snag organizations keyboard-infused Touch Covers , while bumping the cost to $289 will add Type Covers to the package.

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Microsoft offering Surface RT tablets for $199 to educational institutions

In 1961, Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Barney Rubble, and literally a thousand other cartoon characters (see vide above) , was in a terrible car crash that put him in a coma.        

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How Bugs Bunny saved Mel Blanc’s life