At the R-Pi’s launch, two major licensed codecs called MPEG4 and H264 will be made available, due to the cost of codec licensing. There are other codecs that aren’t licensed, such as Video Codec 1, MPEG2, etc but the R-Pi team have decided not to GPU accelerate them (in a setup like DXVA on Windows) at this moment in time.

Dom from the R-Pi Team stated, quote:

As an aside, the GPU can hardware decode H264, MPEG1/2/4, VC1, AVS, MJPG at 1080p30. It can software (but still vector accelerated) decode VP6, VP7, VP8, RV, Theora, WMV9 at DVD resolutions. We are restricted due to licensing what we can support. We should be able to support VP8, MJPG and Theora, as I believe they are license free.

Hopefully, the GPU won’t be fussy with what h264 formats we throw at it (most shows are encoded in 8bit/10bit x264 that the ‘domain comes across), but we’ll have to wait and see.

In the meantime, you can read about the GPU decoding here on the Raspberry Pi website.

Let’s face it – Apple sometimes likes to boast about it’s products hardware being the fastest in the class. While it might seem true to some extent depending on what you use the iDevices for, the founding member of Raspberry Pi, Eben Upton, has stated that the Raspberry Pi should provide at least twice the performance of an iPhone 4S in a wide range of activities. Eben also throws nVidia’s Tegra mobile chip out the window.

Quoted from a interview with Digital Foundry with edits to clarify:

“I was on the team that designed the [Raspberry Pi] graphics core, so I’m a little biased here, but I genuinely believe we have the best mobile GPU team in the world at Broadcom in Cambridge. What’s really striking is how badly [nVidia] Tegra 2 performs relative even to simple APs using licensed Imagination Technologies (TI and Apple) or ARM Mali (Samsung) graphics.”

For the complete story, check out Tom’s Hardware article on the subject. The Raspberry Pi only costs $25 or $35 (depending on model), but with the graphics potiental, it could be a worthy candiate for portable ARM device projects. Some include Kids Ruby, Yoyo Games GameMaker, Python and even XBMC, a open source Windows Media Center replacement.

With the Raspberry Pi almost set for launch, it will be put head to head against our other ARM devices here at Coburn’s Domain. Stay tuned.

When the Raspberry Pi goes on sale, Coburn’s Domain will be getting one to review and also run our benchmarking suite on it. It will be put head to head against a CuBox and our faithful SheevaPlug. While the CuBox is ARMv7 and the SheevaPlug is ARMv5, the Raspberry Pi is a ARMv6 device – whatever the case, it should be rather interesting to see what the go is.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/574

MegaUpload has just fallen off the digital landscape, with 4 people arrested and 7 charged with conspiracy by the FBI. The people include Dotcom, Ortmann, chief marketing officer Finn Batao and developer Bram van der Kolk who are currently in New Zealand under custody. The FBI also worked with various country authorities such as New Zealand, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, the UK and the Phillipines.

So, what’s the scoop? Apparently, the charges include the distribution of pirated movies (before and after cinematic screenings) and other pirated goods, which netted the company $175 million in illegal profits through Advertising revenue. They are also in hot water over their “Rewards” program that pays members for uploading files to MegaUpload, and paying other sites to host pirated content.

Meanwhile, the dust haven’t settled yet – Anon strikes back with DDoS attacks blocking access to various US sites that are in favor of the SOPA act. Ars Technica has the scoop on that.

Source: Ars Technica – http://arstechnica.com . This post uses information provided by this article on the mentioned website.

Simply put: On January 18th, from 8am to 8pm EST (US Time), Coburn’s Domain will be blacked out. Or censored, if you like. This will only last for the specified time frame, and we’ll be back after the time frame has passed.

Even though I (Coburn) am a Australian, when the Stop Online Piracy Act was announced, I knew that if that act was introduced into the online world, that the internet would be doomed.

Under the proposed act, it would mean it would be illegal for us, or yourself to link to any website, including the likes of Blogger, YouTube, WordPress.com, etc without checking that the site in question content infringes copyright.

For more information, skim through the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s SOPA article and also Wikipedia’s SOPA article. A informational reddit article also explains what the go is.

So, if you come to the ‘domain in question and wonder why we’ve gone dark, the SOPA is why. As I’ve said before, that SOPA bill would make the Internet a minefield for anyone publishing content.

I hope you understand what the SOPA means to the internet, and what damage the SOPA would do to the whole internet ecosystem.

Excuse the retroness, but while talking on IRC, I stumbled across a ROM hack that, in short terms, makes Super Mario Bros 3 ten times more challenging and fun.

With new powers like Fire Fire Mario, Invisible Mario, Magic Mario and Kuribo Mario, weather effects that effect game play (snow makes things slippery, for example) and brand new levels, this is the ROM hack that any hardcore Mario player should sink their teeth into.

You can download the ROM hack (pre-patched) here, and also check out the huge write up over at the VC&G website, located here. You’ll need a good emulator like NESTopia to play the ROM hack.

Finished that hack already? Well, try the unfinished Luigi vs Mario sequel! Both brothers have their own quests, complete with new graphics and other goodies.

So, who’s to blame? Well, blame a consultant trainee. While Telstra has stated the data has been deleted within an hour of it being aware of the privacy breach, Google has already indexed a most, if not all, of the data, which had no credit card numbers, but mainly contact details of their customers.

That consultant-in-training would have got a prompt “You’re fired” from their boss, most likely. But the question remains, can Telstra make up for these breaches, or does the company need a reboot? We’ll just have to wait and see…

As I write this, I’m half-perked on Pepsi and feeling a little blue after eating too much chicken, on behalf of all the Coburn’s Domain staff team, I wish you a Merry Christmas.

Also, we’ve turned two! That’s right, Coburn’s Domain is 2 years old. It was 2009 when it entered the battlefield on the internet from it’s protected beta form, and I didn’t know what it would be up against. 2 years on and we’re not dead. Sure, we might have a small userbase, but that’s one of the things that makes us unique.

Again, have a awesome christmas. Don’t go overboard, though!

Previously, we’ve talked about the Raspberry Pi and it’s glory. Sure, for a $25/$35 device, it’s not a bad gadget. However, if you’re craving some extra power, then the CuBox will satisfy.

The CuBox is from a Israel startup company called SolidRun Ltd. The device provides a cube form factor miniture PC, which provides the following features:

• 800Mhz DualCore Marvell ARMADA CPU with VFPv3, wMMX SIMD and 512KB L2 Cache
• 1GB DDR3 RAM clocked at 800Mhz
• 1080p Video Decoding Engine, allowing outputs of 1080p @ 60Fps with minimal CPU intervention
• OpenGL Embedded Standard 2.0 Graphics Engine
• Gigabit LAN, SPDIF (Optical Audio), 3Gbps eSATA, Dual USB 2.0 Ports, microSD slot
• Infrared Receiver for remote controlled applications
• microUSB for debug console

Don’t just dismiss this device without taking a look at the Solid-Run website – it could be your next PC! The best feature is that this device is unbrickable. That’s right, even if you try bricking the device or brick the device by accident, the device can restore itself back to a working state.

The 1080p @ 60Fps output makes it a powerhouse if you want a media center that can provide grunt in a tiny form factor, or want to watch your favorite shows (Anime, Drama, Casual shows, etc) on a big screen. With that being said, the CuBox makes the Raspberry Pi cry in the corner.

While one of our friends have pre-ordered one of these devices; they are hopefully going to be released early next year. In the meantime, check out SolidRun’s website – we’ll keep you posted on the device when one hits our shores.

Photo Credit: SolidRun Ltd.

Did your iPhone recently get stolen or lost? Well, beware. The latest security issue on iOS devices is that iMessage, one of the core iOS features will still send you messages to stolen iPhones, even after you’ve decided to nuke your data using “Remote Wipe”.

As quoted from Gizmodo:

Beware: if your iPhone gets stolen, it will keep receiving messages sent via iMessage even after a remote wipe out and deactivation. The thief—or whoever buys the stolen terminal—would be able to read whatever is written to you.

Users in Apple support board are reporting this problem which has no solution for now. The iMessages will arrive both your new iPhone and the old one. One of the users says that the only way to solve the problem is by canceling the old Apple ID and creating a new one.

So, yeah. iOS user, be aware…