The next-gen Surface Pro 5 could feature Kaby Lake CPU

Anthony Garreffa | Laptops | Sep 6, 2016 3:28 AM CDT

Microsoft has been making steady progress with its Surface Pro line of tablets, and now the world is looking to the next-gen Surface Pro 5 as the product that could really begin hurting the MacBook line from Apple.

The next-gen Surface Pro 5 is expected to rock Intel's new Kaby Lake processor, which is based on the 14nm process. On top of the beefier CPU, the new Surface Pro 5 could rock a 4K-capable display and USB-C connectivity. Microsoft could tap either NVIDIA or AMD for the GPU side of the Surface Pro 5, with their new Pascal and Polaris architectures, respectively.

There are also new rumors that Microsoft could unveil a new 'Surface Pen' that would replace the AAAA battery-powered stylus, and more in line with Apple Pencil, and the improved S-Pen on the recently recalled Galaxy Note 7 smartphone from Samsung.

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Daniel Craig in rumored $150m James Bond deal

Ben Gourlay | Celebrities & Entertainment | Sep 5, 2016 11:36 PM CDT

After portraying the role of secret Agent James Bond for four feature films, actor Daniel Craig wasn't exactly hiding the fact that he didn't want to come back whilst on the publicity trailer for last year's 'Spectre', saying he'd only return "for the money". If an upcoming report is true, the actor has been offered 'Goldfinger' sums to come back.

According to a report published by Radar Online, MGM has attempted to lure the actor back by offering a record-breaking $150m salary, with a unnamed source claiming they plan to "shoot two more films, which will be made virtually back-to-back, preferably featuring Daniel as 007 before he passes the figurative baton to someone else for a third movie that will mark the start of the new era".

Daniel Craig's last two appearances in 'Skyfall' and 'Spectre' have grossed $2 billion worldwide combined.

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Sprint to our 'The Flash: Season Two' Blu-ray giveaway!

Ben Gourlay | Celebrities & Entertainment | Sep 5, 2016 7:00 PM CDT

To celebrate this week's release of 'The Flash: Season Two' on Blu-ray and DVD, we have ten Blu-ray copies to give away thanks to our friends at Roadshow Home Entertainment.

Last year, the S.T.A.R. Labs Particle Accelerator exploded, creating a dark matter storm that struck forensic scientist Barry Allen - bestowing him with super-speed and making him the fastest man alive. But Barry wasn't the only person who was given extraordinary abilities that night. The dark matter also created meta-humans... many of whom have wreaked havoc on the city. With the help of the S.T.A.R Labs team, Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon and Dr. Harrison Wells, Barry protects the people of Central City from these powerful new threats as The Flash.

Following the defeat of Allen's arch-nemesis Eobard Thawne, Team Flash must quickly turn their attention to the Singularity left swirling high above Central City, consuming everything in its path. Not only is the Singularity threatening the city with impending doom, but it's also opened up a gateway to a parallel universe - a world where Barry Allen may not be the fastest man alive...

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Intel reportedly delays its 7nm shift from 2020 to 2022

Anthony Garreffa | CPU, APU & Chipsets | Sep 5, 2016 5:25 PM CDT

Intel had previously pegged its upcoming shift to the 7nm node for 2020, but according to the latest rumors it has been delayed through to 2020.

The company has been looking for a processor designer to work in their new Microarchitecture Research Lab that's based in Bangalore, India. The new processor designer would join a team of engineers to "spearhead the research and advanced development" of both processor cores and graphics processors that will be deployed in the "2020 and beyond timeframe" using Intel's "futuristic" 7nm manufacturing tech.

Intel has recently updated the job advertisement, changing the date of its 7nm node from 2020 to 2022, with the job noting: "The India Lab specifically, in collaboration with MRL-US and Intel product architecture teams worldwide, will spearhead the research and advanced development of Microprocessor Cores in the 2022 and beyond timeframe. By conceiving of and prototyping radical approaches, the Lab will aim to deliver much greater CPU power and area efficiency while still delivering industry-leading performance. The microarchitecture and design of these advanced CPUs will be aggressively co-optimized with Intel's sub-10nm technology nodes deep into the next decade".

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Sony boss says 'Pokemon GO is a real game-changer'

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Sep 5, 2016 3:27 PM CDT

Now that the insane wave of interest in Pokemon GO is going down, Sony is talking about how much of a "game-changer" the game was.

Sony CEO Kaz Hirai has said that his company plans to "aggressively" get into mobile gaming, saying: "It's quite a shift from being just a console-based business to being on mobile phones as well". Hirai added: "Pokemon Go is a real game-changer. I'm very interested in the fact that it has the potential to really change the way people move, literally".

Hirai continued saying that the use of augmented reality used in Pokemon GO was a "great innovative idea that's going to lift all boats for the video game industry", adding that he'd like to see AR components added to its own mobile games.

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Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour arrives soon

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Sep 5, 2016 1:26 PM CDT

Duke said he was out of gum, and it looks like he was right, because he's back for a cash-in with Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour.

Gearbox Software announced that it's taking pre-orders for Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour, which is a remastered version of the iconic 1996 shooter Duke Nukem 3D. The game will feature a full remaster of the original game, powered by Gearbox's "True3D Rendering" mode which will provide the ability of toggling between the original, and new graphics on-the-fly.

Duke Nukem 3D's original designers, Allen Blum III and Richard "Levelord" Gray have created a fifth episode called Alien World Order, which features 8 new levels with a new soundtrack from Lee Jackson, who was the composer on the original game, and the author of the Duke theme song. Gearbox even has Jon St. John, who is the voice actor for Duke himself, back in the voice acting seat for some new "Duke Talk".

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New PS4 Slim features shrunken 16nm APU

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Sep 5, 2016 12:45 PM CDT

Sony's new thinner and cheaper PS4 Slim console refresh features a shrunken 16nm APU chip to reduce total console power draw, boost power efficiency, and save on space.

New PS4 Slim features shrunken 16nm APU

After watching Tech-Links' recent PS4 Slim teardown video I noticed something interesting: the PS4 Slim's APU had a different serial number than the current PS4 model. After some digging around, I compared the PS4 Slim's chip with the PS4 in a side-by-side comparison, noticing an obvious size discrepancy when comparing transistor relation size. The PS4 Slim's chip was smaller, and I wasn't the only one who noticed it.

The PS4 Slim's APU has been reduced to 16nm from the PS4's original 28nm chip size, culminating a reduction of about 57%. This means the new slimmer model will draw less power and run cooler than current PS4s, which is a pretty big deal for console owners. The PS4 Slim's PCB has also been redesigned and is much more minimal, and the console only draws 160W of power versus the vanilla PS4's 200W. Although the PS4 Slim enjoys a smaller chip that's more power efficient, don't expect any actual jumps in power: the PS4 Slim does match the Xbox One S' 16nm chip size, but it doesn't have an overclocked GPU, play 4K video, or upscale games to 4K.

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Sony officially confirms new PS4 reveal for September 7

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Sep 5, 2016 10:36 AM CDT

Sony Korea has just confirmed that a new PlayStation 4 model will be unveiled during the company's PlayStation Meeting on September 7.

Sony officially confirms new PS4 reveal for September 7

While we pretty much knew it was happening, Sony has now officially confirmed that the release date and price for a new PlayStation 4 console will be unveiled on September 7. While the Sony Korea blog post didn't explicitly say the words "Neo" or "Slim," Sony officially confirmed the existence of the high-end PS4 "Neo" console before E3 2016, and the Japanese console-maker is expected to announce the PS4 "Neo's"pricing and release date info during the meeting, which starts on Wednesday, September 7 at 3PM EST.

According to past evidence, leaks, and reports, Sony's high-end PS4 "Neo" will feature an upgraded GPU possibly based on AMD's new Polaris graphics architecture to enable native 1080p 60FPS gaming, upscaled 4K resolution gaming, and enhanced VR support. An alleged worker at a Foxconn manufacturing facility has sketched out a rough draft of the PS4 "Neo", possibly revealing key features of the console's design.

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Warner Bros. flags its own websites as pirate sites

Anthony Garreffa | Business, Financial & Legal | Sep 5, 2016 9:33 AM CDT

If the mess that was Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice wasn't enough for Warner Bros. to cry itself to sleep at night, then the news that the company reported its own websites as piracy sites should be.

Warner Bros. and many other major Hollywood studios think that Google is making it way too easy for people to find pirated content, so they want to hand Google mountains of money in order to remove torrent sites like The Pirate Bay from search results entirely, reports TorrentFreak.

Thanks to its anti-piracy partner Vobile, Warner asked Google to censor a bunch of URLs, including some of its own. TorrentFreak has some screenshots from its DCMA notice, which lists some of Warner Bros. own pages, including The Dark Knight and Matrix websites. Not only are some of Warner's websites on the DCMA notice, but there are links to Amazon stores where you can buy or rent copies of The Dark Knight, but Google noticed their mistakes and didn't take any action against Amazon or IMBd links.

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Alcatel Shine Lite: Premium design for around $200

Lana Jelic | Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones | Sep 5, 2016 9:10 AM CDT

IFA - Selfies are becoming a big part of our daily lives and Alcatel knows it. That's why they introduced a new phone that doesn't have the best specifications but they swear your selfies will be close to perfection.

The Shine Lite aims for Alcatel's target audience which are so-called millennials. And therefore the price has to be attractive which Alcatel achieved by setting it to $225. This device comes with a metal frame with glass on the front and back which makes the design pretty clean. The Shine Lite comes in three colors - gold, white and black.

The camera, which Alcatel points out as the biggest advantage of this phone, is 13 megapixels and 5 MP for front camera. The selfie camera also has a flash. All selfies are stored in a Selfie Album and you can create videos with an app called Face Show.

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