Verizon rumored to increase prices but offer more data

America's biggest wireless carrier Verizon is about to make its plans more expensive but include more data, someone familiar with the matter claims.

Here are the changes expected, many of which are already in line with rival carriers:

It's also said Verizon will introduce rollover data, better access to Canada and Mexico, and "Safety Mode", the last of which slows down your connection once you hit the data limit, and costs $5/mo unless you're on the XL or XXL plan.

Continue reading: Verizon rumored to increase prices but offer more data (full post)

AMD Radeon RX 480 4GB models have 8GB RAM, unlocked with BIOS update

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Jul 5, 2016 12:18 AM CDT

There are new reports out that AMD's new Radeon RX 480 4GB cards can be upgraded to 8GB through a BIOS upgrade, meaning that AMD is shipping each and every RX 480 with 8GB of RAM, and then using a BIOS to downgrade/hide the additional 4GB of framebuffer.

Right now it's only confirmed on the early retail cards, so this might change in the coming weeks - so do not buy an RX 480 with 4GB of RAM absolutely, 100% hoping it has 8GB of RAM as this will change. Right now, WCCFTech purchased a retail Radeon RX 480 4GB model and flashed it with the vBIOS for the 8GB model, and 8GB of RAM appeared - a nice, free upgrade, eh?

Considering the 4GB model costs just $199 and the 8GB model costs $239, this is quite the savings - and makes the RX 480 an even better purchase at this price. As it stands, AMD is looking at losing $40 per RX 480 sold if it's using a vBIOS to downgrade the RAM to 4GB in order to meet the demand from consumers.

Continue reading: AMD Radeon RX 480 4GB models have 8GB RAM, unlocked with BIOS update (full post)

Strap on your Fitbit to raise cash for charity

Ben Gourlay | Health, Lifestyle & Travel | Jul 4, 2016 11:35 PM CDT

Fitness tracking company Fitbit have launched a great initiative for Australian customers, which will see a lump sum donation made to the Heart Foundation if its users hit a collective activity goal.

Starting in just five days time, the FitForGood promotion encourages users to take part in a collective 2 billion step goal between July 11 and July 25. Should that goal be met, Fitbit will make a $100,000 donation to the Heart Foundation to continue their work to educate the public about heart disease and encourage Australians to remain active. With physical inactivity a leading factor in nearly 10,000 deaths in Australia each year, the FitForGood challenge hopes to raise awareness around heart health and get Australians moving.

With registrations in the program now open , if you're in the land down under, strap on your Fitbit Charge HR or Fitbit Blaze and help meet the goal!

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Escape '10 Cloverfield Lane' in our latest Blu-ray giveaway

Ben Gourlay | Contests & Giveaways | Jul 4, 2016 8:10 PM CDT

To celebrate this week's release of '10 Cloverfield Lane' on Blu-ray and DVD, we have fifteen Blu-ray copies to give away thanks to our friends at Universal Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Soon after leaving her fiancé Michelle is involved in a car accident. She awakens to find herself sharing an underground bunker with Howard and Emmett. Has she been saved from an apocalyptical event as Howard & Emmett tell her or are there other motives for her being held against her will?

To go into the running to win a prize, simply answer the following question in 50 words or less:

Continue reading: Escape '10 Cloverfield Lane' in our latest Blu-ray giveaway (full post)

Japan's first VR porn festival ends prematurely, overcrowding blamed

I really love seeing these 'only in Japan' news articles, but the latest is a gold mine. Japan has hosted their first-ever VR porn festival, but it ended prematurely as there were too many people trying to enter the building.

At the VR porn festival, companies were showing off the latest and greatest adult entertainment content in VR, with the festival featuring some of the most unique "accessories" to ever be made. Some of these included a rubberized, moving hand that is attached to a machine, while another is a scary looking blow up doll that doesn't have arms, legs or even a head - well now, Japan.

Hatenblog reported on VR Talk, in a translated post that read: "The event didn't start until 2pm, so I went there in high spirits an hour before then, but the city was already overflowing with people. There were so many that it was almost impossible to keep the situation under control. While waiting for my friends, I couldn't help but think that if they couldn't control the mass of people, a riot or something similar could happen. The 20 lucky guys closest to the building were let in by the staff".

Continue reading: Japan's first VR porn festival ends prematurely, overcrowding blamed (full post)

All future Microsoft Studios games will reach the PC

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jul 4, 2016 5:31 PM CDT

It looks like Microsoft is going to be looking after PC gamers in a big way with the announcement that every new game published by Microsoft Studios will be on the PC.

All of these new Microsoft Studios games will support Xbox Play Anywhere, which is used through the Window Store. This means the new Halo game will be released on the PC, which is beyond exciting. Microsoft claimed in its "Windows 10 Anniversary Update Available August 2", the company teases:

"With the Xbox Play Anywhere program, you can buy a game once and play on your Windows 10 PC and Xbox One with shared progress, shared game saves and shared achievements. Every new title published from Microsoft Studios will support Xbox Play Anywhere and will be easily accessible in the Windows Store".

Continue reading: All future Microsoft Studios games will reach the PC (full post)

NVIDIA's next-gen Titan could be 50% faster than the GeForce GTX 1080

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Jul 4, 2016 4:35 PM CDT

NVIDIA has been on a roll lately with its new Pascal architecture, with the huge releases of the new GeForce GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 cards, while the rumors of an imminent launch of the mid-range GTX 1060 could be around the corner.

How does it get better? Well, news is now arriving on the next-gen Pascal-based Titan X successor. VR World is reporting that they've had hands-on time with the GP102-based GeForce GTX Titan card, with a few details on NVIDIA's new monster.

NVIDIA's next-gen Titan X successor will feature both 8+8 and 8+6-pin PCIe power connectors, with the PCIe power connectors being found at the front of the card, and not on top. The 8+8-pin power connectors will provide up to 375W TDP, while the 8+6-pin version will provide 300W. Performance-wise, it should be a monster with around 50% more horsepower over the already lightning quick GTX 1080.

Continue reading: NVIDIA's next-gen Titan could be 50% faster than the GeForce GTX 1080 (full post)

The iconic fly-by intro from Unreal has been redone in Unreal Engine 4

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jul 4, 2016 3:35 AM CDT

For those old enough to remember the original Unreal, you'll have to rewind your memory all the way back to 1998 - and you might remember the original fly-by intro scene that some of you might have used to benchmark your video card back in the day. I know I did, I put hundreds of hours into watching that scene, and have the best memories of it.

Well, someone has recreated the fly-by scene from the original Unreal, in the much better looking Unreal Engine 4. It isn't quite the stunner that it was back in 1998, but it's something that floods my brain with memories of Unreal. Do you remember the original Unreal? And more specifically, do you remember the fly-by intro scene?

Continue reading: The iconic fly-by intro from Unreal has been redone in Unreal Engine 4 (full post)

AMD's power issues on Radeon RX 480 to be resolved with new drivers

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Jul 4, 2016 1:33 AM CDT

If you haven't heard about the power consumption issues on the Radeon RX 480, you might want to read our article on it here. To bring you up to speed quickly, some reputable sites like PC Perspective and Tom's Hardware have discovered that AMD's new Polaris-based Radeon RX 480 is consuming too much power over the PCIe slot, above and beyond the specification of 75W.

Well, AMD has come out defending the Radeon RX 480, saying: "As you know, we continuously tune our GPUs in order to maximise their performance within their given power envelopes and the speed of the memory interface, which in this case is an unprecedented 8Gbps for GDDR5. Recently, we identified select scenarios where the tuning of some RX 480 boards was not optimal. Fortunately, we can adjust the GPU's tuning via software in order to resolve this issue. We are already testing a driver that implements a fix, and we will provide an update to the community on our progress on Tuesday (July 5, 2016)".

We had this update in our original story, but I felt it needed it's own headline and special attention. Remember that it's the 4th of July weekend in the US right now, but there's a fix on the way. I dare say that the custom RX 480s won't have this problem, so by the time you get your hands-on the RX 480, the issues should be fixed.

Continue reading: AMD's power issues on Radeon RX 480 to be resolved with new drivers (full post)

Vive is used by 66% of VR gamers on Steam, Rift controls just 27%

Valve's new Steam survey for June 2016 revealed that 56% of gamers are using an NVIDIA GeForce video card of some kind, while AMD Radeon cards are used by 25% - and it also saw Windows 10 become the most-used OS by Steam gamers, with 40% of gamers using Microsoft's latest and greatest OS.

But what about VR? The latest Steam survey has 66% of gamers using the HTC Vive, while just 27.7% of gamers are using the Oculus Rift. The Oculus Rift DK2 headset is still being used, for now at least, by 6.2% of gamers - but these numbers are dropping every week.

Personally, I own both the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift and would always recommend people to buy the HTC Vive. It's a better VR experience thanks to the room scale technology, while the Rift is a seated only experience - for now at least, and even with the upcoming Touch controllers, you'll just be standing around with the Touch controllers, not walking around the room enjoying the VR experience.

Continue reading: Vive is used by 66% of VR gamers on Steam, Rift controls just 27% (full post)