LG's new robotic vacuum doubles as a mobile security system

LG has just unveiled its new robotic vacuum, the Hom-Bot Turbo+, which has some nifty features.

First off, it's a normal robotic vacuum, so you can schedule your cleaning duties to be done while you're out of the house, or asleep. The Turbo+ has three cameras that, with the assistance of the Robonavi software, allow the robotic vacuum to navigate your house, apartment or wherever you call home, and keep it clean.

LG has used these cameras in a unique way, as you can view the Turbo+ in real-time, and remotely control it through the Home-View function. The Home-View function has the cameras working as a mobile security system, which lets owners of the Turbo+ receive still images to their devices if it detects movement in a home that should be empty.

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Batman v Superman TV spot teases a few seconds of new footage

Anthony Garreffa | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Dec 22, 2015 3:45 AM CST

While all eyes are glued to Star Wars: The Force Awakens this week - which just had the biggest opening ever, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is getting some TV spot lovin' in Germany.

Batman v Superman TV spot teases a few seconds of new footage

The new German TV spot teases a few seconds of new footage, even in its short 30-second runtime. In the middle of the clip, Batman is flying the Batplane towards Superman, firing rounds of bullets at him - while Superman doesn't even take a scratch.

We also see Superman in some flames at the 0:19 mark, Batman knocked to the ground at 0:20, and Superman flying forwards along the ground in a cloud of dust and smoke at 0:24. I still think we're not receiving the full picture here, and that the pissed off Superman we're seeing is actually Bizarro - the first creation from Lex before we see Doomsday unveiled later in the movie - but that's just me.

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Android 6.0 begins rolling out for the NVIDIA Shield Tablet K1

NVIDIA's damn-powered Shield Tablet K1 has just received its shiny new Android 6.0 Marshmallow update, which includes a bunch of new stuff.

Android 6.0 begins rolling out for the NVIDIA Shield Tablet K1

The update does warn about SD cards, with a note to "please make sure it is backed up first". One great thing about Android 6.0 is that it "adopts" your SD cards, detecting them as if they were part of your internal storage. NVIDIA says that there's a revamped camera UI with a more "material"-inspired theme and some new real-time image effects.

The company has also included some NVIDIA-inspired wallpapers, with Fallout Shelter also now preloaded onto the Shield Tablet K1.

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The first COD: Black Ops 3 DLC arrives on the PS4 on February 2, 2016

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Dec 21, 2015 11:31 PM CST

PS4 fans will be happy to hear that the first DLC for Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 will drop on February 2, 2016 - thanks to an announcement from publisher Activision and developer Treyarch.

The first COD: Black Ops 3 DLC arrives on the PS4 on February 2, 2016

The new DLC is called Awakening, with the new Black Ops 3 DLC including four new multiplayer maps - Gauntlet, Splash, Rise and Skyjacked. There'll also be a new Zombie mode included, something that has been titled "Der Eisendrache". Awakening will cost $15, and is included as part of Black Ops 3's season pass, which costs $49.99. As for the four new multiplayer maps, here's the breakdown:

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Oculus begins shipping the final Rift hardware to some developers

With all of the VR attention firmly sitting with HTC and the Vive right now, with headlines like HTC and Valve have made a "very, very big technological breakthrough" with the Vive - Oculus has been sitting the corner, until now.

Oculus has announced that it is shipping final Rift hardware to some developers, with the Rift SDK 1.0 and runtime features "tied to the consumer product". Oculus also notes that it's shipping "more Rift hardware out to developers every week in the run up to launch. In the meantime, DK2 and SDK 0.8 continue to be the right platform for early Rift development -- you only need SDK 1.0 if you're imminently shipping".

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Outlook to get smarter address book, flight reminders

Sean Ridgeley | Software & Apps | Dec 21, 2015 8:55 PM CST

The web version of Outlook will be updated in the coming weeks and months with some neat features.

First up is a smarter address book that suggests contacts based on usage. It's familiar behaviour for anyone that's used other clients, except for the part where it asks you if you want to include a given person on a multi-person email, if that's something you normally do. The address book won't be picky about spelling names correctly either, so you'll be able to find Kathryn if you typed Catherine, for example. This functionality will roll out to Office 365 users in mid-January, then to everyone by early March. These features will arrive in early January for First Release users and early March for everyone else. Outlook.com will be available to everyone around then as well.

If you fly much, Outlook will prove a handy tool once this update goes live, automatically adding flight information to your calendar based on your emails, and will send you email reminders three hours before your flight. Expedia, Southwest Airlines, American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Airlines and Alaska Airlines will be supported at launch; many more airlines will be supported quickly afterward. In the future, other types of events will support this functionality. All of it can be disabled if you like. The new features will go live for First Release folks in early January and everyone else sometime in March.

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Razer brings their Cortex curated game library to the Android Forge TV

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Dec 21, 2015 6:36 PM CST

Razer has already entered the Android micro-console world in a big way with their Forge TV that started shipping to hungry hands in May of 2015. Their Cortex platform should help by providing an influx of popular new games and an easier way to find them.

It hasn't been the most popular option, with devices from NVIDIA and Amazon taking the crown, but now they've brought the Razer Cortex platform to the Forge TV, which should help to boost its popularity. This is much the same way that NVIDIA provides made for Tegra games through their Shield store, except the games found in Cortex won't be specifically remade for the Snapdragon found within the Forge TV.

A lot of the games that are making their debut were already available on the OUYA, which was picked up by Razer recently, but are now being made available again. The majority of titles are of the the indie variety, but there are some old school AAA gems found in there, like Sonic the Hedgehog and Bomb Squad.

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Tales of Berseria coming to PS4, PC, no 30 FPS lock on PC this time

Sean Ridgeley | Gaming | Dec 21, 2015 6:08 PM CST

A brand new game in the beloved Tales JRPG series is coming to PS4 and PC. Tales of Berseria, as it's called, will feature a tweaked battle system: think free run by default, free camera rotation, and the ability to assign multiple artes to different buttons, which can be exploited for combos.

Tales of Berseria coming to PS4, PC, no 30 FPS lock on PC this time

PC players will be especially happy because it no longer features the 30 FPS lock as seen in Tales of Zestiria. As you can see from the trailer, gameplay and cinematics are much smoother for it. While Zestiria eventually saw the release of a mod that removed the lock, it's nice that no such thing will be required this time.

Berseria doesn't have a release date yet, except to say it's due to launch in Japan sometime in 2016.

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AMD's next-gen 14nm GPU will debut in mid-2016

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Dec 21, 2015 5:46 PM CST

It looks like AMD's next-gen GPU will be arriving in Q2 2016, which is the rough timeframe that we expected from all the rumors over the last few months.

AMD's new part will be made on the 14nm process by Samsung and GlobalFoundries, with it reaching mass production at the end of Q2 2016 - or in June. This is perfect timing for Computex 2016, as we saw the rumors - and the TweakTown exclusive during Computex 2015 that the new card would be called the Radeon R9 Fury X, and not the Radeon R9 490X that the world thought.

The new GPU will feature HBM2, which will not only increase the amount of VRAM that the new GPU will have - up from the 4GB of HBM1 found on the current Fiji cards like the Fury X and R9 Nano - but it will also see an increase in memory bandwidth. HBM1 allows for 512GB/sec, while HBM2 drives the memory bandwidth numbers through the roof to over 1TB/sec. We should expect to see cards from AMD featuring up to 18 billion transistors, and up to 16GB and even 32GB on the professional cards in 2016.

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Classic Star Wars trilogy gets recreated in 8-Bit graphics

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Dec 21, 2015 5:19 PM CST

In celebration of everything Star Wars, CineFix has spun 8-bit gold by recreating the original trilogy as if it were an old Nintendo game.

Classic Star Wars trilogy gets recreated in 8-Bit graphics

With Star Wars: The Force Awakens utterly smashing box office records and invading our galaxy, the Force has never been stronger with gamers and ultra-geeks. Just about everyone is scouring the web looking for supplemental Star Wars entertainment, whether it be reviews, comics, books, games or super nerdy live-action battle reenactments. The clip above does just that and more: it reminds you what your childhood could have been like if this "game" had indeed been real.

Although J.J. Abrams has taken us on a new journey across the future of the franchise, CineFix takes us back to where it all began. The sci-fi adventures of our youth are re-visited with an epic excursion into the heart of Star Wars magic. A smattering of memorable scenes have been recreated in painstakingly awesome 8-bit detail, chronicling Star Wars: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi in progressive stages of console history. A New Hope, for example, resembles the early NES version of The Legend of Zelda, whereas Return of the Jedi takes on a Genesis-style action side-scroller feel.

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