The NASA-funded Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) experiment has started on Earth, designed to simulate a Mars mission.

The six participants, three men and three women, are scientists - and will be in tight quarters, living inside a 36-foot-wide dome that is 20-feet high. The project began on Friday and will last 365 days. Researchers will collect information regarding cognitive, social and emotional factors between each participant - and how they interact with one another.

NASA believes a mission to Mars could take more than three years to complete, so this is an important step to gather data.

Avid Life Media announced that CEO Noel Biderman has stepped down, following the company's embarrassing public data breach.

Senior management will be responsible for day-to-day operations of the company, until a permanent replacement can be identified. It's going to be a confusing time for Avid Life Media, after a "criminal intrusion" that reportedly occurred over years by unknown hackers.

"This change is in the best interest of the company and allows us to continue to provide support to our members and dedicated employees," Ashley Madison noted in a statement. "We are steadfast in our commitment to our customer base."

Final Fantasy 15 has seen lots of transitions during its storied development, including an experimental phase centered around immersive VR experiences.

Instead of forcing gamers to strap on an Oculus Rift for hours on end, Square Enix toyed with the idea of using VR for certain sections of the game in order to immerse players into the overall experience. "We had tested out utilizing VR," Square Enix's Hajime Tabata told IGN at PAX 2015. "At the time we were looking into it, we felt that it could potentially work as a passive experience for a portion of the game utilizing VR."

In the end, the devs decided that VR just wasn't a good fit for their action-based RPG--especially with that finicky targeting camera which would induce dizzying motion sickness."We felt that it would potentially make sense for a segment, but in terms of the overall game in itself, the entire game, we didn't feel that having that headset on for the entirety of the game and that experience would match what we were aiming for with XV. It's a very long game [and] you'd wear that headset for hours."

With its near-limitless potential, virtual reality remains one of the most exciting new tech innovations in recent memory--but Oculus Rift creator Palmer Luckey concedes that the transition to VR will be a very slow-going process.

Accessibility remains one of VR's principal hurdles, as higher-end hardware is required to generate the illusion of total immersion. Headsets like the Oculus Rift pretty much act like advanced peripherals with the computer shouldering the brunt of the workload, and most everyday consumers just aren't ready to shell out for a beefier rig--ontop of the HMD's cost.

"I mean the question is: how fast can virtual reality really take off? Right now, it requires a fairly significant investment in computing hardware, a pretty high-end PC," Oculus founder Palmer Luckey said in an interview with TrustedReviews. "Virtual reality is going to take a long time to become something that's truly mainstream."

Samsung's marketing team is coming up with some good ideas to grab iPhone users, offering consumers a test drive of their latest and greatest Galaxy smartphones for just $1. Now, the South Korean giant has upped the ante.

Samsung is offering consumers $200 if you switch from an iPhone to a Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 edge or Galaxy S6 edge+ smartphone. Samsung will split it into two, offering a $100 Google Play store gift card and a $100 cheque. iPhone owners will have to trade in their handset, but with $200 enticing them, some users will take up the deal.

The deal is a limited time only affair, where you have until December 31 to make it happen, and up until January 1, 2016 to redeem the $200 in Play store credit and the cheque.

'Synce' has used CryEngine 3 for a super impressive interior technology demo that uses Crytek's new Global Illumination technology known as SVOTI (Sparse Voxel Octree Total Illumination). The results are amazing, as you can see below.

Synce notes that the demo was created to showcase the capabilities of SVOTI, where he said: "SVOTI means Sparse Voxel Octree Total Illumination. This system can achieve high quality global illumination in real time. In this demo you can change the time of day, and look how the light reacts".

If you want to try out the demo on your system, download it here.

It looks like the iPhone 6S is going to feature upgraded cameras, with the front-facing side of things getting bumped up from the ludicrous 1.2-megapixel camera on the current iPhone 6 to a better snapper - let's hope for a 5-megapixel shooter.

Round back, we can expect the 8-megapixel iSight camera to be upgraded to a 12-megapixel shooter that is 4K-capable. Up until now, the iPhone has been stuck at shooting 1080p video, but this is all set to change with the 'S' upgrade to the iPhone 6. The new iPhone 6S will also reportedly feature Force Touch technology built-in, where it can be used as a shortcut button to execute commands throughout iOS.

Apple is also expected to cram 2GB of LPDDR4 into the iPhone 6S, with 16GB, 64GB and 128GB models to be put on offer. iOS 9 will be included, and will reportedly include the ability for iPhone users to temporarily delete their app data to make more room for iOS updates, which sounds ridiculous - but it's needed with these big iOS updates of late. We should hear all about the new iPhone on September 9 at Apple's iPhone event.

Gaming peripheral company Razer has unveiled a redesigned version of the Nubu wearable during the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) convention in Seattle. The new device is able to monitor steps taken, distance, calories burned, activity minutes, and sleep duration each evening.

The wearable has an OLED 128x16 single color display, and features a 3-axis accelerometer and cylindrical vibration motor.

Pre-orders begin on September, and the updated Razer Nabu will begin shipping in October 2015. It has a $99.99 MSRP.

Official Xbox boss Phil Spencer has shut down the rumors that the Xbox One console will be getting a slimmer SKU this October.

Rumor has it that Microsoft is set to announce the Xbox One's new hardware refresh, the Xbox One Mini, alongside the Surface Pro 4 and Lumia 940/940 XL in October. But according to Xbox's own Phil Spencer the speculation is all for naught; in a recent Twitter exchange, Spencer confirmed the news is "not real".

The reports claim that the Xbox One Mini will be 1/3 the size of the current VCR-sized behemoth, with the extra space allocated thanks to the carved out Blu-ray disc drive. This would effectively make the slim console a digital-only system, and the SKU would be marketed at a lower price point.

Gearbox Software's landmark post-apocalyptic shooter series Borderlands will be getting its own movie adaptation, with Marvel Studios founder Avi Arad being a major influence.

With the rousing success of George Miller's new Mad Max film, it's no surprise that other studios want to get in on the post-apocalyptic cash crop. Variety reports that Lionsgate studios has acquired the rights to a Borderlands film, and plans to bring the franchise's distinct chaotic humor and explosive action to the big screen.

"Lionsgate has emerged as a major creative force in the global marketplace with an incredible portfolio of brands; our partners at Gearbox have pioneered and cultivated an iconic property; and Avi and Ari Arad are two of the most successful producers of action franchises," Take-Two Interactive boss Strauss Zelnick said. "This alliance is ideally positioned to create a bold, provocative, no-holds-barred motion picture phenomenon that will delight Borderlands' current legions of fans and captivate moviegoers around the world."