BenQ unveils its XR3501 35" curved monitor aimed at gamers

Chris Smith | Displays & Projectors | Jul 12, 2015 7:04 PM CDT

Complete with a 21:9 aspect ratio, 2560x1080 pixel resolution, a glorious 144 Hz refresh rate, a 4ms response time, a 2000:1 static contrast ratio and a 300 cd/m2 brightness ceiling, BenQ's new XR3501 35" curved display looks like a real winner.

BenQ unveils its XR3501 35

Set for availability in August 2015, there's unfortunately no price announced just yet but you can expect it to hurt the wallet given the features on offer. Also provided is 178/178 degree viewing angles, a large chrome monitor stand, 15 degree vertical tilt and more.

As for input options, expect DisplayPort 1.2, mini-DisplayPort, two HDMI 1.4 ports and and analog audio input to be on offer - no DVI or VGA with this model. There's BenQ's standard game mode display presets too, which should go nicely with the 25" 144 Hz experience.

Continue reading: BenQ unveils its XR3501 35" curved monitor aimed at gamers (full post)

NBC's 'Heroes Reborn' series reboot gets first trailer

Ben Gourlay | Celebrities & Entertainment | Jul 12, 2015 6:24 PM CDT

The original 'Heroes' series in 2006 launched to critical acclaim, before petering out over the next three seasons as the show went off track and it's ultimate cancellation in 2010 after ratings dipped. Now, NBC hope to reignite the franchise, taking the time to properly map out the series and do it right. At San Diego Comic Con, the network aired the first trailer for the reboot and have now released it online.

The rebooted series features a mix of new and fan-favourite returning characters, including Jack Coleman as HRG, Jimmy Jean-Louis as The Haitian, Masi Oka as Hiro Nakamura and Greg Grunberg as Matt Parkman. The thirteen-episode series will act as a semi-sequel to the original four season run.

'Heroes Reborn' premieres in the U.S. on September 24th.

Continue reading: NBC's 'Heroes Reborn' series reboot gets first trailer (full post)

YouTube isn't playing nicely with Streamus, a music Chrome app

Chris Smith | Software & Apps | Jul 12, 2015 5:55 PM CDT

Among the funny cat photos, former-CEO Ellen Pao hate and some interesting life tips, Reddit has become a way for those without a voice to speak up with concerns. In comes Reddit member BAM5, letting /r/Music know that Streamus, a Google Chrome web stream application, has been allegedly bullied by YouTube in the recent past due to a failed acquisition.

The story is quite long winded and consists of a summary section, numerous emails between the sole developer and a YouTube employee, alongside notes in various sections touching back on previous points. If you wish to read the whole email chain, you can check it out here.

The summary states that after failing to contact YouTube personally, the team got in touch with Sean Anderson (the developer) after an article on TechCrunch saw Streamus rise of 70,000 users. YouTube voiced its concerns that video playback on Streamus would not halt whenever the tab is minimized, advertisements weren't functioning correctly (turned out to be YouTube's issue) and there were also some video display issues ensuring that the video was not prominent enough when being played.

Continue reading: YouTube isn't playing nicely with Streamus, a music Chrome app (full post)

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition looks 'mindblowing' in 4K

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jul 12, 2015 5:22 AM CDT

The Coalition, the studio behind Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, has said that the PC version of the game, is not a port. The developer has said that while it's super-enhanced, it's "authored at a much higher rate".

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition looks 'mindblowing' in 4K

We have 4K textures in nearly everything, and for the PC they could just "turn off those clamps and unlock it fully, and the world just becomes super crisp". The studio were teasing the game at Comic-Con, where Gears of War: Ultimate Edition was shown off in 4K on a huge 70-inch TV.

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is an exclusive Windows 10 release, where it will be making use of DirectX 12. This means we're going to have improved performance when 4K is turned on, but we're also going to see 90 minutes of new campaign content for the PC version of the game, remastered Dolby 7.1 Surround audio, and much more.

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F1 2015 launches without SLI support, isn't as broken as Arkham Knight

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jul 12, 2015 1:28 AM CDT

The launch of F1 2015 hasn't been perfect, with some users reporting performance issues on the PC version of the game. There's no support for NVIDIA's multi-GPU SLI technology. We've seen the game running on PC at 1080p 60FPS, where it looked quite good.

F1 2015 launches without SLI support, isn't as broken as Arkham Knight

Some users were quick enough to have the day-one patch rolled out to them, but Codemasters' Community Manager took to Reddit to write: "Hey everyone, just wanted to hop in and say we're aware of a lot of the issues users are facing at the moment and the team are working on getting a lot of these bugs squashed as fast as possible. As always we really do appreciate your feedback and patience with us while we get these sorted".

The day-one update for F1 2015 has fixed up a bunch of parts of the game:

Continue reading: F1 2015 launches without SLI support, isn't as broken as Arkham Knight (full post)

Batman: Arkham Knight mess has Warner Bros changing its review process

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jul 11, 2015 11:53 PM CDT

The PC port of Batman: Arkham Knight has been such a mess for Rocksteady Studios (who palmed the development of the PC port of Arkham Knight to Iron Galaxy Studios) and Warner Bros, that it forced Warner Bros to pull the game until it was fixed. Now, Warner Bros has said that they have since modified their internal review process for all future games after the problems with Batman: Arkham Knight.

Warner Bros' Community Admin 'Yorick' said: "Addressing the PC performance issues is still our top priority and at this time, we believe we have identified a number of fixes for the larger issues that were affecting PC players at launch. These fixes are currently being implemented into the game and once we have been able to do some initial testing, we'll have a better idea on the status of our progress. We'll provide an update on how things are developing next week".

Since the issues of the PC port of Arkham Knight caused so many hassles, Warner Bros has changed their entire internal review process, as Yorick explains: "We can also assure you that because of this latest launch, we are modifying the internal review process for all of our games. For those who are waiting for the updated version of the game on PC, please know that we are working on this every day. For the players who are continuing to play Batman: Arkham Knight on PC, fixes are continually being made to the game as we await the final updated version".

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NVIDIA partners cut price on GTX 980 Ti, GTX 980 after Fury launch

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Jul 11, 2015 10:20 PM CDT

Now that AMD has launched its new Radeon R9 Fury, something we were very impressed with in our review of the SAPPHIRE Tri-X R9 Fury, NVIDIA's add-in board (AIB) partners are very silently dropping their pricing on the GeForce GTX 980 Ti and GTX 980 cards.

When NVIDIA launched the GeForce GTX 980 Ti, it dropped the pricing of the GTX 980 from $549 to $499, but the price has been dropped to $479 after the Fury launched. The GTX 980 Ti has been dropped to $629, down $20 from its MSRP of $649. This brings AMD to the point where they have to look at the price of their Radeon R9 390X, which is priced at $429 or so on Amazon.

It's an interesting turn, and while it's only $20, every little bit helps.

Continue reading: NVIDIA partners cut price on GTX 980 Ti, GTX 980 after Fury launch (full post)

New 'Batman v Superman' trailer swoops in

Ben Gourlay | Celebrities & Entertainment | Jul 11, 2015 6:11 PM CDT

Unveiled just hours ago at Warner Bros much anticipated 2015 San Diego ComicCon panel is an extended look at next years superhero bust-up 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice', and now you can enjoy it from the sweat free comfort of your own home, in full 1080p.

Not just a sequel to the 2013 Superman reboot 'Man of Steel', 'Batman v Superman' is also a trojan horse for DC Comics and Warner Bros to introduce the Justice League, in order to better compete with the likes of 'The Avengers' and the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe.

'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice' will be released in 3D and 2D cinemas as well as IMAX screens on March 25th 2016 worldwide.

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Google Glass 'Enterprise Edition' features Intel processor, and more

Anthony Garreffa | Wearable Computing & Fashion | Jul 10, 2015 2:33 AM CDT

The new version of Google Glass will be powered by an Intel Atom processor, thanks to the detectives over at 9to5Google. They've reported that the new version of Google Glass will be called 'Enterprise Edition', or just 'EE'.

The updated Glass will feature a bigger prism, which is the little part of the wearable device that you look into, while Intel will provide an Atom processor. The larger prism is very welcomed, as it will help reduce eye strain and allow larger Now cards to be placed in front of your vision, while the Intel Atom processor will provide improved performance and better battery life.

Additionally, heat management has been improved, and thanks to the Intel Atom processor and its increased battery life, you should get through more of the day with the new Glass. Google has also reportedly developed an external battery pack for Glass, which I can't see many people using. Where are you going to install an external battery pack? On your ear? The new Enterprise Edition will also feature 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac dual-band Wi-Fi.

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Star Citizen's FPS module delayed weeks, not indefinitely

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jul 10, 2015 12:32 AM CDT

Not too long ago we reported that the release of Star Marine, the first-person shooter module of the ambitious Star Citizen had been 'delayed indefinitely'. This was wrong, and Cloud Imperium Games is now talking about it all, clearing everything on Star Marine up.

Cloud Imperium Games' Director of Community Management, Ben Lesnick, took to the Roberts Space Industries forums to clear things up, addressing complaints point-by-point. Firstly, he said that the statement that Star Marine had been "delayed indefinitely" was not the same as not having a release date, adding that "delayed indefinitely" is a games industry PR term for 'cancelled'.

Lesnick added: "The weekly updates from the team will give you a better idea [of what's happening], but the short story is that Star Marine was not ready for launch when we had hoped (and planned). We spent several weeks expecting that resolving a then-current crop of blockers would allow a PTU publish. When this didn't happen, we conducted a full review of the module lead by our top technical folks from around the company. What they determined was what you read in Chris' letter two weeks ago: we need to rebuild several 'boring' backend pieces and we need to fix serious animation issues before there would be any benefit to a release". As for the release, Lesnick said the delay is "weeks and not months/years/decades".

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