Latest News - Page 1809

A new announcement has revealed that in 2021, the Nova-C lander will be hitching a ride aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket that's headed to the Moon.

SpaceX will be using their Falcon 9 rocket for a planned Moon landing in 2021, and the NASA-sponsored flight will also have on board the Nova-C lunar lander that was built by Houston-based Intuitive Machines. According to Intuitive Machines representatives, the Nova-C has the ability of carrying 100 kilograms, or 220lbs of cargo anywhere on the lunar surface.

For the 2021 mission in particular, the Nova-C will have payloads from NASA as well as some other customers to fill out the rest of the available room. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said in a statement, "We're honored that Intuitive Machines selected Falcon 9, SpaceX's tried-and-true workhorse, for this pioneering mission to the moon. Our partnership with Intuitive Machines is a great example of two private companies working together with NASA to advance space exploration."

A new report has shown that Tom Holland is the real-life Spider-Man, saving the fouled up deal between Sony and Disney for future Spider-Man movies.

A new report out of The Hollywood Reporter has shined a light on the newly formed deal between Disney and Sony for future Spider-Man movies. According to the report, Disney will get 25% of the box office net gross for the third Spider-Man film scheduled to release in July 2021. Disney will also be paying for 25% of the movie's budget.

Originally, Disney offered Sony 50/50 split and Sony didn't come back with a counter offer for nearly six months. So who saved the day and brought both companies back to the negotiating table? The Hollywood reporter says it was Spider-Man himself, Tom Holland. Holland contacted Disney CEO Bob Iger and Sony film boss Tom Rothman encouraging them both to come back to the table to form a deal.

The director of Overwatch, Jeff Kaplan has selected one specific hero out of his 31 to chose from. This hero will be offered to the Nintendo gods to be deemed worthy enough to enter into the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster.

In an interview with IGN, Jeff Kaplan, the director of Overwatch spoke out about the recent speculation that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate would soon be adopting an Overwatch representative since Overwatch is now coming to the Nintendo Switch.

In response to the question, it's described that Kaplan got excited about the idea and said "To the Smash Brothers team, whatever character you want, we love them all. They're all our babies, you can have any single one of them. We have 31 to choose from." Kaplan did eventually say that if he was going to chose one hero from the Overwatch roster, he would choose Tracer.

Call of Duty: Mobile is off to a good start so far, with 20 million downloads clocked since its release across iOS and Android devices.

Sensor Tower is behind the 20M number, with the statistical firm tracking mobile downloads, reporting 20 million downloads of Call of Duty: Mobile so far. Interestingly, gamers have already spent $2 million on microtransactions in that time.

India is a hotspot for Call of Duty: Mobile, with 14% of all installs of the game taking place in the country while US gamers account for 9% in comparison.

Microsoft and Sony will both have ray tracing in their next-gen consoles, with news breaking that the next-gen Xbox Scarlett and PlayStation 5 each doing ray tracing differently.

Gizmodo is behind the latest rumor, saying that a leaker told them that the PS5 and Xbox Scarlett will be using different techniques for ray tracing and that both Microsoft and Sony will be using different approaches in their respective ray tracing abilities

The leak included the fact that both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Scarlett consoles feature 4K cameras, but Microsoft will be amping it up with their Xbox camera. The Xbox Scarlett development kit has a 4K-capable camera with 2ms lag, Snapchat-style abilities with lighting changes, and more.

PlayStation 4's cross-play functionality is now available to all developers, Wired reports.

After years of hesitation, Sony has finally embraced cross-play. Starting with bigger free-to-play games like Rocket League, PUBG, and Fortnite, Sony eventually opened PS4 cross-play to more games. The biggest is Modern Warfare, which launches this month with full cross-play functionality on PS4, Xbox One and PC. Now Sony is lifting the floodgates completely and making PS4 fully compatible with cross-play on other platforms. Now it's up to developers to make use of it.

The news comes from a recent Wired interview with Jim Ryan discussing the future of the PlayStation platform. PS4's cross-platform support is now active across its near-100 million strong install base. Not much was said about the PS5 other than Sony working hard not to rest on its laurels--the content was mostly about services like PlayStation Now and cross-play. Both have an important role for Sony's immediate and long-term future.

Destiny 2 is currently the third most popular game on Steam right now, behind DOTA 2 and Counter-Strike Global Offensive.

Bungie's migration to Steam is a huge success. Destiny 2's new free-to-play mode has attracted nearly 2% of current active Steam users, and has amassed a huge 226,651 peak players today. Right now it currently sits at over 119K players, beating out PUBG by over 70,000 users. We're not sure how many Destiny 2 players are on the free New Light mode or bought into Shadowkeep, but we're betting the F2P option is most popular.

Whether or not these numbers will stay this inflated remains to be seen. Gamers are much more willing to try something that's free and give it a go for a few days, but a portion of them could drop out and move on. Destiny 2 has the added bonus of cross-saves, which lets PS4 players jump in on PC to play with Steam friends and then jump right back to their main platform. This potent tool could lead to lots of retention and platform-switching over time.

The rumors were true: Microsoft is making a Surface phone, and it has two screens. This new Surface Duo could be its answer to handheld gaming.

Microsoft has always been woefully behind when it comes to handheld gaming. But all of that could change with today's Surface Duo announcement, a new Android-powered device with hinging dual-screens. Microsoft showed off various use cases for the Surface Duo at its recent event, and gaming in particular has tons of potential.

The Surface Duo is transformable, making it somewhat like the Nintendo Switch. It doesn't dock, but you can use it like a 3DS, like a full display, or a half-display, mirroring the Switch's Tabletop Mode and Handheld Mode. Users can either hook up an Xbox One controller wirelessly via Bluetooth and use the dual screens as a portable gaming display, or flip it and hold like a 3DS and use the bottom half as a touch-screen controller while the top is used as a display.

At about 2:45PM yesterday, Intel's price slashing was leaked. We were actually at the briefing when it happened, so we will clarify some of the new details with Intel's official slides. For starters, prices are being slashed by up to 50%, which is huge news. However, if you have had experience with Intel's top of the line CPUs over the past decade, their Extreme Edition flagships have always been priced around $1000. It's refreshing to see Intel react to market demand and bring the price down to more normal levels.

The 10th Generation 14-nm i9-10980XE will be their flagship CPU with 18 cores, and all the new CPUs are Cascade Lake-X series. All the CPUs get considerable boosts to their maximum Turbo frequencies, with the 18, 14, and 12 core variants going up to 4.8GHz and the 10-core CPU going to 4.7GHz. When we inquired to the turbo tables Intel told us they would have to get back with us.

We did notice that Intel has dropped their 16-core variant, and we believe this was done due to low demand. Total platform PCI-E lanes have been increased to 72, which is due to the addition of four PCI-E lanes, so the CPUs all have 48 PCI-E lanes instead of 44.

Amazon Germany spills the beans on a new Fallout compilation that bundles the biggest games together in single SKU.

Bethesda is finally wrapping up every singleplayer-driven Fallout game together in one package on PC. Introducing the Fallout Legacy Collection, a new set that combines Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, and Fallout 4 in the same set, complete with all expansions and released DLC for every game. The leaked listing has a 39.99 Euro price tag, which puts it at roughly $40 in USD.

The games in the retail version will be included on discs rather than digital, and we should see the collection arrive on Bethesda.net too. There's no word on a potential console or Switch version, but don't expect the original Fallout 1 & 2 to arrive anywhere but PC. Bethesda has yet to announce the news just yet, and listing says the Fallout Legacy Collection is due out on October 25, 2019.

Respawn Entertainment has released the newest season for Apex Legends, and accompanied with all the new skins and map, we have a brand new character.

Above we have the introduction video released on the official Apex Legends YouTube account, it gives us a very brief lore overview of why Crypto has joined the Apex Legends. The video then goes into what players can expect ability wise, and since Crypto is one of the most elite hackers in the Outlands he has the pleasure of being able to use his drone to locate enemies.

When the drone is used the camera is changed from Crypto's point-of-view to what the drone is looking at. Players can fly the drone around the map and locate enemies, once the drone has spotted some enemies it will mark them for the entire team to see. This feature is his passive called 'Neurolink' which grants teammates and Crypto vision of marked enemies through walls up to 30 meters.

Call of Duty: Mobile players were no doubt dominating when using a controller to play the game, unfortunately Activision has ruined that portion of fun. Controllers for Call of Duty: Mobile have now been disabled.

Activision Support has replied to a fan on Twitter who was asking about controller support for the game. Activision has said that since the last update for the game, controller support has been revoked and it seems it won't be returning either.

It seems like a great idea to remove the controller support, as players who are just using their fingers to aim would have a clear disadvantage when compared to those players who have hooked up their controller. Call of Duty: Mobile is aimed at mobile players, and I believe that players who want to hook up their controller for a clear advantage should instead take pillaging desires to consoles where those controllers belong.

Nintendo has rolled out the newest update to Super Mario Maker 2 adding online co-op and competitive modes.

The newest update levels up the game to version 1.1.0 and adds online player matchmaking in the form of co-op and versus play. According to Nintendo World Report, Nintendo chose to not originally include online matchmaking because they didn't want players tag-teaming up to top global leader-boards.

Now that version 1.1.0 has released players now have that option and can search for players or even invite Switch friends via their friends lists. Nintendo has also added voice chat support via the Nintendo Switch Online mobile app. If you are interested in checking out the full version 1.1.0 changes visit this link here.

The InSight lander that is currently on Mars has relayed back to Earth some amazing audio sounds that scientists believe to be Marsquakes and other martian sounds.

NASA's InSight lander has managed to capture more than 100 events on its radar, but its estimated that only out of these 100 events that 21 of those are marsquake potentials. InSight's seismometer which is what was used to capture this evidence is so impressively sensitive that it can also pick up the sound of wind on the distant planet.

Imperial College London's Constantinos Charalambous who assisted with the audio recordings said commented on the video, saying "It's been exciting, especially in the beginning, hearing the first vibrations from the lander. You're imagining what's really happening on Mars as InSight sits on the open landscape."

NetherRealm Studios has teased a brand new skin for Cassie Cage, the skin coincides with the announcement of Birds Of Prey.

Above we have the teaser that has been released onto the official Mortal Kombat 11 Twitter page. From the video we can see Cassie Cage with a brand new Harley Quinn skin that resembles much of the depiction of Harley Quinn in the recently released Birds Of Prey trailer.

The Tweet also mentions Birds Of Prey, saying "Cassie auditioned for #BirdsOfPrey. Unfortunately, she inherited her Father's acting skills." The video also shows off the soon to be released Terminator T-800, and as Cage approaches the cyborg she says "What, no roses?". Terminator responds with "Just guns", Cage then says "Welcome to the jungle." This is all a direct reference to band Gun n' Roses and how that band is connected to The Terminator.

Both Blizzard and Nintendo announced Overwatch for the Nintendo Switch back in early September, and since then players have been wondering how not only the controls are going to pan out, but also if there is going to be adjustable performance options available.

In a recent interview with Vooks, Wes Yanagi, the games principal producer discussed both of these topics and shined a light on some valuable information. According to Yanagi, the Nintendo Switch version of Overwatch will have the tradional controller layout that other consoles do, but in addition players will have what is called 'gyro-aim support'.

Yanagi says, "Controls for the Nintendo Switch version of Overwatch is basically the same as the other consoles. However, one big addition is gyro-aim support. With gyro-aiming, you can tilt the Switch or Pro Controller to give a little nudge to your aim and help line-up shots. Or, you can detach the Joy-Cons and point it at the screen like a laser pointer. One of our designers plays this way and dominates."

A new large-scale study has been released showcasing data towards smartphone typing speeds exponentially catching up with physical keyboard typing speeds.

Researchers from Aalto University, University of Cambridge and ETH Zurich conducted an analysis on the typing speeds of tens of thousands of phone and computer users. Anna Feit, a researcher at ETH Zurich, and one of the papers co-authors said "We were amazed to see that users typing with two thumbs achieved 38 words per minute on average, which is only about 25% slower than the typing speeds we observed in a similar large-scale study of physical keyboards."

The researchers also found that while typing on a physical keyboard is certainly still faster, the people who reach the 100 words-per-minute (wpm) mark was actually decreasing. Meaning that smartphone users are slowing bridging the gap between keyboard speed and smartphone speed. The study also found that of the 37,000 volunteers (who varied in age and demographic) that 74% of people type with two thumbs.

Respawn Entertainment has released the third season of Apex Legends, making the highly anticipated 'Crypto' available to play as well as a bunch of brand new surprise content.

Season 3 will take players to a brand new map called World's Edge where players will see a visual representation of fire and water battling each other. Just like every new season, there is a new Battle Pass to go along with it and that also means brand new skins for guns, champions, loading screen art and more.

To go along with the additions of gun skins and more, Respawn Entertainment has also added brand new music packs, skydive emotes, Legend banners, crafting metals, XP boosts, Apex Packs and Apex Coins. Not to mention the addition of the brand new Legend Crypto. For those wondering how much the Battle Pass is, it comes it at a price of 950 Apex Coins which is about $10. When purchased players will automatically unlock new skins for Mirage, Bloodhound, and Octane as well as a Legendary skin for the DMR Longbow, Reckoner.

UPDATE: Microsoft has issued a statement saying Project Scarlett won't ship with a camera.

Microsoft's ultra-powerful next-gen Project Scarlett Xbox console will come with a high-end 4K camera, sources tell Gizmodo.

Microsoft has been surprisingly open about its new Xbox console. The company confirmed Project Scarlett will sport AMD's new Zen 2 CPU and GPU technology for a huge compute jump over current gen, it's targeting higher frame rates versus resolution, it's 4x as powerful as the Xbox One X's 6TFLOPs of power, and it has an on board super-fast SSD that can be used as VRAM for games. And it's fully backward compatible with every Xbox One game and peripheral.

Logitech today revealed an interesting new mechanical keyboard with swappable keyswitches.

The new Logitech G Pro X one-ups the original Logitech G Pro keyboard in a big way: it lets users swap between red, blue, or brown mechanical key switches on-the-fly. Users can literally pull out the entire key-and-switch combo from the board.

The Pro X uses Logitech G's proprietary GX switches that come in three flavors: Clicky (blue) for a more audible and punchy press, Tactile (brown) for a more soft bump, or Linear (red) for smooth keystrokes.