Latest News - Page 2117

HTC continues to fizzle out from its tumulous last few years, and just over a week from Mobile World Congress, HTC smartphone boss Chialin Chang has resigned.

Chang resigned as HTC's President of Smartphone and Connected Devices Business, with HTC explaining it was part of his "personal career plan", with the company not providing any details on who will replace him, or when.

HTC provided Engadget with a statement, where they said "We can confirm Chialin Chang has resigned from his position as President of the Smartphone and Connected Devices Business at HTC. We thank him for his dedication to the Company for the last six years and wish him well in his future endeavors".

Activision will cash in on the Call of Duty franchise until it is buried and dead, and even then there'll be some post-death DLC, I'm sure of it. It shouldn't come as a surprise that there's a Call of Duty movie in the works, something that will be limited to 24FPS.

Variety is reporting that Activision Blizzard are "ramping up development" on a Call of Duty movie, with one of the first moves being to find a director. Variety's sources are saying that Stefano Sollima, the director behind Sicario 2: Soldado is "negotiations to direct an adaptation of the popular video game".

Activision Blizzard believes they can turn Call of Duty into a "cinematic universe that could rival Marvel or DC", where during an interview with the Guardian in April 2017, Activision Blizzard Studios' presidents Stacey Sher and Nick van Dyk said they were planning a universe that would "draw on the feel of the different incarnations of the game rather than bringing over existing plots", reports Variety.

Nintendo Japan has released three new videos on their YouTube channel, detailing Nintendo Labo and the ways the respective parts provide players joy.

On the Nintendo Japanese YouTube channel, Nintendo have released overview videos for their Labo products. The Robot Kit video shows an Arcade Mode and a player playing as the robot that destroys buildings and UFOs. The video also shows the ability for the player to be able to jump to the first person perspective using the cardboard visor. Other modes include: a music mode, challenges and a customization mode for the robot.

The 'Variety Kit' video shows that players will be able to control the creation of their own music using a piano, pitch/frequency control is also available and a cardboard cut out fishing game with vibration control. There is many more things Nintendo has featured in the videos so check them out below.

ARM isn't sitting quietly in its fight against the major chipmakers, with the company announcing its new Project Trillium, which Engadget reports as a "combination of hardware and software ingredients designed explicitly to speed up AI-related technologies like machine learning and neural networks".

ARM ML will be much faster at machine learning tasks compared to normal CPUs and GPUs, with 2-4x the real-world throughput. The ML in ARM ML stands for machine learning, while ARM OD will handle object detection. ARM OD can handle "virtually unlimited" subjects in real-time at 1080p 60FPS, and while it is detecting people, it is good at face detection, poses, and even gestures.

On the software side of things there's ARM NN (neural network) that will act as the "go-between" for neural network frameworks like Google's TensorFlow, and the ARM-based processors.

Samsung has lost its software engineer CTO to Google, with Injong Rhee joining Google to become an "Entrepreneur in Residence" at the search giant.

Rhee was with Samsung for seven years, and was integral to the development of not just Samsung Pay, but Samsung's Knox security platform. Rhee was also leading the deployment of Samsung's in-house AI assistant, Bixby.

Now that Rhee is at Google, he has said that he will be leading Internet of Things projects, but wouldn't provide any concrete details. Rhee will be reporting to Diane Greene, the CEO of Google Cloud, and will be pushing for a "concerted" strategy that will separate home and business IoT lineups.

Right now we're in one of the worst positions ever for consumer graphics cards, with prices sky high and stocks at rock bottom, most GPUs are being eaten up by crypto miners. What can help, other than a purported next-gen GeForce GTX 20 series and possibly mining-specific SKUs of GTX 20 series cards? Ethereum ASIC miners, that's what.

The latest news coming in from China is that mining giant Bitmain is working on an Ethereum ASIC miner, the purported Antminer F3. Bitmain's rumored F3 Ethereum miner would pack 3 motherboards with 6 ASICs per motherboard, as well as 32 x 1GB DDR3 memory chips that would make for a very power efficient, but incredibly powerful Ethereum ASIC miner. This would put GPU mining for Ethereum out of business, almost overnight.

Bitmain is reportedly meeting with a few manufacturers in Taiwan, so you can be sure that they're talking to TSMC and others in order to see how many chips they can get their hands-on.

Since the release of Monster Hunter: World and the recent success that it has acquired many people have suggested the game to be developed for the Nintendo Switch, this may provide more "difficult" than expected.

According to Capcom President and Chief Operating Officer, Haruhiro Tsujimoto, bringing Monster Hunter: World to the Nintendo Switch would be quite problematic. Tsujimoto explains in a interview with Toyo Keizai Online that the game was developed for consoles and PC, the portability of the Nintendo Switch and the limits that come with it was not what the developers desired to create.

When Tsujimoto was asked if he would consider developing the game of for the Nintendo Switch he respected the fact that there was a very high demand by the Nintendo Switch audience. Unfortunately though, Tsujimoto said due to "various conditions" it would be quite difficult, not only from a developing standpoint but as well as knowledge of user base.

Sea of Thieves has had its end-game content revealed by Design Director Mike Chapman in a recent interview with Eurogamer.

According to Chapman, once players acquire the rank of 'Pirate Legend' it will unlock an area of the game named Pirate Cove which will allow for players to purchase legendary voyages. These legendary voyages can be compared to raids according to Chapman, also Pirate Cove would allow for players to purchase a larger variety of costumes.

In the interview Rare's development team was also present which allowed for an explanation into what Skeleton Forts will be in the full game. According to the team Skeleton Forts will be quite a difficult fight for players but will be rewarding, so rewarding that it apparently all won't fit in the one ship.

There is recent news circling around that there is a Spyro Trilogy remaster on the way to PS4 and and PS4 Pro, according to Kotaku the game should be announced in March.

Kotaku says that they have multiple sources familiar with the project to back up these claims, but it still seems more so like a rumor if anything so take it with a pinch of salt. According to the rumor, the remastered Spyro will feature new assets, lighting, animations, cinematic and also a new soundtrack.

The remastered trilogy will include a remaster of Spyro the Dragon, Ripto's Rage! and Year of the Dragon and is also to said to be coming to PS4 with PS4 Pro support aswell. This remaster is supposedly meant to be announced in March for a release in September, as this year in September is the anniversary for the Spyro the Dragon's 20th year which would line up nicely for a release.

God of War has had quite some news surface about it lately and now yet another marketing gift has been given to the public, high quality Atreus and Kratos revealed through a Facebook Messenger mini-game.

As the launch of God of War is right around the corner Sony Interactive Entertainment released access to this URL, the link will take you directly to the Facebook mini-game which will require you to log in.

Going through the length of the mini-game will reward players with eight pieces of 7200x7200 resolution artwork images which features Kratos and his son Atreus. The art-style almost feels Nordic, the contrast of colour and sketchy look makes the image appear as if it was created long ago. Some images depict Kratos and Atreus surrounded by Draugr and a Revenant, this 'sketchy' art-style is very apparent here.

Sea of Thieves is making its way to PC, and to gear PC gamers up for the challenge of the high seas Microsoft and developer Rare have released official PC requirements.

According to the image found on GameSpot and looking at the 'modern GPU' category we can see that players will be required to have at least an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or a AMD Radeon RX 470 to reach a recommended 60FPS at 1080p.

I cannot wait to see what this game will be looking like in 4K, even though players will have to cranking a GTX 1080 Ti or a AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, I'd assume it would be worth it. For players that don't have that much of a beefy rig, the minimum requirement bracket might be what you want to be looking at, 30FPS at 720p with a GTX 1030 or a AMD Radeon R7 450.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot and CFO Alain Martinez discussed the companies thoughts on the Nintendo Switch during an investors conference call yesterday.

According to Martinez, Ubisoft couldn't be happier with the partnership of Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle and the Nintendo Switch, infact he remarked that Ubisoft as a whole is "very pleased."

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle was the third best-selling game on the Nintendo Switch for 2017, this could be been the case because of the consoles immense sales, Ubisoft saying the portable hybrid has "strong momentum" for the future.

Back in early January I reported on the Dynasty Warriors 9 official gameplay trailers, as well as the official open world world trailer. Now that the game is released Koei Tecmo has celebrated with another trailer.

Dynasty Warriors is one of the longest running series of games to date, originating back on the first PlayStation, Koei Tecmo has really come a long way with what they have created here.

Adopting open world gameplay I saw was only inevitable for the game to survive, as even some of the early games felt that they deserved larger maps and more options for exploration.

Magic Leap is going on a semi-marketing campaign (but probably not) on its upcoming Magic Leap One headsets, with the elusive startup teasing multiple editions of their AR glasses for different levels of consumers and professionals.

According to Magic Leap boss Rony Abovitz, the cheapest Magic Leap headset will have a starting price of a "higher-end mobile phone to higher-end tablet". He continued, saying "I think we're trying to establish certain tiers - we're not going to be a single-product company over time".

Abovitz said that the Magic Leap One "creators edition" headset will be coming out this year, will be somewhere in the middle of Magic Leap's price range. Abovitz continued "We will have a product line in that price point probably for the company's history, and we'll probably have some above and we'll have some below. We'll have even higher-end [versions] for hyper-pro, and then we'll have wide mass-market" products".

AMD have just released their latest Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.2.2 drivers that are optimized for some of the latest, and biggest games on the market.

The new RSAE 18.2.2 drivers are optimized for the just-released Kingdom Come: Deliverance, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, and Epic Games' runaway hit Fortnite. There are performance gains for the Radeon RX 580 and RX Vega 56 in Kingdom Come: Deliverance of 4% and 3%, respectively.

The new drivers improve Fortnite performance on the RX Vega 56 by 5%, while PUBG enjoys an additional 7% on the RX 580.

Magic Leap wants to change the world with their next-generation Magic Leap One headset, with the Florida-based start up teaming with the NBA and Turner Sports to stream NBA games through an app that will be available to Magic Leap One "Creator Edition" owners.

The experience sounds very much like a VR-type of experience, with Magic Leap One owners getting to see and feel how it would be with courtside seats at an NBA game. NBA commissioner Adam Silver explained: "Before we got involved with Magic Leap the goal was to replicate the courtside experience". Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz teased: "It takes everything you love about normal television and amplifies it".

Abovitz continued, where he said "Imagine being able to conjure up, four, six or eight screens. You're seeing all of that in stats and data. Let's say this amazing moment and there's a twirl dunk that smashes the backboard and all of a sudden that shows up". Now how the hell could you say no to that?!

Foxconn is preparing a big shake up of the high-end camera market, with news that the company is going to be making cheaper, smaller 8K cameras where they've teamed up with RED.

Foxconn CEO Terry Gou said: "We will make cameras that will shoot professional-quality films in 8K resolution but at only a third of current prices and a third of current camera sizes". We should expect a new 8K-capable camera at around $10,000 and then weighs less than a traditional DSLR.

The company is pushing itself from being a contract manufacturer of smartphones, into a market that is dominated by just a few in the manufacturing world. RED's cinema cameras have been used in some of the biggest TV shows and movies thanks to their more portable size and price, but shoot some of the most detailed and beautiful footage on the market.

Salon is one of the first digital media publications in the world to move to mining cryptocurrency from users' PCs, a massive shift from the norm of traditional online ads.

The site wants to provide free content to its users, but like TweakTown and most other websites that rely on advertisements to be run on their site, the company is struggling with a constantly shifting advertising landscape. Salon said that digital ad revenue has dropped $40 billion between 1999 and 2010, with Salon adopting new ways of making money from users without slapping ads all over the place.

Salon will be asking users that are using ad blockers if they wouldn't mind disabling their ad blocker so Salon can make money from the on-screen ads, or they can 'suppress ads' by allowing your ad blocker, but mining cryptocurrency on unused computing power.

AMD is only just getting their EPYC server processors into systems now, after the announcement and launch of EPYC over 12 months ago now, and we're already hearing news about the 7nm EPYC successor codenamed Rome.

The rumors on Rome are coming from China with WCCFTech picking it up, with the next-gen Rome CPUs packing a huge 64C/128T of performance for one SKU. AMD will reportedly have two different EPYC dies, with:

The picture above is reprotedly the Zeppelin die with 12 cores per die, and four dies totaling 48 cores. The rumor is that AMD will have a second offering with 16 cores per Zeppelin die, bringing the total CPU cores to a huge 64. If AMD does pull this off, Intel will be pushing out bricks, from you know where.

NVIDIA kicks off its GPU Technology Conference late next month and now we're hearing that the company will be launching its new Turing GPU architecture during GTC 2018.

Reuters is the source behind the news so we have some credit behind it, but the site says that Turing will be NVIDIA's new 'gaming GPU' which leads me to believe that my world exclusive story from a couple of days ago is right: NVIDIA will launch two new GPU series, with one focused on gamers and one for miners.

Turing is an interesting choice as the codename is a nod to Alan Turing who was "highly influential in the development of theoretical computer science, providing a formalization of the concepts of algorithm and computation with the Turing machine" according to Wikipedia. Since Turing has roots in cryptography, it would make sense that the Turing-based card will be for miners, while Ampere will be aimed at gamers.