Latest News - Page 2141

Sony's PS4 has continued massive sales throughout its 4-year timeline, and according to an IDC analyst, the console could hit 100 million sales by 2019. But what about Sony's next-gen plan? The PS5, or whatever it may be called, could launch in 2021.

This month Sony reported that the PS4 has sold-through 70.6 million units since the console launched back in 2013, up a mighty 10.2 million units from its figures from June. According to senior IDC analyst Lewis Ward if these numbers continue the PS4 could hit 100 million total global sales by 2019, tacking on 29.4 million units in about two years time. "I think the PS4 will probably get [to 100 million] in 2019," Ward said in a recent interview with GamingBolt.

These predictions would put the PS4's total sales at about 66% of the PS2's 151 million lifetime sales in a span of about six years.

The latest version of Wii U emulator CEMU now supports multi-threaded CPUs, with CEMU v1.11.3 adding support for multi-threaded CPU emulation, amongst other new features and improvements.

CEMU v1.11.3 also features other optimizations that include cache drawcall index data across frames if the GPU buffer cache accuracy is set too low, a new graphics pack texture rule options, and adds task and task settings API. The new CEMU v1.11.3 is available to Patreon backers, and then to the public next week.

CEMU v1.11.3 Release Notes:

Hackers are using any means necessary these days to make money, so hacking PCs and getting them to mine cryptocurrency is the new thing, something that has now reached the huge user base of Facebook Messenger.

The cybercriminals are using Messenger to infect users' PCs with malware dubbed 'Digmine' that targets as many PCs possible, mining Monero, but the malware can get much worse. Trend Micro, a major cyber security firm, says that these hackers could get into, and takeover your Facebook accoun

Users that are on Google Chrome and use the desktop version of Messenger have been targeted by hackers to mine Monero on their PCs, but with their Facebook accounts under threat, it could get much worse. The researchers added: "If the user's Facebook account is set to log in automatically, Digmine will manipulate Facebook Messenger in order to send a link to the file to the account's friends".

Samsung is only a couple of months away from the launch of their new Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ smartphones, but we're getting drip-fed images through case renders of their new 2018 flagship smartphone.

The new Galaxy S9 will see a slightly redesigned rear, with the dual cameras on the Galaxy S9+ seeing the second camera placed under the first camera, compared to the side-by-side dual cameras on the Galaxy Note 8. The Galaxy S9 on the other hand will rock a single rear-facing camera, with both handsets seeing a repositioned rear fingerprint sensor.

Samsung should sell two different variants of the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ smartphones depending on the country their sold in, with their in-house next-gen Exynos processor powering some of the new handsets while Qualcomm's next-gen Snapdragon 845 will power the others.

AMD is preparing their next-gen Ryzen processors for 2018, but we're already hearing about the new 400-series chipset that will power next-gen motherboards thanks to a new post on PCI-SIG.

The upcoming Zen+/Ryzen 2000 range is also known as Pinnacle Ridge, and will be an upgrade of Zen 1 made on 12nm. AMD will give us higher clock speeds and improved power efficiency, which is always welcomed. Zen 2 will be saved for the Ryzen 3000 series of processors, which will offer even more improvements over Zen as it will be baked onto the super-delicious 7nm node.

AMD's upcoming Summit Ridge 300 series chipset was listed on PCI-SIG in January 2016, but now we have the new codename Promontory chipset listed on PCI-SIG, which was added on December 19, 2017. This new chipset teased "AMD 400 Series Chipsets" which will include X470, B450, and A420 series motherboards.

Psychonauts 2, Double Fine's anticipated platformer has sadly been delayed as the developer has realized the scope of the game they are making and how much time the project they had in mind will actually take.

The news was broke on Psychonauts 2's Fig page, Double Fine discussed the production of the upcoming title stating that the development team consists of "five full level teams" which are "working on the real-world locations and brand new mental worlds." Even though the teams are ramping up with the development of the game questions have begun to surface for the company as to how long the game is going to take to fully develop and is it going to be same vision they originally intended.

Within the production section of the blog post, Double Fine admit that they have learned through predicting when the finished product will be completed that Psychonauts 2 will not be seeing the light of day through 2018, but will have a more likely chance of a completion and release in 2019.

Google has upgraded their AI service Google Assistant but this time not silently, new languages and device actions have been added and will allow for further customization across SDK devices.

Google has expanded their Google Assistant SDK toolkit, it now supports additional languages and locations which grants users the ability to change their settings to the following languages English (Australia, Canada, UK, US), French (Canada, France), German, and Japanese.

Google has said that "one of the most prominent questions we received was "how can I ask the Assistant to control my device?" and to answer this question Google has updated the SDK with a new utility called 'Device Action' which has the functionality to be able to build user created actions and implement them straight into a Assistant-enabled device.

'Fake news' has become an abundant term used throughout modern-day society, Facebook being the largest social media network in the world has had fake news spread across its platform. To combat this third-party "fact checkers" were implemented to flag articles that fell under the fake news category but now Facebook has decided to announce the discontinuing of the flagging of articles.

Accused of posting 'fake news' articles throughout the Presidential campaigns in 2016, Facebook waged war against 'fake news' but now a new study from Yale University has suggested that the flagging of specific news articles that have been classified as 'fake news' holds no value at all and can actually "can backfire and further entrench someone's beliefs."

The study suggests that the flagging of specific articles only caused 3.7% of people to identify the flagged article as 'fake news' which has made Facebook question its implication of the third-party fact checkers which has now resulted in a decision to remove them.

Heroes of the Storm has taken to Twitter today to announce their next Hero, which is scheduled for release in January next year. 'Blaze', the Veteran Firebat has been selected as the next Hero that will be stepping onto the battlefield, originally from the very first Starcraft games and a pivotal unit throughout the Starcraft universe, Blaze has been given a quick teaser video confirming his debut to Heroes of the Storm.

Blizzard have taken the original Firebat unit and will implement him into their MOBA but have also given us no knowledge of what Blaze's abilities are, or where he fits in on the battlefield. Since there is no knowledge of his abilities all that can be done is educated guessing based off the unit within the Starcraft universe. Firebats within the Starcraft universe are AOE (area of effect) masters mostly used for defensive purposes due to their dual arm-mounted flame throwers.

Firebats also use armored plating, to complement this Firebats also have a upgrade to their armor called 'Juggernaut Plating' which increases the Firebats health and base armor. This is not a lot to go on as Blaze could very well be changed before his release but from what is known about Firebats already, it could very well could be implemented into Heroes of the Storm.

The Division was one of the most-hyped games of the last few years and while it might be doing alright now, it didn't start off that well. The game launched in March last year, and has since been patched and had DLC after DLC released pleasing fans alike.

Now we have Massive Entertainment Managing Director David Polfeldt saying that the developer will continue to support the game, as long as there are people playing it, but he didn't rule out that they aren't working on a sequel or an offshoot of The Division.

Polfeldt spoke with IGN recently, where he said: "I think it's a wonderful, wonderful brand that has so many potential stories in it. There are a lot of things that we didn't do in The Division 1 that are interesting to look at for that brand. I definitely think there's lots of space for continuation which is beyond just keeping The Division online. But...I can't talk about that too much right now".

Elon Musk is doing a world-first by launching a red Tesla Roadster into space, loading up the vehicle onto the first Falcon Heavy rocket that will leave our atmosphere and deliver the car to aliens, I guess.

Musk said that he would launch the Tesla Roadster into space with most thinking he was joking around, but SpaceX has confirmed that it is indeed true.

Musk took to Twitter, where he tweeted: "A Red Car for the Red Planet Test flights of new rockets usually contain mass simulators in the form of concrete or steel blocks. That seemed extremely boring. Of course, anything boring is terrible, especially companies, so we decided to send something unusual, something that made us feel. The payload will be an original Tesla Roadster, playing Space Oddity, on a billion year elliptic Mars orbit".

It seems that by simply changing your business name with something crypto-related results in your share prices rising just like crypto prices: by 500%.

Long Island Iced Tea Corp changed their name to Long Blockchain Corp, seeing their pre-market trading prices rise by a huge 500% before stabilizing to a 275% gain. Long Blockchain has been making non-alcoholic lemonades and ice teas, and as of Wednesday had a market value of $23.98 million.

The company peaked at a point of pre-market trading with 9.76 million outstanding shares, seeing the company with a market value of a much larger $138 million... all due to a name change that involved blockchain, because you know... drinks are like crypto, I guess.

Qualcomm is preparing their next-gen Snapdragon 845 processor that will power countless flagship smartphones in 2018, but we're already hearing news about the successor to Snapdragon 845, the upcoming Snapdragon 855.

According to PocketNow, Qualcomm could shift its weight away from Samsung for the Snapdragon 855 and ask TSMC to help with manufacturing their new chip. PocketNow reports that TSMC is rumored to "snatch orders from Samsung in 2018" and one of those would be Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 855.

We should expect Samsung's new 2018 flagship smartphones in the Galaxy S9, Galaxy S9+ and even the Galaxy Note 9 to all be powered by the AI-driven, super-fast Snapdragon 845. But in 2019, I would suspect Qualcomm will unleash their next-gen Snapdragon 855 with the Galaxy S10 (I'm guessing there'll be a nomenclature change by then) and the Galaxy Note 10 (sounds like a boss).

Eric Schmidt, now the former executive chairman at Alphabet's board of directors has stepped down from his leading position to transition into a new role of advising issues regarding "science and technology."

Larry Page, the CEO of Alphabet has come forward and spoken on the job transition "Since 2001, Eric has provided us with business and engineering expertise and a clear vision about the future of technology, continuing his 17 years of service to the company, he'll now be helping us as a technical advisor on science and technology issues. I'm incredibly excited about the progress our companies are making, and about the strong leaders who are driving that innovation."

Schmidt has said that he has been spending quite some time on science and technology issues and believes this area is the next area he would like to expand his work in "In recent years, I've been spending a lot of my time on science and technology issues, and philanthropy, and I plan to expand that work."

Netflix on PC is about to get a major update as Netflix has taken to their blog to announce that Netflix now supports HDR on Windows 10. The update designed for the Edge browser and the Netflix app will be available to Netflix premium customers, and there is already 200 hours of HDR content available.

Unfortunately this update won't be available to everyone as only Intel's 7th-generation or higher processors will support HDR10 encoded content. Those that have older generation CPU are not cut out just yet, if you have decided to upgrade your graphics card to anything above NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1050, Netflix HDR will be also be supported.

"We are thrilled to announce the addition of High Dynamic Range (HDR) support on Windows 10 for both the Edge browser and the Netflix app. With this update, Netflix members who have a supported device and a premium plan can enjoy amazing Netflix movies and shows in HDR."

Apple has announced today that they have revised the old guidelines of the App Store and have amended the policy of not being able to post template created apps. Earlier this year the company changed their guidelines to not allowing template created apps on the App store, soon after Apple realized that their effort of trying to prevent low-quality apps and spam affected more people than intended.

Apple's policy change of not allowing template based apps on the App Store meant that custom apps would have to be made to fit the companies guidelines. Small businesses, restaurants, nonprofits, organizations and clubs suffered from this new rule as most people don't have the funds to create custom apps or don't have any prior knowledge in app development.

Apple has revised the previous guidelines and reversed the standard to allow for templates to be used it but it has come with a catch. Instead of having middleman app developers publishing small businesses Apple requires "Apps created from a commercialized template or app generation service will be rejected unless they are submitted directly by the provider of the app's content."

Tesla has stepped up to the plate by saving the Loy Yang Power Station that recently experienced a 560 MW drop on December 14th, this drop in MW has caused a dip in the frequency from 50Mz to 49.80Hz.

The Tesla Powerpack is currently connected to Neoen's Hornsdale Wind Farm near Jamestown about three hours drive out of Adelaide, South Australia. The Powerpack has a massive capacity of 100MW and to save the coal-powered mining station the Powerpack supplied 7.3MW from to Loy Yang which is a massive distance of 620 miles away located near the border of Victoria (1000 kms).

The best bit about this is the fact that a Wind Farm which naturally generates energy not only just saved a coal-powered power plant from a frequency drop, but it also beat the back-up unit which is contracted to provide power within a very short 6 seconds of a frequency drop. Tesla didn't even give them a chance, by the time they went to back up the power plant the problem was already fixed.

Recently there has been a lot of fire between the two titan companies Amazon and Google, product disagreements have surfaced and many discussions have taken place but now we might see a strike at Google's YouTube as Amazon has filed trademark requests for the following titles, Amazon Tube and Open Tube.

Amazon has recently re-listed Googles chromecast as a result of Google pulling YouTube from Amazon FireTV and all Echo Shows, still in constant discussion to reach a verdict Amazon might not want/need YouTube as a service on their platforms, as the company might just go and make their own.

On the same day as Google announcing that YouTube will be discontinued from Amazon services on January 1 we learn that Amazon has filed for two new trademarks 'Amazon Tube' and 'Open Tube', both have descriptions extremely similar to that of YouTubes.

It was during the Star Citizen Holiday 2017 livestream that developer Cloud Imperium Games chose to unveil the PC requirements of Squadron 42... and how weird they are. This is what you'll need to run Squadron 42:

See that? You'll need a DX11-capable graphics card with just 2GB of RAM, but 4GB is strongly recommended. 2GB of VRAM for a game that has been pushed as one of the most ambitious PC games, ever?! Hmmm.

It's good for those who aren't rocking GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards, as it'll open the game to the backers who pledged towards Star Citizen all the way back in 2012.

ZOTAC is making moves into the external GPU enclosure business, with the announcement of two new eGPU products: Amp Box, and Amp Box Mini.

Both of ZOTAC's new external GPU enclosures are smaller than competing external GPU enclosures, making them perfect for their own GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Mini graphics card.

Starting with the normal Amp Box which measures in at 5.8 x 10.1 x 10.7 inches (15 x 26 x 27 cm), while the smaller Amp Box Mini is 3.9 x 7.2 x 9.1 inches (10 x 18 x 28 cm). Both the normal Amp Box and Amp Box Mini can house dual-slot graphics cards at up to 7.8 inches (20nm) in length.