Learn about how TweakTown tests and reviews hardware. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. TweakTown may also earn commissions from other affiliate partners at no extra cost to you.
Stay Updated
Follow TweakTown for breaking tech news, reviews, and daily updates.
Far Cry 5 box art shows villains, airplanes, and chaos
Ubisoft has released Far Cry 5's official box art, showing us the game's main villain and confirming the religious-based plotline.
Far Cry 5 was officially confirmed days ago, and Ubisoft is set to reveal the game in a trailer this Friday. Ahead of Far Cry 5's official showcase, the publisher dropped new key art for the game to give us our first glimpse at its main characters. No information was released about the game--only the picture--but the image tells us quite a bit. In fact, Ubisoft threw in some extra blasphemy by recreating The Last Supper with Far Cry 5 characters, outright confirming the religious aspect.
For instance, we already know Far Cry 5 takes place in modern-day Montana, and is heavily based on a religious cult held in check by armed guards. Now we get a good look at the villains we'll no-doubt be taking down: the main baddie in the center who's likely in charge of the cult in Hope County, Montana, alongside his henchmen, which includes an Army vet with a pet direwolf.
Continue reading: Far Cry 5 box art shows villains, airplanes, and chaos (full post)
Sony's Project FIELD mobile tech may release in 2017
Sony has indicated its new Project Field technology, which allows consumers to use physical trading cards to play against other users digitally, may be released this year.
Following Nintendo's push towards mobile gaming, Sony is making its own earnest effort to embrace smartphone games and get a cut of the lucrative industry. Sony Interactive Entertainment started its own proprietary mobile games company called ForwardWorks, which will adapt the company's popular IPs--as well as key third-party partners' IPs such as Square Enix--into mobile games.
Upcoming mobile titles include entries from the Arc The Lad and Wild Arms franchises, as well as Parappa the Rappa and Disgaea.
Continue reading: Sony's Project FIELD mobile tech may release in 2017 (full post)
NASA shows Mars 2020 rover concept
NASA has published an artist' concept of the Mars 2020 rover, which should join Opportunity and Curiosity rover on the Red Planet in 2020.
The Mars 2020 rover is intended to investigate an astrobiological relevant ancient environment on Mars, investigate its surface geological processes and history, including the assessment of its past habitability, the possibility of past life on Mars, and a potential for preservation of biosignatures within accessible geological materials.
The Mars 2020 rover introduces a drill that can collect core samples of the most promising rocks and soils and set them aside on the surface of Mars. A future mission could potentially return these samples to Earth.
Continue reading: NASA shows Mars 2020 rover concept (full post)
Microsoft Studios now named MS Studios Global Publishing
Microsoft's key first-party publishing arm has received a name change, and may embrace deals with foreign developers abroad.
Microsoft Studios is now officially named Microsoft Studios Global Publishing, which may indicate a monumental shift towards publishing games across the globe instead of titles based in North America. The branch has a widespread focus that includes development and publication of key first-party and third-party titles, and the name change should signify that developers from other countries are now aboard.
Xbox division head Phil Spencer recently took a trip to Japan to gauge interest in the Xbox platform, which was a big success: Spencer affirms that many developers want to make games for the Xbox platform. We're betting that Spencer's trip has a lot to do with the production company's new focus, and that we'll see lots of Japanese third-party games quite soon.
Continue reading: Microsoft Studios now named MS Studios Global Publishing (full post)
Tesla's Chatbot Elon will help you manage your car
Tesla Motors now has a Messenger chatbot to help you manage your car, so called TeslaBot.
SmartCar introduced this feature and named the virtual assistant none other than Elon. You will have to connect your Messenger to your Tesla account, and then you can use Messenger to complete simple tasks such as locking your car or getting information about where your car is located.
Unfortunately, if you don't own a Tesla, this Chatbot is pretty useless.
Continue reading: Tesla's Chatbot Elon will help you manage your car (full post)
How Mario Rabbids crossover is a big missed opportunity
The Nintendo Switch's rumored Mario x Rabbids crossover game is real, and it's called Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle...but the game represents a big missed opportunity for Nintendo, and here's how.
Accord to recent leaks, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle is a tactical turn-based RPG with squads that's somewhat in the vein of XCOM, and merges Ubisoft's Rabbids with Nintendo's beloved Mario franchise. The crossover game will feature 8 different characters (4 Rabbid impersonators alongside Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and Yoshi) each with their own playstyles and tactical abilities. But unlike XCOM, the new Nintendo Switch tactical RPG is local co-op only and has no online component.
This is a huge missed opportunity for the Japanese console-maker, and the Switch system as a whole. The Nintendo Switch's paid online subscription service is the foundation of the system's future in regards to big hit franchises, and the industry's top publishers like EA, Ubisoft, and Activision will not bring their biggest games to the Switch unless it has an appealing online framework.
Continue reading: How Mario Rabbids crossover is a big missed opportunity (full post)
Battlegrounds' new patch: Early Access beats AAA games
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is blowing up on Steam right now, with the Early Access game doing big business selling over 2 million copies so far. But for me, the most impressive thing is that the developer is continuously patching the game, bringing more performance, optimizations, and features in what feels like every week or two.
Bluehole's latest patch for Battlegrounds is called the Early Access Month 2 Update, with the team "currently in the middle of profiling the servers to attempt to track down the cause of the lag, but as I have said before, this will take us time to complete, so I ask for your patience while we work to improve server performance for all players". Next month, the update will be "focused on improving server performance, the optimisation process won't stop there, and we will continue to improve performance of the servers all the way through Early Access".
Battlegrounds' latest update will drop to the Stable Servers today at 5PM KST/1AM PDT/8AM UTC, and will take 1 hour to complete.
Continue reading: Battlegrounds' new patch: Early Access beats AAA games (full post)
Corsair's Commander Pro controls all case fans, lighting
Corsair has just unveiled its upcoming Commander Pro system controller, something that will take care of all of your RGB LED lightstrip controllers and fans.
The new Commander Pro is a little black box that requires a SATA power connector, along with a USB 2.0 internal header for data.
Corsair's Commander Pro can handle four temperature sensors, six PWN fans, two LED lightstrips, and two more USB 2.0 internal headers.
Continue reading: Corsair's Commander Pro controls all case fans, lighting (full post)
Google's 4K digital whiteboard available for $5000
In one of those 'I wish I had that in school' moments, Google is now selling its 4K digital whiteboard, with the Jamboard costing $5000. It's not for everyone, but it has its market.
Jamboard is like a gigantic tablet made for the workplace, school, or meeting room and has similar features to a tablet, but features some other collaboration tools.
Jamboard is capable of letting multiple people work together on the digital whiteboard with G Suite, all in a single location - even including remote employees.
Continue reading: Google's 4K digital whiteboard available for $5000 (full post)
Acer's new Predator Z35P: 35-inch 3440x1440 100Hz G-Sync
If you've been waiting for Acer's new Predator Z35P, the company is now taking pre-orders of its latest and greatest, and biggest gaming monitor. Acer's upcoming Predator Z35P sports a native 3440x1440 resolution at up to 100Hz, and is backed up by NVIDIA's G-Sync technology for a smooth 21:9 gaming experience.
Acer's new Predator Z35P costs $1099, but does offer the slightly larger 35-inch size against the current roster of 34-inch panels.
AMD Radeon owners might want to look at the FreeSync-powered Samsung CF791. Samsung uses their impressive Quantum Dot technology on a 34-inch panel at 3440x1440 at up to 100Hz on FreeSync, and even on NVIDIA GeForce cards - albeit without G-Sync or FreeSync enabled. Samsung sells the CF791 on Amazon for $849.99 - $250 cheaper for the same 3440x1440 @ 100Hz panel, but 1-inch smaller at 34 inches.
Continue reading: Acer's new Predator Z35P: 35-inch 3440x1440 100Hz G-Sync (full post)
Crackdown 3 coming to PC, is an Xbox Play Anywhere title
Crackdown 3 has been officially confirmed for the PC, after being teased for the PC - but not confirmed, the news was delivered directly from the official Crackdown Twitter page.
They tweeted "Crackdown 3 will indeed be a Play Anywhere title," meaning you'll be able to play on your Xbox and PC systems, with Crackdown 3 to surely be made available through the Windows Store for Windows 10 gamers. Reagent Games has previously confirmed Crackdown 3 for 2017, and I'm now hoping for new information on the game, and hopefully a tease of it on the PC, at E3 next month.
Continue reading: Crackdown 3 coming to PC, is an Xbox Play Anywhere title (full post)
Samsung unveils bendable/stretchable OLED display
If there's a mobile display company that's always pushing the edge of display technology, it would be Samsung. The company has recently shown off its prototype 1.96-inch 4K LCD for future VR headsets, and its 3.5-inch 120Hz OLED display.
Samsung had another mobile display prototype, something that was different to the others as its a stretchable, foldable display - in something that sounds like borderline magic. Samsung said that the new technology is similar to other flexible display prototypes, and they're not sure on when this could hit the market at a consumer level.
The company showed off a massive 9.1-inch display that could be bend on either side oef the screen. A Samsung spokesperson explained: "While current flexible OLED is able to be transformed in only one side, this stretchable OLED can be transformed -- whether curved, bended or rolled -- in both sides, above and below".
Continue reading: Samsung unveils bendable/stretchable OLED display (full post)
MSI scoops 5 awards for Computex Best Choice Award 2017
Computex 2017 kicks off next week, but ahead of the show the organizers unveil awards for some of the best/hottest products of the show, with MSI winning 5 different awards in the Computex Best Awards 2017.
MSI took out the Golden Award for its impressive GT83VR TITAN SLI gaming laptop, that comes in configurations with either GeForce GTX 1080 SLI or GTX 1070 SLI, it is one of the beastiest gaming laptops on the market. MSI's awesome GT83VR TITAN SLI gaming laptop is also the world's first Nahimic VR with 7.1 sound, providing some of the best audio you can get in VR - all on-the-go.
I've only spend a little time with MSI's VR ONE backpack, and I've loved it. It looks like it would be heavier than it really is, weighing in at just 3.6kg. VR ONE is a backpack PC that has removable batteries, allowing for on-the-go VR gaming on your back. Compared to VR gaming right now where you're tethered, the cable can run down into the backpack and out of your way. Business use is perfect for this, as well as engineering and VR app development.
Continue reading: MSI scoops 5 awards for Computex Best Choice Award 2017 (full post)
Surface Pro continues to evolve, now packs Kaby Lake
Microsoft is launching a new Surface Pro today, with the introduction of the Surface Pro. Yeah, Microsoft has dropped the numbering scheme from its line up, with the Surface Pro 4 being the last of the numbered Surface Pro products, from now on they'll just be 'Surface Pro'.
The next-gen hybrid laptop/tablet has some pretty significant internal changes, with "about 800 new custom parts in the new Pro" says Microsoft Surface boss Panos Panay. Microsoft taps Intel's latest Kaby Lake family of processors for the new Surface Pro units, with fanless versions of the Core m3 and Core i5 processors.
Because Microsoft makes not just the Surface Pro, but the operating system in Windows 10, it can do hardware and software level tweaks for Surface Pro. This gives Microsoft a very Apple-like future as they continue evolving Surface into something that has not only caught up, but far exceeded what Apple has in the laptop/tablet markets. Because of these tweaks, Microsoft is claiming the new Surface Pro has up to 50% longer battery life than the Surface Pro 4.
Continue reading: Surface Pro continues to evolve, now packs Kaby Lake (full post)
Qualcomm Snapdagon 835 powers LTE-capable Surface Pro
Microsoft announced a range of new Surface Pro products recently, with Intel's latest Kaby Lake CPUs in the form of Core m3 and Core i5 fanless models, and the higher-end Core i7 model.
Microsoft revealed a new LTE-capable Surface Pro, but didn't state which CPU would be inside. I think Microsoft has been working with Qualcomm and getting their Snapdragon 835 processor inside of a new portable Surface Pro with LTE capabilities. It would be the big change Qualcomm and Microsoft are teasing for Computex 2017, that's for sure.
We broke the story of Qualcomm and Microsoft taking over the world at Computex, where they tease that they will celebrate the growing ecosystem that will "bring an out-of-this-world mobile PC experience to the masses".
Continue reading: Qualcomm Snapdagon 835 powers LTE-capable Surface Pro (full post)
FSP will show off a watercooled PSU at Computex
Bitspower is teaming with FSP to show off a watercooled modular PSU, something they're calling the Hydro PTM+, which is the world's first mass-produced liquid cooled PSU with 80 Plus Platinum certification.
The upcoming Hydro PTM+ is a 1200W unit when aircooled, but is capable of 1400W when the liquid cooling is set up. If the PSU load is less than 50% the fans will stop spinning, so unless you're pushing 1200W of continuous use, the watercooled side of things is kinda useless. In order to draw 1200W+ you're going to need to be doing some seriously hardcore... something... with your PC. Even multi-GPU rigs with GTX 1080 Ti or TITAN X in SLI would use much less than 1000W, let alone over 1200W to warrant the liquid cooling push to 1400W.
Still it's an impressive feat to see a watercooled PSU, even if it's just one of those 'just cos' things.
Continue reading: FSP will show off a watercooled PSU at Computex (full post)
AMD delayed Radeon RX Vega until July?
AMD recently took the wraps off of its Radeon Vega Frontier Edition, a new professional graphics card based on the Vega GPU architecture, sporting 16GB of HBM2 technology. The consumer Radeon RX Vega (RX = consumer) is coming "very soon thereafter" the late-June launch of Radeon Vega Frontier Edition, according to Lisa Su, CEO of AMD.
During the 45th annual J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Telecom Conference, Su said: "We're very excited about Vega. Vega is a brand new architecture and actually has really the world's most advanced memory architecture for GPUs. What we did announce at our analyst day was that the first shipping Vega will be the Frontier Edition which will ship with 16GB of memory and will ship towards the latter half of June. You will see the enthusiast gaming platform, the machine learning platform, the professional graphics platform very soon thereafter. And so we will be launching Vega across all of the market segments over the next couple of months".
Now, let's dissect this statement. Su has said that Radeon Vega Frontier Edition will launch in the "latter half of June" while the "enthusiast gaming platform" will launch "very soon thereafter". Finishing up, Su said that AMD will be "launching Vega across all of the market segments over the next couple of months".
Continue reading: AMD delayed Radeon RX Vega until July? (full post)
Huawei announces affordable Honor 6A smartphone
Huawei has announced a new affordable smartphone - the Honor 6A.
The phone is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 430 processor and comes with 2GB or 3 GB of RAM, and 16GB or 32GB of internal storage.
The Honor 6A features a 5-inch 720p display. The device comes with a 13MP main camera and a 5MP front shooter. Other features include a 3,020 mAh battery, and a fingerprint sensor. The phone runs Android 7.0 Nougat.
Continue reading: Huawei announces affordable Honor 6A smartphone (full post)
Tesla's Model 3 deliveries begin in July
Elon Musk has confirmed that the first deliveries of the Model 3 will take place in July. It was previously stated that Tesla plans to unveil the final production version of the Model 3 in July, with deliveries starting sometime during the summer.
However, Musk has announced on Twitter that the first customers should receive their Model 3 in July. Musk has faced some criticism lately regarding delivery schedules, so it seems that Tesla's CEO has decided to speed things up and kick off the production of the Model 3.
Musk has also revealed that the day-1 reservation holders will get "something cool, " but he didn't specify what he has in mind.
Continue reading: Tesla's Model 3 deliveries begin in July (full post)
Huawei unveils Honor Band A2 priced at $29
Huawei has unveiled its latest smart band - the Honor Band A2, the successor to the Band A1, announced last year.
The biggest changes, compared to the last year's model, are an OLED screen and a heart rate sensor.
Fitness tracking functions include a pedometer, exercise tracker, sedentary reminder, and sleep tracker. The Honor Band A2 has an IP67 rating, meaning it's water resistant.
Continue reading: Huawei unveils Honor Band A2 priced at $29 (full post)






















