Latest News - Page 2219

Facebook is making a new $200 mainstream wireless VR headset, something that's planned for next year, and something the social media giant is hoping to have the same effect Apple did with the original iPhone to the world, with its new $200 headset.

Oculus will be making the headset, with the news of the $200 wireless VR headset breaking days after Oculus slashing the price of the Rift + Touch bundle for $399. The new codenamed "Pacific" headset is reportedly smaller than the Rift, and lighter than the mobile-based Gear VR from Samsung. The final design might change, but those with details on the new headset said it will be easy enough to pull out of your bag and start watching movies on the plane or train.

Inside, we should expect a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor of some sort, with gaming performance somewhere in the vicinity of the Gear VR - but not the full-blown Rift on the PC. The new Facebook VR headset will be released next year, and with a $200 price point, we might see some fierce competition in the mobile VR space.

On the heels of finalizing its new 4K-ready Xbox One X console, Microsoft is already laying the foundations for its next-gen Xbox system.

Microsoft is strongly committed to the console space and the company's new $499 Xbox One X, which delivers native 4K gaming while playing all existing Xbox One games better, won't be the last home console the tech giant makes. Back in April we reported that Xbox division head Phil Spencer asserted the company is "planning for what happens after Scorpio in the console space."

Now Windows Central editor Jez Corden re-affirms Mr. Spencer's statements with claims that "Microsoft is already designing the next Xbox." Corden has gained a following for his accurate predictions and reporting on Microsoft's Xbox One X console, however it's worth noting that this news isn't exactly a surprise given Mr. Spencer's words.

KFC has announced its new smartphone, something the company worked with Huawei on as a limited edition smartphone to celebrate KFC opening 30 years ago in China.

The new KFC smartphone is the Huawei Enjoy 7 Plus, which features a 5.5-inch display and Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor, alongside 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage which is expandable to 128GB through a microSD card slot. There's even a 3020mAh battery and a fingerprint sensor, just make sure you've licked your fingers before scanning them.

KFC took to its Weibo page for the announcement, which has been translated: "#Kentucky China 30 years from 1987 to 2017, 30 years accompanied by the taste of the times, suck refers to the aftertaste! Kentucky together with Huawei joint cooperation, the introduction of Huawei Chang enjoy 7 Kentucky commemorative version of gorgeous struck! Commemorative Edition laser back carving, pre-installed Kentucky Super APP, with WOW member 10 thousand K gold, but also the first to experience k-music song function. Limited to 5000 will soon be on sale, waiting for you to grab!"

Intel has been struggling to come to terms with having major competition in the CPU market again, but then AMD went and stirred up the enterprise market with its upcoming Epyc family of Zen-based CPUs. This has pushed Intel onto the offensive, so much so that they've had to make slides saying AMD's new Epyc CPUs have 4 'glued-together' CPU dies.

As you can see, the slide clearly says that AMD's new Epyc processors is a "re-purposed desktop product for server", and that AMD has a "poor track record" and is a "inconsistent supplier".

Intel is trying to make Epyc not sound strong at all, yet AMD is using a very technologically superior method of using 4 x Zen CPU cores into a single package. Sure, it's not one giant package with all of the CPU cores in it, but rather it is many dies each consisting of CPU cores, all joined together. This has multiple benefits for AMD, especially at the manufacturing level - as it's making Zen CPU dies it will know which ones are successful at maximum speeds and core counts.

After Microsoft made a big deal about Windows Phone, their mobile OS is now dead. Microsoft ended support for Windows Phone 8.1, which means it's the end of the road for Windows Phone, period.

Windows Phone was launched back in 2010, and within 3 years it was the third most-used mobile OS in the world, but it simply didn't have the legs to begin to compete with iOS and Android. Apple and Google's mobile operating systems are now home to 99.6% of the mobile OS market.

Microsoft continued to push Windows Phone into budget smartphones running their new Windows 10 Mobile OS, but it has only received small updates since it was released, with Microsoft pivoting into the "intelligent cloud and intelligent edge". The Verge reports that Microsoft has halted the manufacturing of its own Lumia-branded smartphones, with a rumor suggesting that Microsoft will just maintain Windows 10 Mobile support through to 2018.

Apple is getting closer to the release of its next-gen iPhone 8 smartphone, but there are reports surfacing that engineers and designers at Apple are working "feverishly" to fix software-based problems in the new iPhone 8, something that could see disastrous delays of major features.

The new iPhone 8 is meant to feature inductive wireless charging, but with a "sense of panic" at Apple over not being able to fix these major issues, the company might be forced to launch the iPhone 8 without it's new wireless charging feature.

Apple would stage the wireless charging feature into a future iOS 11.1 update, months after the initial launch of the iPhone 8. This would mean the iPhone 8 is gimped at a hardware and software level, holding features it is capable of but Apple is stopping them from working due to what appears to be a major flaw.

Google might have a massive surprise for their next-gen Pixel XL smartphone, with Android Police reporting that LG is making the upcoming Google Pixel XL 2 smartphone, something that would feature a "squeezable" frame that activates Google Assistant.

The new squeezable frame is similar to HTC's just-released U11 smartphone and its impressive "Edge Sense" feature that lets you use a squeeze gesture that activates pressure sensors that can flick the flashlight on, open up the camera app, snap a photo, or launch Google Assistant.

Google's upcoming Pixel XL 2 smartphone is rumored to sport a 6-inch display with a 2:1 aspect ratio, rounded corners, and a "minimal bezel". It has a longer design that looks similar to Samsung's Galaxy S8 smartphone, with the fingerprint sensor placed in the most accessible spot - right on the back, just like the current-gen Pixel and Pixel XL.

Google is pushing more and more into the world of artificial intelligence, announcing a new venture capital firm, Gradient Ventures, that will provide funds and "technical mentorship" to AI startups.

AI startups will be able to talk directly with technical experts at Google, something that includes the minds of Ray Kurzweil, Matias Duarte, and X lab boss Astro Teller. Gradient Ventures is already home to four teams, with Algorithmia a community creating a marketplace for AI-based algorithms and models.

Aurima is making an alternative sensing approach and AI modeling, while Cape is virtualizing drone hardware that lets people fly drones remotely. Lastly, there's Cogniac that is writing software that helps people build convolutional neural networks.

Dell has announced its new Latitude 7285, a premium 12-inch 2-in-1 laptop that competes against Microsoft's new Surface Pro line of products, but Dell has a major advantage: wireless charging.

Dell's new Latitude 7285 is capable of wireless charging through a separate Wireless Charging Keyboard and Wireless Charging Mat pack that sells for $549.99, which isn't too bad when you consider the Latitude 7285 has a starting price of $1199.

The starting cost will get you 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, which are joined by an Intel Core i5 (Kaby Lake) processor, and 12-inch 2880x1920 anti-glare display.

TimeSplitters Rewind is in development at Cinder Interactive Arts, but the team has reached a new wall, and it seems that CRYENGINE is to blame.

CIA said that the development team has come to a halt, as they're unable to work with CRYENGINE right now. The team said: "We have been waiting for a new release from Crytek that changes a lot of the core systems of the engine and includes new documentation. The problem is this engine update was supposed to release over four months ago and the delays continue".

Waiting 4 months for an engine update is a very long amount of time to wait, so the team has been playing with Unreal Engine 4 in the meantime. Unfortunately, the developer can't switch TimeSplitters Rewind over to Unreal Engine 4 because of the deal with Crytek and CRYENGINE, with the developer explaining: "This is something we have talked about internally and we have a clear idea the direction we would take with it. If this is to happen, we would likely do our own interpretation of what we think TimeSplitters 4 could have been".

inXile Entertainment, a developer known for games like Wasteland 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera, has secured a big multi-million dollar investment to help fund a new ambitious project.

inXile's $4.5 million investment from games publisher Gumi Inc. will be used to make a new open-world survival VR RPG, possibly pushing the current fledgling market closer to a HMD-selling "killer app." Not much is known about the project, but inXile is currently developing The Bard's Tale IV as well as Wasteland 3, and will leverage the investment from Gumi to help build a foundation for the new RPG. The developer states that the VR game will "launch on all platforms," likely meaning it'll see release on PlayStation VR, the HTC Vive, and Oculus' slow-selling Rift headset.

"Gumi shares my passion for creating deeper virtual reality games and I'm fortunate to have a partner to work with in this spectacular new medium. We've had incredible feedback from our first game, The Mage's Tale, and we want to continue to build on our experience and reputation. I've always been fascinated by the social dynamics of the open world survival genre and experiencing that in virtual reality will create powerful and terrifying moments. We'll also be bringing our storytelling and RPG experience to the table to help enrich the genre," said Brian Fargo, CEO, inXile Entertainment.

CD Projekt RED is working with original board game designer Mike Pondsmith to ensure their new Cyberpunk 2077 magnum opus stays true to the original.

Cyberpunk 2077 is the biggest project Polish games developer CD Projekt RED has ever worked on--and that's saying a lot since the studio is known for the massive sprawling The Witcher game series. But Cyberpunk 2077 is something different altogether, and rerepsents a much greater opportunity for the company to flex its might and talent. We know Cyberpunk 2077 will have insane next-gen level technology with massive living, breathing cities with flying cars and real-time AI, and that CD Projekt RED has received a $5.6 million grant from the Polish government to help fund their vision for the game.

Despite the massive next-generation tech barrier, CD Projekt RED wants to ensure Cyberpunk 2077 is as authentic to the original source material as possible. The studio has been working with original Cyberpunk 2020 board game designer Mike Pondsmith to ensure the game exemplifies the unique techno-punk universe he helped make back in the late 80s and early 90s. Pondsmith told Rock, Paper, Shotgun that CD Projekt Red "gets cyberpunk" and that the studio is passionate about the fictional series. "They're actual fans and they know stuff about Cyberpunk that I've forgotten."

Epic Games today announced that it's been selected to join the Disney Accelerator program, which arms developers and entertainment companies with more resources and tools to bring their dreams alive.

Leading games developer Epic Games, who's responsible for acclaimed games like Unreal Tournament, Gears of War, and Paragon and the Unreal Engine 4 that powers countless games, joins 10 other diverse companies in Disney's acceleration program. The Disney Acceleration program gives partnered companies access to the "range of creative expertise and resources of The Walt Disney Company to help them develop their innovative new entertainment experiences and products," and includes a variety of companies from analytical firms to learning tool developers and the unique VR startup VOID.

"The Disney Accelerator has provided The Walt Disney Company incredible opportunities to connect with and be inspired by many talented entrepreneurs from all over the world," said Michael Abrams, Senior Vice President, Innovation, The Walt Disney Company. "This year, more than ever, we are working with companies with the potential to help define the future of media and entertainment together with Disney."

SuperData Research predicts that Destiny 2's digital version on PC will significantly outsell the console flavor by as much as 200%.

According to the latest prediction from SuperData Research, Activision's latest FPS juggernaut Destiny 2 will sell between 4 and 5 million digital units on PC and consoles in its first three months of availability. Activision has already predicted big sales for Destiny 2 throughout the remainder of its fiscal year, and industry expects reflect that the sequel will be in the top five biggest games released this year.

The forecast notes that Destiny 2 has a 33% chance to sell 1.5 million digital units on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One family of systems in its first three months, but PC has a 29% likelihood to sell 3 million digital units, or 200% more than the consoles, in that same period. While these numbers might sound impressive, Destiny 2 on PC will only be available on Blizzard's Battle.net digital distribution framework and not on Steam. Physical versions of Destiny 2 on PC sold in stores will contain a code for a digital download, and it's unclear whether or not SuperData Research includes these sales as digital or physical.

Console-makers like Sony and Microsoft tend to buffer sales of their respective hardware with first-party exclusives, but the market has changed very much over the years, and console gamers gravitate more towards third-party blockbusters from the Big Four (Activision, EA, Ubisoft and Take-Two) .

Microsoft has a problem with exclusives, but Sony has a problem with strong monetization of its platform and the future-proofing of the PlayStation brand beyond consoles. Both console-makers have their respective shortcomings and issues. According to Webdush Securities analyst Michael Pachter, who's outspoken comments have earned him a following, exclusives don't matter nearly as much as they used to: despite the outcry from so-called "fanboys" only 1/5th or 20% of actual gamers buy into PlayStation 4 or Xbox One with exclusives in mind.

"That said, I think exclusives only make a difference to about a fifth of the market or 20%," Mr. Pachter said in a recent interview with GamingBolt.

Ubisoft has made good on its promise to bring loot boxes to Rainbow Six: Siege.

Rainbow Six: Siege's loot crate-like Alpha Packs are gradually being introduced with new live updates. These Alpha Packs only contain cosmetic rewards and can't actually be purchased with the game's R6 premium currency, so you can't actually spend real money to directly unlock them, as we revealed last month. However, you can spend R6 currency to get more Renown, so there is an indirect path.

Alpha Packs can only be unlocked with Renown, which is the game's experience-like currency doled out at the end of every match. Gamers can earn these packs in two ways: the game may reward them randomly to players at the end of matches, or players can spend their Renown to directly unlock packs. Alpha Packs contain skins and other cosmetics to add more flair to player Operators. To get an idea of what's included in the Alpha Packs, YouTuber Jytus opens up 200 packs in the video above.

Toyota has just announced its new Toyota AI Ventures initiative, which is a new venture capital subsidiary that will eye down tech companies that are working on AI. The new fund has already received a $100 million injection of funds from the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), which is an AI/robotics/autonomous car-focused initiative the Japanese carmaker started in 2015.

Toyota AI Ventures will focus its investments directly into AI, robotics, autonomous vehicles, as well as data and cloud technology. It w ill also offer companies that it invests in both mentorship, and support at its HQ in Silicon Valley. TRI VP Jim Adler said in a statement: "One of the biggest challenges entrepreneurs face is knowing if they're building the right product for the right market. We can help them navigate that uncertainty, and we're committed to doing so in a founder-friendly way because their success is our success".

This new venture will be a little different, with TRI not just waiting for pitches from investors, but it will look for, and support companies that are on the path towards solving something Toyota is interested in. TRI has already funded 3 startups, with Silicon Valley-based Nauto, a company that designs systems for companies that monitors their driver and road environments to stop accidents or bad driving.

Samsung is enjoying great sales on its new flagship Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones, but the new Galaxy Note 8 smartphone isn't too far away from release, and it too will rock a gorgeous Infinity Display.

The latest tease of the upcoming Galaxy Note 8 shows off the massive Infinity Display, which should arrive at a large 6.3 inches. This will make it a little bigger thgan the Galaxy S8+ but the Note 8 will rock a stylus, larger battery, and I'm sure more pro-oriented tweaks like the Note 7 did over the Galaxy S7.

We should see Samsung bump up to 6GB of RAM in the Galaxy Note 8 over the 4GB inside of the Galaxy S8, and the same Exynos 8895/Snapdragon 835 options found inside of the S8. Samsung will reportedly use a dual-camera on the Note 8, while keeping the fingerprint sensor next to the rear-facing camera which would be a gigantic mistake. I hate the positioning of the fingerprint sensor on my S8, it's far too high to use... and the Note 8 will lose out if Samsung does this.

Logitech has just announced it is buying gaming headset maker Astro in a deal worth $85 million, with the two making it official next month.

Ujesh Desai, VP and GM of Logitech G brand said that Astro's console-oriented gaming headsets will be a "perfect compliment to Logitech G's focus on PC gaming". Logitech has released a press release talking about the Astro acquisition, where they said: "With the addition of Astro, we're investing in an adjacent gaming market - the console gaming market - to help accelerate the long-term growth of our gaming business. In FY 2018, we expect the acquisition of Astro to add approximately two points of growth to the to p line, and to be slightly dilutive to the bottom line in the first year, as we integrate the business and invest to expand Astro internationally".

Astro co-founder and president Jordan Reiss has talked about the acquisition of his company by Logitech, where he said: "The whole team at Astro has always held Logitech and Logitech G products in the highest regard, so I'm ecstatic we are joining forces. Astro's brand strength combined with Logitech G's unrivaled technology and global distribution network is going to bring our products to even more gamers around the world".

Colorful has just announced their latest graphics card family, the new Neptune series of card will be led by the flagship liquid-cooled iGame GTX 1080 Ti Neptune W.

The new Colorful iGame GTX 1080 Ti Neptune W is a beast, offering everything the GTX 1080 Ti has to offer with its GP102 GPU, 11GB of GDDR5X @ 11Gbps, but changes the game offering a liquid-cooler with a huge 240mm radiator. Colorful's new iGame GTX 1080 Ti Neptune W sports the company's Vultune Shield, which offers up RGB lights that can be controlled through Colorful's own iGame-Zone II software.

Cooling wise, the new iGame GTX 1080 Ti Neptune W rocks a waterblock base and copper pipes that are built with red copper that has "extreme thermal conductivity" that will push teh heat into the liquid cooler, and out through to the radiator. Colorful uses an integrated die cast aluminum plate on the card, while the two 120mm fans on the radiator will keep the card nice and cool - and virtually silent while running.