While the Chinese are still banned from the Space Station, that hasn't stopped the country from developing a strong space exploration program. Last year, China had the highest number of launches in space so far, and now they are developing new plans for further space exploration, including sending spacecraft to Mars and Jupiter.

Their plan is to send its first probe to Mars by 2020, said Wu Yanhua, Vice Director of the China National Space Administration. The second probe should bring back samples that will help them get a better understanding of the environment on the Red Planet.

China also plans to launch a large modular space station in 2023, and if the International Space Station finishes its work in 2024, as planned, China will be the only country with a permanent station in space.

Square Enix celebrates Final Fantasy VII's 20th anniversary by giving fans their first glimpse at the dreaded one-winged angel Sephiroth.

Although Final Fantasy VII: Remake might not release in 2017 to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the world's most universally acclaimed RPG, Square Enix did drop some new key art to keep us hyped up, and it absolutely achieved its targeted effect.

Taking a gander at Sephiroth in the key art, we notice that his appearance has been altered from the original Final Fantasy VII and the subsequent Advent Children film. His outfit has been changed a bit, and the metallic pauldrons seem a bit different, but his menacing and calculating gaze is ever-present.

Razer (yes, the Razer) has acquired a smartphone manufacturer, Nexbit. Nexbit was a startup company that gathered around $1.3 million via Kickstarter campaign for, what is marked as, the cloud-first smartphone. Their idea was to make a phone that would allow usage of apps and content that transcended between phone's onboard storage and a complimentary cloud service.

The Kickstarter campaign was a success. Twelve hours after it was launched, the phone reached its funding goal of $500,000 instead of reaching it within a month and completed its $1 million goal within two weeks.

This resulted in a smartphone named the Nextbit Robin, a phone with 32GB of internal storage. However, the phone utilizes the cloud storage of 100 GB offered by the manufacturer which is integrated within the phone's software as additional storage. The phone went on sale in May last year.

Lenovo and Motorola are expected to announce the Moto G5 very soon, possibly in March. Of course, before every launch come leaks and this is what we should expect from the Moto G5, according to the Brazilian website Tecnoblog.

The Moto G5 should come with a Snapdragon 430 processor, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage expandable with a microSD card. The main camera should have 13MP, while the selfie cam will have 5MP. The 5-inch display phone will also have a 2,800 mAh battery and will run Android 7.0 Nougat.

As for the Moto G5 Plus, the device will be bigger and more powerful. It should have a 5.5-inch display and a Snapdragon 625 processor. The device will have 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory. The camera should be the same as the Moto G5, but the battery will have a bigger capacity - 3,080 mAh. It will also run Nougat and the expected price is around $387.

BioWare is teasing something "interesting" for today, and it could be the reveal of its new IP.

Jonathan Warner, game director of BioWare's fresh new IP, teased the following on Twitter: "Today is going to be an interesting day ;) #BioWare." This tease almost certainly coincides with today's EA Q3 2017 earnings call, so we could see the new IP unveiled today.

What do we actually know about the mystery IP?

The rumors about the Samsung Galaxy S8 have been floating around for a while now with the biggest one being that the Korean giant might remove the headphone jack. However, it is very unlikely that those rumors were true. The latest photos show a headphone jack, and it seems that the company decided to stick with it.

We previously reported that Samsung might also launch a new and improved wireless headset with their next flagship, better than their current earbuds.

The latest reports confirm this rumor. According to SamMobile, the company will launch the new Samsung Level In ANC wireless headphones with Active Noise Cancelling feature alongside the Galaxy S8.

At the official Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary event in Tokyo, Square Enix has revealed a bevy of news from the beloved landmark franchise, including a release date for the Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age remaster.

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age will release on July 11, 2017 on PS4 in North America and Europe, and two days later in Japan.

This chapter is actually a full HD remastered port of the original Final Fantasy XII that was released on PS2, and features the exclusive Zodiac job system that was only released in the East. The Zodiac system has twelve unique job classes to use in battle, each with their own strengths and styles.

The world is excited for AMD's next-gen Ryzen processors, but now there are fresh rumors that the company will only be launching 4- and 8-core versions, without a 6-core version released.

Zolkorn and PCGamesHardware have reported that AMD won't launch a 6-core Ryzen CPU, as the company will launch an 8-core model, and a 4-core model - with, and without ThreadRipper (which should be the name for AMD's HyperThreading competitor).

The new rumors tease that we could expect many different models, with 4/8-core options, SMT functionality, TDP adjustments, and more. We should expect more details on Ryzen CPUs next month.

Oculus has been stuck in real life court for the last few weeks, defending itself against claims that it stolen precious code from ZeniMax, in a lawsuit that could now be worth a hefty $4 billion.

Polygon has reported that the closing arguments have been made, and the case is now in the jury's hands. It will now be decided if Oculus CTO John Carmack stole IP from ZeniMax and had it with him when he joined Oculus in 2013, and in the closing arguments - ZeniMax doubled the damages it was seeking - from $2 billion, to a total of $4 billion.

ZeniMax are the owners of id Software - the creators of DOOM, Quake, and more - the developer John Carmack worked for until he jumped ship for Oculus. It's being argued that Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey didn't have the technical expertise to built the Rift, without needing Carmack's help.

Qualcomm invited tech media and analysts from around the globe to Sydney, Australia - which for me, was finally a tech event that didn't involve a 60-hour return trip - where they showed off the latest advancements with Gigabit LTE technology.

The event was held at Telstra's Experience Center in Sydney, involving partnerships between Qualcomm, Telstra (Australia's leading telco), Netgear, and Ericsson. The companies have been working together in separate, and combined relationships over the last 15+ years, but this latest partnership over Gigabit LTE is a giant leap for the entire mobile industry, and the world.

Qualcomm sat everyone down and showed off Netgear's new Nighthawk M1 router, exclusive to Telstra for 8 months - the world's first 4GX Gigabit LTE mobile router. Netgear's new Nighthawk M1 features up to 1Gbps LTE connectivity, is the perfect travel router as it supports Wi-Fi/Ethernet offloading - with the capability of taking up to 20 x Wi-Fi devices.

I still remember the days of DRAM price increases nearly a decade ago, where you would buy it like gold or silver because you could ride the waves of DRAM price fluctuation - and here we are again, but it's 2017.

DigiTimes is reporting that DDR4 modules will increase in price, according to Pei-Ing Lee, the president of Nanya Technology - a major DRAM maker. Lee said that DRAM prices will continue to increase through Q2 2017, and could stabilize - but not drop, in the second half of 2017.

Why would RAM prices increase? Major DRAM manufacturers are having troubles keeping up with demand, with Nanya upgrading its production lines to handle 20nm, with early production expected next month. In the last 6 months alone, DDR4 prices have nearly doubled. A normal 32GB kit would've cost $90 around 6 months ago, but it's now $170 or so.

To celebrate this week's release of 'Ballers: The Complete Second Season' on Blu-ray and DVD, we have 10 Blu-rays to give away thanks to our friends at Roadshow Home Entertainment.

Spencer Strasmore (Dwayne Johnson) and his boys are back to "ball out" in a brand-new season of this HBO comedy series that digs into the extravagant, high-stakes world of football in Miami, FL. In Season 2, things are more competitive and complicated than ever. Retired football star turned financial manager Spencer is forced to face demons from his past as he goes head-to-head with the biggest shark in the business, Andre Allen (Andy Garcia). Meanwhile, Spencer's closest friends and clients struggle to find their footing in a world where it's "go big" or go home.

To go into the running to win a prize, simply correctly answer the following question:

Peter Capaldi, who plays the title role on BBC's 'Doctor Who' has revealed this will be his last.

The veteran actor who's played the role since 2013 will complete the role when the upcoming 10th season and 2017 Christmas special finishes airing this year. Capaldi followed actors Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, and Matt Smith who've played the character since the series was rebooted for TV screens in 2005.

Oppo, a Chinese phone manufacturer, is rumored to announce their new device sometime in the first half of this year.

The device, named the Oppo Find 9, is supposed to come in two variants. The first one will be powered by Qualcomm's 10nm SoC Snapdragon 835 and come with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The second one will have the Snapdragon 653 processor and is rumored to come with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage.

The latest leak confirms these specs and reveals more. It says that the device will have a 5.5-inch display, a 21MP main camera, 16MP selfie cam, and a large 4,100 mAh battery. The base version of the phone is rumored to cost around $580.

Fallout 4 is finally getting its long overdue PlayStation 4 Pro Forward Compatibility patch that will upgrade resolution to native 1440p and boost atmospheric effects.

Bethesda today announced the features of Fallout 4's upcoming PS4 Pro patch, which will upgrade the game's base resolution to 2560 x 1440, however no details were given on a 1080p 60FPS mode. We expect the 1440p mode will be capped at 30FPS like the base game.

Fallout 4's PS4 Pro patch will also improve draw distances for environments such as trees, grass, basic objects and NPCs. Gamers will also get improved godray effects for realistic and immersive lighting effects.

Although smartphone gaming reigns supreme in Japan, the portability of Nintendo's new handheld-console Switch hybrid has attracted young Japanese mobile gamers, and may even disrupt the market.

Nintendo designed its new Switch system around one specific point: playing games anywhere with anyone. The Nintendo Switch merges the best of gaming's three top sectors and injects a social dynamic to the mix:

Mobile gaming, as the Switch tablet has a 10-point capacitive touchscreen that could facilitate traditional experiences with the added benefit of transforming into a mini arcade console via Tabletop Mode;

UPDATE: EA has confirmed it's not currently developing Skate 4. Sorry folks!

Original story as follows.

After six years of waiting, Skate fans might be getting a new game in the series.

A new report from Counterpoint Research shows that Apple's iPhone is no longer the top-selling smartphone in China. The iPhone held this position for the past five years, but it looks like it's time for a new star.

And in China, that star is Oppo's R9. The report says that a total of 17 million units of the R9 were sold in the country last year, which is around 4% of the market share. Apple managed to sell 12 million units, meaning they captured around 2% of the market.

Apple became top-selling smartphone in China in 2012, and it held that position for five years. The American company is clearly becoming more vulnerable in China with many Chinese phone manufacturers like Huawei, Oppo, and Xiaomi gaining more fans.

Namco confirmed today that Masaya Nakamura, the so-called Father of Pac-Man and founder of one of Japan's and the gaming industry's most important companies, has died at age 91.

Masaya Nakamura's Namco was a transformative force in the massive arcade boom during the 80s during that golden age when gaming was starting to take shape. He was a major player in the games industry, and enjoyed massive success with immortal Pac-Man, which is forever known as the world's most popular arcade game.

We can only imagine what gaming would be like had Mr. Nakamura not taking the initiative to start his business in 1955. If you grew up in the 80's, you no-doubt owe quite a bit of your childhood to Mr. Nakamura. He will be sorely missed.

Kyocera Corporation has announced a new Rafre smartphone for Japanese service provider, KDDI Corporation. The device is a successor to the original DIGNO Rafre, launched in December 2015 as the world's first washable smartphone. Yes, hand-soap-washable smartphone.

The second generation of the washable smartphone will also be resistant to foaming body soap in addition to the hand soap. Meaning you can wash your smartphone while showering. Handy, isn't it?

You can also use your phone while wearing gloves or with wet hands.