Latest News - Page 2300

Intel is scrambling in what seems like a feverish emergency over AMD's new Ryzen processors, with Microcenter dropping Core CPU prices like crazy - and now, Intel is sending tech media emails saying "call us before you write" your Ryzen review. This is what happens when AMD launches their new Ryzen 7 1800X processor priced at $499, offering performance that rivals Intel's current $1000+ processor.

Charlie Demerjian, Semi Accurate founder and super-awesome comic book collector said: "Intel PR sent out a last-minute "call us before you write" email to most of the press, but not SemiAccurate, after hours last night. You could infer that they are suddenly really worried about something".

This isn't too far out of the norm for one company to email reviewers over their competitors' impending launch, but Intel seemed unstoppable... until Ryzen. Now, there are other reports that Intel will simply throw down more money than AMD can handle to fight Ryzen, and what I want to know now is - will Intel continue with its tease of AMD Radeon graphics inside of their CPUs? Now that Ryzen is a massive threat to their CPU monopoly, I think plans are going to change in a big way over the coming months.

The race towards 5G is ramping up quickly, but Qualcomm keeps deploying new technologies and hurdles for consumers and its competitors, respectively - and while it's hard to keep up sometimes, there has never been a more exciting time for the always-connected world we live in.

Qualcomm has just announced that its new Snapdragon X50 modem is capable of not just 5G, but 4G, 3G, and even 2G. The Snapdragon X50 will work with Verizon in the US, and Korea ahead of the 5G rollouts in 2020, but Qualcomm and its partners are hoping to make this 5G reality happen sooner, rather than later.

Having 5G/4G/3G/2G all working on a single chip will be very advantageous for Qualcomm, as it means that we will see a truly global smartphone world thanks to the Snapdragon X50.

Update: Target has now deleted the listings, but we spotted a possible August 22 release date for Middle-earth Shadow of War before they were taken down.

Retailer Target has just leaked Shadow of Modor's sequel, Shadow of War.

WB Interactive's successful Middle-earth Shadow of Mordor is getting a direct sequel called Shadow of War on Xbox One and PS4, and the game will come in two variants: the default and Gold Editions.

Sony's gamble into the realm of virtual reality has paid off in dividends: the PlayStation VR headset is a bona-fide success, with sales exceeding 900,000 units sold in the past fourth months.

Although Sony's PlayStation VR platform lacks the raw power of a desktop PC and has somewhat lukewarm, simplified games, it does have one massive advantage: accessibility. The PlayStation VR is powered by Sony's best-selling PS4 juggernaut, which has an install base of over 50 million units.

Just how much of a hot ticket item is the PS4-powered headset? Sony Interactive Entertainment President Andrew House has revealed that consumers bought 915,000 PlayStation VRs since the headset launched on October 13 of last year. Based on this tremendous momentum, sales will likely exceed Sony's original target of 1 million PSVR sales in six months.

I've been spending the past few months dreaming of higher mobile speeds, with Qualcomm teaming with Australian telco, Telstra, alongside Ericsson, and Netgear on Gigabit LTE - but Qualcomm also teased 5G not so long ago.

Now, the International Telecommunications Unit (ITU) have decided on the 5G specifications: with the ITU statnig that a single 5G cell must feature 20Gbps of bandwidth, and include support for up to 1 million devices connected per kilometer (0.62 miles). The standard will also require carriers to have at least 100MHz of free spectrum, and where available: up to 1GHz.

The ITU published the first draft of its 5G radio interfaces a few days ago, but we should expect the final tech specs on 5G technology by November. But the tease of at least 20Gbps down and 10Gbps up is absolutely incredible, but you won't be getting 20Gbps to your smartphone - in reality, the 20Gbps will split its bandwidth across all of the devices it is blasting to.

After two years in development, SpeedTree 8 is nearly ready, featuring graphical and intuitive time saving features - and will make its grand debut during GDC 2017 next week.

The debut of SpeedTree 8 will happen with Amazon's CryEngine-based Lumberyard graphics engine, making its way to Lumberyard in Q2 2017 - but there will be support for other graphics engines in the near future. IDV, the team behind SpeedTree 8, has released some new screenshots to tease us before the big reveal next week.

Michael Sechrest, co-founder of Interactive Data Visualization (IDV) explains: "Amazon Lumberyard is an outstanding showcase for the new surface-scanned materials and modeling features that SpeedTree 8 brings to the table. Our new physically based rendering material workflow, wind algorithms and overall modeling enhancements all shine in the engine. Lumberyard will be the first to experience the most powerful version of SpeedTree yet".

The court battle between ZeniMax and Oculus saw Oculus handing over a swift $500 million when the jury found Oculus had violated a NDA, and illegally used code from ZeniMax.

Well, this could just be the start of a legal battle that is much bigger - as ZeniMax has asked the court to block Oculus from using the stolen code. If this happens, it could stop the sales of a massive chunk of games that use the technology. Oculus is of course appealing the case, saying that the prior ruling was "legally flawed and factually unwarranted".

If the judge grants the injunction, Oculus would be forced to write new code for their SDK - replacing the stolen code it is still using from ZeniMax. This would have large effects across the market, as it would hurt the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR products, both of which use the ZeniMax source code.

AMD dropped its Ryzen processors onto the market a few days ago, hitting the #1 and #2 best-selling CPUs on Amazon within hours, breaking world records without breaking a sweat, and of course - hitting Intel where it hurts.

Intel has now reacted, as I thought they would - by reducing the prices of their Core range of processors across the board. Microcenter is already listing the processors with huge price reductions, with their flagship Core i7-6950X dropping by $300 ($1899 to $1599) while the Core i7-6900K drops by $200 from $1199 to $999, the Core i7-7700K has been slashed by $80 ($379 to $299). The full price cuts:

Now the question remains: how long until other retailers begin dropping the prices of their Intel CPUs - and will they get cheaper? Intel must be feeling the threat of Ryzen quicker than anticipated, for the company to be reacting this quickly - it only means great things for not just AMD, but the world.

Corsair has just unveiled their new Lighting Node Pro kit, which includes 4 x RGB LED strips, and the Node Pro controller - giving you total control over the look of your gaming PC.

The control provides the ability of adjusting both the color and the animation of the lights, while the strips have adhesive and magnetic mounting hardware - thank you, Corsair! Corsair lets you control each strip individually, with the ability of adjusting the lighting setup, while the controller itself plugs into an internal USB 2.0 header.

Corsair makes it easier for you to throw in 6 of their RGB LED fans, but this isn't included - requiring a separate hub. The entire kit is run through Corsair LINK, and inside you'll find:

MWC 2017 - The first official day of the Mobile World Congress starts on Monday, but companies always hold their events a day or two earlier.

BlackBerry is the first one who took the stage in Barcelona and announced their KEYone. Before the announcement, we heard a lot of rumors about the device under the codename BlackBerry Mercury.

The device, as expected, has a physical keyboard, which is a signature feature of BlackBerry phones.

I love it when video games leave a distinct impression and make you think. Team 17's new unique sci-fi game Genesis Alpha One has done both, and I'm genuinely intrigued.

Indie dev Radiation Blue's new game Genesis Alpha One has ignited my imagination. Aesthetically, it looks like it'd be at home in the Alien franchise, and I see shades of 80's style sci-fi from the greats like John Berkey, Kubrick and Ralph McQuarrie.

There's a synthetic sterility to it all that really invokes this true feeling of cold, heartless androids or genetically-modified nonhuman clones. Its space without the celestial wonder: the dark, deadly and foreboding space, the space where no one can hear your scream. The space that's our future and our damnation all-in-one.

It looks like Apple doesn't want to let Samsung have all the flagship exploding fun, with an iPhone 7 Plus owner seeing their expensive smartphone explode, with smoke pouring out of the side of it.

The video has over 1.2 million views, with massive amounts of replies and retweets. Brianna Olivas, the owner of the iPhone 7 Plus, said that the troubles began the day before it exploded. She purchased the iPhone 7 Plus from Sprint, and it wouldn't turn on - so she went to an Apple Store, where staff ran diagnostics on the handset and said it was fine.

Olivas' iPhone 7 Plus was fine, until the next morning when it caught fire , with smoke billowing out of the side of it. She said on Twitter through a direct message to Mashable: "The next morning I was asleep with my phone charging next to my head, my boyfriend grabbed the phone and put it on the dresser".

Mass Effect: Andromeda's PC port will deliver the ultimate experience in many ways: uncapped frame rates, proper 4K gaming, 21:9 ultrawide support on day one, better visuals and PC-wide optimizations through DICE's powerful Frostbite 3 engine. But there's one caveat: it's exclusive to EA's Origin client.

If you want to play BioWare's latest and greatest new Mass Effect game on PC then you have two options: buy the game physically in DVD form or pick it up on EA's Origin client. BioWare has confirmed that Mass Effect: Andromeda won't be sold on Steam. This is likely to secure the game with Origin client DRM.

Although I do think Mass Effect: Andromeda's combat looks amazingly fun, and the spell combos will be an absolute blast, it's important not to forget the game will have some trade offs.

Nintendo is suing a Japanese go-kart company for hosting real-life Mario Kart racing events throughout the streets of Tokyo.

Marika is a company in Japan that hosts go-kart racing tournaments where attendees dress up as Mario Kart characters and zoom around the city of Tokyo. These races are quite popular, however Marika (an abbreviation for Mario Kart) didn't get Nintendo's permission, nor are they paying Nintendo for the rights to use their characters.

Once Nintendo got wind of this they instantly filed a lawsuit seeking "compensation for unfair competition and copyright infringement acts."

PS4 exclusive Horizon Zero Dawn is nearly here, and it is riding quite the hype wave being called the best game on the new PS4 Pro so far - developer Guerrilla Games has released the launch trailer, and details on the upcoming v1.01 and v1.02 patches.

Guerrilla took to the official PlayStation Blog, where they wrote: "It is my pleasure to be able to share the launch trailer for Guerrilla's new title, Horizon Zero Dawn. This is easily our most ambitious project that we have taken on. When we began our journey over five years ago, we wanted to have the creative freedom to imagine something fresh. As soon as we saw the enthusiasm from the team for the concept, and our lead Aloy, we knew we were on the right path".

The developer continued: "The result of our voyage is Horizon Zero Dawn - a game set in a lush post-apocalyptic world, in which Machines are the dominant species and mankind is propelled back to the stone ages. It is a game of exploration, not just of the perilous new world but also of Aloy's identity. On behalf of the entire team at Guerrilla, I hope you'll enjoy accompanying Aloy on her journey as much as we have enjoyed creating it for you".

Mass Effect Andromeda is close to its release - with BioWare sharing the PC system requirements for the game, with relatively tame requirements - like a GTX 660/Radeon HD 7850.

The full requirements:

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Obsidian Entertainment, the devs that brought us many such fine games as Pillars of Eternity and Fallout: New Vegas, want to expand their repertoire with a number of different types of games. In fact, the devs want to make their own Dark Souls-style hard-as-nails 3D RPG.

Obsidian devs revealed some interesting details about future projects and aspirations in a recent Reddit AMA. When asked if the team will make more traditional action 3D RPGs similar to Dark Souls, Fallout or Mass Effect, company CEO Feargus Urguhart replied in the affirmative.

"Absolutely, one of the reasons we are up on FIG is to see if we can find a new source of funding for our games to make all sorts. However, I'm not sure if you saw, but have both Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky working on something that isn't Pillars of Eternity."

AMD has launched its Ryzen CPU family to some huge fanfare, with the Ryzen 7 1800X and Ryzen 7 1700X becoming the #1 and #2 best-selling CPUs on Amazon within hours - and now, some retailers are already selling out of their first batches of pre-orders.

Right now, the Ryzen 7 1800X is unavailale on Amazon - with no ETA on new stock, with Newegg saying the Ryzen 7 1800X is out of stock. The Ryzen 7 1700X and 1700 processors are in stock for now, but I'm sure they're going to sell quickly - especially with news that the $329 processor can overclock to 4GHz+ and beat the Ryzen 7 1800X.

NCIX has the Ryzen 7 1800X, 1700X, and 1700 all available for pre-order (in both the US and Canada), while Memory Express has all 3 processors (for the Canadian market only). Fry's says that all of their Ryzen CPUs are now out of stock, so if you're in the market for a new Ryzen PC - you might want to pull the trigger, now.

Tesla currently has 373 Superchargers in North America, but their goal is to double the number by the end of the year, the company has stated in their investor letter.

Tesla clearly wants to expand their Supercharger network, and they already started the expansion in January.

Tesla's Superchargers were free up until the beginning of this year. Any customer who buys a Tesla car after January 1st, 2017 will have to pay a small fee when filling up at a Supercharger station. However, they will also be supplied with 400 kWh of free Supercharging credits each year, good for about 1,600 kilometers.

Hideo Kojima previously said that his new mysterious Death Stranding game will "transcend established genres," but now the Metal Gear Solid creator says the game is an open-world action game with tons of freedom.

In a recent interview with PlayStation Blog, Kojima teased new info on Death Stranding. We already knew some of this info--such as the action/shooter elements and promises of delivering something gamers have never seen before, but there's some new teases too.

"You can think of Death Stranding as an action game. Many people play games in the shooting genre and I want to make a game that is very intuitive for them so they can get into the experience very easily, but when they play it for a bit they will realize there is a certain new type of depth to it, something that they might not have seen before."