Latest News - Page 2333

Das Keyboard's new cloud-connected 5Q keyboard will be showcased at CES 2017, allowing attendees a chance to try it out at the event.

The Das Keyboard 5Q was originally funded thanks to a wildly successful Kickstarter, which exceeded its goal by some 500%. The 5Q is connected to the internet via QCloud, and relays information via color-coded signals on its RGB backlit keys instead of an LED screen. For example, you can assign a custom profile that makes a specific key turn red whenever you get an email, or as a reminder for a project deadline.

All of the 5Q's keys can be custom programmed with RGB lighting schemes to allow users to create their own unique visual queues.

GIGABYTE is going on the offensive with its Gaming GT PC, a new SFF gaming PC that rocks some ridiculously delicious specifications - normally found in a high-end desktop gaming PC.

We're looking at Intel's Core i7-6700K processor, a GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1080 G1 Gaming graphics card, 32GB of DDR RAM, a 240GB PCIe-based SSD, 1TB mechanical HDD (2.5-inch 7200RPM), plenty of connectivity (Thunderbolt 3, USB 3.1 Type-C, 5 x USB 3.0, and 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A).

All of this fits into a chassis that is barely bigger than the PS3 console, with an automated exhaust system that AnandTech reports "opens up exhaust flippers at the top of the computer when it needs to cool down the components". The site continues: "The chassis can accommodate any double wide graphics card with a maximum size of 280 mm in length and 41 mm in depth, but nothing too custom with regards heat pipes and backplates because the space is constrained".

Foxconn has been pushing into automating its manufacturing process in three of its Chinese manufacturing plants, with plans to "fully automate entire factories eventually" - according to Foxconn's Automation Technology Development Committee General Manager Dai Jia-peng, reports DigiTimes.

Dai said that in the first phase, Foxconn "aims to set up individual automated work stations for work that workers are unwilling to do or is dangerous". There will be entire production lines that will be automated, so that less robots are required for the second phase. In the third phase, Dai teased that "entire factories will be automated with only a minimal number of workers assigned for production, logistics, testing and inspection processes".

Foxconn has already deployed over 40,000 of their Foxbots, an industrial robot that was designed and made in-house by Foxconn. The company is capable of making around 10,000 of these Foxbots per year, as well as industrial robots - Foxconn is also working on medical-orientated robots. Dai added that robotics technology continues to improve, so industrial robots might not be able to completely replace human workers just yet - as human workers can easily switch from task to task, but robots can't do that... yet.

Ever wondered what happens when Mario eats a bad mushroom? No, not a rotten mushroom; the kind that make you see things. I mean Mario is always gobbling up mushrooms to grow bigger, and one of two of them are bound to be the wrong kind, right? Now we know, and the results are pretty horrifying.

This delirious fever dream hallucination-gone-wrong was created by YouTuber CosmoCourtney, who used a Super Mario 3D World hack to make a gangly monster out of everyone's favorite plumber.

I wonder if Miyamoto has seen this yet, and what he thinks about these kinds of hacks. One thing's for sure: every time a mushroom pops up in a Super Mario game, I'll be hesitant to pick it up lest Mario turns into this freakish terror.

A bunch of fake renders on Microsoft's upcoming Surface Phone have appeared online, with a striking design that I think could be popular - especially in a sea of lookalike smartphones that we've become way too accustomed to.

The renders of the Surface Phone tease a very sharp cornered style, with the rear-camera reportedly hitting 20-megapixels and branded by Carl Zeiss. I'm really digging this look, and I think Microsoft won't play it this left field unfortunately - we'll see something like Google did with Pixel, and make a smartphone that looks ridiculously identical to the iPhone.

But those straight edges on this Surface Phone are rocking my world right now, what about you?

It looks like Samsung is preparing two new Windows 10-based tablets for CES 2017 next week, with the Galaxy TabPro S successor - thanks to SamMobile reporting on a purported model number SM-W720 tablet.

Samsung's new Galaxy TabPro S successor is a high-end Windows 10 tablet rocking an Intel Core M processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of SSD storage. The company will include a 5200mAh battery with fast-charging port, USB Type-C, and more - all found inside of a 12-inch 2160x1440 Super AMOLED display and 5-megapixel cameras on the front and back.

The other tablet Samsung is expected to unveil is the purported SM-W620, which should be a smaller version - possibly an 8- or 10-inch variant, with possibly watered down specifications.

Facebook loves to get to know its users, so it purchases offline financial information on you from 6 of its data partners in the US: Acxiom, Epsilon, Experian, Oracle Data Cloud, TransUnion and WPP.

With this information, Facebook knows about users' household income, and much more. The social network buys the offline data, mixing it with the data it collects on your online activity. Facebook uses the blend of information to customize advertising for you on Facebook, with ProPublica "reports 29,000 categories are offered to advertisers, with 600 filled with third-party data", reports NextPowerUp.

Is there anything Facebook doesn't know about you? Considering its founder Mark Zuckerberg tapes up the webcam on his laptop, I wouldn't put it past them.

ZOTAC has been keeping some secrets for an unveiling days before CES 2017, with the new GeForce GTX 1080 Mini graphics card - perfect for those blistering fast SFF gaming PCs you want to build.

It has a fully-enabled GP104 GPU with 8GB of GDDR5X at its full 10Gbps bandwidth, with 1620/1759MHz base and boost clocks, respectively. We have 3 x DP 1.4 connectors, 1 x HDMI 2.0b, and 1 x DVI output.

ZOTAC has made totally-new custom PCB with compatible GDDR5X RAM, but we don't know if ZOTAC went with NVIDIA's 5+1-phase VRM, or altered the VRM design. The GeForce GTX 1080 Mini rocks a single 8-pin PCIe power connector, and two SLI-HB bridges. It will consume up to 180W of power, with ZOTAC using a shortened PCB and custom cooler that rocks 2 x fans to keep everything nice and cool.

AMD's upcoming Ryzen CPU could be a great overclocker, something we were teased at during AMD's recent Tech Summit event in Sonoma, California - but now we're hearing that Ryzen might easily hit 5GHz... on air cooling.

The news is coming in a very cryptic way, with Hexus reporting that "the most stirring extra piece of information is mysteriously hidden inside a binary string printed nonchalantly above a feature image on page 10 of the magazine's printed article"... something you can see above.

Reddit user lolwut996633 noticed it, and when put into a binary to plain text converter, it reads:

I wasn't going to write this article, but then I thought it would make for some good discussion at the very least. AMD and NVIDIA have a very big year ahead of them, and in my opinion it'll be the biggest year ever for the GPU giants, but AMD has a distinct advantage overall.

2015 was a massive year for both companies with AMD kicking off the very end of 2014 with the unveiling of its Polaris architecture, and then NVIDIA hit multiple home runs in May with the announcement of its Pascal-based GeForce GTX 10 series. It wasn't long after that when AMD launched its Radeon RX 400 series with three cards: the Radeon RX 460, RX 470, and RX 480.

All three cards did quite well, with the RX 470 representing some excellent value for money for 1080p 60FPS gamers - and even some 1440p gamers. The Radeon RX 480 was the fastest Polaris-based graphics card in the line up, but it couldn't begin to touch NVIDIA's latest GeForce GTX 1070 and GTX 1080. All of this before the unveiling of the new Titan X, which blows away even the GTX 1080 when stressed in 4K gaming and triple-4K display scenarios.

Good news, PC gamers! BioWare's massive open-universe space exploration RPG Mass Effect: Andromeda will have an unlocked frame rate on PC, and the game itself may be optimized to leverage NVIDIA's latest GeForce GTX 10-series video cards, and possibly the upcoming GeForce GTX 1080 Ti.

In an era where PC game ports often ship broken and barely tap the full potential of high-end hardware, it appears BioWare is aiming for the stars with Mass Effect: Andromeda's PC support. We previously reported that the new Mass Effect would run at 30FPS+ on PC, but we didn't know if there was a cap. Now it's official: there is no cap for ME: Andromeda on PC, and the game will also support 21:9 UltraWide displays on day one.

According to Kotaku Australia, BioWare producer Mike Gamble also said that the devs were "targeting day one drivers out for Andromeda," but who will get the drivers: Team Red or Team Green?

BioWare has revealed a few fresh snippets on its new amazing-looking sci-fi space exploration RPG Mass Effect: Andromeda, this time highlighting how the game seamlessly blends singleplayer and multiplayer.

Andromeda's multiplayer will be entirely optional, but the line between campaign and online multiplayer will be much more blurred this time around; "it's pretty seamless," said BioWare's Mike Gamble. Multiplayer will be narratively connected with ME: Andromeda's exploration-heavy singleplayer campaign, but don't expect the multiplayer to be seamless in the scope of drop-in/drop-out connectivity.

"There's a system that we use called the Strike Team system, and fundamentally it allows you to go between singleplayer and multiplayer within the game. And it's packaged around a meta-story of what's going on in Helios," Bioware producer Mike Gamble told Kotaku Australia.

One of the biggest complaints about smartphones is their short battery life, but with the new Gionee M2017 you won't have to worry about that.

The device, available only in China at the moment, comes with a 7,000 mAh battery which is actually two 3,500 mAh batteries in the same body. The company stated that the battery gives you up to 915 hours of battery life in stand-by or up to 25 hours of talk time.

The Gionee M2017 is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 653 processor and has 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. Other features include dual-SIM, fingerprint sensor and a dual 12MP + 1.3MP camera.

In a series of Tweets where Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey had been soliciting user feedback, the CEO indicated that Twitter is seriously considering the ability to edit tweets.

As anyone who tweets knows, you currently must delete a tweet to fix any typographical errors, which is both a blessing and a curse. For celebrities and politicians, they can easily be caught making mistakes while regular users constantly delete tweets to fix minor mistakes.

Twitter's CEO didn't just respond to one user's feedback about being able to edit tweets, he responded to multiple people about the topic indicating that the company is taking this specific suggestion seriously.

LeEco has been on a quite precarious ground as of late, partially because their CEO is having issues with some of his other startups, including Faraday Future, an electric car company in the US. However, Faraday Future and LeSee the car division of LeEco are not the same company although the technology in LeSee has been developed by Faraday.

There have been many doubts about Faraday Future's capabilities and future as a company since they have yet to release a product. However, LeEco is still moving forward with their $3 billion electric car factory in China. This is after the company's own CEO Jia Yueting admitted that perhaps LeEco has overextended itself across too many markets. As of right now LeEco makes phones, TVs, bicycles, VR headsets and cars. All of these markets require significant capital and human resources and it appears that LeEco may have stretched themselves too thinly.

In September, LeEco got $1 billion to bring its electric and self-driving cars to the Chinese market, but still falls short of the $3 billion necessary to complete the factory. That also doesn't account the funds Jia or his investors will need to also get Faraday Future on track to deliver a car and not implode before they finish their development for LeEco's LeSee car.

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.

Whether or not this rumor is true, there are now new reports saying that Samsung will launch a new and improved wireless headset with their next flagship, better than their current earbuds. According to SamMobile, Samsung will launch wireless earbuds with the Galaxy S8.

It is not certain at this point if the wireless earbuds will come with the Galaxy S8 or if Samsung plans to sell them separately. However, if the rumors are true, it seems that Samsung plans to compete with Apple's AirPods and may or may not be connected together.

While playing Fallout 4, you get a distinct sense that it's unfinished. There's something missing and the game definitely feels incomplete; that's because it actually is, and we've found a nice catalog of all the awesome content that was cut from the original game.

Just like with any game, Fallout 4 has a lot of trimmings left on the cutting room floor. These trimmings might be irradiated, ghoulish, rather creepy and bizarre, but they would've changed the game in so many amazing ways. Players would be able to throw exploding spears, dive into the depths of the irradiated seas with old-school diving bells and suits to take on mutated dolphins and killer squids with an awesome secret harpoon gun. In fact, the quest was called 20 Leagues Under the Sea and had its own little Vault Boy animation.

Fallout 4 also once had destructible environments, but I suspect these were a lot less dynamic than, say, Battlefield 1. Throwable weapons were found, including javelins, saw blades and hatchets, as well as a rad crossbow and even an unfinished model for the super-awesome Chinese Assault Rifle from Fallout 3. An assortment of monsters was also found, giving us a creepy look at what could've been. Honestly, Fallout 4 would've been a very different game if the cutting room floor was incorporated into the final release, but I guess the same could be said for any triple-A release.

According to scientists and experts at NASA's Langley Research Center, we could be one step closer to colonizing mars with their new 'The Mars Ice Home'.

The inflatable tube is lined with a shell of water ice, using materials found on Mars - with the water protecting the inhabitants from cosmic rays, and could even be repurposed as rocket fuel for the Mars Ascent Lander.

Right now, NASA's impressive Mars Ice Home is a concept with some issues, as experts have said it would take around 400 days to fill the shell with enough water from Mars. Robots could help, inflating and pumping the shelter while the human astronauts are on their journey from Earth to Mars. The Ice Home will continue to evolve, but this is an exciting new step.

In just a few days time, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) will kick off with Intel launching its new Kaby Lake family of CPUs, and their partners unleashing new gaming laptops, desktops, laptops, and everything in between.

GIGABYTE will be unveiling its new Z270-based motherboards and new Aorus products, with GIGABYTE's new 200-series motherboards already shipping, and will be available on January 5 in certain markets. The company has been pushing its Aorus gaming note books into marks like Europe, North America, China, South Korea and Southeast Asia, with aggressive marketing to continue in those markets - but with next-gen Aorus products.

Have you been waiting for 200-series motherboards from GIGABYTE? Let us know in the comments below.

Remedy Entertainment had a massive year this year with the launch of Quantum Break, neck deep in a myriad of issues and launch problems, with the game being received badly - worse so than their previous game, Alan Wake.

Game Director Mikael Kasurinen sat down to an interview with Polygon, talking about various things that just didn't work with Quantum Break. He said that the concept the developer had for Quantum Break with its TV show mix in with the game itself wasn't perfect, and that it wasn't easy to combine these two worlds. He said that both Quantum Break and Alan Wake would've been better if they were less linear.

Kasurinen said: "If you go back and look at Alan Wake ten years ago you could see us talking about it about how we dabbled with the idea of driving around in a car in an open environment. You could see even then that desire to go in that direction". He continued: "One way to tell a story is to create a rich world you can get to explore. When you look back at Alan Wake and Quantum Break, you can see we spent a lot of time looking at the shape of those worlds, the cities, towns, neat characters, maps".