Latest News - Page 2362

Foxconn is currently manufacturing Nintendo's mysterious new NX hardware, and now a purported employee has revealed potential new information on the system, namely a GPU and CPU attachment that can be swapped between the console and handheld portion.

Remember that Foxconn worker that leaked the PlayStation 4 Pro console, and said the NX is a "PSP-like device" being made right now at the plant? Now another Foxconn worker is taking aim at the NX. According to the worker's claims, Nintendo's new cryptic NX system will have three parts: a handheld tablet with detachable controllers, a mini-console that the handheld can be "docked" into, and a detachable hardware upgrade attachment called a "performance module" that can slot into the handheld or the console to boost GPU and CPU power.

The performance module can be swapped between the handheld and the mini-console at will, transforming both the handheld and the mini-console with "PS4/Xbox One-like" power. Both the handheld and the mini-console dock will be usable without the performance module, but their performance will be limited--think basic functionality, web surfing, Netflix, MiiVerse interactions, and likely Virtual Console gaming.

Bethesda Softworks have recently launched an update for their hit game Fallout Shelter. It has been confirmed that the update will see that iOS devices will feature a new set of game-related stickers, for which can be used in iMessage .

The 1.7.2 update will be free, but the installment of Fallout Shelter's free in-app base game is essential in order to obtain the exclusive sticker content. The latest update will feature characters such as 'Vault Boy' (seen in the image above) to be conveying various emotions through the display of different themed identities. Some possess a comedic and happy tone whilst others appear to be angry and even sad.

Depending on the topic of conversation at the time, these one-of-a-kind stickers can give an edge to iMessages, as the content is only available via the new download. Once installed, this updated feature can be used in any app that contains sticker support.

The new Assassin's Creed may not come back in 2017 as Ubisoft originally planned, and the publisher is looking at ways to "revolutionize" the IP and "take it to another level." But how could it do that? With native 4K gaming on consoles, of course.

Usually when a company like Ubisoft says PR speak like "taking it to the next level," it means the game will support a new generation of console tech. Now Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot strongly hints that the Assassin's Creed franchise will skip 2017 altogether so it can take full advantage of Microsoft's new "monster" 4K-ready 6TFLOPs Project Scorpio console and give the company enough time to find the PlayStation 4 Pro's strengths.

"What we saw in the development of the next [Assassin's Creed game] was that we had an opportunity to take it to another level. So we said we'll take all the time it takes to make the experience fantastic. It was feasible because we have other games. There's a huge potential in this game to revolutionize the IP, so we said, 'Let's make sure we change our model so we have more time and that we can bring back a greater experience,'" Guillemot said in a recent interview with Gamespot.

Nintendo's new handheld and console hybrid NX system may be priced at $350, which is just $50 cheaper than Sony's new 4K-ready PlayStation 4 Pro.

UK retailer giant Tesco has posted up a temporary listing for "Nintendo Wii U NX" priced at 350 GBP, but that's probably not the final price since we have a placeholder release date. Interestingly enough, Tesco has pulled the listing's price tag at the time of writing, but that could've just been done to avoid any confusion.

Tesco's listing might not tell us the exact price of the Nintendo NX, but it could hint that the system will be unveiled soon. Word has it that key German retailers have recently been flown to an unspecified event held by Nintendo, which is likely NX related.

The official Harry Potter website: Pottermore, announced today that fans can now discover their own 'Patronus' through completing an online questionnaire. Users will have to register their details if not done so already, then once logged in can access the link for the Patronus test via the site's toolbar.

The famous Patronus Charm was first discovered in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third installment in the seven-book series. The defensive charm is designed to protect the person against Dementors, life-sucking, cloaked figures that cause great suffering. The Patronus itself takes on the form of an animal and/or mythical creature that represents the witch or wizard performing the spell, for Harry Potter it was a 'Stag'.

Pottermore's Patronus test is generated by simply answering a series of questions which will then be analyzed and returned in the form of an animal or creature, based upon the results given . The site is completely free to join, and unless purchasing from the online shop, users can take the quiz without spending a cent. Author J.K Rowling, having assisted in the creation of the online quiz, took the test herself and posted her results on Twitter hours ago, ensuring fans that the site was working and that her Patronus took the form of a Heron.

Now that the Xbox One is powered by Microsoft's cross-platform UWP app service, developers can sneak in things like retro game emulators onto the console.

The first working Nintendo 64 emulator is now available on the Xbox One via the UWP Windows 10 integration platform, but I have a strong feeling that once news breaks out Microsoft will yank the app. The emulator is called Win64e10 and is currently available on the Xbox One game store for $9.99. I haven't tried it just yet--and I don't plan to due to the fuzzy grey line between ROMs and piracy--but other users have reported that the emulator plays Nintendo 64 ROMs like a fully-fledged PC emulator.

Now I'm sure once Microsoft realizes what happened, they'll pull the app and probably make it unusable on the Xbox One. Right now, Win64e10 is usable on PC, Xbox One and Windows Phones, making a nice trifecta for retro gaming. But for now you can jump in to sold old-fashioned Nintendo 64 awesomeness, but personally I'd prefer SNES or NES myself. Fun fact: NESbox almost made it onto the Xbox Store, but Microsoft pulled it at the last minute for obvious reasons.

Respawn Entertainment has come out firing today, leading up to the launch of Titanfall 2 on the Xbox and PlayStation consoles simultaneously - as well as the PC. This is a move Microsoft stopped from the launch of Titanfall, and confirmed by Respawn.

Respawn's Art Director Joel Emslie, along with COO Dusty Welch were interviewed by PlayStation LifeStyle, where they said that there was a deal between EA (the publisher of Titanfall) and Microsoft, but they would have preferred to be multi-platform for the Titanfall launch and have it on the PS4 for increased launch sales.

They said: "EA released at some point, 7.5 million. I think we're at almost 11 million unique players. For a single platform early on in the hardware cycle, that's extraordinary. What I've heard from EA is that it's their best-selling new IP ever. So I think back to my early days with all of the Call of Duty games, you know, Titanfall 1...well ahead of the sales curve of Call of Duty. The attach rate was much higher. For us, we weren't expecting this high level of sales at all. I think if we'd been multiplatform, that'd have been extraordinary at launch".

To celebrate this week's release of 'Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV' on Blu-ray and DVD, we have 15 Blu-rays to give away thanks to our friends at Universal Sony Home Entertainment.

The magical kingdom of Lucis is home to the world's last remaining Crystal, and the menacing empire of Niflheim is determined to steal it. King Regis of Lucis commands an elite force of soldiers called the Kingsglaive. Wielding their king's magic, they fight to protect Lucis. As the overwhelming military might of the empire bears down, King Regis is faced with an impossible ultimatum - to marry his son, Prince Noctis to Princess Lunafreya of Tenebrae, captive of Niflheim, and surrender his lands to Niflheim rule. Although the king concedes, it becomes clear that the empire will stop at nothing to achieve their devious goals, with only the Kingsglaive standing between them and world domination.

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

Valve is working on improvements in more ways than one for the Steam Store, with a visual refresh for the Steam home page on the way - as well as a notification column on the left, friends activity, and more. The details of the revamped Steam Store were posted by Valve on the SteamWorks forum, a private forum but the detailed were leaked out.

Home Page Visual Refresh.

The Steam home page will be getting a visual refresh to use bigger game images in some places, add some new ways of surfacing games, and remove some visual clutter.

Yahoo had reportedly been hacked a few years ago to the tune of 200 million usernames and passwords of account holders made it onto the dark web by 'Peace', hitting the Tor-based market 'The Real Deal'. Yahoo was said to be close to admitting the hack, but now they have, and it's even bigger than previously thought.

Chief Information Security Officer at Yahoo, Bob Lord, said: "We have confirmed that a copy of certain user account information was stolen from the company's network in late 2014 by what it believes is a state-sponsored actor. The account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (the vast majority with bcrypt) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers".

The hashing algorithm used is very secure, and is hard to break, with Lord adding that while no bank data was stolen, users should change their passwords. Lord added: "Based on the ongoing investigation, Yahoo believes that information associated with at least 500 million user accounts was stolen and the investigation has found no evidence that the state-sponsored actor is currently in Yahoo's network. Yahoo is working closely with law enforcement on this matter".

Sony might win the console arm wrestle for the rest of the year and into 2016, but Microsoft announced its new Project Scorpio console a year early which has some console gamers waiting, and that's something Microsoft intended.

Microsoft's Senior Director of Product Management, Albert Pinello talked with TechRadar recently, where he talked about the announcements of both the recently released Xbox One S and Xbox Scorpio earlier this year at E3. He said: "We wanted to let people know in advance so that we didn't run into the opposite problem which is next year we announce Scorpio and we have people that bought Xbox One S and went 'Why didn't you tell me this was coming a year later? I would have waited".

It makes sense, with Microsoft announcing Xbox Scorpio early, gamers will know when it's coming - and that it's a powerful console, and will save for it.

AMD has been all over the next-gen CPU game, which seems to be looking to really take off with Zen launching in 2017, but the processors that will follow in the years after will be beyond impressive.

We're now hearing about CPUs that will arrive all the way out in 2019, with a 4-core/8-thread CPU on the 7nm FinFET process using Zen+ cores would use just 10W. The graphics side of these new codenamed Gray Hawk processors will be courtesy of the next-gen Navi GPU architecture due out in 2019, which was reportedly delayed from 2018 just recently.

Gray Hawk will be released after Raven Ridge, with Raven Ridge made on the 14nm process and due sometime in mid-2017. The new Gray Hawk architecture will be used in desktops, notebooks, arcade gaming systems, embedded devices, automation, retail signage to medical imaging and industrial control systems.

While we're all distracted with the news of Google's upcoming media event for the unveiling of the next-gen Pixel smartphone, Android Police has an incredible tease for the future of Google, something that will be unveiled on October 4.

Google's next big thing is reportedly something massive for the company, with Horishi Lockmeimer - the Senior VP of Android, Google Play, and Chrome teasing on Twitter:

Analogix Semiconductor have been one of my favorite companies of recent years, getting their exciting technology into a bunch of devices driving them into a totally new direction. Well, they've been acquired by a consortium led by Shanhai Capital for a whopping $500 million.

The $500 million deal is considerable, as it's one of the largest in recent history for the semiconductor industry, where billions of dollars are flowing through the market and into chipmakers. The chips that Analogix make are incredibly important, as they can drive high-res, multi-display and multiple peripherals through a single USB connector with no lag - it's impressive, to say the least.

Analogix make makes high-speed, mixed-signal chips for applications used in mobile devices, virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR), and other high-performance electronic products. Customers include Apple, Samsung, LG, Microsoft, Google, Lenovo, Dell, HP, ASUS, and HTC. The majority of the company's engineering resources are in Beijing, reports VentureBeat.

We are edging closer to finding out the next US president, with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump set to battle on November 8, but before then we have the first presidential debate tomorrow, September 26.

Well before the presidential debate, it would've been good to read over Hillary Clinton's private email server that was nuked clean of its purported classified emails that would have ended her run for the White House - and that won't be happening. The State Department will be publishing 1,050 pages of the 10,000+ that still haven't been released.

Americans want as much transparency as possible, as Engadget reported, and they deserve it - and will not get it, it seems. Judicial Watch and other activist groups are suing the government because of the relaxed nature of the US government in its handing over of the Clinton emails, and are accusing the State Department of creating an "absolutely corrupt process" for publishing data. Ouch.

Oculus founder Palmer Luckey is a funny guy, and it seems like he's up to some epic and probably expensive trolling as he's behind the Reddit pseudonym "NimbleRichMan," and has been funding that claims it has proven that "shitposting is powerful and meme magic is real".

The organization is called Nimble America, which is a pro-Trump organization that spreads anti-Hillary Clinton memes, and calls her a "corrupt, a warmonger, a freedom-stripper". Nimble America says that people will be offended by their Hillary Clinton memes because they hate Trump, because they can't stand to see successful people.

Luckey, through his Reddit name NimbleRichMan, said:

The world's largest telescope had begun operating in China and it should help humanity search for alien life. The 500m Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) is located in the Dawodang depression, a natural basin in Pingtang County, Guizhou Province, southwest China. It consists of a fixed 500m dish constructed in a natural depression in the landscape.

It is the world's largest single-dish radio telescope (Arecibo Observatory held that title for 53 years) and the second largest radio telescope (after the Russian RATAN-600, which has a sparsely filled aperture). The final cost of the FAST telescope was $180 million and it took five years to build it. Its primary goal is to search for alien life but it will also be developed as a tourist attraction. Currently there are 71 people working for the FAST project.

The facility was opened at a ceremony on Sunday but it will take up to three years to calibrate the instrument so it can become fully operational. FAST will help us 'listen' to the universe and it will be able to detect radio waves from space. Scientists hope the FAST will play a key role in the discovery of alien life.

We're now less than 30 days away from the release of Battlefield 1, after its major debut during E3 this year, and you can get into the game early - if you want.

EA Access members get 10 hours of game time with Battlefield 1 starting on October 13, and have to use those 10 hours wisely until the official release 5 days later on October 18 for Early Enlister Deluxe Edition, and then October 21 for everyone else. There will be both single-player and multiplayer, five maps to play on with Conquest mode, with progress carrying onto the full game. If you play the 10 hours through, you'll receive a Battlepack when Battlefield 1 launches on October 18.

The two missions included in the October 13 early release of Battlefield 1 are 'Storm of Steel' and 'Through Mud and Blood', but I think it'll be the multiplayer side of BF1 that has everyone talking. I played it as much as I could and fell in love with it, it was the only game that pulled me away from my Overwatch obsession.

Huawei has been flirting with virtual reality for quite some time, which isn't surprising since their goal is to be the 2nd biggest phone manufacturer in the world (they are 3rd at the moment) and they need to keep up with the competition. Samsung has its Gear VR, everyone's expecting Apple's step in the VR or AR direction, especially after announcing the iPhone 7 Plus with a dual camera, and even smaller companies like Alcatel are offering VR devices with their phones.

Last year I was at Huawei's headquarters in China where I talked to Kevin Ho, ‎President of Huawei's Handset Business Unit, and speaking about Huawei's future plans he did mention virtual reality as one of many possible goals in the company's future. He said that Huawei's long-term plan is to invest in smart homes, artificial intelligence, wearables, virtual reality and even self-driving cars.

Not even a year later, in April this year, Huawei announced their VR device simply named - Huawei VR. The Chinese giant launched it while unveiling P9 and P9 Plus smartphones in Shanghai. The device should go on sale later this year, presumably only in China cause there was no mention of Huawei VR on P9's global launch in London.

Snapchat gained its popularity for its messaging app and fun filters that many users have embraced. Now they announced their first gadget - a pair of sunglasses with an integrated video camera.

The device, which the company is calling Spectacles, will record 10-second clips. They connect directly to Snapchat via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi and transfer data directly into the app in Snapchat's new circular video format.

Circular video plays full screen on any device, in any orientation, and capture the human perspective with a 115-degree field of view. Snapchat introduced the circular video format to resolve the landscape vs. portrait video dilemma.