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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:

The top reply to Lockheimer's tweet is "@lockheimer Are you going to announce A*******a finally?" with a picture of stars next to it.

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.

Samsung is currently busy replacing all of those exploding Galaxy Note 7 smartphones, but the rumors of its next-gen Galaxy S8 just won't go away, with the latest rumor teasing a 4K display for the Galaxy S8.

It has been reported that a senior official from Samsung was arrested in South Korea, as he was trying to steal confidential information from Samsung in relation to its 14nm and 10nm technology. The report teased that Samsung is planning to use a 10nm-based Exynos processor in its Galaxy S8 next year, but then SamMobile (who are pretty good with rumors) says they have information which says the Galaxy S8 will rock the Exynos 8895 processor with ARM's new Mali-G71 GPU.

ARM's updated Mali-G71 GPU is 1.8x as powerful as the Mali-T880 MP12 GPU that's used in the Exynos 8890-based Galaxy S7. The new Mali-G71 GPU is powered by ARM's new Bifrost architecture, offering 4K and VR and is compatible with Vulkan, OpenGL ES 3.2, GPU Compute, and Android RenderScript APIs. The GPU is clocked at 850MHz, with the 16nm GPU capable of 27.2Gpix/s, over double what the Mali-T880 is capable of at the same speeds.

These things always seem to happen close to a weekend, but there are rumors hitting fast and hard that Twitter is fielding acquisition talks with industry giants like Google and Salesforce, as well as others.

CNBC is reporting that Twitter might receive a formal acquisition big "shortly", with Twitter's board likely to sign right away. CBNC adds that there is no actual talk of a sale right now, but sources of the site say that the talks are getting much bigger, and something could happen before the end of the year. Twitter hasn't been having the success they have been aiming for, with Twitter shares plunging over the years.

They hit their high in early 2014 at around $69 per share, but hit rock bottom a few months ago at $14, and since the acquisition rumors began, they went up 3.75% to 22.38. Salesforce acquiring Twitter is interesting, as they were reportedly gearing to acquire LinkedIn before Microsoft pulled out its wallet - and Google, well... if they acquired Twitter it would give them a huge superpower against Facebook.

One of our biggest stories for the year was that No Man's Sky had bombed, and dropped 78% of its playerbase in the first week of its launch. Well, things have gotten far worse since then.

GitHyp has data that shows No Man's Sky has plummeted to just 1000 players per house, and now experiencing peaks of just 2000 players per hour. This is a massive 94% drop, an achievement Hello Games only needed 42 days to complete. It took 42 days for No Man's Sky to go from the #3 most played game on Steam, right down the ladder to #132.

Hello Games founder Sean Murray hasn't been active on his Twitter since No Man's Sky launched on August 18, and Hello Games have been much quieter than normal post-release - which should really come as no surprise at this point.

The Nashville Metro Council gave its final approval this week to the ordinance that would see Google Fiber installed across the Tennessee, USA town. However, it expects a lawsuit from AT&T is imminent, after the rival ISP threatened as such should the ordinance pass, and after its sued Louisville over the same issue in the neighbouring state of Kentucky.

"Unfortunately, the likelihood of protracted litigation could delay implementation of this law designed to benefit Nashville's consumers," stated Nashville mayor Megan Barry. "That is why I encouraged fiber providers to work together on a solution they could all agree upon, which they were not able to do. My hope now is that any potential legal disputes over this new law can be resolved quickly, and we can move forward with expanding fiber access throughout the city."

AT&T said the ordinance -- which allows Google to make necessary wire adjustments on its own -- is "is not a good solution for faster deployment of infrastructure." Meanwhile, Comcast (which has also lobbied against the bid -- said they believe there is "a better solution that is beneficial for all consumers."

System requirements for Resident Evil 7 are here, and they're fairly high. For 1080p and 30 FPS, you'll need an i5 4460 and a GTX 760/R7 260X, while for 1080p and 60 FPS, you'll need an i7 3770 and a GTX 960/R9 280X.

Capcom notes the game is still in development and requirements could change, but this should be more or less what to expect when the January launch rolls around.

The full list can be found below.

Nintendo has been eyeing down a March 2017 release for its next-gen codename NX console, which we broke the news on that it would be a Pascal-based Tegra design all the way back in May. The latest on Nintendo NX is from Emily Rogers, who had an update on NX that said:

Right now, this is what we're expecting:

Thought your expensive new Tesla Model S electric vehicle was safe? Think again, as Chinese hackers have broken into a Model S vehicle that was 12 miles away, where they could even play around with the braking system on the car.

The hackers were from the company Keen Security Lab, which displayed they could hack into a Model S by creating a Wi-Fi hotspot that the car connected to while browsing the web. Once the connection is established, the hackers could use the car's CAN bus (Controller Area Network) which is the system that oversees the systems inside the Tesla.

Once the CAN was controlled, the hackers could close the car doors, slide the seats back and forward, move the side mirrors, adjust the windshield wipers - and the worst, play around with the braking system. The hackers alerted Tesla to the security hole, with the electric car maker pushing out an over-the-air update to protect Tesla owners.

Respawn Entertainment have released more details on their upcoming mech-powered game Titanfall 2, which will now be launching on the PC alongside the Xbox One and PS4 versions on October 28.

The developer has released the official PC system requirements for Titanfall 2, with some high-end hardware required for Ultra details at 4K in order to hit 60FPS. Titanfall 2 Producer Drew McCoy said the minimum specifications of the Core i3-3600t or equivalent, 8GB of RAM and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 2GB/AMD Radeon HD 7850 2GB would run 1600x900 with most details enabled, at 60FPS.

Respawn also said that the PC version of Titanfall 2 will take advantage of the high-end monitors with 120/144Hz refresh rates, while gamepad support with multiple configurations and sensitivity options are on the table, as well as an anti-cheat system and more.