Latest News - Page 2469

Remember that sweet mechanical keyboard with pressure-sensitive keys I told you about a few months ago? The one with the weird name? It's hit Kickstarter.

The Wooting one, as it's known, has already surpassed its €30,000 funding goal, sitting at €46,915 as of the time of writing and just two days in. The company behind it says the keyboard is nearly finished and a manufacturer is lined up; they just needed a bit extra to finalize the firmware, so now it's off to the races.

Since we last saw it, the Wooting one's switches have been detailed. They are indeed custom: dubbed Flaretech optical switches, they come in Red ("Linear silent" for gaming) and Blue ("Non-linear clicky") and are described as "modular" and "fast as light."

Microsoft's new 4K-ready Xbox, codenamed Scorpio, will release in 2017 as a direct answer to Sony's new PS4K console.

Internal Microsoft sources told Kotaku that the new Xbox (aka Scorpio) will release in 2017 with 4K support thanks to an upgraded GPU. We've heard reports that Microsoft's next-gen Xbox will rock 10TFLOPs of performance, and the sources affirmed the new Xbox could "technically support the Oculus Rift". The Xbox4K may even leverage AMD's new GPU enclosure, especially since Phil Spencer teased upgradeable hardware for the new Xbox.

Sources also said that Microsoft will follow an iterative roadmap for future consoles, meaning the traditional console cycle is no longer viable. Instead of major new console hardware releases every five years, consoles will gradually stack upon one another with releases every 2-3 years, with full forward and backward compatibility across consoles. This further hints that the new Xbox will have successively upgradeable hardware, possibly in the form of dedicated GPU enclosure.

Microsoft will reveal two new streaming devices at E3--a smaller Roku-like streaming-only stick, and a bigger set-top box that may stream games from Xbox or PC.

In the most recent episode of The Sams Report, Windows insider Brad Sams dropped major scoops on Microsoft's incoming Xbox plans, including the Xbox One Mini, a new 4K-ready Xbox, and two new streaming devices that will perfectly round out existing hardware.

"Microsoft is going to announce at least two streaming devices at E3. There's going to be a very small device--the size of a Chromecast--and something that's a little bit larger. It'll be lunchbox-sized, but it won't be an Xbox One crammed into a teeny-tiny box, but I believe it's going to be a streaming device with more advanced functionality. [It'll likely be] a media device that plays lightweight Windows Store games, possibly like Apple TV," Sams said in the podcast.

Microsoft is reportedly working on a new Xbox console that will support 4K video playback, but not 4K gaming, and could be a contender to Sony's new PS4K console.

In the latest episode of The Sams Report, Windows insider Brad Sams dropped some scoops on Microsoft's future Xbox plans, claiming that the Xbox Mini is real. But he also says Microsoft has its own mid-cycle refresh countermeasure to the PS4K that will support 4K video and likely have full backward compatibility with existing Xbox One games.

"Microsoft is also dabbling with 4K. We've heard a lot about the PS4K and people have said 'Microsoft's gotta have something that competes with this'. I don't believe it's going to be 4K gaming. I do believe it'll play the next-generation Xbox games, but it'll only allow 4K video playback, not gaming," Sams said in the podcast. "To make this happen there would have to be some sort of internal hardware upgrade. I'd imagine faster video memory...but I don't quite know. But I don't see the console changing too much because remember it has to have compatibility with all the games."

Microsoft will unveil a smaller Xbox Mini at E3 2016, along with a slew of other devices.

Thurrot.com insider Brad Sams claims that Microsoft will expand the Xbox lineup with a new Xbox One Mini console. Given Sams thinks Microsoft will unveil a pair of streaming stick media devices at E3, the Xbox One Mini likely won't be a digital-only set top box and will play discs. A few weeks ago Sams brazenly declared Microsoft will indeed reveal new Xbox hardware at E3.

"I've been sitting on this for a while now, but I feel its safe to talk about. I know it's coming. Since I predicted that Microsoft would unveil new hardware E3, I've heard from a lot of people that said 'yeah, you're right'. There's going to be more than just one hardware. There's going to be hardwares--plural. Xbox Mini is real. It's legit, and I'm not quite sure what form it's going to take."

If you play Fallout 4 on PS4 or Xbox One, you'll want to stop spamming modders with requests to bring certain mods to consoles. The creators are getting tired of it, and it's a good way to talk them out of porting content.

In the next two months, Fallout 4 mods will be available on PS4 and Xbox One. This is a pretty big deal, and naturally console owners are extremely excited. But console owners are completely dependent on PC modders to not only make the mods, but port them over to the Bethesda.net service for console compatibility. Naturally this means modders have been completely overrun with requests to "plz bring to Xbox" or "PS4 version coming when?!", and the creators are getting sick of it.

In a recent Reddit post, a Fallout 4 modder cautioned PS4/Xbox users to stop demanding and begging creators for mods. There's a certain etiquette within the modding community; gamers must respect the efforts of modders, and work with the creators to make better experiences and sometimes remunerate their efforts with donations. Console owners don't seem to understand this, says the post, resulting in an outstanding sense of entitlement.

New Titanfall 2 leaks pinpoint a release month, along with a number of new unique features including a grappling hook operator ability.

A Redditor has leaked a bunch of Titanfall 2 info including release dates, box art (the left half of the pic above), gameplay features and map content. Titanfall 2 will launch on October according to the leaks, which aligns perfectly with EA's Q3 2016 release window. The sequel will also feature a "ton" of new pilot abilities including a grappling hook that can be "extensively used" by Titan operators, and players will be able to string together tactical combos using the grappling hook such as "pulling enemies while they're in midair".

The leaks also revealed Titanfall 2's multiplayer maps are much more expansive than the first game, suggesting that the player count will be boosted as well. There was no mention of the new Titan swords or the game's "grounded and dirty" singleplayer campaign, so we'll have to wait for the official E3 2016 reveal in June. The Reddit leaks have since been deleted, but you can still find them via a Google web cache.

Apple has had a few years of releasing so-so upgrades on its MacBook Pro, but the next-gen MBPs could be quite exciting with a "thinner and lighter" design, and a new OLED display touch bar above the keyboard, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Kuo adds that the updated MacBook Pro are the "brightest spot for Apple's 2016 rollouts" and will arrive in both 13-inch and 15-inch models, sometime in Q4 2016. The OLED display touch bar will replace the usual physical function keys at the top of the keyboard while Apple will use new metal injection molded hinges. We're expecting to see USB Type-C and Thunderbolt 3 connectivity as well. Intel's new 14nm processors should also find their way inside, and I'm hoping to see some Polaris love from AMD on the GPU side of things.

On top of the new 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros, Apple is reportedly working on a new 13-inch MacBook that will be similar to the 12-inch Retina model that was upgraded with performance improvements. There'll also be a new MacBook Air available as the new entry-level model, while the MacBook will be the mid-range choice, leaving the high-end to the MacBook Pro. Apple will also unleash Touch ID onto the new MacBook Pros, something that iPhone users have enjoyed for a while now.

Computex 2016 kicks off in just a few days time, with Intel reportedly preparing to unveil its next-gen 200 series chipset. Right now the Z170 chipset is the one responsible for running the current Skylake-based CPUs, including the flagship Core i7-6700K.

Intel is already poised to unveil the new Broadwell-E family, offering processors with up to 10 cores, and 20 threads. The flagship Broadwell-E offering will be the Core i7-6950X, which is expected to be quite the beast, and slot into some exciting new X99-based motherboards from the likes of GIGABYTE. The latest leak on Kaby Lake-S had Intel launching it in Q4 2016, but according to our industry sources, Intel will unveil the 200 series chipset at Computex.

When it comes to the Kaby Lake-S processors, they will arrive in dual- and quad-core designs with 35W/65W/95W parts. Intel's 7th generation platform will continue on with the LGA 1151 socket, with the new 200 series being made up of mostly the same innards of the 100 series, but it'll feature increased I/O performance. This is because Intel will push their exciting new 3D XPoint memory architecture, so we should see the Kaby Lake-S products featuring up to 24 PCIe 3.0 lanes, which is an increase from the 20 lanes availabel on the 100 series chipset. The 200 series chipset should also feature 6 x SATA 6Gbps ports, and 10 x USB 3.0 ports.

Our robot overlords are well and truly on their way, with former McDonald's USA CEO Ed Rensi, saying that it's better to buy $35,000 robots than it is to hire teenagers for $15 an hour.

During an interview with FOX Business Network's Mornings with Maria, Rensi said: "I was at the National Restaurant Show yesterday and if you look at the robotic devices that are coming into the restaurant industry -- it's cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who's inefficient making $15 an hour bagging French fries -- it's nonsense and it's very destructive and it's inflationary and it's going to cause a job loss across this country like you're not going to believe".

He added: "It's not just going to be in the fast food business. Franchising is the best business model in the United States. It's dependent on people that have low job skills that have to grow. Well if you can't get people a reasonable wage, you're going to get machines to do the work. It's just common sense. It's going to happen whether you like it or not. And the more you push this it's going to happen faster".

Sony has made some pretty big PS4 sales estimates for its latest fiscal year--could the new 4K-ready PlayStation 4 Neo (aka PS4K, PS4.5) have anything to do with those figures?

Sony wants to sell 20 million PlayStation 4 consoles from now until April 2017, bringing the total number of PS4s sold to 60 million globally. That's quite a feat. Although the PS4 is still a hot-selling console in its own right, what if Sony is counting on the new rumored PS4K to bolster those sales? Technically speaking the PS4K is a PS4, so those sales would definitely boost overall figures. Sony could unveil the PS4K at E3 2016, open up pre-orders after a month or so, and possibly ship it by October 2016 to coincide with the launch of the PlayStation VR.

Keep in mind that it's taken three years for the PS4 to hit its current 40 million sales figure, and Sony wants to sell half of this amount in one year. A new console would definitely bolster sales and drive growth. Remember that Sony's Fiscal Year 2016 ends on April 2017, so we could see the PS4K release in early 2017 or so, with Sony collecting the cash on pre-orders, but a 2016 launch is more likely in this scenario. On the other hand, if Sony does reveal the PS4K at E3, it's highly likely consumers will hold off on buying a PS4 and wait for the new console. If Sony lumps the PS4K with the original PS4 sales, the 20 million estimate makes a bit of sense. During Sony's IR call, Shuhei Yoshida affirmed that the company is now hitting the peak of console profits: "About two and half years have passed since the PlayStation 4 went on sale, and we believe we are beginning to enter the part of the console cycle where we harvest profits." What better time to release the PS4K?

Modders plan to push Fallout 4's Creation Kit to its limits with a massive new Fallout 3-sized mod set in Seattle.

Introducing Fallout Cascadia, an ambitious new modding project that will bring the Fallout universe to the Pacific Northwest for PC players--and eventually console users--to enjoy. Cascadia is being built by a team of 18 volunteers using Fallout 4's official Creation Kit, and will be completely separate from Fallout 4. The Seattle-based mod is expected to be almost as big as Fallout 3 and much bigger than Far Harbor, with all new quests, storylines, and authentic locations based in the region.

Cascadia takes place several decades after Fallout 3/New Vegas/Fallout 4, and Seattle will be the main hub on the game--the same way Boston is Fallout 4's main hub. "Many locations of the game focus around the city proper, including certain fair grounds, public markets, and other famous locations. The game will also include other locations to the west and south including Mercer Island, Redmond, Bellevue, forested areas and airports. The project make an effort to make the world a believable and alive one."

Thanks to G.Skill, all of the world's most renowned and prestigious overclockers will meet at Computex this year to push today's most powerful hardware to its limits.

Armed with an all-star ensemble of overclockers and the world's most powerful motherboards, video cards, DDR4 RAM, SSDs, CPUs and more, G.Skill is ready to completely redefine everything we know about overclocking. G.Skill will be hosting this year's major OC events at Computex--the 5th Annual World OC Record Stage 2016 and 3rd Annual OC World Cup 2016--with Intel, Samsung and NVIDIA sponsoring the events.

G.Skill has partnered with the world's greatest motherboard partners like ASRock, ASUS, EVGA, GIGABYTE and MSI to allow the world's greatest OC'ers to "break as many overclocking world records as possible" using today's most powerful Intel Core CPUs, NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1080 video card, and G.Skill's DDR4 RAM. Expect to see some staggering new benchmark records, with Skylake CPUs, 4000 MHz DDR4 RAM, and NVIDIA's new insane GeForce GTX 1080 pushed to its limits--and beyond.

The live action remake of Disney's 1992 animated classic 'Beauty and the Beast' released its first teaser trailer yesterday, and has quickly dethroned the first day trailer views of the previous record holder 'The Force Awakens'.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the minute long teaser video generated 1.8 million views worldwide in its first 24 hours, besting the 2014 teaser trailer for the 'Star Wars' sequel.

Starring Emma Watson as Belle and Dan Stevens as the Beast, 'Beauty and the Beast' hits theaters in March 2017.

Popular part-racing part-sports game Rocket League gets even better today as developer Psyonix launches cross-platform play. When the clock strikes 6pm ET / 10pm UTC, Xbox One players and PC players can duke it out with each other, making the game that much more competitive and making it that much easier to find a quality match.

"We're really excited to bring Xbox One and PC players closer together," said Jeremy Dunham, Vice President, Psyonix. "Cross-network play has been something that Xbox One gamers have been asking us for since the day we launched, and thanks to Microsoft's new cross-network policies, we're proud to give it to them."

The Xbox One player base stands tall at about two million; as of August 2015, PC sales were at one million.

AT&T began data capping its U-Verse broadband customers back in 2011, although it didn't enforce its new rules. That changes this week as May 23 has arrived: the date the company said it would begin enforcing caps.

Whereas the cap was 250GB per month in 2011, that's been increased to 300GB for those with 768 Kbps-6Mbps plans; 12Mbps-75Mbps plans will have a 600GB cap, and 100 Mbps-1Gbps means a 1TB cap. Should you exceed the limit (and you'll receive plenty of e-mail warnings before you do), you'll be charged $10 for each 50GB of extra data. Alternately, you can pay a flat $30 extra per month for unlimited data.

AT&T says about 4% of its customers go over the new limits.

Valve's DOTA 2 is now the second game to support the Vulkan API, an evolution of AMD's Mantle that allows developers to squeeze a ton more performance out of a game. The first: 2014's The Talos Principle, which received support earlier this year.

Support is in the beta stage, so you'll need to grab it as DLC. And if you use the Steam Overlay, you'll want to opt in to the Steam Client Beta to have the newest Steam Vulkan Overlay to prevent issues. Also, Valve notes the first time you play with Vulkan, you might notice stuttering, but that should go away after a full match.

Minimum system requirements are as follows:

Nintendo's post-3DS next generation handheld might be codenamed the "MH", and it could co-exist alongside the Nintendo NX games console.

According to Yahoo Japan, who cited a report from Japanese financial site Traders Web, Nintendo may be planning on releasing an upgraded portable handheld to accompany the Nintendo NX console. "The driving force up until now has been new business from "health services, theme parks and mobile games etc", but will switch over to the next generation game system (NX) and next-gen handheld game device (MH (temporary name))," reads a translation provided by IGN.

This doesn't seem quite right, especially considering the NX will likely have a Wii U-like gamepad controller that sports 3DS-like portability. It's also too soon for Nintendo to release a handheld. The New 3DS was released in 2014 in Japan, and February 2015 in North America, and the N3DS has yet to adopt its own exclusive games library.

AMD's Radeon Crimson Edition 16.5.3 driver is out, and with it comes optimizations for top games, new Crossfire profiles, and bug fixes for various games and system issues.

If you're getting in on the Total War: Warhammer or Overwatch action (both newly released), AMD has you covered with this driver set, which is optimized and includes Crossfire profiles for both. As well, a longtime favourite in DOTA 2 gets some love with improved support for the Vulkan API (Valve has also enabled it on their end with a patch for the game).

As for fixes, that stuttering while playing Fallout 4 in Crossfire should be gone as should flickering in the Division while using Crossfire. Various niche system issues are no more, either.

It's been eagerly awaited for 20 years since the release of the original, but the marketing juggernaut for the 'Independence Day: Resurgence' is kicking up a gear today with the release of an epic, 5 minute long trailer which plays as a 'best-of' from the previously released trailers, alongside new footage.

Returning stars Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Judd Hirsch and Vivica A. Fox are joined by newcomers Liam Hemsworth, Maika Monroe and Jessie Usher in defending the world from a second, much more powerful wave of alien attack, with the film promising to unleash visual effects as mind-blowing as they were in 1996.

'Independence Day: Resurgence' hits 2D, 3D and IMAX cinemas worldwide from June 23rd.