Latest News - Page 2485

HTC is well into the VR world with its Vive headset, with the company holding a conference to talk about the planned ecosystem for its Vive headset.

The company revealed a slew of new VR experiences that are on their way to the Vive, with HTC announcing a new Accelerator Program known as Vive X. HTC will invest $100 million into Vive X, so that it will "cultivate the VR industry and the development of the ecological business".

HTC CEO Cher Wang said that the Accelerator Program will launch in three cities: Beijing, Taipei and San Francisco. The company didn't provide anything specific in the way of locations, timelines or development studios. The company did say the program will be base-level administration, something that will include accounting, finance, HR and legal advice, and more for VR developers.

Zelda fans knew it was coming--Nintendo has officially delayed Zelda Wii U to 2017.

Instead of releasing in 2016, the new Legend of Zelda game (Zelda Wii U) will see a simultaneous release on the Wii U and NX console in 2017. This marks the second Zelda Wii U delay, and we pretty much knew that the open-world adventure would be a major launch title on the NX.

Although the Japanese console-maker just announced the NX console will release in March 2017, Nintendo will focus on the new Zelda game at E3 2016 instead of the NX. We'll probably finally get an official game name, too.

Now that Nintendo has officially announced the NX will launch in March 2017, the company affirms that the NX won't replace the Wii U and 3DS.

"NX won't simply replace 3DS and Wii U" Nintendo President and CEO Tatsumi Kimishima said during the company's most recent earnings call. Kimishima reiterated that the NX is a "brand new concept", and suggests that the console will co-exist with current Nintendo hardware like the Wii U and 3DS. Consumers won't need to worry about their systems being phased out.

Sadly, Nintendo has confirmed that the NX won't be the focus for their E3 2016 showcase. Instead the company will focus on the new Zelda game, which has been pushed back to 2017 to see a simultaneous launch on Wii U and NX in 2017.

Nintendo's new NX console will launch globally on March 2017, the Japanese console-maker announced at their latest earnings call.

"For our dedicated video game platform business, Nintendo is currently developing a gaming platform codenamed "NX" with a brand-new concept. NX will be launched in March 2017 globally," the company said during the call.

Nintendo will undoubtedly formally announce the Nintendo NX console at E3 2016 in June. The earnings calle is still ongoing, so we'll be sure to update this post when new information releases.

Any gamers who grew up in the 90s (or played Halo on original Xboxes) know about LAN parties. These communal events can be tons of fun, but are also quite chaotic and messy. With the advent of BigScreen, gamers can now hook up with their friends remotely across the globe to do LAN parties in VR environments--or even play games on massive desktop screens.

If you own (or plan to own) an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, then you should definitely check out BigScreen. The free app, which launches on Steam later this week, is a flexible tool that simulates your desktop in VR environments and gives you the freedom to control said environment. With BigScreen you can play games on a curved 65-inch TV or a huge, wall-sized 20-foot display or even an infinite array of monitors that mirror your single physical monitor. You'll also be able to stream your screen to friends in full 1080p, and even talk to them in the virtual space--kind of like VR Skype mixed with a VR movie theater.

"With BigScreen, you can have a Virtual Reality LAN party," reads the app's official Steam page. "Use your Windows desktop on massive screens in a virtual space where you can hangout with friends, watch movies, and even play video games together."

Bethesda reveals an official timeline for Fallout 4 console mods, and reveals how exactly the system will work.

Fallout 4 console mods are coming first to Xbox One in May, following with the PlayStation 4 in June. PS4 and Xbox One players will browse player-created mods via a special in-game menu, and install mods at the touch of a button. All Fallout 4 console mod listings show screenshot previews and descriptions, and users can bookmark specific mods for later. The mods are separated into a number of different categories for easy browsing, including newly released, community favorites, player favorites, weapons, armors, NPCs and more.

Console players won't be able to make Fallout 4 mods, only play them--the Creation Kit is only available on PC, so PS4 and Xbox One gamers can only play mods created by PC modders.

UPDATE: Sony has confirmed that a shipment of Uncharted 4 games were stolen, and that all early copies in circulation are a result of the theft. "We can confirm that unfortunately some contents from a lorry transporting a variety of video game and DVD titles, including a quantity of the much anticipated Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, was stolen in the UK, during a violent assault," Sony told MCV.

"To be clear, we have yet to ship any stock of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End to retail and so any suggestion that UK retailers have broken the official street date is not correct."

Original story as follows.

Falcon Northwest is the latest company to join Oculus with its Oculus Ready PC Program, with Oculus featuring eight PCs from various manufacturers like ASUS and Dell ready for VR gaming. Falcon Northwest is the latest member of this club.

Oculus took to a blog to announce two new desktop gaming PCs that have joined the program, with the Falcon Tiki and Falcon Talon. Starting with the Tiki, starting at $2699 and featuring an Intel Core i7-6700K, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 with 4GB of GDDR5, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 1TB SSD.

The other PC is the Talon, which bumps the price up to $3099 and while it includes the same Core i7-6700K processor, it bumps the GPU power to the GTX 980 Ti with 6GB of GDDR5, 32GB of DDR4 (up from 16GB in the Tiki) and a 512GB PCIe-based SSD joined with a 4TB drive for storage.

In an attempt to match the wacky tone of the game series, Lionsgate has hired a comedian to write the Borderlands film adaptation.

Lionsgate has tapped Canadian comedian Aaron Berg to write the Borderlands movie, pretty much ensuring that the film will mirror Gearbox's hilarious and quirky post-apocalyptic style. Berg's past work includes writing the screenplay for GI Joe 3 and Section 6, and is known for his "raw brand of stand-up comedy."

Marvel Studios co-founder and ex-CEO Avi Arad will be heavily involved with the film's production, along with his son Ari. Taking a quick look at the father-and-son duo's track record, I'd say that the Borderlands movie is in great hands. Avi and Ari Arad have extensive experience bringing comic book adaptations to the big screen. After the mega-blockbuster that was George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road, everyone wants to get in on the post-apocalyptic genre, and Borderlands could be a tremendously lucrative franchise for Lionsgate.

Crytek is expanding its reach, by announcing its new Film Engine initiative, with Crytek's President and CEO, Cevat Yerli, announcing a new independant company, and a new technology designed exclusively for film.

Film Engine will allow filmmakers and VR storytellers use real-time cinematic production software, which will radically reduce the time and resources required to build top-quality visual effects and CG animation films. Film Engine can be used for virtually everything from pre-vis, post-vis, and pitch-vis to final production for film, TV, commercials, animation and visual effects.

Crytek's new Film Engine uses motion capture, camera tracking, digital camera and lighting technologies into an end-to-end filmmaking software suite. Film Engine's Creative Director, Jean-Colas Prunier is a visual effects veteran, having worked on movies like Avatar, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Lord of the Rings, and Life of Pi, met Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli in 2014. The two kept in touch, and began working together to create a better solution that solved many filmmakers' problems.

Valve has just pushed out another SteamVR beta, with the new update including some fresh work to many parts of the software. Valve still calls SteamVR a beta, so don't expect it to be perfect.

SteamVR's Desktop Game Theater, Keyboard and Dashboard features have all received some work in the new update, with the Desktop Game Theater being a mode where all games can be played in VR, on a virtual screen.

The new SteamVR beta includes an update to make the visual quality of the screen better, with gaze-based controls provided to adjust and realign the image you see, in case of drift. Valve has also included keyboard support that follows your desktop PC and its locale settings, while the Dashboard feature allows you to customize the play area, color, and opacity.

After taking 13 years of dominance in their quarterly results, Apple has just reported its fiscal Q2 2016 results, reporting a 16% decline in iPhone sales when compared to the same period of last year.

Apple still pulled $50.6 billion in revenue for the three-month period, down 13% from the $58 billion in the same quarter of 2015. The company did warn the decline was on the way, with company CEO Tim Cook saying that the iPhone 6S upgrades were outpacing those when the iPhone 5S launched.

Even with the decent sales, it wasn't enough to match the "accelerated" upgrade cycle it saw with the iPhone 6 in 2014. Two other major sources of iPhone customers are people switching from Android, and first-time smartphone owners. When it comes to this, Cook says that iPhone business is good. In the last six months, Apple has had more people switching over to iPhones more than any other 6-month period, ever.

Ikea has begun selling solar panels at some of its UK stores -- in Glasgow, Birmingham, and Lakeside -- as well as online.

The Swedish company's backing makes for some much-needed help after the government cut solar incentives by 65 percent. It says the reasoning is simple: over a third of Ikea customers are very interested in solar. It's a natural fit, too, as its operations are already powered by the environmentally-friendly technology.

By the end of summer, it plans to have a 'Solar Store' in every UK shop, each of which will have staff to help you decide if solar is worth it for you. If you decide yes, solar installation company Solar Century takes over from there.

If you've ever wanted a portable robot buddy, the Hover Camera is pretty close. Combining foldable functionality as well as "follow me" functionality, the compact drone will go wherever you go whether he's on or off. It's not quite pocket sized, but will fit into a backpack or messenger bag very easily.

The Hover Camera is also very safe as its propellers are enclosed by a carbon fiber frame, so you can grab it like you would a toy.

Developed by Beijing startup Zero Zero Robotics, it's intended for aerial photography and videography. Specs-wise, it weighs 238 grams, includes 13mp and 3mp cameras, supports 4K video, live streaming, and a 360 Pano mode complete with face and body tracking, and features Qualcomm's Snapdragon Flight platform.

Sandisk today revealed its new cost-effective trio of 15nm Z410 solid state drives built on the company's renowned Z400 line.

Sandisk's new Z410 SSDs are built on 15nm TLC NAND and come in versatile 2.5" form factors with 120GB, 240GB and 480GB capacities. The company boasts that the Z410 sport "one of the lowest power draws of any SSD in the industry", with dependable 1.75 million Mean to Time Failure (MTTF) rates. The Z410 SSDs also maximize read to write speeds by leveraging a combination of SLC and TLC blocks, making the line an ideal solution for high workloads and super fast application start-ups.

"SSDs are being rapidly adopted as the preferred storage option across the entire spectrum of the PC marketplace," said Tarun Loomba, vice president and general manager of Client Platform Solutions, Sandisk. "In addition to the performance and durability benefits that SSDs provide, the Sandisk Z410 SSD delivers storage that is ample for most consumers and the right-size for typical corporate users. The Z410 is an important addition to our overall SSD portfolio, as our customers require a complete range of storage options, from home/office PCs to the latest high-performance, ultra-thin laptops."

The newest episode of Game of Thrones -- "The Red Woman" -- has been pirated via BitTorrent one million times in about 12 hours, according to TorrentFreak.

Those downloading the show are fairly evenly spread out across the world: 12.5% are in Australia, 9.7% are in India, 8.5% are in the US, and 6.9% hail from the UK, with Philippines, Canada, the Netherlands, Greece, South Africa and Saudi Arabia not far behind. Mind you, time differences will favor some regions more than others; a more complete and accurate picture will unfold soon.

It's expected piracy this time is less than before in the US, as HBO was made free in the region over the weekend while the new season premiered.

The tech surgeons over at iFixit have determined that HTC's Vive VR headset is surprisingly easy for DIY repairs, scoring an 8 out of 10 on the repairability scale.

While millions of VR fans are frantically biting their nails and spamming F5 for Vive VR shipping confirmations (myself included), iFixit has delivered their official HTC Vive teardown to keep us entertained. As always, the teardown shows you how to disassemble Valve's coveted VR headset and put it all back together again, while disclosing all the fine-tuned chips and bits of technology that are responsible for casting the spell of VR.

The process is quite involved with twenty-five steps in total, but all in all, it's not too difficult to slice open a Vive and swap out its guts. That being said, the Vive has a massive array of components that are extremely delicate, so any repairs or fixes need to be handled with the utmost care. The most daunting roadblock that iFixit faced with the Vive teardown is adhesive, which binds the lenses, Lighthouse base station covers, and the 32-sensor array.

Activision may unveil this year's Call of Duty game on May 3, according to a leaked in-house advertisement scheme from an unspecified games retailer.

Call of Duty 2016 could be unveiled by next Tuesday on May 3, if a recently leaked retailer advertisement scheme can be believed. The document was spotted by renowned games journalist Jim Sterling, who posted the news on his Twitter feed, but we're still not sure which retailer it belongs to.

Rumors say that the new game will be Call of Duty: Ghosts 2, and will be set in the distant future as well as feature space combat. Official details on the next Call of Duty are scarce, but we do know that Infinity Ward will be developing the game. Infinity Ward will also outsource Call of Duty 2016 to the 3D artists responsible for RYSE: Son of Rome.

For older Gen Y's like myself, the relationship with the classic David Bowie musical 'Labyrinth' has gone from one of nightmare-inducing fear to pure enjoyment, and with the film hitting it's 30th anniversary this year Sony Pictures is set to release brand new 4K, Blu-ray and DVD editions to celebrate.

According to our friends at The Digital Bits, the 30th anniversary 4K Blu-ray edition will see the film completely remastered in 4K reolution, with an HDR pass and Dolby Atmos audio, alongside a copy of the 30th anniversary Blu-ray edition with new featurettes 'The Henson Legacy' and 'The Goblin King' as well as an Anniversary Q&A hosted by Adam Savage of 'MythBusters'. This is in addition to the previously released bonus features which include a Picture-in-Picture option, audio commentary, documentaries and featurettes.

If that's not all, 'Labyrinth' is also set for a limited theatrical re-release later in the year. Dance magic dance, indeed.

Facebook is reportedly working on its own standalone camera app, alongside its own live video app platform. The company is hoping people will create, and share more content, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Their sources also say that the app will have two standout features: still photos, and the ability to broadcast live video, quickly. Thanks to video/picture sharing services like Snapchat, Facebook is wanting to jump into the same pool, and it makes complete sense.

Facebook already has plenty of apps and services for sharing photos and videos, acquiring the likes of Instagram. Facebook is reportedly seeing original content, like status updates and other personal sharing, is on the decline - so this new injection of competition against Snapchat could work. The social network says that the amount of sharing done in your News Feed is at "similar to levels in prior years".