Latest News - Page 2505

The Brazillian Ratings Board is at it again, providing a window into a few upcoming games we might otherwise be ignorant of. This time, they've tipped us off about a certain Bioshock: Collection that's just been rated. And it's definitely not recommended for children under the age of eighteen.

Being the governmental body that rates and allows incoming games to be imported into the country, the ratings board doesn't have to necessarily abide by the numerous NDA's or other rules or threats of legal action. They are the law. Thankfully we now know that a collection of the Bioshock games is in the works, and could be making an appearance sooner than later.

It's been rated for all consoles, including the ancient Xbox 360 and PS3, meaning a remaster version of the original Bioshock could make it to those older consoles as well. The story-based franchise hasn't had a new game or even any new information leading us to believe that any new game is on the way. So perhaps a revival and remaster of the old is a sign that something new is on the way. Regardless, a collection, of sorts, is on the way according to Brazil.

ZDNet has noticed something that many of us may never think about - Google has changed its side-displayed advertisements on searches. Previous 'versions' of this search program would display direct link advertisements for product sales, with companies vying for your dollar and continued service through this marketing option.

This changes a few things for certain companies, now unable to directly market to consumers looking to buy something on a whim or look for reliable resellers of wanted products. While a good opportunity for Google to ensure its pages load faster and look more streamlined, many are upset at this move - taking out a popular advertising avenue used by many.

Small business' may be the ones suffering majorly due to this change, meaning that companies are now going to have to pay top dollar to this tech giant in order to increase their search ranking. With less advertising space comes a higher asking price for what's left - I hope your budget is big!

Synaptics has a new fingerprint sensor that could make it that much more useful and widespread. They've been able to shrink the dimensions so much that it can be placed on side-mounted buttons or any tiny area on any device. And it's accurate too.

The minuscule Natural ID FS4304 touch-based fingerprint sensor is a scant 3.5mm wide allowing it to be placed on nearly anything. Imagine a more natural interaction with your phone, putting your fingers where they naturally lay, such as on the side of the device, and being able to unlock it more convenient. That might seem silly, but it leads to making biometrics something that can secure anything.

It also has the potential to make fingerprint readers more discreet, drawing attention away from attempting to spoof and bypass them, which is possible with enough resources (though not always successful unless under the right conditions). As we've explained here before, as part of a multi-factor authentication scheme, using your fingerprint as a biometric is one of the better and more convenient options. Unfortunately facial recognition and iris scanning isn't commonplace enough yet.

Designed to appease those who love both adventure and technology, Garmin has announced the Vivoactive HR and Vivofit 3 smartwatch models, set for release sometime in March or April this year.

The Vivoactive HR comes packed with up to eight days of battery life, an always-on touchscreen that can be read in full sunlight, a 24/7 heart rate monitor and plenty of features for those who are looking to take it golfing, cycling, swimming or more. This watch is able to track pace, distance, intervals, speed, calories and more, depending on what sporting or action function you want it for.

The much smaller Vivofit 3 allows for functionality with Gamin's Move IQ, a daily activity tracker. Designed as a thinner model, this product is able to automatically recognize when you are running, riding or swimming, utilizing Gamin in Connect to sync your activity throughout the day, stored for later consideration.

Giant: Citizen Kabuto was going to have a spiritual successor that continued the unique, bawdy humor of the original and make it a modern masterpiece. First Wonder isn't going to make it, they just weren't able to find the funds to make it happen like they wanted to.

The lead designer, Nick Bruty, sent out an email to backers saying that "We had some interesting conversations but regardless of how excited some were for the project it came down to numbers and risk. For publishers, the kickstarter showed we just didn't have or couldn't find the audience." Despite the encouraging turnout, it just wasn't enough to help them realize their dream.

If you were a backer you can receive a full refund of your purchase or you can get a key for the demo of First Wonder and one of their previous games, Gunpowder. They'll refund everything over $15 in the latter case. They do warn, however, that because the money was actively used for development, refunds will take some time to issue. But they're committed to making this right for fans. "For those seeking a full refund please be patient. We have incoming funds dedicated to this but can only do so much per month. If everyone opts for a refund it will take us a little while to pay back everyone but we will get there. This is very important to us."

Bloomberg and ZDNet are telling us that Yahoo will start its look for bidders as soon as Monday, approaching companies and private equity firms alike.

This announcement as a whole isn't too surprising given that Yahoo has already publicly announced a committee to deal with this task, with a slew of companies already pinpointed for a possible buyout. Bloomberg thinks that some large names are keen on this purchase, including the likes of Verizon, Comcast, AT&T, Bain Capital Partners, KKR & Co and TPG.

Bids are expected to kick off later on in March this year, coming amidst Yahoo's plans to restructure and focus its operations.

Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have made a pretty startling discovering, finally figuring out just how large a capacity our brain actually has when put in normal computing terms. With the help of GPU computing they figured out that we can store around one petabyte, which is nearly 10 times larger than what we originally thought.

Modeling the full function of the brain isn't easy, and even with clusters of GPU powerhouse servers it takes time to properly model the actual function of the connection between neurons, the synapses. The team of researchers modeled the full hippocampus of a rat with startling accuracy and 26 different sizes of synapses. Size matters, apparently, and the bigger the more storage the accompanying neurons have. They found that the average amount of information that can be held in one synapse is around 4.7 bits, far more than we thought previously.

The amount of information stored and transferred across those still misunderstood synapses doesn't translate directly to computing terms, however. We obviously don't store our moving memories as GIF's or even H.265 encoded MPEG's either. In fact, our brain is incredibly efficient, moving information across the synapse at a rate of around 10-20% of the time.

The CAT S60 is somewhat of a Superman smartphone, providing users with the ability to see when others cannot thanks to its thermal camera, live underwater for an hour due to its IP68 resistance rating and take a physical beating.

Released with 4G LTE functionality and a 3,800 mAh battery, Tim Shepherd from Bullitt Group is from the designer company of this phone and he told PC World that the sim and expandable storage dock is located under a rear door for good reason: "We put it on the back, not the side, because otherwise it's a structural weakness."

While the structural process was a major focus in the S60, the thermal camera is certainly a big selling feature. With the thermal camera being powered by FLIR and utilising a Lepton image sensor, you can expect a raw recording resolution of 80 x 60 infrared pixels, explained as interpolated up to a 640x480 image thanks to integration with the 13-megapixel camera sitting alongside.

Wearable computing is just becoming a little more insane. If you told me 15 years ago that I could be carrying a computer in my pocket, strapping one to my wrist and even having the option to slide one on my finger - I would have called you quite mad. In comes 2016 and Gizmodo has just told us that researchers in Australia have developed the basic technology needed for a smart contact lens.

Developed by RMIT University and the University of Adelaide, this new technology is a stretchable nano-scale device that can be used to manipulate light, allowing it to be fully transparent yet still alter light for the person looking through it. While not a full smart device itself just yet, this is the first (and a major) step towards technology being further incorporated into the lives of many.

Wondering how it works? Adelaide University's Dr Withawat Withayachumnankul stated that "With advanced techniques to control the properties of surfaces, we can dynamically control their filter properties, which allow us to potentially create devices for high data-rate optical communication or smart contact lenses." He further explained that "The current challenge is that dielectric resonators only work for specific colours, but with our flexible surface we can adjust the operation range simply by stretching it."

MWC 2016 - I've been a big fan of Lenovo's Yoga range for a few years now, rocking the awesome Yoga 2 Pro as my travel companion for years - until I replaced it recently with the HP Spectre X2. Lenovo took some time at Mobile World Congress to unveil their new Yoga 510 and Yoga 710 models, as well as a Windows 10-based tablet: the MIIX 310.

The new Yoga 710 is a mid-range offering, arriving in both 11- and 14-inch models. The 14-inch Yoga 710 is a full Ultrabook, sporting Intel's new sixth-gen Core processor (up to a Core i7 model), while the 11-inch model kicks off with a quad-core Pentium processor, but can be configured with up to a Core m5 processor. The bigger 14-inch model has Lenovo offering an optional NVIDIA GeForce GPU, if you need some GPU grunt. Lenovo says that there's 20% better Wi-Fi reception thanks to the use of a new hinge antenna on the 14-inch Yoga 710, and up to 256GB SSD for fast storage. Both models will feature up to 8 hours of battery, while the 11- and 14-inch displays rock a native resolution of 1920x1080.

As for pricing, the Lenovo Yoga 710 will start at $499 for the 11-inch model, while the 14-inch model will start at $799. Both models will be available in May.

MWC 2016 - Samsung unveiled its new Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge smartphones yesterday, with Jeff calling them a "surprising refinement" from last year's Galaxy S6 and S6 edge.

Included in the announcement was the new Gear 360 camera, which captures 360-degree videos and photos to playback through the Gear VR - which comes free if you pre-order the Galaxy S7 or S7 edge smartphones. The Gear 360 features two 15-megapixel sensors, which are both find behind a fisheye lens, accompanied by a small 0.5-inch display.

Samsung's Gear 360 camera captures 3840x1920 @ 30FPS - which isn't exactly 4K, but it's damn close. As for images, it captures 30-megapixel images, with a resolution of 7776x3888. With no on-board storage, you'll need a sizable microSD card to keep the Gear 360 happy during those video-taking or photo-taking sessions. You can sync your new Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge to the Gear 360 with remote control features, and you'll be able to preview the video or images from the Gear 360, in real-time on your Galaxy S7 smartphone. Any videos taken on the Gear 360 can be viewed, stitched together, or saved directly to a Galaxy S7 smartphone.

To celebrate this week's release of 'Hannibal: Season Three' on Blu-ray HD and DVD, we have ten Blu-ray prize packs to give away thanks to our friends at eOne Home Entertainment.

Hannibal (Mads Mikkelsen) is on the run in Europe - accompanied by his psychiatrist, Bedelia Du Maurier (Gillian Anderson) - sporting a new identity, but servicing the same insatiable appetite. As the lives of Will (Hugh Dancy) and Jack (Laurence Fishburne) converge toward Hannibal again, each with their own motivations to catch him once and for all, their deadly dance turns in startling and unexpected ways.

To go into the running to win a prize, simply answer the following question in 50 words or less:

MWC 2016 - Samsung has unveiled their new Galaxy S7 and S7 edge smartphones while LG truly surprised with its G5 announcement - but HTC isn't left out in the cold, as it took a different approach with its new mid-range Desire smartphones.

HTC unveiled the Desire 530, 630, and 825 smartphones at Mobile World Congress - something the company is calling a micro splash design. The smartphones definitely look good, with HTC saying that the look was achieved using spray nozzles with different settings of pressure and paint viscosity. All three Desire smartphones are polycarbonate with rear cameras in the upper left corner, zigzagging speaker grills, and holes in the back for a lanyard.

Starting with the Desire 530, we have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 processor, while the Desire 630 and 825 feature the snappier Snapdragon 400 processor. The Desire 530 has 1.5GB of RAM while the other two Desire handsets have 2GB of RAM while the Desire 530 features an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, the other two models bump it up to a 13-megapixel snapper. All three models include a 5-megapixel selfie-shooting camera while all the models include 16GB of internal storage, it's expandable by microSD.

For a film that studio 20th Century Fox were incredibly reticent to make, 'Deadpool' continues to be as unstoppable as Colossus at the worldwide box office, adding to its largest R-rated opening weekend and biggest opening day in February .

According to BoxOfficeMojo, the Marvel feature film is edging to a $500m worldwide gross - which is nearly 8.5 times the film's economical $58m budget. Fox is said to be incredibly pleased with the result, which is why they've moved to quickly greenlight a sequel.

Stay tuned for our review coming very soon.

John Wick was one of the biggest surprises of 2015, with Keanu Reeves really getting fired up over his dog, but the universe portrayed in John Wick was enthralling - leaving cinemagoers, myself included - wanting oh-so-much more.

According to Exhibitor Relations, the sequel will be called John Wick: Chapter Two, which is nice and simple. John Wick: Chapter Two will drop on 2/10/17 - so we only have around 12 months until Keanu Reeves starts kicking ass again. John Wick: Chapter Two will see Keanu Reeves in the titular role, joined by Bridget Moynahan, John Leguizamo, Lance Reddick, and Ian McShane from the first movie, and newbies Common, Ruby Rose, Peter Stormare, and Laurence Fishburne.

Laurence Fishburne is an interesting addition, as Reeves and Fishburne were in The Matrix Trilogy together as Neo and Morpheus, respectively.

We're finally hearing more about Grand Theft Auto 6, with the latest rumor is that Rockstar Games is set to shake up the GTA universe by offering a female lead character in the game. The last time we heard about GTA 6, Rockstar teased it "had some ideas" for its next game.

According to GTA co-creator Dan Houser, who once said that the idea of a female lead character didn't feel right, but since then he's said that it could be an interesting idea. Houser said: "In the future, could we do a game with a lead female character? Of course! We just haven't found the right game for it yet, but it's one of the things we always think about".

The next rumor for GTA 6 is that Hollywood star Ryan Gosling could add his voice talent to the next game, with the map side of things pointing to a multi-map environment on a scale that hasn't been seen before. Rumors are floating that every map that's been used in all previous GTA titles would be bought back, and revamped in next-gen graphics thanks to GTA 6 - but other rumors point to Rockstar returning to their London roots.

Microsoft has much higher hopes for its wearable headset, HoloLens, than it did for its Kinect camera. HoloLens creator Alex Kipman said during a TED talk in Vancouver that HoloLens might be consumer ready, but Microsoft wants to have plenty of things to actually use with HoloLens before it hits the market.

The company doesn't want a repeat of Kinect, and even though it had big sales of around 10 million units in two months, the sales dived, and ultimately this was because of the lack of software and uses for Kinect. Kipman said: "It was not a pleasant experience", adding that Kinect "was just not ready". He hopes that HoloLens can't steer away from the brick wall that Kinect hit, with developers diving into the HoloLens market and pushing for longevity with the headset.

Kipman continued: "If a consumer bought [HoloLens] today, they would have 12 things to do with it. And they would say 'Cool, I bought a $3,000 product [Note: That's the price of a development kit, not a final MSRP.] that I can do 12 things with and now it is collecting dust". He added: "When I feel the world is ready, then we will allow normal people to buy it. It could be as soon as we say 'yes,' and it could be as long as a 'very long time".

HP is back in the phone business after their brief encounter with WebOS and the Palm Pre series of sliders. But this time, they're infusing top-end hardware into a Windows 10 phone to make it an all-in-one ecosystem for businesses.

The phone itself is a svelte matte-black brick of a case with a 5.96-inch 1440p display that's been stuffed with the Kyro cored Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset that has four total custom designed 64-bit cores with two operating at a blistering 2.15GHz and two more cores, for the less busy tasks humming along at 1.6GHz. It'll be paired with 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM 64GB of storage, standard. In case that isn't enough storage it can be expanded by 1TB through the microSD card that's on board. Two SIM cards can be populated letting world travelers just keep in their favorite destination's carriers SIM just in case.

But the really interesting bit is the inclusion of a laptop dock, similar to the one that was being marketed with the Motorola Atrix from 2011. This lapdock is a 12.5-inch screen with a full-sized keboard, trackpad and a 48WHr battery attached, letting you use Microsoft's Continuum to display on the larger screen. The phone is being marketed towards businesses, where this one device can theoretically replace both laptop and phone, becoming the only device you might need to be productive. But just how would that work?

The gaming community has been pretty excited over the news of Quantum Break being released on the PC, and not being an exclusive to the Xbox One. It'll require Windows 10 and be powered by DirectX 12, with Remedy Entertainment announcing that Quantum Break has recently gone gold - meaning it's ready for its mass production in physical form.

Quantum Break can now be pre-loaded on the Xbox One, with the game's page on the Xbox Store noting: "You may pre-download this game, but it will not be playable until 12:01 AM EST on the release date". As for the size, it was revealed on the Quantum Break page on the Xbox Store, listed as 44.09GB. The PC version of Quantum Break, which will be exclusive to the Windows Store and not making it over to Steam, should be the same 44GB or so.

Keep in mind that if you buy Quantum Break on the Xbox One, you'll be pre-order bonuses of Alan Wake's American Nightmare, the Xbox 360 game that's playable on the Xbox One. You'll also receive a 'Free Quantum Break Windows 10 game' that will be included with the pre-order for the Xbox One digital version.

To celebrate this week's release of the latest DC Universe Original 'Batman: Bad Blood' on Blu-ray HD and DVD, we have ten Blu-ray prize packs to give away thanks to our friends at Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

Justice runs in the family. The Gotham City night sky erupts in flames as Batman battles Firefly, Tusk and Killer Moth. But when the smoke clears, Batman is missing and the mysterious Batwoman is the only witness to the events. Now with the Bat Signal going unanswered and a city on edge, Nightwing and Robin form an uneasy alliance with Batwoman and newcomer Batwing. Together, they'll fight to uncover a sinister plot that involves mind control and a monstrous new villain known only as Heretic. It's an all-new, epic chapter from the DC Universe that proves that when it comes to Batman, justice truly does run in the family!

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