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Last month it was reported uninstalling the Facebook app on Android dramatically improved performance; other reports have surfaced indicating 20% of battery life can be saved in doing so. The Guardian, curious to see the impact on iPhones, set to work with its iPhone 6S Plus and found battery life was impacted by 15%, even across multiple phones. As well, about 500MB of space was saved between the size of the app and its cache.

Between these benefits and the option to use the well-designed Facebook mobile website (which can be linked to via your home screen), you can see there are few reasons to keep the Facebook app on your phone, and many great reasons not to.

Facebook has been alerted to the performance issues; a spokesperson says the matter is being investigated.

Coming to the end of its worldwide run, Disney have announced that the latest entry in the 'Star Wars' franchise 'The Force Awakens' has crossed the $2 billion worldwide gross mark - only the third film in history to do so.

While the film didn't quite have the legs in the Chinese market to overtake the haul of James Cameron's 'Titanic', which grossed $2.18 billion in both the 1997 and 2012 releases, nor have the staying power to challenge record holder 'Avatar' with $2.7b, clearly $2 billion is nothing to be disappointed with, and displaces 'Jurassic World's take of $1.67 billion worldwide quite decisively. In a press release, Alan Horn, the Chairman of Walt Disney Studios said "This is a historic moment for 'Star Wars', for Lucasfilm, and for Disney, and all of us here are extremely gratified to be a part of this journey with fans around the world who have made 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' such an extraordinary success". Additionally, the film has also grossed just over $900 million in the domestic United States alone, the only film to have ever done so.

'The Force Awakens' is due to hit Blu-ray and DVD worldwide in April, where it will no doubt set more sales records.

While the Super Bowl 50 continues, we're seeing that AMD has been pushing its next-gen Polaris GPUs around - with a new Polaris-based flagship GPU, and the successor to the Fury X making an appearance.

The new C99 "FOC" (Full Operational Capacity) has been spotted on Zauba, with the C99 part being priced at $1700. This is an insane jump from the price of the previous Polaris-based C98 and C91/C92 chips. The C98 should be the successor to the R9 390 series, which will arrive as the new Polaris-based R9 490/490X. The C99 on the other hand could be the huge enthusiast Polaris, the successor to the Fury X, or some crazy dual-GPU beast.

The C98 board turned up on Zauba last month, and it holds a per unit value that is more than AMD's current Hawaii-based chips. The C91/C92 chips started shipping in January of last year, but the FOC designation was only attached in August 2015. The C91/C92 should be the lower-end Polaris-bases GPUs, which would most likely be the cards we were greeted to in Sonoma in December, and officially unveiled early January.

DICE is improving the netcode in Battlefield 4 on consoles, and it's doing so by changing a simple setting that should improve the experience significantly.

With the latest update on the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One, the tickrate of 32 player servers has been increased from 30hz up to 45hz. They're reporting that this should improve all network related delays by around 11ms per single action. Meaning that your shots should register just about perfectly now.

They were able to test different tickrates through the holiday update and decided upon the higher rate after the data they collected showed a positive increase in player enjoyment for most playersThe changes don't effect 64 player servers. DICE will have a small testing period in which they invite feedback about the changes, to ensure it's the best possible option for everyone.

Safer Internet Day is upon us. Well, almost -- it's actually tomorrow, but Google is getting ahead of the game and encouraging its users to review their security settings as of today. In return, they'll reward you with 2GB free storage on Google Drive. Even better, it stacks with any previously rewarded extra storage, meaning you can have as much as 19GB total free storage as of today.

Reviewing your settings is simple: click here, then review your phone number, security question, connected devices, and account permissions, changing them or alterting Google to suspicious activity as necessary. Once done -- bam, free storage.

The opening cinematic for Dark Souls III is quite stunning, and you can view it right below. The cinematic style is on par with some very good movies even.

The three-minute intro very succinctly introduces us to the storyline that we'll be following in the very dark and despondent land of Lothric. It's actually quite well constructed and the narrative seems to fulfill the expectations we have for the series. In the trailer you'll see Yhorm the Giant, Farron's Undead Legions, Aldrich Saint of the Deep and even the reclusive Lord of the Profaned Capitol.

Merely watching the trailer brings back memories of the challenges from the first two. Dark Souls III will arrive on April 12th on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC through Steam.

Google could be on the verge of launching another VR headset sometime later this year. The Financial Times is reporting that Google's Cardboard venture was so incredibly successful that they may be looking to compete in the more expensive tiers of VR, going toe to toe with the likes of Gear VR.

The new device will have integrated sensors that improve the accuracy and speed of position tracking. Much like Gear VR it'll have actual lenses integrated to improve the viewing experience. Crucially, this device, according to the Financial Times, should be compatible with a wider variety of devices, and not limited to Samsung's Galaxy series.

Google recognizes the importance of virtual reality and the potential it holds. Just last month Clay Bavor, the new head of Google Cardboard told Time magazine just that, saying in an interview that "VR is too important and too powerful a medium to be accessible to only a few."

MSI has just launched its sleek, eye-tracking portable powerhouse GT72S G Tobii laptop, ushering in a new age of innovation to the world of performance mobile gaming.

Not content with just packing in insane high-performance gaming hardware into a portable laptop, MSI went a step further by including Tobii eye-tracking for a new dimension of interactivity. The laptop's Tobii eye-tracking technology has a wealth of practical applications for gaming, letting users switch targets, select objects, and even pause the game with the blink of an eye. The onboard tracking tech is currently supported by games like Arma III, Assassin's Creed; Syndicate, Elite Dangerous, and more.

"The GT72S G Tobii adds another dimension to gaming and provides a level of interaction and immersion never experienced before," says Andy Tung, MSI company president. "Our eyes will no longer be passive players, they will now direct, command and transport us into the future of PC gaming."

Deep neural-networks require a tremendous amount of power to actually be as effective as the human brain. Sure your Tesla Model S might ave a small DNN powered by NVIDIA inside, but it isn't nearly complex enough to to provide a full true-to-life aritifical intelligence experience. New breakthroughs from MIT might be able to provide full-on human-brain inspired AI experience on your phone.

Researchers at MIT presented a new chip mobile chip that's designed specifically for neural networks and it happens to be 10 times more efficient than any mobile GPU currently in production. They're calling it the "Eyeriss" and the researchers are hoping that it can potentially change small-device computing. Just imagine having Siri or Cortana being that much more useful because they've got the processing power local to them.

And beyond that this innovation could help to further develop the idea of the Internet of Things, where powerful AI programs can communicate with other devices and coordinate tasks to get things done nearly invisible to the user. The possiblities are endless with the way that individual small-machines needn't be connected to the Internet itself for the compute power itself, but instead merely for communication.

It seems that it's almost tradition for Marvel movies to include a post-credits reveal or sneak-peak into the next installment that they're working on. And Deadpool is definitely no exception in this regard. The co-creator of Deadpool, Rob Liefeld, wants everyone to know to stay until after the credits to enjoy something special.

To add a little excitement, the co-writer of the movie, Rhett Reese confirmed that this new after-credits bonanza was something that's been added just before it hits theaters, so not even the reviewers have seen what this is. Could this be a tie-in preview to a new Deadpool movie? Perhaps a jumping off point for the character Cable as well.

The mystery is intriguing and we're almost certain that staying for the teaser should be worth it, especially for fans of all things Marvel.

It seems that the excitement was a bit preemptive. Microsoft has removed the ability to download and play Red Dead Redemption from the Xbox store, saying that they were made available by some sort of error.

Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb did take to Reddit to explain that RDR is currently in a testing phase, though that along with a few other games, they were accidentally made public. "Due to an error, some of the games currently in test were accidentally made available. We have since removed access to those games, and apologize for any confusion this may have caused. We will have more information on upcoming releases soon."

The good news is that we'll eventually be seeing it be available, though it's not quite clear when. The original story is still posted below for your convenience.

As an avid Fallout 4 PC player, my appetite for mods is quite voracious; I'm always eager to try on the newest arsenal of weapons and armor, and revel in new content. So naturally when I saw ex-Vault Dwellers can now dress up as Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher 3, I instantly smashed the download link.

The Witcher 3 crossover Fallout 4 mod adds two different outfits from Geralt's sleek witcher wardrobe: the infamous battle dress seen in the game's promos, and his casual garb. Ren, the mod's creator, actually uses CD Projekt RED's own authentic models and textures from The Witcher 3.

Sadly, Geralt's infamous monster-slaying twin-blades aren't included in the mod, but we do get to use his crossbow. Before you get too excited, the crossbow doesn't shoot bolts, and instead acts like a pipe pistol when fired.

The lead writer for Titanfall 2, Jesse Stern, revealed quite a few telling and potentially positive details about the upcoming game in an interview he recently had with Forbes.

One of the positives, Stern explained, is the inclusion of a single-player campaign, an often criticized element that was missing in the first game. Furthermore, Stern wants it to be a more realistic story, something that builds upon the already good mythos that was little used in the first. He says it'll be "grounded, dirty, human and real."

Stern explained what's influencing their narrative direction. "What inspires us is the junction of technological advancement with the inevitability of conflict and war and what the next war might look like. In Titanfall 2 there will be a lot of [scenes] where science meets magic, but keeping it grounded and dirty and human and real."

Back in 2013, we wrote a story about The Division developer Massive Entertainment saying that their Snowdrop Engine-powered game would stand out on the PC, and "won't be a port". Yeah, well, how times have changed.

Now we have a story with an unnamed developer saying that the cross-platform development on the game did have an effect on the PC version of The Division. The developer said that the Snowdrop Engine has "a lot of potential", to which he was asked if they were ever restricted with how far they could push the game because of the differing platforms between consoles and the PC.

The unnamed Ubisoft developer said: "It is definitely a [factor]. But one good thing about The Division is that we've always considered PC as a separate platform. I've worked on projects before where the PC version's a port from a console, so it carries those limitations over, but we've always been in the mind that we'll have a dedicated PC build, so it hasn't really held it back too much".

The Political Machine 2016, from Stardock, gives you the chance to play as nearly a dozen different candidates, including such favorites as Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and of course quite a few others. If that doesn't quite float your boat, then you can also choose to create your own custom candidate, with all your own custom avatar and background information.

"The game deals with topics like the Keystone XL Pipeline, human trafficking, and other issues that are current and relevant to this year's election," said producer Patrick Shaw. "We've added a poll tracking feature so that you can see how your own political races are matching up to what's going on in the United States right now."

You'll also get the opportunity to be interviewed on various talk shows to raise their ratings in the polls. Torrid affairs, natural disasters, email scandals, and other random events will keep you guessing, and you better be ready to deal with all those unexpected problems. So do you think you're ready to try to become the President of the US? What a fantastic time to release a game that lets you explore the depths of the political system.

Now that Rise of the Tomb Raider has reached the PC, the latest patch for the game has dropped and includes some fixes for critical issues like startup problems, and more.

The patch improves support for SLI users with NVIDIA GeForce video cards, with the SLI glitches with water/snow effects fixed. There's improved HBAO+ quality, and a "variety of fixes and improvements to UI including map, basecamps, and Remnant Resistance mode". The full list, we have below:

Startup issues (Steam Only):

In a new blog post, Twitter has revealed that it has shut down over 125,000 user accounts since mid-2015 for promoting terrorism, particularly terrorism related to ISIS. The company reminds that while it values free speech, terrorist threats and any violent threats for that matter are forbidden on its service.

"Like most people around the world, we are horrified by the atrocities perpetrated by extremist groups," it writes. "We condemn the use of Twitter to promote terrorism and the Twitter Rules make it clear that this type of behavior, or any violent threat, is not permitted on our service."

"As an open platform for expression, we have always sought to strike a balance between the enforcement of our own Twitter Rules covering prohibited behaviors. The legitimate needs of law enforcement, and the ability of users to share their views freely - including views that some people may disagree with or find offensive."

Last week, Google's DeepMind AI beat the European champion of the board game Go. Following that, it promptly set its sights on world champion Lee Sedol. Happily, you'll be able to watch the upcoming match on YouTube, where it will be broadcast live.

A date has been set, too: March 9 through March 15 is when the $1 million match will go down.

Of the match, Sedol says, "I have heard that Google DeepMind's AI is surprisingly strong and getting stronger, but I am confident that I can win, at least this time," indicating he's taken note of the rapid progress Google has made and expects it will continue to make.

There is considerable hype surround Fable Legends, thanks to its use of DirectX 12 - being up to 40% faster under DX12 - but now we're hearing that the team at Lionhead Studios will feature some trickery to get the visual fidelity of the game improved.

Lionhead is making good use of foliage physics to "increase the richness of ground surface cover", which is something Lionhead Studios' Senior Programmer, Sam Swain, will be discussing at GDC 2016 next month. During a session called "Creating Lush Dynamic Procedural Foliage for Fable Legends", the description for the session teased "To continue to push the boundaries of visual fidelity for Fable Legends, we have worked to increase the richness of ground surface cover and accelerate artist authoring workflow".

The description continues: "The talk will describe the various procedural tools and techniques, in-editor and at run-time, that have been employed to provide a fully dynamic mesh instancing system, non-destructive surface editing capabilities, and the power that such tools bring. There will be many examples of what has been achieved and learned from adopting these approaches and how they have behaved alongside the more traditional approaches also used".

AMD's technology initiative GPUOpen is primarily intended for PC development, but because of its open source nature, it's already appeared in console games -- Rise of the Tomb Raider being one of them. AMD's Head of Global Technical Marketing Robert Hallock says an interview with XDA Developers it's "very easy for developers to port and scale them" to this end.

Hallock also states GPUOpen could possibly be used for smartphone and tablet graphics purposes should a developer be willing to do the work.

The project isn't going to rake in huge wads of cash for AMD as far as we can tell, but gamers everywhere are already enjoying the benefits, and statements like these encourage that further.