Latest News - Page 2524

The Ubuntu based Skylake-infused Dell XPS 13 is getting much closer to launch, so they're discounting older Broadwell-based laptops to help make way for the incoming inventory.

Barton George shared on his Google+ page that they're very close to having the next rendition of the Developer Edition of the XPS 13, running Ubuntu, ready for release. And of course Dell wants to sell the inventory of the older laptops. So with the provided codes (below) you can grab one with a healthy discount. If you're looking for a laptop with Linux pre-installed, that is.

Dell has changed a lot since they became a private company again in 2013. Quality and innovation have been a focus, even if they haven't always hit the mark right on the head. They're open to change, and their Project Sputnik is one of those initiatives.

For the most part, gamers are pretty disappointed with Destiny's current setup. The game remains in a kind of stagnant stasis months after its stellar The Taken King expansion, and many publications have taken turns trying to rile the titans out of their slumber. Meanwhile, Bungie remains quiet and vigilant, as always.

As if the constant reminders, queues and prods from Reddit and its own forums weren't enough, Bungie has sent out a new e-mail survey asking Destiny players to rate their fun factor in the game. It's actually a very small message, and is only sent out to users who have signed up with Bungie's User Research platform.

In it's entirety, the e-mail simply asks players how much fun their having: 5 for "very fun", or 1 for "not fun". At this point in time, I think most gamers would answer "N/A" and write in "you need to communicate better with your audience." Oddly enough, it appears that the survey was only sent to a very limited number of players, and most research program users are reporting they didn't get any emails.

Opera 35 for desktops and laptops is out, and with it comes a couple new juicy features as well as some small but appreciable tweaks.

First, the now standard tab muting feature has been added. This is very handy for when a tab plays sounds unexpectedly, or when you want to silence a tab to listen to something else or just to have quiet. Simply click the volume icon and the sound is immediately off.

Next is the overhauled download manager. The new interface looks very slick with functionality to match. The categories menu on the left will prove very useful for when you've been downloading a lot on a given day or if you're the lazy type and don't clear your download history much or at all. Additionally, there's now a warning in place when exiting the browser while downloading something.

Cities: Skylines' new update will let you freeze our your citizens and snow them in, causing mass chaos. And that expansion, Snowfall, is now set to arrive on February 18th.

The new expansion is a winter themed affair that adds in snow themed maps and all of the accessories and equipment that a new city would need to maintain itself during the frozen months of winter. That means you'll be budgeting and sending out the plows and snow trucks to maintain order and happiness.

Just think about what happened in the Eastern US recently with that blasted snow storm, can you do better? Now's your chance! The expansion will arrive for only $13. This is already one of the best city building games around, and this will just add more options and variety to an already endless game.

Today's chemically-charged lithium ion batteries can be quite disastrous when they overheat, and even lead to explosions. While hardware-makers have pushed to make mobile batteries more powerful, we don't always hear about making them safer--but it looks like a new prototype from Stanford could do just that.

Stanford University has created a new lithium ion battery that won't overheat, potentially opening up the doors for everlasting Stanford's new battery has a safety function not unlike thermal trips in CPU hardware that automatically shuts itself off when it gets too hot. "People have tried different strategies to solve the problem of accidental fires in lithium-ion batteries," said Stanford professor of chemical engineering Zhenan Bao. "We've designed the first battery that can be shut down and revived over repeated heating and cooling cycles without compromising performance."

The science behind the new tech depends on a combination of thermally-responsive polymer, which acts as a conduit for the electricity, and graphene-coated nanoscale nickel particles to carry the charge. The polyethylene film expands when heated up, separating the nickel particles from the electrodes and thus cutting off the flow of electricity. Once the temperature drops back to a stable point, the film will shrink and enable a steady flow of electric current--and the process can be repeated many, many times without losing efficiency.

Dust 514 isn't an old game by MMO standards. It's been able to survive the waves of popularity and the release of new consoles, being popular among the hardcore EVE Online fans. But now the project is shutting down, because the development team is hard at work on a PC FPS instead.

The team from CCP that was working on Dust 514 has now switched gears to start on a new project using Unreal Engine 4 for the PC that's set in the same EVE universe of New Eden. So while it's being shutdown, it's really being rebooted to something far better. The PC is a natural platform for an MMO type FPS, for the better controls if anything.

CCP Games will have some more information about their new adventure in PC gaming come April at the EVE Fanfest. It seems that with the imminent release of EVE: Valkyrie and their experience making a visceral PC experience with UE4, they're consolidating development to one platform and with one engine. Dust 514 was build using Unreal Engine 3, however.

Like Halo 5 and Wolfestein: The New Order, Ubisoft's latest open-world shooter The Division uses dynamic resolution scaling on the Xbox One in order to keep gameplay running smoothly.

According to an in-depth performance analysis from Digital Foundry, The Division's resolution isn't locked on the Xbox One, and instead shifts and scales down to maintain a solid frame rate. During The Division's beta test, many Xbox One users noticed less-defined visuals during heavy action sequences compared to PS4.

To maintain a solid 30 frames-per-second, The Division will downscale resolution on-the-fly during graphics-heavy areas and sequences. The drop isn't readily apparent and is noted to trick the eye, but close observation will reveal blurry signs, motion blur, and lowered sharpness and definition. "Wherever you see heavy volumetric effects and lots of geometry on-screen, there's a strong possibility that The Division's frame buffer is switching to a lower pixel count on Xbox One," Digital Foundry said in their analysis.

The PlayStation 4 will be getting some exclusive content for Hitman when it launches on March 11th. That means missions and contracts that won't be available anywhere else. Everyone, not just those who pre-order, will get to enjoy the fun.

If you plan on buying this titular title for the PlayStation 4, then you'll have access to a six-part side mission that they've named "The Sarajevo Six". In this mission, Agent 47 is tasked with hunting down six key members of a private military group that's called CICADA. These missions will be added to the game in increments, as the various maps that'll be needed are added into the game.

The first mission in that series will be made available when the game launches, right on March 11th, and that first mission is called "The Director. Scott Sarno, the director of European Operations for CICADA is your target, and it's doubtful that the mission will at all be easy.

With Microsoft pushing Windows 10 so hard onto consumers, it's no surprise that more and more users have jumped to the new OS. While most PC gamers prefer Windows 7 as their OS of choice, Windows 10 adoption is catching up fast and will likely outpace its predecessor on Steam.

According to Valve's latest hardware and software survey, 32.77% of Steam gamers are running Windows 10 64-bit (up by 1.26%) as of January 2016. Windows 7 64-bit is still ahead with ~34% user installations, but not by much. We'll probably see Windows 10 dominate as the preferred OS on Steam by mid-year, especially since the free update expires on July 29.

Microsoft has also set Windows 10 as a "recommended update", meaning it'll download automatically if you have the auto update setting turned on. According to recent surveys, Windows 10 is installed in 1 of every 10 PCs--a number that will grow exponentially throughout the year.

There's a distinct possibility that Final Fantasy XV is going to be coming to the PC, at least if the HTML of the game site is to be believed.

An astute observer from NeoGAF, KupoNut, decided to check out the underlying HTML of the official Final Fantasy XV site. You know, just for fun. And while he was doing that he noticed some distinct references to each platform that it's going to be released on.

And in that code there are lines that specifically reference Windows 10 and Steam. Does that mean that we're going to be seeing this on PC as well? There's been no actual information as to whether or not it'll make that debut, but it's always a possibility, especially with Square Enix having recently released quite a few Final Fantasy titles on Steam recently.

It's been a hard road for the adoption of the latest version of Android, but 4 months later we're now looking at 1.2% of reported Android devices running Android 6.0, Marshmallow.

The update process used to be far more complicated and lengthy as carrier testing sometimes prohibited devices from receiving the newest updates and then sometimes even becoming abandoned. There are still issues with manufacturers' ability to quickly roll-out updates, and with KitKat (4.4) being the most prevalent version installed, it doesn't seem like the roll-out process is becoming any more streamlined.

The meager 1.2% is likely attributed to the numbers of Nexus 6P and 5X phones sold, and not because of older devices being updated. This points to their new phones not really selling very well, or even to a market dilution with so many Android phones available.

What if the PlayStation 4 had an early access program? That's exactly what Studio Wildcard wants so it can bring the mega-popular dino-sim ARK: Survival Evolved to all platforms.

"We're pretty excited about PS4. We wish Sony had an early access program, and a lot of people have been asking us for it," ARK co-founder and creative director Jesse Rapczak told Gamespot.

Sony actually does have its own unofficial early access system for the PS4, but Rapczak says it calls for games to be pretty much finished beforehand. Sony also makes sure that the games are guaranteed to be completed, whereas Steam and Xbox EA games may never be released. "We just kind of got to say, 'Well you know, it's not really up to us. It's the way Sony runs things, the game pretty much has to be finished'," Rapczak said. "There are a few exceptions that we're not quite sure why they made an exception for one game or the other, but Ark is in the state where at present time unless it's finished, it's not coming out on PS4 until they have some other program that allows us to do that. That being said we are really excited about it."

Microsoft and Ubisoft have concocted one of the strangest game bundle that's ever come to the industry. When you buy the Xbox One that comes with Far Cry Primal, then you'll get a free game, though it's not from the Far Cry franchise (that would be too easy, right?).

Instead of something that might make logical sense, Ubisoft has decided to give you Valiant Hearts, the World War 1 2D adventure game. It's developed and published by Ubisoft, so at least they're choosing from within the family. It's also a fantastically done game that's garnered plenty of positive reviews.

But to get the free game, you'll have to pre-order the bundle now and then you'll be able to download Valiant Hearts by April 14th. The code will be applied to your account, so you'd just need to search for it in the Xbox store and download it. Far Cry Primal is coming out at the end of the month on February 23rd for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. PC gamers will have to wait until March 1st before they can enjoy it.

Deep Silver is adding seven games from their past PlayStation 3 catalog to the PlayStation Now library of games, so that everyone with a proper device can continue to still enjoy playing them.

The games they're adding are some of their very best releases and even include their most recent Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell, which was only released just last January, and is also natively on the PlayStation 4.

Cloud gaming had some very rocky beginnings with services such as OnLive shuttering their doors due to being bought by Sony themselves. Sony and NVIDIA are pushing their game streaming services as a way to enjoy the full gaming experience without having to have the best hardware available. For Sony, only a compatible device is necessary, which includes some Samsung and Sony TV's.

Logitech has signed on as an official ESL partner throughout the whole of 2016, according to the latter company in a recent press release. Known as the largest gaming company in the world, a sign on with ESL is no small feat, showing that Logitech has decided to go all in on eSports throughout this year.

This partnership means that Logitech will be providing demonstrations and product sales at numerous ESL events throughout 2016, including the ESL CS:GO Pro League, ESL One Manila, ESL One Frankfurt, ESL One Cologne and an additional unannounced ESL One event.

Thanks to these types of sponsorship, ESL has increased its ESL Pro League prize pool by 50%, with Nik Adams from ESL stating that these "two industry leaders are joining forces to bring esports to the next level." Backed by Ujesh Desai from Logitech, he added that "This is a great opportunity for Logitech G to be the exclusive gaming gear for ESL, one of the world's most successful eSports organizations."

Nintendo is entering the smarphone gaming arena with Miitomo, which will be more of a general entertainment platform with a small focus on the social side of things. And during a shareholder meeting, they announced that it'll be released around the middle of March, though initially in Japan.

Miitomo, as the name suggests, focuses on the Mii avatars that can be created on Nintendo's consoles. You'll be able to "engage friends in a lighthearted, playful and welcoming social setting," Nintendo announced regarding their inaugural mobile game.

And inside there'll be other micro-apps that allow for expanded functionality, such as Miifoto, a photo-sharing app that'll probably allow for limited editing as well. The upcoming game seems to be very conceptually similar to Tomodachi Life that was released in 2013, allowing you to physically take care of your Mii characters.

As announced in a recent press release, MSI's notebook division has decided to sponsor one of North America's premier eSports teams, Cloud 9.

This sponsorship is all part of a global business plan, says Andy Tung, the president of MSI Pan America, who stated "MSI lives and breathes gaming, and we've dedicated countless hours and resources to support the world's eSports community," adding that Cloud9 now joins "our [MSI's] family of more than 12 professional gaming partnerships worldwide."

Championed by its League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive rosters, MSI joins other Cloud9 sponsors including BenQ, Logitech, Intel, Alienware and more.

Quoted in a recently issued press release as a "Reliable motherboard for Intel system builders," BIOSTAR has announced the release of its H110MD PRO motherboard which supports the Intel H110 chipset.

Featuring support for up to 16GB of DDR3L-1600 memory, this mATX motherboard further offers a single PCI-E 3.0 x16 port, two PCI-E 2.0 x1 slots, four SATA 3 ports, four USB 3.0 ports (2+2) and a total of six USB 2.0 ports (4+2). This black and yellow product comes further packed with Realtek GbE LAN, solid capacitors and BIOSTAR features including Watch Dog, Smart Speed LAN and a temperature monitor.

This product is said to be "available soon" from the official BIOSTAR eBay store, here.

While the HoloLens headset might cost $3000 and won't be for consumers, for the meantime anyway, Microsoft sees a bright future for its augmented reality headset with NFL.

Microsoft has just teased a new concept that uses the HoloLens for NFL, just in time for Super Bowl 50. The video shows how NFL fans could use HoloLens to enhance the football-watching experience, in the center of their living room. One example sees someone wearing a HoloLens headset, using gestures to pull up a 3D hologram of a stadium, showing detailed information like stadium attendance, and the weather.

Another example Microsoft used was with another person who used HoloLens to see live fantasy football stats, alongside motion graphics. Right now these are only concepts, but I think HoloLens has a very exciting future when it comes to Microsoft's relationship with the NFL.

Announced in a recent press release, AMD has launched its new desktop processor cooler called Wraith alongside a slew of new near-silent operating CPUs and stock cooler packages.

The AMD Wraith cooler is designed to work in a whisper quiet way, further providing a white LED illuminated AMD logo on the black plastic shroud. Promising to operate at whisper-quiet sound levels, the Wraith is rated by AMD to clock only 39 decibels when operation.

Announced alongside the Wraith cooler are the all-new AMD 10-7860K and the Athlon X4 845 processors, both coming packed with a new 95W stock fan cooler. These two new processors are not the only models to share the updated cooler, with AMD A8 processors such as the 7670K and 7650K joining in the action alongside the Athlon X4 870K and X4 860K.