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Apple has decided to reaffirm its global technology presence recently, with a podcast including executives Craig Federighi and Eddy Cue explaining of Apple's large and growing userbase in Apple music and iCloud services.

With Apple music sitting at 11 million subscribers, this can be compared to Spotify's recent data (from June 2015) stating that it has 20 million paying subscribers in total. While Spotify currently sits ahead, ZDNet explains that it took Spotify six years to reach the 11 million subscriber milestone, with Apple doing this in a fraction of that time.

As for iCloud users, it is claimed that there are a massive 782 million total worldwide. This impressive number sits alongside crazy data like the fact that 200,000 iMessages are sent every second and there are 750 million transactions weekly on iTunes and the App Store.

Any blossoming action RPG in development, such as Exoplanet: First Contact, is going to want to have a wide variety of different set pieces to keep you interested, and to help you suspend your believe that you're in some far off land. Wildlife, pets, livestock and creatures in general, especially in a far off star system, are just as important as the landscape to make it a unique and ultimately fun experience. Moving battle fortresses make it that much more fantastic, because who wouldn't want to train one to walk around like a sail barge in the desolate landscape.

Moving battle fortresses make it that much more fantastic, because who wouldn't want to train one to walk around like a sail barge in the desolate landscape. But the real reason why they're being added to the game is due to the desolate frontier that you'll be exploring. Fuel is an expensive commodity, one that costs far more than the grass upon which this delightful herbivore would nom upon. Meaning it's easier and cheaper, and better, to get around on the back of a massive creature than in the relative comfort of a small ship.

The idea is only in the planning stages, but the possibility of having a customization mount (akin to ARK perhaps, but better) could easily come to fruition here. Nurture your mount from a wee babe and then equip specially crafted armor, weapon mounts and even prison modules, or others, to customize it for your occupation of choice. What a way to get around, even if it's slightly slower than zipping along at high-speed in an covered, craft.

Backed by the statement that "Women disproportionately make contributions that projects need more urgently," a study conducted by Cal Poly and the North Carolina State University concluded that women make better coders than men, as seen on Gizmodo.

This paper is reportedly still waiting for its peer review process so all statement may be taken with a grain of salt. However, the findings are still quite interesting. Utilizing the data taken from 4 million GitHub users, the researchers then narrowed it down to 1.4 million users (the ones they were able to figure out the gender of) and discovered that code by women is more likely to be utilised compared to male coding - showing a 78.6 percent pull request rating compared to the male figure of 74.6 percent.

Using this newfound data and further research which is linked below, the paper concluded that "Women have a higher acceptance rate of pull requests overall, but when they're outsiders and their gender is identifiable, they have a lower acceptance rate than men," further stating "Our results suggest that although women on Github may be more competent overall, bias against them exists nonetheless."

It's not unusual these days to find evidence of new world's hanging out beyond our solar-system. The original Kepler project found thousands of candidates that are still being confirmed as potential exo-planets. But finding nearly visible evidence of a planet being formed in the presence of the harsh conditions of a binary star system? That doesn't come along every day.

Just 450 light-years away, shining brightly in the constellation Taurus, the HD 132527 star system just birthed a new planet, and it's been caught in some stunning high-resolution photos from both the Hubble telescope in the past and now from the Atcama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) by researchers at Rice University. This is the first time we've ever had clear evidence of what planet formation actually looks like.

There's a tremendous amount of detail being recorded right now by the ALMA array, and it shows dust and gases coming together to actually make a planet. In the photo above, the bright red is where there's the most dust and where carbon monoxide is appearing. That gas is freezing inside the dust, clumping together to form solid rock formations that seem to be sticking together, making an even larger object.

As announced recently on the official Apple website, this technology giant will be replacing defective USB Type-C cables bundled with its latest MacBook Pro models, further covering standalone chargers bought as accessories.

The replacement process suggests that users head straight into an Apple Retail Store after booking a reservation, seemingly replacing dodgy chargers on the spot.

As seen above, the new cable will look basically identical to the previous edition, with the difference being a new serial number placed after the Apple design and manufacturer statements.

Hideo Kojima approached the Gears of War Creator, Cliff Bleszinski, regarding a partnership in a new type of Silent Hill, one that could potentially be something unique and a return to something fascinating for the series. But good ol' Cliff just didn't want to do it. But at least his reasons are sound, and surprisingly responsible.

I don't think that anyone can blame him for not enjoying LA, it's a place that you either love or harbor deep hate for. And of course he's working on his own new IP which is something that he most definitely won't want to just walk away from, or even delay. And because of the special nature of Silent Hill, he doesn't want to ruin it either.

That's a very responsible thing for anyone to say. Some directors or producers would be absolutely thrilled to be able to work on such an IP, adding their own vision to something that could harm fans perception of it and potentially desecrating a sacred franchise already marred with sub-par impressions.

In somewhat of an anti-Easter Egg finding, recent reports have shown that setting the date on your iPhone 5s (or newer) to Janurary 1, 1970 will ensure the device becomes quite useless.

There have recently been some images circulating on the internet saying that setting your phone to this date will ensure a fresh old school Apple logo will be displayed. This is a lie and setting your iPhone's date to 1970 will make sure that your device is unusable - being bricked without repair.

There's currently no fix for this issue, the easiest way to keep your iPhone working is by simply not changing the date.

I don't even... so, the last DLC for Battlefield Hardline is coming in March and it'll provide a sword. Yeah, we're not joking - a sword.

Both cops and robbers get to use the swords, with the new weapon being only one of seven new weapons being introduced with the new DLC. Battlefield Hardline: Betrayal will also include four new maps: Alcatraz, Cemetery, Chinatown and Thin Ice.

Two new vehicles and some customization options on primary weapons and uniforms will also make the cut, with Betrayal implementing an update to Hardline that adds 11 more weapons and new server presets. Betrayal concludes the DLC schedule for Battlefield Hardline, which launches in March 2015 and has been barely surviving since.

Yesterday, we reported that Quantum Break wouldn't be reaching Steam, and would instead be an exclusive to the Windows Store - but we can't really complain because we get to play it on PC and it's no longer an Xbox One exclusive.

Well, Xbox Marketing boss Aaron Greenberg said during the latest Major Nelson podcast: "We weren't sure how and when we could get the Windows 10 version done. They lined up [with the Xbox One version]; a lot of people's reaction on Twitter was like, I get it, you want to bring this to a lot more gamers to play, but why didn't you tell us about this before? We didn't know we could do this before".

He added: "We're trying to bring gamers together, we're trying to break down the walls if you will. To be able to bring a title like Quantum Break to the Windows 10 ecosystem is a great benefit. We know that there are a lot of PC gamers out there who would like to play the game, so that opens up a new audience".

We only have a week until we get to meet the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge smartphones from Samsung, but leaked photos of Samsung's latest flagship handsets are here, and they're looking great.

The latest photos of the Galaxy S7 show that it has a thin body, with only minimal camera protrusion - which is a big upgrade to the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge from last year. Samsung has put it all into design by the looks of things, on both the front and back of the S7 and S7 edge, and it pays off - they look great.

Inside, we should expect some grunt with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 and Samsung Exynos 8890 powering the Galaxy S7, while a 12-megapixel rear-facing camera will be snapping those gorgeous photos for you. It's a drop down from the 16-megapixel snapper on the Galaxy S6, but considering Samsung's previous Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge had some of the best cameras of 2016, I'm excited to see what the South Korean giant can pull off with the Galaxy S7.

If you've continued to stick it out for the latest season of HBO's long-running 'Game of Thrones' adaptation, you're likely chomping at the bit for the sixth season premier, which hits in just over 9 week's time. Today, the network have released another tease for the upcoming series, which may or may not shed some light on where the new episodes will go.

Unlike the previous five seasons, season six will not be based on a George R.R. Martin plot, having exhausted all the 'A Song of Ice and Fire' books in the last season. Instead, screenwriters have crafted the plot through discussions with Martin, but they may very well deviate from the material presented in the forthcoming sixth novel. It's truly uncharted waters for the series and anything could happen - and that makes it even more compelling than ever.

The threat of AI blowing up the world or keeping us in cages like animals might scare most people, but I think the prospects of AI could be truly transformative - and that we're bound by other things like society, religion, government and more - but according to one scientist, AI "could leave half the world unemployed".

According to Moshe Vardi, who told the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS): "We are approaching a time when machines will be able to outperform humans at almost any task. I believe that society needs to confront this question before it is upon us: if machines are capable of doing almost any work humans can do, what will humans do?".

Vardi is a professor at Rice University Guggenheim fellow, adding that technology is a bigger threat than UAVs that some fear, adding that AI could see unemployment numbers hitting 50%, taking away middle-class jobs, and making the wealth gap even bigger.

After breaking its own promises about Quantum Break's exclusivity to Xbox One, many console gamers felt cheated. Everyone was asking themselves "why buy an Xbox One when I can get most of the games on PC, too?" By "innovating and growing its console ecosystem", Redmond delivered a significant blow to the Xbox community's morale, further weakening its own image.

According to Microsoft marketing exec Aaron Greenberg, Team Lime Green isn't giving up on Xbox. On the contrary; Xbox is a "big priority and a huge commitment" for Redmond. Greenberg promises that the company will continue to invest and co-ordinate new Xbox One console exclusives down the line, attempting to dispel the jaded malaise that's spread across the community.

"Xbox is a big priority and a huge commitment, and we're committed to innovate," Greenberg said during Major Nelson's latest podcast. "Please do not let the fact that we're also launching a game on the same day on Windows 10 change your perspective on the importance of the console business, our commitment to innovating on consoles, and continue to invest and bring more console exclusives, in addition to kinda growing the gaming ecosystem."

Microsoft's decision to bring Quantum Break to PC was met with disdain from the Xbox community--after all, the game was supposed to be exclusive to Xbox One. So why did Microsoft risk alienating its core audience with the move? Bringing Quantum Break to PC wasn't about sales or numbers--it's about bringing gamers together.

According to Xbox marketing exec Aaron Greenberg, Microsoft's cross-platform PC-and-console strategy is specifically built around unifying platforms and making games widely accessible. "We're really trying to bring gamers together, and trying to break down the walls. We are at Microsoft, and we're all about gaming. This is about putting gamers at the center of everything we're doing," he said in a recent podcast.

This statement goes against the very ethos of console gaming, however. The main reason consumers buy a console is because of the games, which include exclusive IPs--or exclusive content. As Microsoft can't compete against Sony's PS4 in the traditional game, it wants to disrupt the traditional ethos with a newly evolved structure that bridges two platforms.

Although Microsoft wants everyone gaming on Windows 10 and using the Windows Store, it'd be foolish to go up against Steam. A new subdomain hints that Redmond may be taking the old adage "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" quite seriously, and we may see some sort of Steam/Xbox crossover.

What if Microsoft and Valve allied together to push a new PC-to-Xbox game streaming initiative? NeoGAF users spotted a curious subdomain called Xbox.steampowered.com that's kicked off a wave of speculation through the community, and many of their ideas are pretty interesting.

Starting with the controversial move to make Quantum Break Windows 10 exclusive instead of Xbox exclusive, Microsoft is breaking down the barriers between PC and console gaming. The company's new strategy is all about Windows exclusivity, and it wants to push Windows 10 as far as it can. But Valve's massive Steam platform is a huge roadblock, and past attempts (Games for Windows Live) to conquer Steam have failed. But what about a joint venture?

If you were one of those that pre-ordered Street Fighter V on the PlayStation Network for the PlayStation 4 or from Steam for the PC, then you can now start preloading the game in anticipation of finally going live on February 16th.

Street Fighter V weighs a middling 7.32GB on the PS4 and a slightly lighter 7.15GB for the PC with the unpackaged and installed game taking up 12.34GB and 13.45GB on the PS4 and PC respectively. Unfortunately we learned that it won't be coming to the Xbox One at all due to a console exclusivity deal with Sony.

And if you wanted to explore the inner personalities of the various flashy characters from the series, Street Fighter V will have a tremendous amount of story content both in the main game and in future DLC packages. So now those origin stories and the relationships will be revealed with some rather fantastic looking animations and in-game fights.

Ubisoft is taking a less traditional approach to Far Cry: Primal's storytelling. Instead of linear-based progression, players can travel down different paths--all of which branch out from the central Wenja village.

In a new interview, Ubisoft Associate Producer Paola Joyaux reveals that Far Cry: Primal's story arc will be tightly woven with the protagonist's ancestral Wenja homeland. The Wenja village will grow and flourish depending on what paths players take, offering a dynamic and emergent experience that's resplendent with prehistoric culture.

"The village is really the backbone of your progression and your story. By going into the wild and exploring the world, you'll find specialists. Each of them will be your mentor in a specialty that you'll need to master to push back the danger of the world," Joyeaux explained. "So when you bring them back to the village, they'll build huts there. And by working with them - sometimes they'll need new components you can only find farther away, or you'll help them develop new technology - you'll not only improve your village, but also gain new knowledge that will help you improve yourself."

A company called CTL has a ruggedized Chromebook built for the demanding education crowd that can withstand a whole lot of abuse, just in case the students these are given too happen to have harsh feelings towards the last test they had to take.

The NL6X takes things to the eXtreme with their newest Chromebook, reinforcing the entire body to be drop resistant up to height of 70cm, or two feet. The back of the lid is reinforced the most to help prevent breakage where issues tend to crop up the most. The keyboard, and whole chassis is spill resistant as well, to help forestall common debilitating issues from stray drinks. Best of all, you can put up to 365lbs on top of it and it won't break.

Under the hood is an Intel Celeron N2940, of the fanless variety, with 4GB of RAM and 16GB of storage with a 11.6" 1366x768 screen. This is an education focused machine whose sole purpose is to easily, and inexpensively, provide students of all types with enough compute power to connect with the Internet to get things done. And it can do just that with around 9 hours of battery life. The rugged factor isn't just something cool added on, either, the whole thing is designed for STEM classes, just in case you happen to drop, smash or spill precious sciency stuff onto it. It's rather ingenious. Oh, and the back of the display is also a nifty whiteboard, so you can still put special people on your notebook.

After nearly a decade, Sony is apparently bringing back PlayStation icon Crash Bandicoot for a new game on the PlayStation 4.

According to National Entertainment Collectibles Association exec Randy Falk, Sony is resurrecting the cult platformer Crash Bandicoot for a new game.

"On the modern gaming front, we're going strong. We've got a lot of cool stuff going on with Sony. So we have Ultimate Kratos from God of War III that's about to hit retail. We have Uncharted 4 Nathan Drake, which comes out in May. And then LittleBigPlanet is doing really well. And looking at some of their other titles, I see they're bringing Crash Bandicoot back, which is really cool. There's some great stuff there."

Micron's introduction of their 3D NAND technology yesterday marks what could be a massive jump in capacity for enterprise and even consumer SSD's. We could, with Intel's partnership and stake in the technology, see upwards of 10TB SSD's for far less than we currently pay for the size.

The magic to this leap in capacity, and even potentially prune the price per GB, is in the packaging. It's far from a perfected process, but once manufacturing has picked up and fabs are properly modified to support the manufacturing process, the costs associated will reduce appropriately. But that stacking can reduce costs even more because of the manufacturing efficiency associated with it. The benefits may not be immediately apparent, though that simplified process of making the whole package will eventually trickle down to us, the consumer. And we'll eventually benefit greatly from it.

Furthermore, the verticality, as evidence by Samsung's method, can result in an increase in density that could allow for even USB thumb drives with multi-terabyte capacities. Again, that move to consolidate the entire package uses less room than even the V-NAND structure employed by Samsung. Micron even claims that their solution has a massive three times the density as their competitors solution. If that's true, then it won't be too terribly long before 10TB or even 20TB SSD's become affordable, and normal, for consumers.