Latest News - Page 2578

At its Windows 10 event in New York, Microsoft unveiled the new Lumia 950 flagship line with the 5.2" Lumia 950 and 5.7" Lumia 950XL. Since these handsets were already leaked beforehand the specs aren't too surprising, but Microsoft had some extra tidbits up its sleeve.

With the new Lumia duo, Microsoft wants to "put Windows in your pocket", and to keep up with that ethos the Lumia 950 and 950XL have been overhauled to fit right into the Windows 10 ecosystem. One of the most impressive features is the Glance Screen tech, which lets users check onscreen information without using any battery life, avoiding the need to actually turn on the phone.

Under the hood the 950 sports a hexacore CPU, with the Lumia 950 XL has an octacore processor. To mitigate heat, Microsoft actually has put in "tablet class" liquid cooling into both handsets. A dual-antenna array that automatically picks the best connection around you, and also has USB Type-C for 5GB/S data transfer rates and rapid battery charging. The Lumia duo have 20MP cameras that support 4K video capture and excels in low-light environments, and a dedicated camera button.

At today's Windows 10 event, Microsoft unveiled the future of mixed-reality gaming powered by the HoloLens, showing what's possible with the tech and how it will shape the future of gaming.

The demonstration culminated in a demo for an AR game codenamed Project X-Ray, which pretty much allows users to physically hold holograms and use holographic weapons to defend an area against a robot invasion. The demo was quite impressive, and really highlighted how truly immersive and dynamic the HoloLens really is. Microsoft hasn't released any footage yet, but we'll be sure to update the page when video goes live.

Also Microsoft announced that it is now taking applications for HoloLens developer kits starting now, and plans to ship them starting Q1 2016 for a pretty beefy $3,000. The tech giant also reminded us that the AR headset is "completely untethered", and doesn't need an external device like a PC or phone to operative. It's also 100% cordless and has a custom-built silicon soul for the "world's first holographic processing unit".

If you're wondering about the star-studded commentary line up for Major League Gaming's (MLG) 2015 world finals, wait no more! As announced in a recently issued press release, big names such as Toby "Tobiwan" Dawson, Jacob "Maelk" Toft-Andersen, Austin "Capitalist" Walsh, Soe Gschwind and more are set to take the stage.

Alongside these Dota 2 commentators are over 15 personalities spread across the other gaming titles, being: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Super Smash Bros. For Wii U & Melee and SMITE. With $500,000 of cash on the line in New Orleans, Louisiana, this tournament is set to commence on October 16 and run for three days in total.

If you're interested in more information on the event head here, check out the full commentary list here and buy tickets here.

Valve is probably working on Half-Life 3, but until we get an announcement, all we can do is dream. But there are things you can do to make the time go by as a Half-Life fan, such as checking out the Unreal Engine 4-powered Half-Life 2 environment project by Polycount member 'PogoP'.

The screenshots alone do it justice, with PogoP explaining: "Just so you know, I do plan to release this scene online for people to play around with. I'm not going to release it just yet, as I would really like to get it working with Oculus Rift before I do.. So you can run around with virtual reality. Not entirely sure if its going to work, but I'll give it a good go!"

Bungie has announced that Destiny will get microtransactions starting October 13, complete with its own in-game currency called Silver.

These microtransactions will be cosmetic rather than the pay-to-win schemes, Bungie affirms. A new NPC will arrive in the Tower and players will be able to exchange Silver for their choice of 18 different new emotes. Silver can be purchased for money, but we still don't know the exact exchange rates.

Reports indicate that this new cosmetic microtransaction model is how Bungie will fund Destiny's further development, and will release free DLC updates once a month throughout Fall 2016.

Earlier this year we reported that Paramount and Hasbro were forging ahead with plans to carve out a 'Transformers' cinematic universe over multiple films and platforms, and it looks like those plans are coming to fruition, with Hasbro chief content officer Steven J. Davis bullish on the future.

As reported by Variety, Davis reports that the writers room has successfully mapped out the next ten years for the franchise. "Nine of some of the most creative writers I have ever worked with, shepherded by Akiva Goldsman, who many of you may know won an Academy Award for 'A Beautiful Mind' and written a bunch of great movies. And they plotted out the next 10 years of 'Transformers'. Similarly, we are doing the same in television and in digital. So stay tuned, 'Transformers 5' is on its way, and 6 and 7 and 8."

While this might sound like over-confidence, bear in mind that the last entry 'Age of Extinction' is the 14th highest grossing film in history, with $1.1B worldwide.

One of the most attractive selling points on the is that its huge assortment of buttons are infinitely customizable, adding in a touch of the kind of macro peripherals we see at esports tournaments. But now it looks like custom button mapping is coming to all Xbox One controllers after all.

Xbox exec Mike Ybarra--the Microsoft vet who's responsible for helping developing OneCore, Xbox One's custom Windows 10 kernal--innocuously broke the news in a response to a fan query on Twitter.

Ultimately it looks like Xbox One fans aren't too happy about having to shell out $150 for a function they believe should be stock. So far Microsoft has done a splendid job using fan feedback to shape the future of the Xbox brand, and this is no different. While there's no timeline other than the maddeningly vague "soon", I'm guessing it'll be introduced with the Xbox One's huge Windows 10 update in November.

Cupertino tech titan Apple has yet to be dethroned as the world's most profitable brand and continues its global dominance for the third year in a row.

According to new 2014 rankings published by Interbrand, Apple's total value has shot up by 43% for an estimated brand value of $170,276 million. The second place competitor, Google, sits just $50 million shy from breaking Apple's three-year streak at an estimated value of $120 billion. Microsoft is in fourth place with a brand value of $67 billion increase of 11%. Despite being a world leader in tech, Samsung sits at a cool seventh place with 0% gains and a brand value of $45 billion.

With its new line of iDevices including the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro and even a smartring prototype, Apple is poised to continue its reign for 2015. Google has taken aim at the throne with its new Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P handsets that feature Project Fi network support.

Facebook and French satellite provider Eutelsat have teamed up to transmit free internet to large portions of Africa via orbital satellite.

With the help of Spacecom, the duo has secured the entire Ka-band payload of the AMOS-6 geostationary satellite which will transmit the signal. The AMOS-6 is configured with "high gain spot beams covering large parts of West, East and Southern Africa" as well as "high throughput satellite architecture" that ensure cost-effective, Direct-to-User internet access for Africans. Both Facebook and Eutelsat will split the broadband capacity, and the satellite is scheduled to launch in the second half of 2016.

"Facebook's mission is to connect the world and we believe that satellites will play an important role in addressing the significant barriers that exist in connecting the people of Africa," said Chris Daniels, Vice President of Facebook's Internet.org. "We are looking forward to partnering with Eutelsat on this project and investigating new ways to use satellites to connect people in the most remote areas of the world more efficiently."

Back in August, the creators of Pokemon ruthlessly slapped a copyright infringement claim on a good-natured Pokemon celebration. The party was to be held at PAX and was totally unofficially and not sanctioned or sponsored by The Pokemon Company.

Like Nintendo, the company has a very black and wide approach to what it considers copyright infringement and really doesn't ever make consolations. So naturally the Pokemon Company pressured and threatened Larkin Jones, the event organizer, with legal action. Jones canceled the event and cooperated. But now the Pokemon creators demand Larkin pay a $4000 fine for using copyright images like Pikachu on the fliers. Jones just doesn't have the cash to pay it, and has turned to a Go Fund Me campaign to raise the funds. This led to more than a hundred gamers coming together and pledging their support, and Jones raised the money in just three days.

"The day before the PAX party, Pokemon sued me. Without even a cease and desist. Totally didn't expect that,"

In a move that surprised absolutely no one, Twitter's board of directors has officially named Jack Dorsey as acting Chief Executive Officer of the social media giant.

As one of the original founders of Twitter, Dorsey was called back to action after ex-Twitter CEO Dick Costolo stepped down back in June. Within five months after being appointed to interim CEO, Dorsey reprised his role as acting CEO of the company--a position he previously held from 2007-2008. Interestingly enough, Dorsey will actually simultaneously stand as CEO of both Twitter and Square and also maintain his position in Disney's board of directors.

The official SEC filing notes that Dorsey won't be compensated for running the company, and Twitter has no future plans to pay him. This is largely due to the fact that as a co-founder, Dorsey owns a huge portion of company shares. "There are currently no plans to provide Mr. Dorsey with direct compensation for his role as Chief Executive Officer," reads the release.

AMD teased that its dual-GPU beast was coming earlier this year, but now we're beginning to hear talk of a "Radeon R9 Gemini' shipping from AMD's HQ in Canada.

The Radeon R9 Gemini will most likely arrive to us as the Radeon R9 Fury X2, as it can't succeed the Radeon R9 295X2 because of its name - where if it was the R9 395X2, people would think it features two R9 390X GPUs, versus the Fiji GPU found on the Fury X. The dual-GPU card should feature two fully-enabled Fiji XT cores, the same found on the Fury X, with 4GB of HBM each.

AMD would have the most powerful single video card solution on the market with this card, where it would easy beat the pants off of a GTX 980 Ti or Titan X from NVIDIA. As for pricing, we should expct somewhere over $1000, and most likely headed into the $1199 or so price point. As for availability, we should hopefully hear about this card in the very near future.

What better to make sensationalist media outlets perk up and blame real life violence on video games other than this realistic Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA 4) mod? This 'ultra graphics mod' is named 'SG ENB v2.0 [1.0.4.0] and sets out to turn GTA 4 into a hyper-realistic, action packed, real-world experience.

The video above showcases simple gaming actions which take place with the help of an NVIDIA GTX 970 running at 2560x1440, but there's no saying what will happen to your precious framerate when the going gets tough and RPG's start flying.

This mod joins the plethora of GTA IV and Skyrim enhancers that reiterate why enabling gaming communities to make expansive mods is such a good thing. If you're wanting a higher resolution look at the screenshots, click on the images below or head here for the full album. There's nothing else to say here other than: enjoy the photos.

Currently set at 50% off ($4.99) for a limited time, Tweetbot 4 has now seen iOS 9 support. This application is useful for things such as syncing your timeline across all apple devices, muting users, hashtags, sources or keywords and more. The issue with this update is the forced purchase - no matter if you have Tweetbot 3 or not, you're still going to have to pony up the dollars.

Version 4 has added iPad support, landscape support on iPhone and iPad, split view multitasking, notification quick reply and more. Officially released on October 1, this version is iOS 9.0+ only, users looking for an older iOS supported version will need to look into Tweetbot 3.

Just a few days after release this app already has a 4.5-star rating across 733 reviews in total and if you're worried about space constraints this app checks in at a small 6.8MB. With the discount being upheld for a limited time only, you should pounce before the price goes up if this app interests you.

When you think about profits in the music industry, you'd think that by now the likes of Spotify and Pandora would be making hundreds of millions of dollars - but in reality, they don't.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), music streaming revenue has increased by 27% year-on-year, while vinyl sales have jumped 52% in the same period of time. In the first half of 2015, vinyl sales made $222 million while streaming revenue hit $163 million. Apple Music isn't included in these results, so the streaming side of things will see an uptick when Apple gets onboard.

According to data analyst Joshua Friedlander: "Overall, the music industry has become the most-digital in terms of all traditional media outlets - magazines, newspapers - in terms of transition. There is more optimism out there than there was. Two-thirds of the market is still physical [CDs]. It used to be monolithic. Now it's a mix of things, a revenue diversification that makes a more stable source to grow off of. [Streaming] services have mostly grown through word of mouth. There hasn't been a big Spotify advertising push. When you get a player like Apple involved, that really generates a whole new level of awareness".

We know it's coming, and we can't wait - NVIDIA begins showing off more and more of its new Pascal architecture, teasing the HBM-powered Pascal GPU at GTC Japan 2015 recently.

The last time we saw Pascal was when NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang showed off a prototype board at GTC 2015 in March, but now we're seeing a slightly different Pascal GPU board than we saw earlier this year. The board features an actual Pascal GPU now that it has taped out, with the consumer GeForce card to feature a huge 16GB of HBM2 while the professional side of things will bump things up to 32GB of HBM2.

The design of the board is very similar to the Fiji-powered cards from AMD, as NVIDIA's Pascal chip is on a similar interposer to AMD. It looks slightly bigger, but we should expect the Pascal-powered cards to blow the doors off of the Fiji-powered cards from AMD. We will see DirectX 12 support, around 17 billion transistors, a 4096-bit memory interface, and so much more. Expect more news on this as we get closer to the New Year.

Thanks to the power of USB 3.0, AOC has released its first USB-only monitor, the 16" HD Pro USB E1659FWUX-PRO. Said to be powered with DisplayLink technology, this monitor further has a 300 cd/m2 brightness which makes "it the brightest in its class" as pointed out in a recent press release.

This plug and play monitor requires no setup protocols and is compatible with both Mac and PC systems. Designed with travel in mind, AOC has made sure that this monitor is suitable for transport in a suitcase and comes with a carry case of its own.

If you're interested in one of these for yourself, expect to spend $199 from Amazon online.

Available in a massive 64GB kit comprised of 4x16GB sticks, Apacer's new DDR4 RAM has been designed by its 'Z511 Lab' and will be available soon in 2400, 2666, 2800 and 3000 MHz editions, ranging from $139 - $299.

With the ability to withstand an incredible 120 degrees celsius (248 Fahrenheit) and operate without issue, this DDR4 SO-DIMM memory is designed purely with laptops in mind, aiming to skirt around overheating issues that some performance laptops are currently feeling.

The Z511 Lab is explained by Apacer as being a special part of this company designed to look at performance products, and performance products only. Setup in early 2015, this group is responsible for performance and stress testing products before they are available to the market.

Reload Studios has just secured $4 million in its first round of funding, with Reload Studios' CEO James Chung saying: "Now the foundation is set. Gaining partners who believed in the future of VR is like gaining a huge army for the battle. We are ready to take on the whole world of VR".

The investors included Rothenberg Ventures, World Innovation Lab, Barunson E&A, YK CRCM RS LLC as well as a few undisclosed private backers. Reload Studios has only just announced its first VR title 'World War Toons' as well as the creation of its own VR Lab. The studio has partnered up with WoofbertVR, an arts education VR company.

General Partner at YK CRCM RS LLC, Chun Ding, said: "Today's digital consumers will best experience and embrace virtual reality through its most exciting and breath-taking content. We applaud the talented team at Reload Studios for what they have accomplished and are thrilled to partner with them to bring the best of these contents to the consumers".

There's times when I'm using my smartphone or computer, and I think to myself "there has to be a faster way of using this, I wish I could just think and my computer/smartphone would do/record/act". Well, we're bloody close.

Scientists in both China and the United States have found a way of injecting a tiny electronic mesh sensor into the brain that fully integrates with cerebral matter, enabling computers to monitor brain activity. Researchers from Harvard and the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology in Beijing have successfully created a flexible electrical circuit that first inside of a 0.1mm-diameter glass syringe in a water-based solution.

When this solution is injected into the brains of mice, the "mesh unfurled to 30 times its size and mouse brain cells grew around the mesh, forming connections with the wires in the flexible mesh circuit. The biochemical mouse brain completely accepted the mechanical component and integrated with it without any damage being caused to the mouse", reports IBT.