Latest News - Page 2581

Today Google has formally unveiled the Nexus 6P, confirming speculations and leaks with the new Android 6.0 handset. The Nexus 6P has a number of new improvements with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, but one of the most alluring announcements was the 6P can run on Google's celebrated Project Fi network.

Nexus 6P has a 5.7-inch QHD display with the screen itself taking up 74% of the actual front of the phone, making it scale much like a 5.5-inch smartphone. It sports a 64-bit processor with a full-body aluminum frame, and a built-in fingerprint sensor that instantly wakes up the phone with a single press. With Google Imprint, the software suite that runs the fingerprint sensor, users can easily pay and purchase items with the press of a button.

The Nexus 6P sports USB Type C support for rapid battery charging, and Google boasts that phone can be fully charged in half the time of an iPhone 6 Plus. To combat Apple's always-on Siri, the Nexus 6P will have always-on OK Google support for hands-free searching and interaction. Supposedly the 6P will have less bloatware, and the new doze mode puts phone in a deep sleep state to reserve power and cut out background tasks.

Volkswagen is at the heart of the biggest car fraud story ever, but the likes of Mercedes and BMW will soon be involved. According to the latest on-the-road results from Transport & Environment (T&E), some Mercedes A, C, and E class cars as well as BMW's latest 5 series and Peugeot 308 cars are using up to 50% more fuel than their lab test results.

The problems that this is creating, is that the official numbers given by Volkswagen, Mercedes and BMW are different to the real-world performance numbers and this gap is becoming so wide that "it cannot be explained through known factors including test manipulations", reports Ademloos.be. Things have gotten worse in the last 15 years or so, where the official test results for CO2 emissions/fuel economy and real-world performance have increased from 8% in 2001 to a huge 40% on average for 2014.

The numbers are coming from T&E's 2015 Mind the Gap report, which takes a look at on-the-road fuel consumption by motorists and highlights what Volkswagen, Mercedes and BMW have been doing for years. These carmakers have been abusing the system, with EU regulators not closing the various loopholes that allow this to happen. T&E has added that without action, the gap will grow from 40% from 2014, to over 50% on average by 2020.

It should come as no surprise, but Riot Games is working on a new game. It probably isn't something new to know, but until now it had not been confirmed if the League of Legends developer was going to follow up from one of the biggest eSports games ever.

Riot Games' R&D boss Ryan Scott took some questions from fans about what's coming next for the developer, and when asked about what he's working on, Scott said: "No deets for a while, but trying to get the 's' in the Riot Games name". Another fan questioned Scott's Twitter profile, which said that he's a "turn-based strategy and FPS fan", eluding to which genre Riot Games is working on. Scott added: "Genre-wise [it's] pretty broad. The important thing for us is to make something meaningful, not a 'me too' game".

I'm not sure if I'd have confidence in Riot only working on a single game right now, but I'd say there are multiple games in the pipeline and the one that is closest to being revealed, is being eluded to here. It would be silly for Riot to not want to release another game that will surely make the company hundreds of millions of dollars like League of Legends has and continues to.

Privacy has been a big concern for a lot of Windows 10 users since the operating system's launch two months ago. If you believed the rumors, you might think we really were headed for a Skynet situation.

Today, Microsoft's Terry Myerson assures users there's nothing to be alarmed about, that their only goal with the information they collect is to make Windows perform better and be more personal. From the Windows Blog: "We collect a limited amount of information to help us provide a secure and reliable experience. This includes data like an anonymous device ID, device type, and application crash data which Microsoft and our developer partners use to continuously improve application reliability. This doesn't include any of your content or files, and we take several steps to avoid collecting any information that directly identifies you, such as your name, email address or account ID".

He continued: "A great example of how this data was used effectively was just last month, when aggregate data showed us that a particular version of a graphics driver was crashing on some Windows 10 PCs, which then caused a reboot. This driver was not widely used, but still the issue was impacting customers. We immediately contacted the partner who builds the driver and worked with them to turn around a fix to Windows Insiders within 24 hours. We used the data on Insiders' devices to confirm that the problem was resolved, and then rolled out the fix to the broad public via an update the next day - all-in-all, this data helped us find, fix and resolve a significant problem within 48 hours".

Apple managed to move more than 13 million iPhone 6S handsets over the launch weekend, smashing previous sales records in the process. Coupled with the projected profit of about $500 for every 64GB iPhone 6S that's sold, it's no wonder how Apple retains its status as a leading tech giant.

According from data gleaned from Teardown.com, Apple only spends an estimated $245 to make the A1688 64 GB iPhone 6s model. When we compare the $749 Apple charges for a new iPhone 6S to how much it spends, a bit of simple math shows the company makes roughly $504 in per-sale profits.

The new iPhone costs just $17 more to make than the previous iPhone 6 model, largely due to extra additions like the capacitive 3D Touch sensor and touch controller IC which accounts for about 17% or $42.50 of the total costs. The iPhone 6S' upgrade to 2GB LPDDR4 also bumped memory costs up to $16, which is a jump from the iPhone 6's 1GB LPDDR3 that costs just $4.50. The new 12MP iSight camera and accompanying front-facing 5MP camera clock in at $16.

While Konami continues to find itself between a rock and a hard place concerning its reputation in the gaming sphere, the overseas publisher has asserted that it's not giving up on AAA games. The Metal Gear brand will continue without Hideo Kojima, and console games won't be jeopardized in favor of freemium mobile schemes.

"We've said in the past that the Metal Gear brand will continue," said Konami's UK community manager Graham Day in an interview with GameOn Daily. When asked if Metal Gear can maintain its luster without Hideo Kojima at the helm, Graham responded in the affirmative: "Of course, Metal Gear can definitely continue without Hideo Kojima. Metal Gear is about the story, it's about the characters. We look at things like Metal Gear Rising and that was an example of the title being taken in a new direction by separate teams."

The Day also iterates that Konami wants to keep bringing games to the console realm, and a new mobile focus doesn't mean all other platforms will be shut out. "Yeah, we're still committed to console gaming. That's never changed. I think some things are being taken out of context. Just because [Konami] is embracing mobile gaming it doesn't mean everything else has to quit. Konami has a history of making the best games around, and that is something we'll continue and that won't change anything going forward."

BlackBerry has just announced the Priv, its first Android phone that features a slide-out keyboard and a curved display, and company CEO John Chen shows that Android might still be a strange new world for BlackBerry.

Chen seemed to have been caught totally off-guard during an hands-on demonstration of the Priv handheld, saying things like "obviously it runs Google" and fumbling with the OS as if it were completely alien technology. After firing up Google Chrome, Chen faltered after realizing he wasn't signed in, and after a few failed attempts he finally closed the app. Aftwards the BlackBerry CEO was content just focusing on the hardware--the 5.5-inch screen and the signature slideable BlackBerry keyboard.

The whole ordeal is kind of painful to watch and shows that Chen wasn't really prepared for the demonstration. During one segment, Chen actually verbally explains how the keyboard features capacitive touch so it can be used as a mouse for web surfing or checking text messages rather than walking through the functions on the phone. That's not to say that spontaneous demos can't be pressure-inducing affairs, but the CEO should still be able to confidently maneuver the OS and have a working knowledge of the device he's marketing.

In the current age of console gaming, we've seen this outrageous trend of carving out a portion of a game and only making it available to a specific console. It's called timed exclusives, and it's a new way to make exclusive content without actually having to make an exclusive game. Activision has done it with Destiny, Square Enix has done it with Rise of the Tomb Raider--but Bethesda has affirmed it won't be participating in this ridiculous charade with Fallout 4.

In a recent Twitter exchange, Bethsoft's VP of Marketing and PR Pete Hines officially declared that Fallout 4's content won't be locked behind a console-gate, suggesting that the game will be the same across all platforms. "We aren't doing a DLC exclusive with anyone," Hines said poignantly.

Bear in mind that Fallout 4 does have a $30 Season Pass that unlocks all of the game's planned DLC. Bethsoft isn't about to pull an Evolve and shell out multiple passes either; this is a one-off purchase that grants "all DLC ever released for Fallout 4".

After spending $2 billion acquiring Oculus early last year, Facebook has just announced it has "dramatically" increased its investment into virtual reality, where it will spend even more money on VR over the next decade.

Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer spoke with the Financial Times during the Oculus Connect developer conference in LA last week, where he said: "We are investing more year over year... We've got a multiyear plan for this worked out over a fairly long time horizon". Schroepfer didn't state a specific number, but he did say that Facebook will spend hundreds of millions of dollars bringing the Rift to the market, and over the coming years, it will turn into billions of dollars.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that he thinks VR will become a dominant communications and entertainment technology (something we totally agree with) and that the early Rift sales will increase "slowly" when it launches early next year. Schroepfer added: "When we started to get engaged in this, the big conversation we had was that this is going to take a long time and it will require a sustained commitment from us over many years, more like a decade, to really see this through and solve all the technical, content or artistic problems we need to solve. But if we can do this, it's going to be the most interesting thing we're ever going to work on".

Apple today announces that its new iPhone 6S and 6S Plus models have sold 13 million units within the first three-day period, breaking last year's 10 million sales of the iPhone 6 in the same period.

TechCrunch notes that the sales equate to roughly 3,000 iPhones sold every minute, and 50 iPhones sold every second. It's worth noting that this time around Apple opened up pre-orders for a full two weeks before launch, and also included China, a region that accounts for a vast number of iPhone users.

"Sales for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have been phenomenal, blowing past any previous first weekend sales results in Apple's history," Apple's CEO Tim Cook said in the official press release. "Customers' feedback is incredible and they are loving 3D Touch and Live Photos, and we can't wait to bring iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus to customers in even more countries on October 9."

The barrage of legal woes against Volkswagen continues as the auto company confirmed that approximately 2.1 million Audi vehicles across the globe are equipped with software that's specifically designed to cheat diesel emission tests. The auto titan was reportedly told some four years ago that the software posed a significant legal concern and would one day jeopardize the entire company, but VW ignored the warnings.

The software was specifically designed to recognize when emission tests were being conducted, then obfuscate actual diesel emissions by shifting into a low-emissions mode. Volkswagen clarified that over 1.42 million Audi vehicles in Western Europe had the software, with 13,000 cars in the United States and 577,000 in VW's native homeland of Germany.

The "Dieselgate" scandal has taken a serious toll on Volkswagen; shortly after the scandal broke VW shares fell by 30%, and the company has since suspended its heads of research and development. VW CEO Martin Winterkorn jumped ship after the guitly admission, and Porsche exec Matthias Mueller stepped in as acting CEO to take control over the company as it faces turbulent waters ahead.

Just how well did The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt do on the PC? Not too shabby; DSOGaming reports that from their calculations, "at least 30%".

In their recent article, GSOGaming said: "This means that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt sold, at least, 1.8 million copies on the PC. This basically means that the minimum percentage of the PC sales - compared to the total sales - is 30%. Again, this is pure speculation as we don't have the full picture here".

Then we have Karolina Gates from CD Projekt Red, who said that as of June 30, 30% of the sales were on PC. This means that the PC version of the game has been doing quite well, even up against the Xbox One and PS4 versions of the game.

Apple revealed its new iPhones a couple of weeks ago, with the new iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus featuring 13-megapixel rear-facing cameras that are 4K-capable. This is a big jump from the 8-megapixel shooters on their predecessors, that were only capable of 1080p video capture.

But media outlets like CNET are saying that the new iPhones will usher in the start of 4K, making it mainstream. This is because tens of millions of customers will buy the new iPhone, and will make 4K go "mainstream" as right now, we have a "scarcity of content", which is true. CNET adds that you "don't have much reason to pay more for a 4K television, laptop or computer monitor when there isn't much stuff to watch that way", which is again, very true.

But the likes of Samsung and Sony have have smartphones with 4K-capable cameras for years now, with Beachfront Media CEO Frank Sinton adding that "4K cameras on popular smartphones like the iPhone will create a huge amount of content". He also said that "It's definitely going to be pushing Hollywood toward doing more".

For a director who boasts his own in-home 35mm cinema and has led the campaign to keep film alive, along with crusading a 70mm release for his upcoming feature 'The Hateful Eight', you'd think Quentin Tarantino would insist on only experiencing films in the absolute best quality possible. So it's more than a bit of a surprise that he's still using ancient VHS technology.

In an excerpt from Tom Roston's upcoming book 'I Lost it at The Video Store: A Filmmakers' Oral History of a Vanished Era', explains his reasoning "I have the videos from Video Archives. They went out of business, and I bought their inventory. Probably close to eight thousand tapes and DVDs. I have a bunch of DVDs and a bunch of videos, and I still tape movies off of television on video so I can keep my collection going." Tarantino continues with the admission he also doesn't dig non-physical formats. "I am not excited about streaming at all. I like something hard and tangible in my hand. And I can't watch a movie on a laptop. I don't use Netflix at all. I don't have any sort of delivery system.

According to the latest rumors, NVIDIA is working on a new dual-GPU video card that would use two of the company's GM200 GPUs, the same GPUs that power the GeForce GTX 980 Ti and Titan X, on a single card.

WCCFTech is reporting that NVIDIA held "secret" meetings in NYC last week, but they failed to report that there were meetings in LA, too. We were in LA and NVIDIA said nothing to us about a dual GPU card coming soon, as the event was all about the GTX 980 going into laptops. We might have been left out of the loop of course, but we are throwing a lot of salt across our shoulders on this one folks.

But, that doesn't mean it's not credible. NVIDIA is more than capable of releasing a new dual GPU card thanks to its super-efficient Maxwell architecture. Better yet, the "secret" meetings that were held did concentrate on how the company had shrunken down the board that the new GTX 980 goes onto, so what I will add to these rumors is that with two of these boards, a dual GTX 980 could be easily possible and not break through a 300W TDP.

We all know advertising makes the world go round, but there are some people who pay to opt out of seeing ads, but what use is paying that bill every month if ad-blocking companies are allowing them to hit you anyway, all while making money out of it.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that ad-blocking companies are taking in payments from specific publishers that would see ad-free subscribers receiving ads anyway. The WSJ reports: "Eyeo GmbH, the company behind popular desktop ad-blocking tool Adblock Plus, now accepts payment from around 70 companies in exchange for letting their ads through its filter. Eyeo stipulates that they must comply with its "acceptable ads" policy, meaning their ads aren't too disruptive or intrusive to users. In total, ads from some 700 companies meet the acceptable ads policy".

Better yet, is that Eyeo has been contacting other ad-blocking developers to make deals that would see their ads pushed through their filters to more paying ad-blocking customers, for a fee of course. Eyeo reportedly "seeks payment from any firm that generates more than 10 million unblocked ad impressions a month". The WSJ reports that Eyeo's cost is associated revenue that their clients make from the ads that they allow through their filters.

Fallout games have always been tremendous timesinks that demand hundreds of hours of play, but Bethesda has usually been pretty good about optimizing install sizes for all its games. Fallout 4 won't be any different: according to a listing on the Xbox Marketplace, Fallout 4 only weighs in at 28GB on the Xbox One.

While the file size hasn't been revealed for PlayStation 4 or PC just yet, most multi-platform games stay within the same storage requirement ranges. We shouldn't see any major discrepancies other than a few gigabytes or so difference. With a number of high-profile games releasing on the coming months, Fallout 4 fans can at least rest easy knowing they won't have to make too much room for Bethesda's post-apocalyptic adventure.

Then again, Fallout 4 doesn't really tap that well of incredible fidelity that we see in most AAA games, so the devs have a lot less layered data to optimize. The lack of pristine graphics should shave off a good portion of the game's required storage. Bethesda has outright admitted that they had to water down the graphics as a trade-off to maintain other parts of the game.

Xbox One owners have speculated for quite some time that certain features could dramatically improve the console's everyday performance, being led to believe that things like DirectX 12, Windows 10 implementation and giving developers access to the system's seventh core could change everything. With the help of Microsoft, one dev team has tapped the Xbox One's seventh core and reveals that the performance gains are anything but dramatic.

"Yes, we are using [the seventh core]," Larian Studios' co-founder and CEO Swen Vincke said in an interview with Gamingbolt. "Not a lot [of benefits] apparently but we are using it. You can only use 60 or 70% of it so that is not big of a difference. Essentially it won't make much of an impact."

Right now Larian Studios is working on a PS4 and Xbox One console port of the cRPG Divinity: Original Sin, and during the dev cycle Larian has spent a lot of time getting intimately acquainted with current-gen console architecture. The bump in processing speed granted by the Xbox One's seventh core didn't seem to help very much, despite the speculation that the extra core could be responsible for some Xbox One games hitting PS4-level performance.

In an age where free to play mobile games dominate the handheld gaming space, Sony is extremely reticent to release another PlayStation Vita handheld. At EGX 2015, Sony exec Shuhei Yoshida said that the current mobile climate "isn't healthy" for a new PS Vita because the Japanese gaming titan would have a hard time finding a foothold in the competitiv emarket.

"That's a tough question," Yoshida said when asked outright if Sony is considerating a new PS Vita handheld. "People have mobile phones and it's so easy to play games on smartphones. Nany games on smartphones are free, or free to start. So I hope, like many of you, that this culture of playing portable games continues but the climate is not healthy for now because of the huge dominance of mobile gaming."

Although the PlayStation Vita is a big part of Sony's next-gen PS4 ecosystem, with Remote Play letting gamers stream PS4 games right to the handheld, sales for the Vita have flagged in all markets except for Japan. This is largely due to Sony's favoritism for their native homeland, with Japan seeing a steady influx of quality games and content that just don't come overseas. This lack of focus has made many PlayStation Vita owners feel abandoned throughout the years.

According to a report from Recode, Google is preparing for the launch of 'YouTube Red', the company's ad-free, subscription-based model for YouTube that has been in the pipeline for quite a while now.

Recode is reporting that numerous emails were sent out to channel owners, asking them to agree to a new set of terms and conditions by October 22nd or their monetized videos would be switched to private until the new agreement had been agreed upon. We don't know if the subscription-based YouTube Red will launch on that day, but it should be within hours of that.

The ad-free YouTube Red will launch in the US at first, after which it will float across the pond once Google begins sorting out the various legal issues associated with rights management. As for pricing, we can expect a decent price of $9.99 per month, something that will include Play Music Unlimited. As someone who shifted over from Spotify to Play Music Unlimited, I'm hoping my existing subscription will include YouTube Red.