Latest News - Page 2584

Fitness watch market leader Fitbit have unveiled their latest offering at CES, the company's first colour touchscreen fitness watch for the most fashion conscious fitness fanatics. The Fitbit blaze will markets worldwide from March and sit between the Fitbit Charge HR and Fitbit Surge models. Unlike the latter model, Blaze will drop the onboard GPS function, but will feature 'connected GPS'; the ability to leverage GPS from a smartphone via Bluetooth.

Despite the addition of a colour screen - a first for the company, battery life is still expected to last around 5 days per charge. While the Blaze undoubtedly shares some of the physical characteristics of it's nearest competitor - the Apple Watch, the truth is Fitbit aren't straying too far from their strengths. Blaze is built from the ground up to be a fitness watch first and foremost and users won't be able to load their own apps. Still, you will be able to trick it out with a slew of accessory bands and other extras which will accompany the launch at retail.

Blaze is now available for pre-order online for $199 USD or $329 AUD.

CES 2016 - According to research firm SuperData, the VR market will be worth $5.1 billion in 2016, with 38.9 million VR headsets sold, but it won't be the PC gaming side of VR that will be huge, but the mobile VR side of things.

According to SuperData Director of Research Stephanie Llamas, who said: "Initially, affordable smartphone devices will drive the bulk of sales as consumers first explore virtual reality before committing to the more expensive platforms. After this first wave, consumers will likely move more high-end VR devices on PC".

While HTC is getting all the news with the Vive - including the new Vive Pre which sports a front-facing camera, and the Oculus Rift - with the company announcing free Rift headsets for Kickstarter backers - the big news is going to be mobile VR. The market will see a huge 30 million VR-powered mobile devices, compared to just 6.6 million VR headsets on the PC, and 1.9 million from consoles.

CES 2016 - Oculus has just announced that it will be providing free Kickstarter Edition headsets of its Rift headset to anyone who pledged enough money to secure the original DK1 headset during the Kickstarter run.

This means that original Kickstarter backers won't need to pre-order their Rift CV1 headsets, as they'll get a free one in the mail in the coming months. Considering that they'll also arrive with free copies of EVE: Valkyrie and VR platformer Lucky's Tale, that's a pretty damn good deal.

But, this isn't just Oculus feeling generous. HTC is putting up a serious fight announcing the new Vive Pre headset sporting a front-facing camera, and with constant delays in the Rift itself and even the Touch controllers, the PR that Oculus will get from this will be great.

CES 2016 - LG is already ahead of the 4K OLED TV game with its impressive TVs, but now the company is teasing its new 2016 models with the beautiful HDR technology included.

The new 77- and 65-inch G6 series, alongside the 65-inch and 55-inch E6 series flagship models are super-thin, with a depth of only a tenth of an inch behind the screen. They are beautiful with translucent glass backs, bezels that are next to nonexistent, and forward-facing soundbar speakers.

LG's new 2016 4K OLED TVs feature something LG is calling "HDR Pro", with the new TVs being the first that LG are shipping that support all HDR formats - including HDR10 and DolbyVision. They all include the updated webOS 3.0 Smart TV platform, with LG even teasing HDR YouTube videos here in Las Vegas.

Storage Visions 2016 - TweakTown was able to get one of the first photos ever of a working prototype 3D XPoint DDR4 DIMM today at Storage Visions 2016.

Intel/Micron's phase change persistent memory technology known as 3D XPoint is undoubtedly the hottest storage technology on the horizon. Intel and Micron envision 3D XPoint causing a revolution not in just storage, but computing as a whole.

3D XPoint will have many storage applications, the most powerful and compelling of which is coming in the form of persistent addressable system memory. Designed to run on the system memory bus, Intel's 3D X-Point DIMM technology moves more data closer to the CPU.

CES 2016 - HTC has just announced the new Vive Pre VR headset, which will be on its way to developers in the coming hours. Vive Pre is the next leap between the Vive prototype and the final consumer version, which will ship to consumers in April.

The second-generation kit is a more final version of the Vive, with the "most experimental technology and the least compromise" reports The Verge. HTC and Valve then delayed the Vive after they had reached a "very, very big technological breakthrough", which seems to be what the Vive Pre turned out to be.

HTC has added a front-facing camera to the Vive Pre, which provides a look into the real-world, when you're in the virtual one. When you are walking around with the Vive headset on, and you walk near a wall in the real-world, you'll be introduced to a "black-and-teal rendering of the real-world" to show that you're hitting the limits of the real-world.

CES 2016 - Patriot Memory just announced the Hellfire line of SSD's, their next-gen line of that are PCIe 3.0 x4 compliant. It'll come in both PCIe slot variants and in the increasingly popular M.2 form-factor.

Their new SSD's will use a new Phison 5007 SSD controller and MLC NAND to deliver up to 2,500mb/s read rates in the M.2 version and up to a massive 3,000mb/s read speed and 2,200mb/s write speed for the single-slot PCIe kind. With the new controller from Phison, they'll be NVMe 1.2 compliant.

Both of the new Hellfire SSD's will come in sizes from 240GB to 960GB and should be available in the 1st quarter of 2016, so very soon. This means another great choice if you're looking to upgrade storage in your gaming rig.

It had been rumored for some time that the release date for Rise of the Tomb Raider on PC was imminent, but we finally have word from Square Enix that we'll see Lara Croft return to the PC on January 28th 2016.

What's new for the PC version of this former timed-exclusive? Updated graphics that'll support resolutions up to 4K and the inclusion of "many" different new features. The hope is that the updated TressFX used by Square Enix (an offshoot of TressFX modified by an internal Square Enix team) is included for even more flowing hair effects.

You'll be able to find Rise of the Tomb Raider on Steam, Amazon or through the Square Enix e-store or your favorite retailer. A Collector's Edition, which includes the Digital Deluxe version of the game, a 12-inch Lara Croft statue, replicas of Lara's journal and jade necklace, and a steel case, will also be available from the Square Enix e-store for $149.99.

The voice actress behind Lin, a character from Xenoblade Chronicles X that has decidedly different outfits in the Japanese version of the game compared to the western version, has given her thoughts about the changes that have been made to her character. She speaks out in favor of them and refers to them as localisations as opposed to outright censorship.

The actress, Cassandra Lee Morris, enjoyed her time that she spent recording the lines for the western release. There was a lot of secrecy surrounding the project due to how large it was. She also thinks that Lin is a great role-model for teenage girls due to the strength of character she displays and her wide swathe of abilities. But of course there's that elephant in the room that seems to spark a little controversy.

Morris doesn't see it as censoring anything, just localizing the content for different markets. There's definitely a cultural difference between Japan and the west that make certain things appropriate in one area, and not in another. Does that mean that the west is less open-minded and we need to have things censored? That's perhaps a question of semantics, but the differences in comfort levels do exist.

Daredevil was one of the best Netflix shows from 2015, with season two rumored to drop on March 25, the same day that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice flies into theaters.

The rumor is coming from sources of ComicBook.com, but Netflix and Marvel haven't confirmed the news just yet. Daredevil's first season premiered on April 10, 2015 - so the second season would be arriving a little earlier. Most people seem to think this is a big problem for Warner Bros., as it will somehow stop people from going and seeing Batman v Superman, but I don't think that'll be an issue.

Netflix binges are enjoyed at home, on the train, or wherever you are - whereas Batman v Superman will be an event in itself, going to the theater to see something that has never happened before - Batman and Superman being featured in a movie together.

CES 2016 - Corsair has just unveiled two new Carbide cases at CES, arriving in the form of the Carbide Quite 400Q and Carbide Clear 400C which Corsair says "are both easy to build with, easy to clean, and liquid cooling capable".

Both of the new cases feature room to install a 360mm radiator in the front, a 240mm radiator up top, and a 120mm radiator at the read. Corsair's Direct Airflow technology also directs the air to the hottest components from two included Corsair AF series fans.

Even though both of the chassis are mid-towers, they're both capable of housing a full ATX motherboard, and multiple GPUs if that's what you're after.

CES 2016 - MSI has just unveiled its latest motherboard for gamers, the new X99A GODLIKE GAMING CARBON Edition, which features MSI's Mystic Light technology. The improved Mystic Light RGB LED feature includes 16.8 million colors, and 16 LED effects to spruce up your X99-powered gaming machine.

The X99A GODLIKE GAMING CARBON Edition features Steel Armor technology, which is now available for DDR4 Boost on the GODLIKE motherboard. This offers up improved EMI-shielding, and even better signal strength for better memory performance.

We also have Audio Boost 3 Pro, Killer DoubleShot-X3 Pro, Turbo M.2 connectivity, two USB 3.1 Type-A and Type-C connectors, and much more. MSI has also included its Turbo Socket technology, removing all of the limits for overclocking by providing a total of 2036 pins (up from 2011) for better overclocking on the Intel Extreme processors.

CES 2016 - ASUS is back at the Consumer Electronics Show, announcing its new ZenFone Zoom smartphone with an impressive 3x optical zoom, compared to the virtually no zoom on normal smartphone cameras.

The ZenFone Zoom features a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera with optical image stabilization, and a laser-assisted autofocus system that provides faster, more accurate focusing compared to contrast detection methods, and dual-tone flash.

Engadget reports that ASUS teamed with Hoya for the 10-element lens in the ZenFone Zoom, with Hoya known for its lens filters. For the image sensor, ASUS worked with Panasonic and used their SmartFSI image sensor.

CES 2016 - Corsair today announces its new ultra-sleek and angular Carbide Series Spec-Alpha Mid-Tower ATX case aimed at professional gamers.

The Spec-Alpha case itself sports a striking form factor--the red and white color scheme is doubly eye-catching--and its oversized window is perfect for showing off a matching motherboard and GPU setup. Corsair has outfitted the case with all the amenities befit an enthusiast-grade, meeting style with performance. Three 120mm fans offer Direct Airflow Path cooling to housed components, and all three fans are controlled by a three-speed switch at the front.

The case has a roomy interior that's compatible with GPU or CPU liquid cooling solutions with front radiators up to 240mm in length. Tool-free drive setup makes installation a breeze, and users can hide snaking cords through the case's cable routing cutouts to maintain sleek cable management. Two USB 3.0 ports are also mounted at the front, and the case supports SSD mounting for high-performance memory.

CES 2016 - Maingear has announced a new AIO desktop that packs quite a bit of enthusiast-grade muscle with liquid-cooling support, 4K display options, and workstation-class AMD FirePro and NVIDIA Quadro GPUs and Intel Xeon processors.

As all-in-one desktops are traditionally made for office work spaces, the builds are quite lacking when it comes to gaming performance. Maingear wants to reinvent AIO's with its new Alpha 34 gaming desktop, which can fit full-sized gaming and workstation video cards and CPU's for blistering performance.

The Alpha 34 sports a curved 34-inch 3480 x 1440p display, and comes in three different flavors: the H110/Z170 build for performance gamers, the X99 build for enthusiast gamers, and the titanic Professional grade that sports Intel Xeon CPU support and workstation graphics. The cheapest option--the Z170 tier-- starts at $1999, and adding top-tier GPU's will boost the price quite a bit. For example, a Alpha 34 Z170 with an AMD Radeon R9 390 and an Intel i7 6700K CPU and 16GB of DDR4 RAM will cost around $2,600.

The rumor mill has pushed out yet another report; this time focused on Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed franchise. According to the rumor, the next AC game is codenamed "Empire, it will skip 2016 and instead release in 2017, and it'll take place in Egypt.

According to the reports, a dev who's working closely with the project recently posted some interesting tidbits on 4Chan:

"[It'll take place in] Egypt. There won't be an AC in 2016. You may screencap this and refer to it when nothing is shown in E3 2016. You'll have to wait until 2017 for it. The reason: It will be a complete revamp of the series. The game is going for a Witcher feel, with player progression, freeform combat system. Horse is back, and boats too. It's made by the Black Flag team. You play as a slave or ex-slave. He looks a lot like Altair, but with a darker skin. He is not edgy, from my understanding. He's a nobody that barely speaks. The biggest difference about this one is how colorful it looks. Like holy fuck, blue skies, lush vegetations and desert sequences where you get mirage and shit. Also, you have a pet eagle you can control."

A new rumor suggests that Ubisoft will release a sequel to 2014's bullshot disappointment, Watchdogs, later this year.

According to reports from Kotaku, Ubisoft's annual Assassin's Creed franchise will skip 2016 with a new release in 2017 instead, leaving room for another game to come in and pick up the slack.

If rumors can be believed, that game will be Watch Dogs 2, which will reportedly take place in San Francisco and release in Fall 2016. Watch Dogs 2 will likely see a cross-platform release across PS4, Xbox One and PC, but let's hope Ubisoft has learned its lesson and won't deliver any bullshots at E3 2016.

CES 2016 - NVIDIA has jumped on the VR bandwagon in a much stronger way, announcing its new GeForce GTX VR program, with its aim of getting PCs, notebooks and GPUs ready for VR.

NVIDIA has a list of add-in cards (AICs) and system builder partners that are good to go when it comes to VR. NVIDIA designates its GeForce GTX 970, GTX 980, GTX 980 Ti and Titan X as GPUs ready for VR gaming, with NVIDIA's partners meeting the company's standards able to display a "GeForce GTX VR Ready" badge on their systems and video cards.

The company is aiming at the combination of GeForce GTX GPUs, NVIDIA Game Ready drivers, GameWorks VR and DesignWorks VR technologies - alongside the new GeForce GTX VR ready program, that it will provide gamers with the best solution for VR gaming.

He's previously said no, and then played coy about returning to the franchise for a fifth time, but according to a new profile in Rolling Stone magazine, Michael Bay is set to go back to the 'Transformers' universe one last time.

"I'm doing Transformers ... 5, is it? I've taken on a lot of work." Bay told Rolling Stone while shaking his head. "It's fun to do a movie that 100 million people will see. But this is the last one. I have to pass the reins to someone else. J.J. [Abrams] told me, 'You're the only guy that could do this.' But it's time to move on. One more."

The article also confirms the film will be delayed from the once mooted 2016 release date to 2017. Hasbro and Paramount pictures are currently developing four different 'Transformers' feature films, which means the series will be alive well into the next decade.

The actual release date for the Oculus Rift VR headset hasn't been announced aside from a generic "Q1 2016" date, but they're opening it up to pre-orders starting this Wednesday, January 6th at 8AM Pacific.

Of course we're hoping for more than just a pre-order date at CES and something more concrete to look forward to. The delay of the Oculus Touch controller shouldn't be too much of a detractor for those wishing to get their hands-on final hardware. If early development kits combined with controllers has been any indication, then VR is more than viable without a VR-specific input method.

So if you've been dreaming of trying out the consumer model as soon as it hits the streets, before anyone else has a chance to plop it on their heads, then you might want to be one of the first in (digital) line when the pre-ordering begins.