Latest News - Page 2586

"The Xbox One is literally a Windows device," says Microsoft's Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Chris Capossela, illustrating how Microsoft doesn't see a distinction between the Xbox One and other platforms like Windows-powered phones and PCs.

"A core power metric for us is Windows 10 devices. That's not PC statement.That will be phones, that will be tablets, that will be laptops, that will be desktops, that will be big surface hubs that will be Xboxes," Capossela said at this year's Citi Global Technology Conference. "Xboxes today run Windows and so every time we sell an Xbox we're actually creating a Windows active device that hopefully people love it; it's a gaming device in their living room. It is not a separate animal. It is literally a Windows device."

While the Redmond-based tech giant has a role for every Windows 10 device, the OS acts as a glue to connect and cement each platform to a unified scope. The seeds of Windows 10 kernal will be planted into the Xbox One in November as part of the console's major new update, opening up new functionality like extensive backward compatibility with Xbox 360 games, Cortana support, and up to "thousands" of Windows 10 apps in the future.

Indie devs already have it pretty hard, and getting the attention of the gaming community can be even harder. Some devs turn to YouTubers as a natural way to advertise their games...but when you're asked to pay $22,000 for a single sponsored video, it makes your jaw drop.

"On one of my normal PR rounds I received an email from a very popular YouTuber with a few million subscribers offering to have one of our games featured on their YouTube channel for a rate of either $17,600 for 2-3 talking points or $22,000 for 2-3 talking points AND a description link," Ben Tester, whose indie studio Wales Interactive is responsible for games like Soul Axiom and Master Reboot, said on Reddit.

This kind of huge payoff isn't anything new. YouTubers have done promos and sponsored videos all over the place, earning up to $15,000 to $30,000 for a single video. This kind of cash is enough to fund an indie game and it's as much as some people make in a year. It got to the point where advertisements and original content bled so closely together that no one could tell what content was promoted. Eventually the Federal Trade Commission had to step in and force regulations on YouTube's multi-million dollar system, ruling that YouTubers now have to make promoted videos explicitly clear to viewers.

With Yellow Cabs being combatant against the rise of Uber and other similar applications, a lawsuit was launched to have this method of transportation banned from use. However, Queens Supreme Court Justice Allan Weiss recently ruled that for-hire vehicles requested through an electronic medium may continue operate alongside Yellow Cabs - effectively ensuring Uber is safe to live another day.

Addressing the case at hand, the judge wrote that "any expectation that the medallion would function as a shield against the rapid technological advances of the modern world would not have been reasonable," adding "in this day and age, even with public utilities, investors must always be wary of new forms of competition arising from technological development."

The lawsuit was filed by four Queens credit unions who each have stakes in Taxi medallions. Their lawyer, Todd Higgins, told media that this ruling is "a stunning abdication of leadership and responsibility that will haunt New York City for years to come," adding "a catastrophe is unfolding, as an entire industry continues to be illegally destroyed, while elected officials allow it to happen on their watch."

Yep, this isn't a joke. Devolver Digital's Dropsy the Clown hit Steam not to long ago, allowing users to become a heavily misunderstood love-filled clown in this "non-traditional take on the classic point and click adventure formula."

Complete with a sing-along trailer (seen above), this title can be played in an open world adventure, puzzles and hugs or text free experience mode. Seeing each option set on a similar path, Dropsy's goal is to turn this community around through the power of pixelated love.

Including the ability to talk to animals, Dropsy will "help those in need, hug total strangers, and unravel dark and shameful secrets from his past on the way to redemption" as stated in a recent press release.

The rumors of Microsoft acquiring AMD are back again, with Microsoft reportedly interested in acquiring both the CPU and GPU divisions, days after AMD announced it was breaking its GPU division away into its own entity called Radeon Technology Group.

With AMD under its wing, Microsoft could truly begin to compete on a totally different level against companies like NVIDIA, Samsung and Apple. With Microsoft's big pockets, AMD could have a massive injection of R&D money and in a few years, we could be looking at a market with one of the strongest competitors being Microsoft.

This is without considering the console side of things, where Microsoft could have AMD exclusively making GPUs, CPUs or APUs for use in its next-generation Xbox consoles. The next step would be VR gaming, and with AMD cooking up Liquid VR we could see Microsoft having a huge win on its hand on the hardware side of things when it comes to VR thanks to it acquiring AMD.

Android Pay, an Apple Pay rival, has now been pushed live to over one million US locations. Utilizing NFC technology in order to transfer funds from your account to a merchant, Android Pay can be used by any NFC-ready device running KitKat 4.4 or higher.

Estimated by IDC to be worth $1 trillion by 2017, analysts believe that mobile payments are the payment option of the future. With companies such as GameStop, Macy's and Staples picking up this form of payment, we may very well see this become mainstream in the near future.

Google has further confirmed that Android Pay will be rolled out to more locations in coming days, with updates following in the near future. Supporting credit and debit cards such as American Express, MasterCard, Visa and more, Apple and Android pay is all about ease of use and accessibility.

If you're looking for something tiny yet mighty, ASUS' Republic of Gamers (ROG) division has just released a beastly compact desktop, naming it the G20CB. This "Mayan-inspired" small form factor system features 8 million color LED options for the exterior plus ASUS ROG's own Aegis II app in order to help you control everything within.

With plenty of different component choices available depending on your budget, ASUS ROG allows users to spec their mini-machine up to an Intel Skylake i7 processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 video card, 32GB of dual-channel DDR4 RAM at 2133 MHz and a 256GB SATA 6Gbit/s SSD.

Complete with Microsoft Windows 10, ASUS' poster-child small form factor system received a CES 2015 Best Innnovation Award, a 2015 iF design award plus the 2015 Taiwan Excellence Gold Award. Designed to support up to three HD displays through the power the the GTX 980, this 9.5-liter desktop doesn't currently have a price tag attached.

The Xbox One's new November update is pretty significant and isn't just about a faster UI. A huge library of backward compatible Xbox 360 games will be supported, and every single one of them will have the full range of functions afforded to Xbox One games.

Backward compatibility is one of the most-requested features in the current generation of consoles, and Microsoft has one-upped Sony by adding the feature to Xbox One consoles. Come November, all Xbox One owners will be able to play 100 different Xbox 360 games on their consoles, with "hundreds more" coming in the months ahead.

Rather than just adding the feature and calling it quits, Microsoft has gone lengths to make the transition from curent-gen to last-gen as smooth as possible. Users will be able to upload their saved Xbox 360 game data to the cloud and download it to the Xbox One to pick up where they left off. But the most impressive feature is that all 100 backward-compatible games will be treated just like Xbox One games with integrated DVR recording and customization via Upload Studio, screenshot snapping and sharing, and cross-platform streaming to Windows 10 PCs.

Microsoft has released new details on the major changes that are coming to the Xbox One, starting with backward compatibility and planting the seeds for Windows 10 integration.

When the update launches in November it will unlock backward compatibility for approximately 100 Xbox 360 games, and Xbox exec Mike Ybarra affirms that support will expand with "hundreds more in the months to come". The Xbox One's awkward Kinect-centric tile UI will be overhauled as well, bringing a new dashboard and quick-launch scheme that's entirely focused on speed. The framework for full Windows 10 support will likely be laid out, leading to Windows 10 apps and Cortana support, but so far Microsoft has been vague on the details, saying that the UI is "powered by Windows 10" and that it "integrating the speed of Windows 10" to make loading times up to 50% faster.

There's speculation that Windows 10 could give the console access to "thousands of apps" that will bridge PC and Xbox One. But Xbox division head Phil Spencer has said in the past that gamers "won't see Excel on the Xbox One", and that Microsoft will implement Windows 10 apps "where they make the most sense".

After reports of Gaming Paradise in Slovenia seeing participant Passports confiscated, players ill and hotels unpaid, news has come to light of issues at the next-held global CS:GO tournament - ESL ESEA Dubai.

ESL is well-known for hosting not only the largest CS:GO tournaments around, but always presenting them professionally, gathering the full support of the CS:GO community and Valve alike. Set to offer a respectable prize pool of $250,000, the fans expected this event to be no different.

The first issue was raised when the pricey spectator tickets ended up with fans being unable to watch most of the tournament in person. Charging approximately $68 for a one day pass (and up to $272 for a 3-day VIP), spectators were told that the originally-planned outdoors venue would only be used after 7pm - with players located inside due to extreme heat (In excess of 100 degrees Fahrenheit). As the spectators were told that they were unable to watch any games until after 7pm local time, this means they were only able to see, at most, three group games plus the finals series.

While we've been hearing about other game engines being powered by DirectX 12, we haven't heard much from the developer of the Battlefield series and Star Wars Battlefront.

The news is coming directly from Technial Director Stefan Boberg on Twitter, where '@CentroXer' asked "when is DX12 going to be part of frosbite?" with Boberg replying that "it already is, no word on which game will be first though :)". With DICE working very closely with AMD on Mantle, which was used in Battlefield 4, it's only a few steps away from Battlefield 5 being announced on the latest Frostbite engine with DirectX 12 capabilities.

Then we have to think about the amount of Frostbite-powered games in the next year or so, with Mass Effect 4 at the end of 2016, Need for Speed on November 3, and Star Wars Battlefront two weeks later on November 17. Let's not forget Mirror's Edge Catalyst on February 23, 2016. So we should expect a next-gen Battlefield game to be announced early next year, with a release date later next year, hopefully.

Alienware has just announced that it will be upgrading any of their customers who purchased a Haswell-powered gaming laptop with an upgrade to Intel's latest Skylake-based processors.

Dell/Alienware executive Frank Azor confirmed the news, taking to Twitter where he said: "Our new notebooks launched last week. If you buy one & a new CPU launches within the next 30 days, you get a frere upgrade ;) Badass". The new upgrade will be for consumers who have purchased a Haswell-powered Alienware laptop in the last 30 days, you'll receive an upgrade to a Skylake-powered machine. The upgrade applies to the Alienware 13, 15 and 17 models, with the option available to also upgrade to Windows 10.

Virtual reality is such a big thing that even Canon is getting into the mix. At a VR expo in New York, Canon showcased its new head-mounted VR display that reportedly features an incredible resolution of 2560 x 1440 per eye for a total 5600 x 2800 pixels.

According to attendees, Canon's new VR display has a 120-degree FOV (field of vision) with "very clear visuals" and a three-layer optical lens system per eye. The display is quite unconventional, sporting two legs that serve as handholds rather than a strap to fit upon your head. It looks a lot like a high-tech VR version of the older viewfinders you see near monuments in metropolitan cities. The device streamed a 5-minute loop of high-res footage shot by Canon cameras in 5600 x 2800 resolution, which basically transported viewers into a living virtual world.

Right now details are slim on Canon's VR prototype and we're not sure if it supports 360-degree head-tracking or what kind of specs are running under the hood, but it's still amazing to see the camera giant step into the ring. VR and photography naturally compliment one another and it'll be amazing to see what kinds of things the company cooks up in the next few years with this new magical tech.

Dell has just announced it is investing massively into China, pushing $125 billion worth into the country over the next five years. Dell CEO Michael Dell said in a statement: "the Internet is the new engine for China's future economic growth and has unlimited potential".

Back in 2010, Dell said that it had planned to spend $250 billion on procurement and other investment into China over 10 years, which is its second biggest market, with the US being their biggest. Michael Dell continued: "Dell will embrace the principle of 'In China, for China' and closely integrate Dell China strategies with national policies".

With Dell being the third in global PC shipments for Q2, the US-run company will be chasing behind Lenovo who sits in second place, and HP who sits at the top of the food chain. Things are going to change with this $125 billion investment, that's for sure.

As if there was ever any doubt, Bethesda has revealed that Fallout 4 will have its own season pass for future DLC...and even calls the pass a "reward for our most loyal fans". The real reward, though, is the full unrestricted set of modding tools that gamers will get across consoles and PC.

While just about every gamer feels that season passes are a terrible scheme on par with the pre-order gamble that sadly funds the industry, Bethsoft affirms that the pass will unlock access to "all DLC ever released for Fallout 4". There's no Evolve-style multi-passes going on here.

On the up-side Bethsoft plans to give players the very same construction software that the studio used to create the game. So the paid season pass DLC could end up being a non-issue. But there's a catch...the tools won't be up at launch. "Early next year we'll release for free the new Creation Kit for the PC. This is the same tool we use in the studio. You'll be able to create your own mods and share them with others. We're especially excited these same mods will then be coming to Xbox One, and then PlayStation 4."

The USC Institute for Creative Technologies and Imperial College London showed off a new technique for "synthesizing the effects of skin microstructure deformation by anisotropically convolving a high resolution displacement map to match normal distribution changes in measured skin samples" during SIGGRAPH 2015.

In a more simple way, it is a new technique that will hopefully one day find us with games with super-realistic dynamic skin, that will have characters in games that look ultra-real. The USC Institute for Creative Technologies and Imperial College London noted that the technique can be used in real-time, with the videos we have embedded including both real-time renders, that have used GPU shaders and offline renders.

NVIDIA has been putting more resources into its Shield line as time goes by, with news of the Shield Tablet 2 now manifesting in the distance. The successor to the Shield Tablet will be powered by the company's Tegra X1 processor.

The new Shield Tablet 2 will feature an 8-inch 1920x1200 display, with the Tegra X1 packing two quad-core processors for an 8-core tablet clocked at 2.2GHz. This is the same processor that powered the original Shield Tablet, which had the issues of overheating problems recently. The new NVIDIA Shield Tablet 2 would however run Android 5.1 Lollipop, offer around 10 hours of video playback and web browsing.

Just like its predecessor, the Shield Tablet 2 will offer 4K display output, where you can output to your 4K-capable display or TV and game at 3840x2160 from a tablet. We will have dual 5-megapixel rear-facing cameras, and two front-facing speakers. The rumors suggest Shield Tablet 2 will have a micro USB port, microSD slot, and mini-HDMI ports.

It looks like Intel is on a mission, where the chipmaker wants to see facial recognition or fingerprint scanners to replace the traditional, and easily penetrated passwords we all use for countless services, websites, bank accounts, and more.

Intel not only things it's a possibility, but that it's something it can get into motion very quickly. Kirk Skaugen, Senior VP and General Manager of Intel's Client Computer Group said at the Citi Global Technology Conference earlier this week: "We want to eliminate all passwords from computing. I can confidently say today, you can eliminate all your passwords today, if you buy a 6th Generation Core system".

So the company is saying that its Skylake architecture is capable of true facial recognition security thanks to Windows 10, where you can use the entire feature set of Windows Hello. This, mixed with Intel's RealSense 3D camera, we could see true facial recognition security that is much more secure than the traditional password. Skaugen added: "You can do everything from measure blood pressure, blink detection, all these kinds of things... In fact, in Berlin, one of my funniest demos in my 23 years at Intel is when I brought two identical twins out on stage and I mixed them up and only one could log in with the PC, and it actually worked". Now that, is some exciting stuff.

Hours before the launch of the Radeon R9 Nano, AMD announces that it is effectively spinning off its GPU division, after acquiring ATI back in 2006 for $5.6 billion.

The new unit will be called Radeon Technologies Group, which will concentrate on GPU development, as well as the "virtual and augmented reality" markets. The new Radeon Technologies Group is being overseen by current Senior Vice President and Chief Architect of AMD, Raja Koduri. Koduri will be reporting directly to AMD President and CEO Lisa Su, with Koduri taking care of "all aspects of graphics technologies used in AMD's APU, discrete GPU, semi-custom, and GPU compute products".

In a statement, the AMD CEO said: "With the creation of the Radeon Technologies Group we are putting in place a more agile, vertically integrated graphics organization focused on solidifying our position as the graphics industry leader, recapturing profitable share across traditional graphics markets, and staking leadership positions in new markets such as virtual and augmented reality".

The identity of the creator of Popcorn Time, until now, has eluded the world. The creator of the BitTorrent movie sharing software has only been known as "Sebastian", and since his creation was illegal, his identity was something he kept to himself obviously.

That is, until now. The creator of Popcorn Time is an Argentinian designer, Federico Abad. Abad said that he wanted to create an easy and fast for users to watch any movie they wanted. Other options took too long, were too confusing or not easy enough for someone like his own mom to use. If Abad's mom liked the idea, then it was a good idea.

But, Adad noted that Popcorn Time cost people both professionally and personally, as he lost his girlfriend in the process. Also the fact that copyright holders were waiting with all of their legal power behind them would've been scary enough. A lawyer from Warner Bros. had worked out the team's identities, visiting their LinkedIn pages. Abad says that he thinks this was a scare tactic, to show that the studio knew what was going on. He did add that he doesn't regret creating Popcorn Time, but he now thinks it's not worth the possibility of legal action in the future.