Latest News - Page 2629

Sure, Kanye says a lot of stuff and has a few flights of fancy, like when he referred to himself as the new Steve Jobs.So when he announced last month at 2015 Video Music Awards that he was intending to run for the President of the United States in 2020, few took him seriously. But they should, because he insists he is.

Speaking to Vanity Fair, the eccentric artist says he has "I've got five years before I go and run for office and I've got a lot of research to do, I've got a lot of growing up to do". Following an anti-politician pitch that seems to be working for Donald Trump, West goes on to say "I hate politics. I'm not a politician at all. I care about the truth and I just care about human beings. I just want everyone to win, that's all I can say, and I think we can".

If (and this is still a big if) he goes through with his Presidential bid, and if (and this is also a big if) he wins, and if (and this is an equally big one) he's still married to Kim Kardashian, she'd be the First Lady. Let that sink in for a moment. Meanwhile, West's latest album 'SWISH' is due to hit before the end of the year. I'm sure you can't wait.

During the Oculus Connect 2 developer conference in LA, Samsung's VP of Mobile, Peter Koo, announced the new Gear VR headset. The refreshed Gear VR headset has been announced for just $99, a super-cheap entry into the world of VR goodness.

Samsung's new Gear VR is 22% lighter than its predecessor, with the company also improving the touchpad on the side of the headset. They also added a directional pad to the side of the Gear VR that will make navigation through menus much easier. The new Gear VR will work with Samsung's new Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note 5 smartphones, as well as the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge handsets.

The new Gear VR will arrive on Black Friday in the US for $99, where it will hit other markets just after that.

Although Xbox division head Phil Spencer thinks that the divisive console wars bring out the worst in gamers, the team leader for Redmond's gaming sector is very optimistic about the state of console gaming as a whole--and a lot of that has to do with the Xbox One's momentum.

"Gaming is in a healthy spot. You have to earn your customers, but we seem to be doing that," Xbox boss Phil Spencer said in an interview with VentureBeat. Spencer goes on to highlight some of the breakthroughs the Xbox brand has made and how they will open up new doors in the future. "We have a ton of opportunity in front of us. We launched Windows 10 at the end of July, beginning of August, and we've seen very good uptake from the game experiences we have in there. We have a lot more opportunity as we bring more games into that experience as well. I'm not frustrated by it. I'm only frustrated in that there's not more time for us to do more things faster. It takes time to get good things done."

While the PlayStation 4 beats out the Xbox One in terms of raw hardware, the key to the Xbox's potential lies in Microsoft's grand plan. The console is set to be a gateway for cross-platform game streaming, effectively bridging consoles and PC. In just a few months the Xbox One is set to evolve with the power of Windows 10 and manifest Microsoft's plans with features like backward compatibility with 100 Xbox 360 games, a dramatically faster UI, and the seeds for DirectX 12 integration.

The Max-Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics has created an incredible suspension rig that adds a new dimension for VR sim potential.

The array is called the Cable Robot, and is an icosahedron-shaped lightweight carbon-fiber frame that's fully suspended by eight thick cables that allow omni-directional control in midair. Essentially the array can simulate dynamic spatial movement that could bring a whole new level of immersion for amusement park rides, gaming sims, and even cinematic movie experiences.

Users are safely ensconced within the geometric frame while wearing a VR headset, and thanks to the optical tracking system, the rig will actually move and react in accordance to user movements. The eight-cable suspension provides "freely programmable trajectories within six dimensions" and will bank, tilt, and accelerate with a total force of up to 1.5G's.

Today's video games are a joyous din of sound that adds a new level of immersion. In a sense, video games are all about creating a fantasy to trick our senses into experiencing a virtual world. Without the basic framework of sight and sound, the illusion completely breaks down and the game loses a huge portion of its believability.

A silent void might be the future of video games; that is unless voice actors and big publishers can agree on a deal. Video game voice actors are not happy with the current terms of their contracts and have made demands through the SAG-AFTRA union. Sadly nothing's working. "We've been through two rounds of negotiations with our employers, and they've rejected every proposal we've made."

The battle has delivered a behind the curtain look at how the industry works. Voice-over actors don't get royalties if a game is incredibly successful--they're paid a flat fee and that's it. Actors don't get extra pay in vocally stressful roles, and often a stunt coordinator isn't present when the actor is pushed to do stunt-like activities to add realism. Voice actors often don't even know the full depth of what they're getting into when they're hired. Not only have publishers denied the proposals, they've instituted a punishing set of restrictions to add insult to injury.

Said to help deliver "a custom experience" for Chinese users through the implementation of local browsing and search options, Microsoft's partnership with Baidu was announced in September 23 and aims to spread Microsoft throughout this Eastern nation.

This partnership will see Baidu.com become the new Windows Edge browser home page, plus a 'Windows 10 Express' app will be developed in order to help end users install the operating system in the first place. If this wasn't enough to entice users, Baidu will also be offering "Universal Windows Applications for Search, Video, Cloud and Maps for Windows 10" as reported by ZDNet.

Microsoft says that "we remain deeply committed to delivering Bing around the world and we're also committed to offering locally relevant experiences - like Baidu in China - to provide great Windows 10 experiences" when asked about what this partnership will do to its own search engine.

EA has just announced that the open beta for Star Wars: Battlefront will be held from October 8-12 across Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC (via Origin) with offline split-screen co-op included.

Players will only get four days to try the beta, which will offer three different gametypes across a trio of unique environments set in the cinematic universe, complete with Hero and Villain support with Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. No details on the beta's matchmaking system have been uncovered so far, and we'll likely have to wait to find out concrete info. The beta will feature three modes including the following:

EA will also test out the Battlefront Companion experience during the beta, which adds a card-based mini-game that unlocks credits that can be used to buy content within the retail game. It looks like EA will launch the companion experience in a web browser format over at the official Star Wars Battlefront website instead of an app.

It looks like Half-Life 3 won't be playable on Valve's own Vive VR headset--or any virtual reality headset for that matter. Valve's own Chet Faliszek was on hand at EGX where he delivered a panel discussing the future of VR. When the audience was allowed to ask one-on-one questions the inevitable Half-Life 3 query popped up, and of course Faliszek wasn't surprised.

Will Half-Life 3 be made in VR? "We were kinda thinking that was what you were going to ask...no," Faliszek answered at 43:34 with an air of finality, saying no more on the subject.

The Valve dev went on to talk about other troublesome hurdles that VR is facing, including the dreaded snake's nest of cords and cables. Right now every VR peripheral requires a wired connection to maintain the high-data low-latency streams that are essential to create the illusion of virtual reality. "Wireless is going to be really hard. And so what we've seen is the controllers are wireless, and they let you have input so you can kinda be free that way. And the cables and cords actually get thinner. Once you do [VR] enough you get this kind of cable management in your head where it becomes less than an issue. We wish there was no cable but there's physical limits."

Hi-Rez Studios is known for being the makers of popular games like SMITE and Tribes, often going down the free-to-play route and sometimes allowing users to play all characters without paying real-life money or spending horrendous amounts of hours grinding away. This new title to come to the table is called PALADINS: Champions of the Realm and it's a fully-unlocked free-to-play team-based FPS.

If you watch the video above, the first thing that sticks out is the ability to use mounts in an FPS game which is pretty damn neat, what else is cool is that it's going to be at TwitchCon this weekend, free for anyone to try out. The Early Access waiting pool is now open for signups, with this set to kick off "later this year" as pointed out in a recent press release.

What makes this game truly different is the use of power up cards, enhancing each characters abilities and allowing for a chop and change menu between the three you currently have active, depending on your needs. For more information on this, watch the video above.

For those who just want to have it all, Digital Storm has announced its AVENTUM 3 Gaming Desktop, complete with a custom made liquid cooling setup comprised of EK Water Block parts and plenty of love.

As explained by Harji Chana, Chief Operating Officer of Digital Storm, this model "is our declaration that a PC does not have to be just the sum of its parts. We designed the AVENTUM 3 from the ground up with a focus on unmatched accessibility and modularity that can't be found anywhere else." That alone is a big claim for sure, but the AVENTUM 3 does bring some big guns to the table.

Featuring a separated chamber design (think similar to the Thermaltake Level 10), this build houses the components within a special sealed chamber, completely separate from the chamber which houses the liquid cooling setup - meaning heat will not interfere across all your internals.

TSMC has confirmed that it has made the first samples of NVIDIA's next generation GP100 GPU, with NVIDIA now testing the new Pascal architecture internally. When should we expect the consumer release? Sometime mid next year.

NVIDIA has been sent the first GP100 samples to its subsidiary in India, but we don't know anything other than this. The company taped out its GP100 GPU in June, which is going to be made on the 16nm FinFET+ process, and we should see it utilizing HBM2, providing 1TB/sec of memory bandwidth. This will be quite the increase on the 334GB/sec that the GTX 980 Ti and Titan X are capable of, and is double the 512GB/sec that AMD's Radeon R9 Fury X can muster with its HBM1.

The new Pascal architecture should also deliver its own upgrades over the Maxwell architecture that has been so good to NVIDIA across 2015. The GP100 rocks 17 billion transistors, and should see NVIDIA pack in some 6000 or so CUDA cores, up from the 2816 CUDA cores found in the GM200-powered GTX 980 Ti. Personally, I think we might see NVIDIA release multiple Pascal products - where I would love to see a GDDR5-based offering for the cheaper mainstream side, and a HBM2-powered GeForce 1000 series card for the enthusiasts.

Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, has had some interesting things to say in his latest interview with GameSpot. Spencer talked about his thoughts on VR, and of the console wars between Sony and Nintendo.

Spencer was asked his thoughts on VR and AR, and whether it was the future of gaming. He said: "Well, now it's just my opinion. I'll say, obviously we have relationships with Valve, we have a relationship with Oculus around the VR work that they're doing, but I'm going to say I kind of hope not. It doesn't mean I don't think VR has great experiences to offer".

He moved on to talk about the console wars, which have been going on for what feels like, forever. Spencer said: "the one thing that I probably find a little distasteful in the discourse around games is the divisiveness that people try to build between platforms. It becomes more about what piece of plastic I own than what games I'm playing. It becomes more about somebody else failing than the things I love succeeding". He added: "I'm going to actively push against that. People sometimes will make fun of me that I mentioned Sony or I mentioned Nintendo. It's not to placate anybody or make them think I'm some kind of good guy. My job isn't really to keep you from buying something else. My job is to make you proud of what we offer, and to give you an enjoyable experience with the product we have".

If you've ever received a bill with the wrong 'amount owing' amount, you will never again complain after reading this story. One couple received a $2.1 million bill from Verizon Wireless, after Ken Slusher from Damascus, Oregon received his bill for $2,156,593.64. Slusher said: "Yeah, it's been very stressful to say the least".

While FOX 12 was with him, Slusher called Verizon Wireless' automated phone line to check his account balance, where a voice recording said "Your total amount due is $2,156,593.64". Slusher and his girlfriend opened the Verizon account last November, where they purchased two smartphones. The couple only kept the service going for one month after they kept getting incorrect bills.

Slusher added that their first bill should've been $120, where instead he received a bill of $698 plus a previous balance of $451. The next statement? Just $9. Slusher continued: "The number of errors and the comedy of which they happened is astounding to me". In January, the couple returned the smartphones they had, and thought it was all over and done with. That is, until they received notices from multiple collection agencies demanding up to $2000 each.

Facebook is finally moving into the world of immersive video content, announcing that 360-degree videos will begin rolling out to your News Feed in the very near future.

The social network announced that the Facebook website is the only place they'll appear for now, with the Android and iOS versions of the Facebook app to support 360-degree video "in the coming months". When you're on the web and on your News Feed with a 360-degree video, you can click your mouse on the video and move around the video, all from your desktop.

But what about content? This is next to useless without some good content, right? Well, various companies are already diving on the 360-degree content bandwagon, with Star Wars, Discovery, VICE, GoPro, Saturday Night Live and LeBron James & Interrupted. The Disney side of things has a 360-degree promotional video for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which is super-awesome.

Reports indicate that LG has laid preparations for mass-production of its own foldable display tech that will lead to flexible smartphone screens, curved screen strips in autos, foldable tablet screens and rollable HDTV screens by 2017.s.

Right now curved displays are seen with wearables like Samsung's Gear S smartwatch and Gear Fit smartbands, but LG is about to take the tech to a whole new level with displays that can be "folded and unfolded more than 100,000 times".

ET News reveals that LG has secured a contract from an unnamed global software company in an effort to "challenge Samsung Electronics' and Apple's strongholds in high-end smartphone market with foldable smartphones". LG has already begun investing huge capital into OLED development facilities in Gumi, Kyeongbuk, and initial shipments are expected to arrive in January 2016. Right now the tech is still in its early stages as functional prototypes.

Brandishing 4GB of RAM, a full HD 1920 x 1080 IPS display, USB 3.0 and audio provided by Skullcandy, Toshiba's new Chromebook 2 comes in to stores during October 2015 at a nice price of $429.99 with the Intel Core i3 or $329.99 with the Intel Celeron.

If you're looking for some more goodies thrown in, Toshiba also offers up 100GB of Google Drive storage, 90 days of unlimited Google Play streaming and 12 in-air passes for Gogo internet. Other features include a 13.3-inch display, a weight of only 2.9 pounds and a lengthy 8.5 hour battery life across both models.

Also included is a SD Card slot, one USB 2.0 port and dual microphones, just in case you're sporting two voice boxes (or enjoy better microphone quality).

Valve was at SIGGRAPH this year, with Dan Ginsburg having some interesting things to say about the various APIs at their fingertips including DirectX 12 and Vulkan.

In the video above (1:40:01 into the video), Ginsberg says that Valve has been working with Vulkan since its inception, and that there's no big reasons for developers to use a DX12 backend in their games. Ginsberg adds that Vulkan is far superior than DX12 in various areas. He said: "Unless you are aggressive enough to be shipping a DX12 game this year, I would argue that there is really not much reason to ever create a DX12 back end for your game".

He added: "And the reason for that is that Vulkan will cover you on Windows 10 on the same class of hardware and so much more from all these other platforms and IHVs that we've heard from. Metal is single platform, single vendor, and Vulkan... we are gonna have support for not only Windows 10 but Windows 7, Windows 8 and Linux".

In a move that doesn't seem so surprising, the Hitman reboot has been delayed from its original December 2015 release window to March 2016.

IO Interactive, the developer behind Hitman, has said that the delay applies to all versions of Hitman: the Xbox One, PS4 and PC versions. The launch plans have changed, with IO Interactive and publisher Square Enix to launch Hitman in stages, starting with the larger initial launch. After that, we'll see the rest of the locations in Hitman released over time.

The developer has teased that the tagline to Hitman is: "Enter a world of assassination", with that world being a constantly changing, evolving landscape. IO Interactive wrote on the official Hitman blog: "These few extra months will mean we can add more to the launch content of the game, more than we had originally planned, and then follow with a tighter frequency of updates, which ultimately will create a better game for everyone. And in the end, that's what we're all looking for".

Predator drones are already scary enough, but what if you couldn't see them at all? This is the next step for the US government, with UC San Deigo developing a new camouflage technology that they will submit to the Department of Defense later this month.

The new camouflage material is called "dielectric metasurface cloak", which continues the work from Duke University in 2006. The new material is a thin layer of Teflon studded with ceramic particles and capable of modulating wavelengths of energy along the electromagnetic scale (including both visible light and radar). The study's lead author, Li-Yi Hsu, said in a statement: "Previous cloaking studies needed many layers of materials to hide an object, the cloak ended up being much thicker than the size of the object being covered. In this study, we show that we can use a thin single-layer sheet for cloaking".

This new material isn't there yet, as its thickness is a determining factor into which wavelength it's capable of blocking as the material can only block a single wavelength at one time. Even with the right wavelength, "the system only works if the incoming signal hits it at a 45 degree angle (within 6 degrees or so)," reports Engadget.

Turing Pharmaceuticals is in the headlines today for all the wrong reasons, increasing the price of their HIV/AIDS medication from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill, overnight - an increase of an insane 4100%.

Daraprim, the medication in question, has been on the market for 62 years now, and is the "standard of care for food-borne illness called toxoplasmosis caused by a parasite that can severely affect those with compromised immune systems. Turing purchased the rights to the drug last month and almost immediately raised prices", reports The Washington Post.

The story gets worse, with consumers taking to Reddit to boycott the company's products, saying that they want new laws that would prevent this price gouging from happening in the future. The editor daily newsletter on the industry, John Carroll of Fierce Biotech, asked Turing's CEO, Martin Shkreli about the huge price increase. Things took to Twitter, where Carroll asked: "Let's see if we can get a statement from @MartinShkreli. Martin, your co. just hiked the price of an old drug - new to you - by 5000%. Why?". The response from Shkreli was explosive, where he straight up said: "You are such a moron".