Latest News - Page 2638

Intel is about to drop the rest of its Skylake processors into the market, after the release of the Core i7-6700K and Core i5-6600K just recently. There will be eight more processors released, but the rest of them will not be unlocked models for overclocking.

The chipmaker will be offering up 10 total SKUs, with two of them already in the wild. The remaining 8 processors will be made up of four 65W, and four 35W low TDP chips. All of these processors will slot into the new LGA 1151 motherboards using the Z170, H170 and B150 chipsets. The new Skylake-S processors are as follows:

The most noteworthy chips out of the Skylake-S lineup are definitely the Core i7-6700K and Core i5-6600K as they are the unlocked, overclocking ready CPUs. But, the Core i7-6700 will feature a 3.4GHz frequency with 4GHz boost making it a viable alternative to the 6700K if you don't want to overclock. The 'low TDP' chips in the form of the Core i7-6700T, and the three other Core i5 processors with the 'T' moniker will be decent processors for low-power devices.

What would you do with $2.5 billion? I know I would do countless things like buy all of my friends and family houses and put enough money in their accounts that they would never have to worry about money ever again. But what about the man who sold Mojang? The company behind Minecraft. Well, he's super lonely according to his recent tweets.

Markus "Notch" Persson sold Mojang to Microsoft nearly a year ago now for $2.5 billion, purchased a $70 million mansion, and has been hosting insane parties ever since. Recently, Persson tweeted: "The problem with getting everything is you run out of reasons to keep trying, and human interaction becomes impossible due to imbalance. Hanging out in ibiza with a bunch of friends and partying with famous people, able to do whatever I want, and I've never felt more isolated".

The tweets from Persson can be found below.

Julian Assange knows a little something about trying to avoid extradition, and urged former NSA contractor Edward Snowden to select Russia over Latin America. Not only was reaching Latin America a difficult journey, but Snowden's personal safety would have been at risk, Assange noted.

Assange urged Snowden to disregard "negative PR consequences" about choosing Russia, where his physical safety has been provided by the Russian government - a guarantee that would have been significantly less likely if he ended up somewhere in Central or South America.

Sarah Harrison, one of Assange's most trusted senior staff members, actually met with Snowden while the American was in Hong Kong - at a time when it was unknown where Snowden would end up.

It looks like Google's autonomous vehicle is still learning every time it hits the open road, and a cyclist at a stop sign helped give it another learning opportunity. The cyclist was doing a track stand at the stop sign, and since the car arrived first, the autonomous vehicle had the right of way - but the vehicle just wasn't sure how to proceed with the cyclist present.

When the cyclist moved forward, the car inched forward and would stop so the cyclist would be able to go. The car noticed the cyclist's presence, but may have been overly cautious - which is something autonomous vehicles are designed for - so this will have to be considered just one more learning experience for Google developers. The cyclist's trackstand, since he wasn't actively moving forward or completely stopped, threw off the autonomous vehicle.

As an avid cyclist, hearing Oxtox's encounter is a rather perplexing one that Google will certainly try to sort out. There are an alarming number of incidents between vehicles and people on bikes, and the forum post noted: "The odd thing is that even tho (sic) it was a bit of a CF, I felt safer dealing with a self-driving car than a human-operated one."

Corsair announced the production version of its Bulldog DIY 4K gaming PC, with the first prototype shown off during Computex. The barebones system is designed to be a full PC that can be used in the living room, and leaves plenty of options for consumers to build a system as they see fit.

The Bulldog chassis is a "highly ventilated, stylish, compact console design" able to keep PC components cool, along with a 600-watt SFX power supply, and Hydro Series H5SF small form factor liquid CPU cooler. It's powered by a motherboard capable of supporting the Intel Z170 chipset, with a PCI Express 3.0 16x slot, two memory slots able to support 32GB of DD4 RAM, USB 3.0 and SATA ports, and Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and 7.1 channel audio.

Consumers must add their own Intel CUP, RAM, GPU, and storage - and can either run Microsoft Windows or SteamOS - to finalize the unit.

Before former NSA contractor Edward Snowden fled to Russia, the FBI demanded the immediate arrest - and extradition - of Snowden if he went to any Scandinavian nations. Snowden applied for asylum in Norway, but once FBI officials heard he would try to head to a Scandinavian country, they began pressuring Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. Trying to leave Moscow, however, wouldn't be an easy task:

"The US Department of Justice is prepared to immediately draft the necessary paperwork to request the extradition of Snowden to the US from whichever country he travels to from Moscow," according to the letter. "The FBI expresses its gratitude... for any assistance that can be provided on this important matter."

It's likely the FBI and other government officials sent similar requests to many other European nations, which prevented Snowden from traveling outside of Russia.

The NASA-funded Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) experiment has started on Earth, designed to simulate a Mars mission.

The six participants, three men and three women, are scientists - and will be in tight quarters, living inside a 36-foot-wide dome that is 20-feet high. The project began on Friday and will last 365 days. Researchers will collect information regarding cognitive, social and emotional factors between each participant - and how they interact with one another.

NASA believes a mission to Mars could take more than three years to complete, so this is an important step to gather data.

Avid Life Media announced that CEO Noel Biderman has stepped down, following the company's embarrassing public data breach.

Senior management will be responsible for day-to-day operations of the company, until a permanent replacement can be identified. It's going to be a confusing time for Avid Life Media, after a "criminal intrusion" that reportedly occurred over years by unknown hackers.

"This change is in the best interest of the company and allows us to continue to provide support to our members and dedicated employees," Ashley Madison noted in a statement. "We are steadfast in our commitment to our customer base."

Final Fantasy 15 has seen lots of transitions during its storied development, including an experimental phase centered around immersive VR experiences.

Instead of forcing gamers to strap on an Oculus Rift for hours on end, Square Enix toyed with the idea of using VR for certain sections of the game in order to immerse players into the overall experience. "We had tested out utilizing VR," Square Enix's Hajime Tabata told IGN at PAX 2015. "At the time we were looking into it, we felt that it could potentially work as a passive experience for a portion of the game utilizing VR."

In the end, the devs decided that VR just wasn't a good fit for their action-based RPG--especially with that finicky targeting camera which would induce dizzying motion sickness."We felt that it would potentially make sense for a segment, but in terms of the overall game in itself, the entire game, we didn't feel that having that headset on for the entirety of the game and that experience would match what we were aiming for with XV. It's a very long game [and] you'd wear that headset for hours."

With its near-limitless potential, virtual reality remains one of the most exciting new tech innovations in recent memory--but Oculus Rift creator Palmer Luckey concedes that the transition to VR will be a very slow-going process.

Accessibility remains one of VR's principal hurdles, as higher-end hardware is required to generate the illusion of total immersion. Headsets like the Oculus Rift pretty much act like advanced peripherals with the computer shouldering the brunt of the workload, and most everyday consumers just aren't ready to shell out for a beefier rig--ontop of the HMD's cost.

"I mean the question is: how fast can virtual reality really take off? Right now, it requires a fairly significant investment in computing hardware, a pretty high-end PC," Oculus founder Palmer Luckey said in an interview with TrustedReviews. "Virtual reality is going to take a long time to become something that's truly mainstream."

Samsung's marketing team is coming up with some good ideas to grab iPhone users, offering consumers a test drive of their latest and greatest Galaxy smartphones for just $1. Now, the South Korean giant has upped the ante.

Samsung is offering consumers $200 if you switch from an iPhone to a Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 edge or Galaxy S6 edge+ smartphone. Samsung will split it into two, offering a $100 Google Play store gift card and a $100 cheque. iPhone owners will have to trade in their handset, but with $200 enticing them, some users will take up the deal.

The deal is a limited time only affair, where you have until December 31 to make it happen, and up until January 1, 2016 to redeem the $200 in Play store credit and the cheque.

'Synce' has used CryEngine 3 for a super impressive interior technology demo that uses Crytek's new Global Illumination technology known as SVOTI (Sparse Voxel Octree Total Illumination). The results are amazing, as you can see below.

Synce notes that the demo was created to showcase the capabilities of SVOTI, where he said: "SVOTI means Sparse Voxel Octree Total Illumination. This system can achieve high quality global illumination in real time. In this demo you can change the time of day, and look how the light reacts".

If you want to try out the demo on your system, download it here.

It looks like the iPhone 6S is going to feature upgraded cameras, with the front-facing side of things getting bumped up from the ludicrous 1.2-megapixel camera on the current iPhone 6 to a better snapper - let's hope for a 5-megapixel shooter.

Round back, we can expect the 8-megapixel iSight camera to be upgraded to a 12-megapixel shooter that is 4K-capable. Up until now, the iPhone has been stuck at shooting 1080p video, but this is all set to change with the 'S' upgrade to the iPhone 6. The new iPhone 6S will also reportedly feature Force Touch technology built-in, where it can be used as a shortcut button to execute commands throughout iOS.

Apple is also expected to cram 2GB of LPDDR4 into the iPhone 6S, with 16GB, 64GB and 128GB models to be put on offer. iOS 9 will be included, and will reportedly include the ability for iPhone users to temporarily delete their app data to make more room for iOS updates, which sounds ridiculous - but it's needed with these big iOS updates of late. We should hear all about the new iPhone on September 9 at Apple's iPhone event.

Gaming peripheral company Razer has unveiled a redesigned version of the Nubu wearable during the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) convention in Seattle. The new device is able to monitor steps taken, distance, calories burned, activity minutes, and sleep duration each evening.

The wearable has an OLED 128x16 single color display, and features a 3-axis accelerometer and cylindrical vibration motor.

Pre-orders begin on September, and the updated Razer Nabu will begin shipping in October 2015. It has a $99.99 MSRP.

Official Xbox boss Phil Spencer has shut down the rumors that the Xbox One console will be getting a slimmer SKU this October.

Rumor has it that Microsoft is set to announce the Xbox One's new hardware refresh, the Xbox One Mini, alongside the Surface Pro 4 and Lumia 940/940 XL in October. But according to Xbox's own Phil Spencer the speculation is all for naught; in a recent Twitter exchange, Spencer confirmed the news is "not real".

The reports claim that the Xbox One Mini will be 1/3 the size of the current VCR-sized behemoth, with the extra space allocated thanks to the carved out Blu-ray disc drive. This would effectively make the slim console a digital-only system, and the SKU would be marketed at a lower price point.

Gearbox Software's landmark post-apocalyptic shooter series Borderlands will be getting its own movie adaptation, with Marvel Studios founder Avi Arad being a major influence.

With the rousing success of George Miller's new Mad Max film, it's no surprise that other studios want to get in on the post-apocalyptic cash crop. Variety reports that Lionsgate studios has acquired the rights to a Borderlands film, and plans to bring the franchise's distinct chaotic humor and explosive action to the big screen.

"Lionsgate has emerged as a major creative force in the global marketplace with an incredible portfolio of brands; our partners at Gearbox have pioneered and cultivated an iconic property; and Avi and Ari Arad are two of the most successful producers of action franchises," Take-Two Interactive boss Strauss Zelnick said. "This alliance is ideally positioned to create a bold, provocative, no-holds-barred motion picture phenomenon that will delight Borderlands' current legions of fans and captivate moviegoers around the world."

With MSI enjoying the fruits of its labor with the just-released MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti Lightning, we should all turn our attention to ASUS which just teased that they've got their ROG MATRIX GeForce GTX 980 Ti and ROG MATRIX Radeon R9 Fury on their way.

The company will reportedly unveil the two new enthusiast video cards during IFA 2015 on September 2. The new ROG MATRIX cards look like they'll feature the same cooler shroud as previous cards, but the color theme has changed a little - and we think it looks great. It looks like both ROG MATRIX cards could be dual-slot cards, boasting improved PCBs, much higher clock speeds, and much more.

We should definitely expect a new ROG MATRIX card based on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, but it shouldn't be too far out of our expectations to see a new ROG MATRIX card based around the AMD Radeon R9 Fury as well as the Radeon R9 390X. We will be reporting on any new video card launches from ASUS as they happen.

Now that the new Skylake processors are floating into PCs across the world, Apple is preparing new 12-inch Retina MacBook models using Intel's latest and greatest processors.

Intel will be reportedly providing low-power Skylake-Y processors including the Core M3, Core M5 and Core M7 for the new Retina MacBooks. The new Retina MacBook that will have an expected price of $1299 will rock the Cor M3 6Y30, with a default clock speed of 900MHz and two cores. Intel's Turbo Boost technology will push it up to 2.2GHz when needed.

The mid-range processors will include the Core M5 6Y54 and Core M5 6Y57 and will be clocked at 1.1GHz with Turbo Boost speeds of 2.7GHz and 2.8GHz, respectively. These chips will be plopped into the MacBook priced at $1599. The higher-end model will feature the Core M5 6Y75 that will be clocked at 1.2GHz, with Turbo Boost of up to 3.1GHz and doesn't yet include a price. If we had to guess, it would be $1999.

Razer has just announced its latest peripheral, a customizable controller for the Xbox One known as Wildcat. Razer says that it built the Wildcat as a controller for competitive Xbox One gamers, reducing the weight of the original Xbox One controller by 25%.

Wildcat features four additional buttons that can be remapped to whatever you want, as well as a "quick control" panel at the bottom of the controller which lets gamers quickly switch between profiles, adjust chat volume, or mute their audio. The new Razer Wildcat also features rubber palm rests, an analog stuck that is covered in a green grip, and something that Razer calls "aircraft-grade" aluminum triggers.

Razer will be offering the new Wildcat controller for the Xbox One in October for $150.

Audio company Turtle Beach has announced the Star Wars-themed Sandtrooper gaming headset on the same day Star Wars Battlefront will be released to gamers.

The Sandtrooper headset has an over-ear design, high-sensitivity boom mic, 50mm speakers, and pair of removable speaker plates.

"With as many Star Wars fanatics as we have at Turtle Beach, it's been hard to not let the droid out of the bag about this unique gaming headset," said Juergen Stark, CEO of Turtle Beach. "Our top-quality gaming headsets allow us to work with the biggest brands in the world, and we're very happy to continue our ongoing collaboration with Lucasfilm and EA to support Star Wars Battlefront."