Latest News - Page 2639

Junaid Hussain, an Islamic State member reportedly in charge of the Cyber Caliphate hacker division, was killed earlier this week by a US drone strike. Hussain served a 6-month sentence after sharing former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's contacts in 2012.

The 21-year-old convicted computer hacker was the No. 3 person on an IS kill list, because he served as an important part of the Islamic State's infrastructure. Hussain also reportedly played an important role in recruiting members for the group, in addition to influencing "lone wolf" attacks.

"If you don't have anybody who is kind of fluent in computer operations, you've got a problem," said Michael Sulmeyer, project director at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School. "The ballgame is pretty much the coder or the individual."

Scosche has launched the boomBOTTLE+ Bluetooth speaker, a waterproof audio device designed to withstand being taken into nature.

The speaker has 55mm drivers and two passive radiators that provide 360-degree immersive audio. It features a 6000mAh rechargeable Lithium-ion battery and 15 hours of playtime, while also being able to charge mobile devices. BoomBOTTLE+ also supports an Outdoor/Indoor EQ function, so music listeners are able to adjust sound based on physical location.

The Scosche boomBOTTLE+ is available for $179.99 MSRP.

Today 2K Games has announced that the RTS sequel the XCOM: Enemy Unknown, XCOM 2, will release in 2016 instead of its original scheduled launch this year.

Firaxis notes that the team just needs more time to make XCOM 2 a worthy successor and an extension will ensure they can make the "best possible game". "We want to give you an update on the release date for XCOM 2," Firaxis Games said in a new update. "We've set a high bar for the sequel and the entire team has been working hard to make sure we deliver a great follow-up to Enemy Unknown. We just need a little more time to make it the best possible game."

"With XCOM 2, we want to have more depth, more replayability, and more investment in your soldiers and this extension will give us the time we need to deliver on our promise to you."

ARCHOS has announced its Diamond Tab, an impressive flagship Octa-Core 4G/LTE tablet aimed at providing users with some hardware power for gaming and CPU-intensive activities.

The tablet is powered by a Mediatek MT8752 Octa-Core 1.7GHz CPU, 3GB RAM, 32GB storage, running Google Android 5.1 Lollipop. The front-facing camera is 2-megapixels, and also has a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera. The 7.9" IPS screen supports a 2048 x 1536 resolution.

"Tablets have become a crucial piece of hardware in many customer's tech lineups. We wanted to expand our Diamond line to include a tablet without sacrificing any of the specs that make an ARCHOS Diamond special," said Loic Poirier, CEO of ARCHOS.

Acer hasn't been doing so well lately, with the Taiwanese giant welcoming a takeover bid. The news is coming directly from Acer founder Stan Shih, where he welcomed a takeover of his company after big dips in its share price.

Shih told reporters in a response to question about Acer being open for a takeover, that they would be "welcome" and that the buyer would get an "empty shell" and pay deeply. He added: "U.S. and European management teams usually are concerned about money, their CEOs only work for money. But Taiwanese are more concerned about a sense of mission and emotional factors".

A company spokesperson confirmed Shih's remarks on Thursday. Acer has taken some big dips recently, with big on-year sales falls, with a huge 33% drop in July alone. The company took a $90 million loss for the first half of 2015, after a slight profit in the same period of 2015. Acer noted losses for the entire of 2011, 2012 and 2013 following drops in PC sales.

If you were excited about getting your hands on the HTC Vive headset sometime this year, you're going to have to have a lot of luck on your side to just get your mitts on one this year.

HTC has told Engadget that they "have a limited number of units by the end of the year, with more to come in Q1 2016". But not all is lost, as this is HTC's first time manufacturing a VR headset, and it has a lot more going on inside and outside of it compared to the Oculus Rift. But those numbers are scary, as I'm guessing they'll be in the tens of thousands of units.

On the other hand, it'll be great marketing to sell them all out quickly and have people wanting the Vive after hearing all of the, hopefully great feedback on them when they reach the general public later this year.

Well then. According to the information scraped from Ashley Madison's database, it looks like as much as 95% of their members were male. But now The Impact Team has gone through the dumped data, with quite the revelation: just 12,000 of the 5.5 million women on the site were 'real'.

Out of the 37 million accounts, 31 million were men and 5.5 million were women. But this is where The Impact Team and their look into the data gets juicier. After speaking with a data scientist, the publication began comparing male and female profiles, looking for certain patterns. Looking at members' e-mail addresses pointed towards a few very obvious accounts, such as 100@ashleymadison.com, 200@ashleymadison.com and so on. When the IP addresses were checked, it showed that 80,000 or more accounts were created locally, within the company.

But the biggest anomaly of them all is that there were unusual last names for hundreds of accounts, but there's the biggest glaring fact: just 1,492 women checked their messages on the site. Comparing 1,492 women checking their messages, against the 20 million men who checked their accounts, we can see that there is a big disparity in the sexes there. Just 2,400 women started a conversation using the chat system on Ashley Madison, compared to the 11 million men that used the chat feature.

Dell has just unveiled its latest monitors, with one of them featuring NVIDIA's G-Sync technology. Starting with the Dell S2716DG, with it being the company's first gaming-grade display.

The Dell S2716DG is a 27-inch monitor with the QHD resolution of 2560x1440, and the beautiful refresh rate of 144Hz mixed with G-Sync. The monitor includes a bunch of other goodies, such as tilt, pivot, swivel, and height adjustment. Connectivity wise you're covered, with Dell providing DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI 1.4, 4 x USB 3.0 ports, USB 3.0 upstream and line-out/headphone out.

The second, less exciting model is the SE2716H and is Dell's first curved display. Dell hasn't rolled out the specifications on the SE2716H just yet, but it does feature two 9W speakers and a thin bezel. As for pricing, the S2716DG with NVIDIA's G-Sync technology is $799.99 while the SE2716H is priced at $399.99. Dell will be offering up the G-Sync model on October 20, while the SE2716H will be available on September 15.

Apple has made its first appearance in the wearables market, and is already within striking distance of No. 1 company Fitbit, according to IDC. Apple shipped 3.6 million units during the second quarter of 2015, trailing Fitbit by just 0.8 million units - with the wearables market getting a whopping 223 percent year-over-year growth, increasing from 5.6 million units up to 18.1 million units.

Fitbit leads with 24.3 percent market share, with Apple (19.9 percent), Xiaomi (17.1 percent), Garmin (3.9 percent), and Samsung (3.3 percent) in the top five. It looks like Fitbit needs a drastic boost to keep its overall market lead, as Apple clearly took wearables by storm.

"Anytime Apple enters a new market, not only does it draw attention to itself, but to the market as a whole," said Ramon Llamas, research manager for wearables at IDC. "Its participation benefits multiple players and platforms within the wearables ecosystem, and ultimately drives total volumes higher.

If you're a Microsoft Xbox One gamer looking for a possible Star Wars Battlefront bundle, you're out of luck. It looks like the custom bundle is only available for the Sony PlayStation 4, which will launch on November 19.

In a Q&A on the EA website, news regarding a possible Star Wars Xbox One bundle was shot down: "The exclusive console for Star Wars Battlefront is limited to PlayStation 4." Pre-orders for the bundles will be announced soon. Pricing information also hasn't been released just yet.

Star Wars Battlefront is scheduled for release on November 17, and will be available for PC, Xbox One, and PS4.

We've seen some interesting emails and marketing campaigns come out of Mozilla in recent times, including it's FoxYeah! slogan - asking all users to 'invite your peeps' over to what Firefox has to offer.

This email is a little more tame - informing users that the newest Firefox is now here and stating three simple reasons as to why Mozilla thinks that its browser is worth a look at. First up is more security, with the company stating that its download protection will prevent you gathering nasty virus'. Next up is better performance, which comes in the form of improved video playback, smoother animation and better scrolling. Lastly is "the independent choice," with Mozilla priding itself on respect for your private information.

With some users being unhappy with Chrome reportedly hogging resources, have you made the change to Firefox? If so, what's your own reasoning?

As confirmed by Valve and ESL, the recently completed ESL One Cologne event saw teams gather a massive $4.2 million dollars in total - split between prize money, stickers and signature sales.

Coupled with a total viewership of 27 million people and a peak concurrent number sitting around 1.3 million, HLTV reported that this event saw a massive 180% increase in crowd-funded dollars over ESL One Katowice, which involved $1.5 million in community support given away.

This method of funding means that teams and players must market themselves well, hoping to sell in-game stickers and signatures to adoring fans to represent them whilst playing in public servers. This is slightly different to the Dota 2 model, which sees funding go directly into the prize pool, whereas ESL One sits at a static $250,000 no matter how much is raised.

If you're looking for blisteringly-fast RAM to throw into your next rig, now is the time to open your eyes. DDR4 is hot off the press and it seems each and every company is fighting for that top clock spot.

The latest news from ASRock are some brand new records set during IDF 2015. First up is the 4x Intel XTU category, seeing a score of 1910 marks, followed by the MaXXMEM category at 3894.5 marks. Achieved with the help of overclockers 'Splave' and 'L0ud_sil3nc3', this 1910 4x Intel XTU record was posted at no other time than during a live keynote (see above).

With the help of Kingston DDR4 memory, the MaXXMEM 3894.5 score was achieved on the second day of overclocking, with Intel CEO Brian Krzanichru watching closely, offering the help of an i7-6700K CPU.

Despite the concerns outlined in my review of this year's 'Fast and the Furious 7' - now the world's fifth highest grossing film of all time, the public appetite for the franchise clearly isn't going anywhere, which is why Universal are so keen to exploit the franchise in as many avenues as possible, including a new thrill ride at the studio's Orlando theme park.

According to the studio's official blog, the ride is going to "fuse everything you love about the films with an original storyline and incredible ride technology. You'll get to check out some of the high-speed, supercharged cars you've seen on the big screen. You'll be immersed in the underground racing world made famous in the films and explore the headquarters of Toretto and his team. Then, you'll board specially-designed vehicles for an adrenaline-pumping ride with your favorite stars from the films.". But fans of the 'Disaster: A Major Motion Picture Starring You!' and 'Beetlejuice Graveyard Revue' attractions will have to take one for the Fast Family, as both will permanently close to make way for the new ride due to open in 2017.

Gogo has just received approval from the FAA to offer consumers 70Mbps in-flight Wi-Fi, up from the much slower speeds of 9.8Mbps. The FAA only just this week approved the final Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) required to use it.

The new system was meant to be streaming content on planes already, but the FAA didn't provide the final STC required, but now that it has Gogo is free to offer 70Mbps Wi-Fi to its customers. Gogo has over 500 aircraft waiting on antenna upgrades, with the plan now being to have the new antennas installed by early 2016.

2Ku will be installing the new satellite antennas, where they'll also be future-proofed to work with new spot beam satellites. This upgrade is going to be huge, as it will increase the speeds from 70Mbps to 100Mbps. 100Mbps shared across a plane full of people might not seem like much, but it's better than nothing.

It seems like only a matter of time before autonomous trucks will hit US roadways, but it looks like there's a very specific purpose for the first to roll out: self-driving construction crash trucks, aimed to inform drivers about roadwork.

Using GPS waypoints, the autonomous workzone trucks are able to follow a lead car, mimic the lead vehicle's path, driving and braking patterns. The trucks are outfitted with rear-end crash barriers, lights, and large signs that update drivers to upcoming construction and road hazards.

"Any time a driver can be removed from these vehicles in a very dangerous situation, and if the vehicle's struck, there's nobody inside of it to receive the damage or the injuries, that's measuring success," said Robert Roy, president of Royal Truck & Equipment Inc, in a statement published by the Associated Press.

Today CD Projekt RED has announced that its celebrated dark fantasy RPG The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt cleared an impressive 6 million copies sold within the first six weeks of its launch.

"We've just concluded our shareholder conference where we announced that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt family got a bit bigger -- we sold over 6 million copies of the game in six weeks since launch," CD Projekt RED studio head Adam Badowski revealed. At $60 a pop we can estimate that CDPR made a whopping $360 million in less than two months from its magnum opus. Wow.

CDPR isn't about to let all that success go to its head, and Badowski affirms that the studio isn't going to let cash compromise its artistic vision. Ultimately gamers come first to CDPR. "One could think we have six million reasons to be happy and that's it," Badowski said. "Yes, six million copies is a great achievement for a company making RPGs, but this business is not only about that. If our games are a gallery of sound, picture and text - you are the visitors of this gallery. To an artist, there's no sweeter sight than people enjoying their work. That's why, in the name of all the devs in the studio, I'd like to say thanks to each and every one of you."

A new patent reveals that Nintendo's upcoming NX system has a unique and rather dynamic sharing functionality that will let users compare and share high scores, achievements and video replays.

The Nintendo NX patent, originally spotted by Nintendo Enthusiast, is pretty beefy, but the general jist of it centers around users comparing their in-game feats. Essentially players will be able to compare each other's scores on a wide network of users, send and receive replay video clips, and check their standings on live leaderboards.

All shared data will consist of a "sheet" of content including high scores (which can be cross-checked with live leaderboards), a grading system (stars, etc), customized user-created messages and drawings (think Miiverse sketches) and the ability to view replay video. All users will be able to share and publish these "sheets" of content. The above picture is a mock-up scheme that servers as an example of a shared post.

Facebook is testing out its own AI-controlled service called "M" that's aimed at making your digital life easier.

The new Facebook AI is called "M" and will be very much like Siri and Cortana, but instead of being tethered to a specific OS, M will be embedded in Facebook's messaging system. So that means everyone can use it regardless of the brand of your device. Touted as a digital assistant, M isn't like the other AI on the market, and will actually roll up its sleeves to complete specific tasks.

"Unlike other AI-based services in the market, M can actually complete tasks on your behalf," David Marcus,Facebook's Vice President of Messaging Products, said in an announcement post. "It can purchase items, get gifts delivered to your loved ones, book restaurants, travel arrangements, appointments and way more."

Corsair launched the Corsair Gaming Sabre Laser gaming mouse, a new product made in collaboration with the Team Dignitas eSports team.

The Sabre Laser RGB gaming mouse weighs around 100 grams, and features an 8,200 DPI laser sensor, 1,000Hz USB refresh rate, 16.8M color backlighting, and eight programmable buttons. It is compatible with the Corsair Utility Engine (CUE) software.

The mouse is available now, and has a $54.99 MSRP.