Latest News - Page 2645

With the race being on for all RAM manufacturers to release the fastest clocked DDR4 memory to the public, one company leading the charge is G.SKILL with its TridentZ Series DDR4 8GB (4GBx2) kit which claimed to run at 4266 MHz.

These claims have been put to the test at Intel's Developer Forum 2015 (IDF 2015), with G.SKILL proudly displaying these two Z170 Chipset based rigs, paired with "Skylake" Intel processors and an ASRock or ASUS motherboard.

If you're interested in the need for speed, keep reading TweakTown for consequent RAM brand releases - it's an ongoing process at this stage as manufacturers are trying to push DDR4 into the mainstream enthusiast market.

The gaming market seems to be quite healthy, and there are a lot of potential customers that game developers and hardware manufacturers can aim to reach. There are a reported 1.8 billion gamers worldwide, with 48 percent women gamers, and the average age of players at 35 years old, according to numbers presented at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF).

In every US household, there is an average of two gamers, and four out of five US households have at least one device used to play video games.

Analysts have taken a close look at PC, console, and mobile gaming, as studios and hardware designers look for new business opportunities. A whopping $34 billion was spent on PC games in 2014 alone - and the industry seems to be growing.

Making good on their threat from last month, hacking collective The Impact Group has released nine gigabytes of Ashley Madison user data, which includes upwards of 37 million users details, onto the dark web

The hacker group was demanding that Avid Life Media, owner of Ashley Madison, as well as two other sites; Cougar Life and Established Men was to be taken offline or else the data would be released. Avid Life Media confirmed the leak, but kept the site online. Gizmodo have confirmed the availability of the dump, which includes email addresses, credit card transactions and profiles.

If you've ever use the site in the past, best to either fess up and get some flowers on the way home, or lawyer up.

Riding back on the news that AMD has lost a considerable chunk of the discrete GPU market this quarter, this news of AMD spending less and less on research and development is not good to hear.

AMD shares dropped 13% last Monday without any new information or reasoning behind the huge dip in share prices, but it could be a result of NVIDIA's better than expected financials, or it could be the fact that AMD has lost more market share to NVIDIA, even after the release of its first next-gen GPU in nearly two years.

Furthermore, AMD has been scaling back R&D spending over the last five years, with Pacific Crest analyst Mike McConnell chiming in, with the following: "When I talk to investors about AMD, there's some concern - I mean, we've seen a decline by close to 40% versus levels we were at in the beginning of the decade". AMD CTO Mark Papermaster has said that the PC market is shrinking, and that AMD is putting less R&D effort into that part of the business.

The last time we had GPU market share numbers, NVIDIA was dominating AMD with 76% of the discrete GPU market, leaving AMD with scraps. This was back in Q4 2014 (with our article released in February 2015), where NVIDIA's best video card was the GeForce GTX 980.

This was before the release of the Titan X in March, and before the GTX 980 Ti in June. At the time, AMD had its Hawaii architecture inside of the R9 290X, and the dual-GPU in the form of the R9 295X2. At the time, all signs pointed to the R9 390X turning things around, but the R9 390X ended up being yet another rebrand, while the R9 Fury X was discovered with our world exclusive during Computex 2015 in June, powered by High Bandwidth Memory.

Fast forward to now, where we're in Q3 2015, and AMD has multiple new products on the market: the R9 Fury X, R9 Fury, R9 390X and a bunch of rebranded 300 series video cards. According to Mercury Research's latest data, NVIDIA has jumped from 76% of the discrete GPU market in Q4 2014 to 82% in Q2 2015. This leaves AMD with just 18% of the dGPU market share, even after the release of multiple new products from Team Red.

Intel wants to have a go at Hollywood, partnering with the United Artists Media Group and Turner to create the "America's Greatest Makers" TV show. Ideally, Intel wants to help inventors use Curie to develop "the next big wearable or smart-connected device."

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich was joined onstage during the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) by UAMG CEO Mark Burnett, as they announced the show. America's Greatest Makers will debut during Q1 or Q2 2016, and will feature technology inventors fighting it out for a $1 million cash prize.

To help promote the show, expect to see trailers and teasers across Turner networks, such as TNT, CNN, HLN, TruTV, Adult Swim, and Bleacher Report.

At IDF 2015 Intel has revealed Optane Technology, a new hardware brand built around its new XPoint high-performance 3D flash memory.

Intel's new XPoint-powered Optane hardware is planned for a release in 2016, marketed across an array of form factors including standard SSD's and will even be compatible with Xeon systems via DIMM. Intel affirms that the high-density Optane tech isn't just a conventional storage solution and can be used to help power and optimize datacenter servers and Xeon workstations that require low-latency and high-bandwidth performance.

Last month Intel shed light on the next-generation Xpoint (pronounced Crosspoint) 3D memory with an number of impressive specs; since its 10X more dense than traditional SSD's, Xpoint boasts speeds up to 1,000 faster than traditional NAND storage and offers a whopping 10TB+ in SSD storage capacities (Samsung has already hit 16TB SSD's with its own 3D memory solution).

The US government plans to expand UAV flights over the next few years, expanding daily drone sortie operations away from just the Air Force, according to officials.

The number of UAV flights will increase from around 60 every day up to 90 by 2019, though there are significant manpower and financial budget issues that must be addressed.

The global demand for UAV flights must expand, as the Air Force fleet continues to face trained pilot shortages. As the US combat mission in Afghanistan finally came to an end, the US military planned on reducing the number of combat drone flights by its Air Force staff. However, the rapid rise of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq has caused an uptick in reconnaissance and targeted strikes.

In late 2014, Intel and watchmaker Fossil Group announced they were going to develop fashionable smartwatches, and we've finally received glimpse of the wearables.

During IDF, Fossil showed off three Intel smartwatches, powered by Google Android Wear, with all three expected during Q4 this year. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich and Fossil SVP Gregory McKelvey announced the watches during the opening keynote of the 2015 Intel Developer Forum (IDF).

Designed for consumers seeking fashionable, yet tech-centric smartwatches, it looks like Fossil wants to take aim at the Apple Watch. One watch looks quite similar to the Motorola Moto 360, and features a silver finish, leather straps and a black bar type look that many of you may already be familiar with.

Ubisoft today announced that Rainbow Six Siege has been pushed back from its initial October release to December 1, 2015 across all platforms and regions.

"This wasn't an easy decision, but based on the feedback we've received, and based on our own internal tests, we felt there are adjustments and improvements we can make, including improving the co-op experience across all game modes, weapon and gadget balancing, as well as menu and interface navigation," the studio said in an official blogpost. "We're taking a little more time to make these changes, and we think it's the right call."

With the original release date in October, the devs would have less than a month to digest and implement feedback from testers. Simply said that's just not enough time to optimize a game, especially a tactical multiplayer shooter with dynamic elements and modes. Most games in the genre get more than two testing phases--the alpha runs, the closed beta that usually unlocks with pre-orders, and of course the final open beta where the devs apply what they've learned.

Semiconductor and microcontroller company Microchip Technology announced a partnership with Intel to utilize its Enhanced Privacy ID (EPID) technology in future products.

"Microchip has long recognized the importance of security in IoT applications," said Ian Harris, VP of Computing Products Group at Microchip. "Collaborating with Intel to integrate its proven Intel EPID technology demonstrates Microchip's steadfast commitment to providing the very best IoT solutions, by working to enable designers with the safe and secure interoperation of their 'things' with Intel's devices, gateways and servers."

The IoT marketplace is growing drastically, but privacy and cybersecurity remain two major hurdles that must be addressed accordingly. EPID can be used for device authentication, standardization, and helps protect end-user privacy. The need for data security is crucial for the widespread adoption of Things in the workplace and at home, so expect similar partnerships from Intel in the future.

During the 2015 Intel Developer Forum, Razer has announced it is working with Intel to include its RealSense technology platform for virtual reality and video game streamers.

Utilizing RealSense, consumers can expect better game broadcasting and VR gaming capabilities, including the ability to change backgrounds while streaming. Intel RealSense-powered cameras provide motion and gesture recognition, 3D scanning, providing an immersive experience.

"Razer is excited to be working with Intel, using Intel RealSense technology to help pioneer work for game broadcasting, as well as with VR, with support from the growing OSVR movement," said Min-Liang Tan, co-founder and CEO of Razer. "Gamers will, we expect, be able to enhance their broadcasting and VR experience in unprecedented ways."

Epic Games wants to see its Unreal Engine 4 become the chosen platform for creating virtual reality applications, with the game studio fully embracing VR. In fact, "almost every one of the Oculus demos" shown to the public was "probably built in the Unreal Engine," according to Epic Games.

"It's easy to be excited about it. A lot of the guys, especially on the game side, there's a bit of fatigue," said Ray Davis, GM of the Unreal Engine 4 business at Epic Games, in a statement to GamesBeat.

It's not just about game studios with large budgets able to create content using Unreal Engine 4, but consumers realistically evolving into creators themselves. Hopefully, VR is able to help drive that interest in the future:

Millions of us play violent video games on our PCs and consoles, without feeling the need to go and commit violent criminal acts. However, there has been increased research into what impact, if any, video games play - especially among younger gamers.

Recently, the American Psychological Association (APA) noted there isn't enough research to put the blame solely on video games. Even though there are reports of increased aggression, it's still not enough to directly blame video games.

"One can never know for sure whether playing violent video games causes violent criminal behavior, because it is unethical for researchers to allow participants to engage in violent criminal behavior in their laboratory experiments," said Brad Bushman, professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University, in a statement to CBS News.

It hasn't even been a month since Microsoft released Windows 10, but there have been 53 million installations of the new operating system so far.

According to StatCounter's data, Windows 10 now accounts for 4.95% of the OS market share, with Windows 10 being installed on 1500 machines per second at its peak. NetMarketshare is reporting that Windows 8.1 had 13.09% of the market by the end of July, while OS X 10.10 had 4.74%. Windows 10 has, in three weeks, surpassed Apple's most recent desktop OS.

The best numbers will come directly from Microsoft, with the only announcement so far being 14 million installations. It would also help that most people installing Windows 10 are upgrading for free, from previous versions of Windows.

The likely announcement of a new Apple iPhone has its customers excited, even after the infamous "Bendgate" fiasco from the previous iPhone's launch. The new iPhone 6s is rumored to launch in late September, so carriers in the United States are preparing marketing and sales campaigns to get customers to upgrade.

Carriers aren't the only ones preparing, as Apple has reportedly made a few critical improvements based on lessons learned following Bendgate:

"Each new iPhone launch should hopefully be an all-around improvement, with a focus on more than just the 'bells and whistles,'" said Stacey Vogler, US managing director for Protect Your Bubble. "To avoid a repeat of last year's Bendgate, Apple appears to be looking a a stronger frame this time around."

Jordan "Smealum" Rabet, a prominent Nintendo 3DS hacker, has released the "tubehax" exploit that launches homebrew software within the handheld's free YouTube app.

Using tubehax 3DS players can get access to a slew of homebrew content including old-school SNES ROMs running on the handheld's latest 9.9 firmware. The exploit also lets users run region-specific gamecards and set custom themes in the handheld's home menu. Rabet affirms that tubehax "does not in any way let users run pirated 3DS software", but NES and SNES games are a different story.

Smealum is notorious for finding innovative games and apps to manipulate into acting as doorways to homebrew, and frequently targets free and easy-to-download content. Nintendo has always been fast-acting to close these doors as soon as possible, and just recently the Japanese gaming titan removed the free-to-play game Ironfall: Invasion from the eShop because of Smealum's "ironhax" expoit--but not before thousands upon thousands of users snagged it.

UPDATE: According to a report from Know Techie, Microsoft will only disrupt access to pirated Xbox One or first-party games that attempt to utilize one of its many services like Xbox LIVE of the Xbox app. The publication relates this measure to any online DRM mechanism such as not being able to directly update fraudulent games on Steam or the PlayStation Store.

In the freshly updated EULA, Microsoft effectively stipulates that if you use its software it can effectively search your Windows 10 devices for fraudulent games and "unauthorized hardware peripheral devices" and disable access to said content.

"We may automatically check your version of the software and download software updates or configuration changes, including those that prevent you from accessing the Services, playing counterfeit games, or using unauthorized hardware peripheral devices," reads section 7b of the Updates to the Services or Software and Changes to These Terms subsection.

CD Projekt RED won't be releasing any more mod support for The Witcher 3, and it looks like modders are stuck with the current toolset.

A few days ago CD Projekt RED enjoyed unanimous praise from PC gamers upon the release of The Witcher 3's modding tools...at least until the modding community realized how "light" the toolset is compared to The Witcher 2's beefier REDkit.

"First of all, the modding tools we are releasing are not an editor," CDPR told Gamespot in a Q&A session. Instead of creating and editing world spaces gamers can extract and manipulate the files of the game, including adding custom textures and skins to characters as well as changing up animations and sounds. Plus modders can manipulate Witcher 3's scripts, opening a lot of potential for mods that tweak gameplay aspects like difficulty modes and altered quests. So far the Witcher 3 Nexus is filled with HUD alterations, graphics optimizations and small in-game convenience tweaks.

As a kid I always dreamed about a more futuristic, immersive laser tag experience that would let me enter the game and gun down virtual baddies. Now with the advent of VR tech, the future is here, and a company called Zero Latency aims to transport players into a chaotic first-person shooter sim to make our childhood wishes come true.

Zero Latency's VR gaming suite is comprised of an open 400square meter room specifically designed to let up six-players roam freely. Like any shooter sim experience every player has their own gear: an Oculus Rift DK2 headset stems to an Alienware Alpha PC stuffed in a backpack, and last but not least we have the wireless plastic gun whose VR version is a high-powered rifle that mows down zombies. Body movement is tracked by sensors outfitted on the Rift and the gun that curiously resemble Sony's PlayStation Move tech, relaying signals to mirror in-game transitions.

"Zero Latency VR is the experience the future of immersive gaming," the YouTube video description reads. Imagine a game that doesn't feel like a game. Where your body is the controller. And your mind believes it's real. The digital and real-world meshed seamlessly together, to transport you inside the virtual like never before. When you move, the game moves with you. Pure immersive mayhem with the freedom to get up and go."