Latest News - Page 2668

We all know a refreshed iPhone is coming out later this year, but we have been split on rumors: is it the iPhone 7 or iPhone 6S? According to the latest leaks, we're looking at Apple unveiling the iPhone 6S later this year.

But there has been a big leak on the iPhone 6S, showing off everything - inside, outside, the style, no dual lens camera, and everything in between. We should hopefully see Apple cram in a more capable rear-facing camera that is hopefully 4K capable this time, but it's the inside of the new iPhone that has been upgraded versus the exterior, which is usually the case for the 'S' upgrades on the iPhone.

Inside of the iPhone 6S, we can see that there are new mounting points for the logic board, but the volume buttons, SIM card slot, and sleep/wake buttons on the iPhone 6S are in the same spots, so there's nothing new there.

Facebook may have over a billion daily active users, but where does the company see itself in 10 years time? During a Q&A on his profile yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg talked about what his company has in store for the future.

Zuckerberg says that he thinks the ultimate communication technology will allow you to send thoughts to another person, where he elaborated: "You'll just be able to think of something and your friends will immediately be able to experience it too if you'd like". But since we're not quite there yet, Facebook is putting its effort into artificial intelligence (AI), as the company "think[s] more intelligent services will be much more useful".

Not only that, but Facebook sees VR as the future - after all, it did acquire Oculus VR last year - where it says VR is the "next major computing and communication platform". The social network didn't leave out its Internet.org project, with Zuckerberg adding that it's "the most basic tool people need to get the benefits of the internet," including jobs, education and communication".

AMD has just announced a new partnership with Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Hollywood, where it will provide Hollywood creatives with Liquid VR. This will allow Hollywood directors a better channel to work with AMD to create immersive VR experiences.

AMD's Corporate Vice President of Alliances, Roy Taylor, said that the most important part of VR isn't just about gaming. He said that the entertainment industry is investing "an order of magnitude more money and talent into VR than the game industry is". Taylor added: "Los Angeles has become the epicenter of virtual reality, not Silicon Valley. I meet a dozen new people every day in Hollywood that are interested in VR".

But with NVIDIA owning three quarters of the GPU market share, what can AMD do when it comes to VR? Taylor says that AMD has an advantage over its competitor, thanks to its "hardware asynchronous compute" technology, something we covered not too long ago.

Virtual reality seems to have hardware designers and software developers quite excited, even though there are plenty of skeptics. Joining the growing list of those excited about VR is Unity CEO John Riccitiello, and he recently shared thoughts about how his company is contributing.

Unity currently boasts "the best system for creating content for VR," Riccitiello said during his E3 keynote. He expanded his thoughts during a recent interview with GamesIndustry:

"We have the highest market share [in VR] right now, so we're already there. It's interesting that a company like Valve, which makes its own engine, is showing demos for VR, and all but one is built with Unity."

Anytime I've written about Fable Legends in the past few months, it seems talk always turned to downloadable content (DLC) in free-to-play games. Lionhead Studios is going in a bit of a new direction with Fable Legends, and wanted to try to clear the air a bit regarding the controversial inclusion of DLCs in its upcoming free-to-play action role-playing game. We recently spoke with David Eckelberry, game director at Lionhead Studios, so here is what he had to say.

The addition of DLCs brings a high level uncertainty among many gamers, and some of you have already questioned it regarding Fable Legends.

"That's a reasonable thing to be unsure of. I'm unsure about free-to-play in some games!" David Eckelberry told TweakTown. "I believe it's up to the game developer. Some games I love are free-to-play, and I don't think it's a coincidence that first and foremost they are good games, regardless of how they get to market. It's also not a coincidence that these games seem legitimately fair: they don't let a player buy his way to victories, and the things you can purchase seem pretty fairly priced."

The Microsoft Xbox One is being handily outsold in Europe by the Sony PlayStation 4, with the PS4 holding 70-90 percent market share. Microsoft understands the importance in the European market, and the company is going to try to find ways to better compete against Sony.

"We need to do better in Europe. When I look globally, mainland Europe is definitely an area we want to focus on," said Phil Spencer, Xbox boss, while speaking to Edge magazine. Microsoft hopes to win over some gamers during Gamescom, a gaming-focused trade show in August that will be held in Cologne, Germany.

Spencer said the Xbox One "does really well" in Latin America, and is fighting Sony in the North American market.

DICE is feeling the pressure when it comes to trying to figure out what to include in the new Star Wars Battlefront video game - and it continues to be a major challenge, trying to sort out what makes the cut from the Star Wars universe.

"I wouldn't say that we've designed it by committee. We have a very strong, very competent design lead," said Sigurlina Ingvarsdottir, senior producer of Star Wars Battlefront, in a statement to GameSpot. "But, basically, what we've taken is what to us is the core of Star Wars. Star Wars is so vast, there's so many things in Star Wars that are beloved by so many. And so they are hard choices."

It looks like DICE has decided to support planets such as Endor and Hoth, with characters ranging from Han Solo and Darth Vader - giving gaming fans characters and locations that they will be extremely familiar with.

Sony has already said that it wants to lead the smartphone camera sensor market, with the Japanese giant pulling out of most of its other markets, apart from camera sensors and the PlayStation brand.

Now the company is looking to push out new shares, with the new shares to raise the equivalent to 10% of what Sony is worth. With Sony worth around $40 billion, the company will be raising $4 billion, all of which it's going to invest in camera sensors. Sony said in a statement: "In addition to securing funds for active and concentrated investment in businesses that are driving growth. Sony ... aims to secure its ability to make future further investment".

Chief Portfolio Manager Common Assset Management, Takatoshi Itoshima, said: "It's positive that it is investing in the sensor business which is seen promising. But short-term investors may question the strength of its balance sheet, or wonder whether the company could've slashed more of its businesses before raising money from the market".

Sony is dominating the European market, where during a recent interview with VG247, Sony Europe President Jim Ryan saying that Sony has nothing less than 70% marketshare in every European country.

Ryan explains: "We have a very significant market leadership. We have market leadership in every country in Europe, and have very significant market leadership in continental Europe. Extremely significant. I don't think marketshare's any less than 70 percent, and frequently greater than 90 percent in continental Europe".

During the interview, Ryan said that the PS4 is still seeing "very considerable" momentum at its current price, with the company adding that it has no plans to cut the price anytime soon. Ryan added: "We're happy with the price and we're happy with the value proposition. We'll leave it where it is for now".

Just how popular is Minecraft? Well, very. Mojang has just announced on their website that they've sold over 20 million copies of Minecraft on the PC.

Not just that, but the total sales of Minecraft across all platforms, has passed over 70 million - quite the achievement. In the last 24 hours alone, Mojang has sold over 10,000 copies, proving the game is an unstoppable success. Most people were worried when Microsoft paid $2.5 billion to buy Mojang not too long ago, but with Minecraft being shown off in HoloLens, we can see how big this game is going to be going into the future.

French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira said it's not up to her, but she "wouldn't be surprised" if WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and former NSA contractor Edward Snowden were offered asylum in France. Ultimately, it'd be up to French Prime Minister Manuel Valls and President Francois Hollande to make a final determination - however, trying to get both men to France would be a rather unique logistical challenge.

"If France decides to offer asylum to Edward Snowden and Julian Assange, I wouldn't be surprised. It's a possibility," Taubira recently told BFMTV.

Snowden is wanted by US authorities for espionage and numerous other charges after leaking NSA documents to the public. Meanwhile, Assange has taken up residence in the Ecuadorian consulate in London, in an effort to avoid extradition to Sweden on alleged sexual assault charges. He's afraid if he's extradited back to Sweden, he'd be sent to the United States.

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has said multiple times he would like to return home to the United States, but has become comfortable living in Russia. Over the past two years, Snowden has adapted to his temporary home as best as he could, learning to live his life away from political scrutiny and intense media attention.

"Edward and all of us hope that, sooner or later, all absurd charges against him will be lifted and the questions for him put on the legal track, without insults and name-calling. This is when he can return home," said Anatoly Kucherena, Snowden's attorney, in a statement to Interfax.

The idea that Snowden will one day be able to return to his homeland seems like nothing more than a fantasy at this point - it seems highly doubtful the Obama Administration, and other members of the government would be able to leave him alone.

Microsoft hopes teachers use Minecraft to help stimulate students in the classroom, allowing them to think creatively - and have fun while doing it.

After the game originally launched in 2011, some teachers found unique ways to embrace Minecraft. It has been used to help teach students about Japanese-American internment camps, DNA extraction, architecture, all while helping grow leadership and digital citizenship.

"Many of the most fun parts of Minecraft, including the collaborative nature of play, the need to experiment, the open world, the earning of achievements, and the growth of players' in-game characters as well as their personal skill sets, are also key to excellent learning environments," according to a recent blog post on the Minecraft Education website.

It looks like film studios have asked Bethesda about creating movies based off of Elder Scrolls and Fallout, but the gaming studio is more focused on creating great video games. The Bethesda board of directors has two TV and movie industry executives, so there is a "really good window" available - but gamers shouldn't hold their breath.

Bethesda believes video games are the "best form of entertainment in the world," according to Pete Hines, marketing executive at Bethesda, in a statement to GameSpot. "Generally speaking, we view ourselves as a video game company. We make video games. Movies and TV shows are an entirely different thing."

The added insight from CBS President Leslie Moonves, former MGM CEO Harry Loan and other people close to Bethesda has offered unique insight into trying to create something away from games: "We've gotten a lot of very good advice about, 'There's way more things that can go wrong than can go right with this. The concern is always... do you want the world's view of The Elder Scrolls to be what [director Todd Howard] envisions in Skyrim or do you want it to be some other director who decides to make a movie that looks like Cats?"

Rock band AC/DC is now embracing streaming music, allowing its music to be shared on Spotify, Apple Music, and Rdio. The popular band has sold more than 72 million albums in the United States, and apparently hasn't liked the idea of streaming music for quite some time.

AC/DC only started to allow its music to be sold on iTunes just three years ago, so digital change isn't something the band has been quick to embrace. Remember, Metallica, Led Zeppelin and the Beatles all managed to finally come to terms with iTunes - but AC/DC continued to avoid joining the digital revolution.

"When the latest thing comes along, everyone wants to be the first to jump in. But we were hesitant," said Angus Young, AC/DC guitarist, in a statement to the Wall Street Journal last year. "It was only later on that people said, hey, you were pretty clever. We were doing better because people were still buying the physical product."

Dr. Stuart Armstrong is a member of the Oxford University Future of Humanity Institute, and the Oxford academic believes humans are risking our own survival depending how artificial intelligence (AI) developments occur in the future.

"Humans steer the future not because we're the strongest or the fastest, but because we're the smartest," Dr. Armstrong recently said. "When machines become smarter than humans, we'll be handing them the steering wheel."

Even though the thought that robots are able to coordinate across the world without human oversight may sound irrational, the idea that humans are creating AI in itself would have seemed impossible not too long ago. If done properly, using artificial general intelligence (AGI) could greatly impact our lives for the good - but no one is really sure what will happen beyond that.

More than 21 million people used Twitch to livestream events during the E3 gaming expo earlier this month, the company said in a recent blog post. The maximum number of concurrent viewers was 840,000.

It was an impressive event for Twitch, with 11,986,000 hours of E3 content watched during the gaming show. The Microsoft news conference gained the most attention out of all hardware makers, while Electronic Arts drew the most Twitch attention from software makers.

It's getting easier of interested gamers and tech enthusiasts to watch keynotes and press events remotely using Twitch, YouTube, and direct stream links. Considering Amazon's low acquisition costs of Twitch, it absolutely turned out to be the right investment.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 exploded a couple minutes after takeoff over the weekend, possibly due to excessive pressure built up in the second stage's liquid oxygen tank. The incident marked the first time in 19 Falcon 9 launches there was a problem, and SpaceX will continue its work to try to get things sorted out.

"The launch failure by itself is not much of an issue," said Bill Ostrove, analyst at Forecast International Aerospace, in a statement to Forbes. "Most people in the industry understand that launching rockets into space is really difficult and occasional failures are just the price of conducting launches. Overall, SpaceX has a pretty strong record of success (about 95%) with the Falcon 9."

Unfortunately, SpaceX does have a few things it needs to work out - the company has suffered two commercial cargo failures in less than one year, and the most recent launch failure means there will be a delay for an investigation.

There aren't many extravagant FreeSync monitors, but that's all about to change with the new Acer XR341CK, a 34-inch curved ultrawide monitor with support for AMD's FreeSync technology.

The 34-inch curved ultrawide display features a native resolution of 3440x1440, 60Hz refresh rate backed up by AMD's FreeSync technology, an IPS panel, impressive viewing angles, 300 nits of brightness, and a response time of 4ms. Acer promises 100% sRGB for photographers and video producers, but it should be the gamers who are the most interested in this display.

Acer is also including height and tilt adjustment, HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort, miniDisplayPort, a USB 3.0 hub, and 7W speakers with DTS Sound which should have people without desktop speakers happy. Acer is hoping to have the XR341CK on US shelves in late July for $1099. We've reached out to Acer for a review sample, with one hitting our desks late next month, so expect a review from us shortly after.

While most companies are still offering flagship smartphones with only 16G or 32GB of on-board storage by default, it looks like that is all set to change with the new Saygus V SQUARED smartphone.

Saygus has taken to Indiegogo to fund its new venture, requiring $1 million to get the V SQUARED into consumers' hands, where it has met that funding goal. What makes the V SQUARED so special is that it has 64GB of on-board storage in its stock form, featuring not one but two microSD card slots that support 200GB each, bringing the total on-board storage on the V SQUARED to a huge 464GB.

The Saygus V SQUARED also features a 21-megapixel rear-facing 4K-capable camera, 13-megapixel selfie shooter up front, and is completely waterproof to boot. Saygus will release the V SQUARED smartphone later this year, with a price tag of $650.