Latest News - Page 2670

Valve has finally updated the Steam for Android app, which has leaped from v1.1 right up to v2.0. The new Steam for Android app includes a totally revamped UI, something that Valve is calling "material".

The navigation drawer, according to Android Police, has "been completely rearranged in this update, and now includes links to your intentory, library, and additional app settings like disconnecting from the chat". Valve adds that it has fixed up background battery drain and the weird spontaneous login issues that many gamers were used to. The changelog for the app includes:

You can grab Steam for Android from the Google Play store, or grab it from APK Mirror.

Most gamers might not know, but Rocksteady Studios didn't work on the PC port of Batman: Arkham Knight, where instead the studio had Iron Galaxy Studios port the game over to PC. You might remember that Warner Bros. pulled the PC game from being sold last week.

Rocksteady is now in control of the game, with the studio posting on their official website saying: "Rocksteady is leading our team of developers and partners as we work on the PC performance issues that players have been encountering. The work is significant and while we are making good progress on improving performance, it will take some time to ensure that we get the right fixes in place". The first patch, which should've already hit owners of Batman: Arkham Knight, has some interim fixes:

But you know what? Rocksteady would've seen the game before they, or Warner Bros. would've greenlit its release on PC. Obviously Rocksteady was too busy at work on the console version of Batman: Arkham Knight that the PC version wasn't just receiving as much love, it was thrown to the side without a second thought. It was released completely unready, and thus untested, and Rocksteady should be ashamed of themselves ending the Batman trilogy of games on this note.

Cybersecurity software company Malwarebytes has launched a new amnesty program that offers a free replacement key for Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium customers - people using pirated copies or customers tricked into purchasing a counterfeit copy.

To help keep your PCs and systems secure, Malwarebytes has a variety of different anti-virus and anti-malware software solutions. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium costs $24.95 for one year and can be installed on three different PCs.

"The Internet is full of pioneers and cowboys. It's also got its fair share of pirates and trolls," Malwarebytes said in a public statement. "Some of those bad guys may have duped you into purchasing a counterfeit version of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. Or perhaps we've simply detected a problem with your key. Not to worry. We're here to help."

The unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded two minutes after launch, when its two stages were expected to separate. This is the first time in 19 launches that ended in failure, as the 63-meter rocket was able to complete six cargo trips to the ISS and has a 15-flight contract with NASA.

Musk offered a second statement: "There was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank. Data suggests counterintuitive cause. That's all we can say with confidence right now. Will have more to say following a thorough fault tree analysis."

Astronauts on the space station can sustain themselves until July 24 on normal levels, and have enough reserves until September. There are three scheduled cargo missions scheduled to launch to the ISS over the next three months.

There was some pressure on Electronic Arts to make sure Star Wars: Battlefront is released before Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens movie. However, single-player was never really on the drawing board for the newest Star Wars video game, as multiplayer will create a more enjoyable gaming experience.

"To be honest, single-player was never in the plan. It was never the concept," said Patrick Bach, DICE GM, in an interview with GameSpot. "The concept for us was always that we wanted players to re-live the battles. We wanted them to play the battles from the original movies. And DICE, coming from its Battlefield background, knows how to make awesome battles in that context."

Bach also admitted while the studio has created intriguing single-player campaigns, they haven't been as strong as its multiplayer efforts.

The Apple Watch brought attention to the smartwatch and wearables market, but it looks like initial demand for the watch is dying down.

If you're thinking about purchasing an Apple Watch, you'll be happy to know there are plenty of them available to choose from. Even though some estimate 13 million to 20 million units have sold, the hyped Apple wearable isn't seen as a necessity.

"The initial demand for the Apple Watch looks lackluster," said Brian Blair, managing director at Rosenblatt Securities, in a statement on CNBC's "Power Lunch." "It's not clear what the killer app is. It's nice to get notifications, but it's a nonessential product."

Nearly all motherboards feature PCIe 3.0, but we're going to be seeing more and more about PCIe 4.0 in the coming years, now that the PCI Special Interest Group (PCI SIG) getting closer to the final version of the PCIe 4.0 specification.

The PCI SIG has been developing PCI Express 4.0 for a few years now, with the new standard set to feature a huge 16GT/s per lane, which is double that of the 8GT/s that PCIe 3.0 is capable of. The standard isn't finalized jut yet, as there are quite a few steps to overcome first. One of the first is the interconnect attributes, fabric management, and the programming interface that is used to design and build systems and peripherals that are PCIe 4.0 compliant.

PCIe 4.0 will usher in a new connector, but it is backwards compatible with PCIe 3.0 cards. But, PCIe 4.0-based cards will not work with the old PCIe 3.0 ports. Al Yanes, the President of the PCI SIG explained in an interview with EE Times: "We are getting 16GT/s, something no one thought was possible a few years ago. The base distance is still being validated but it's typically 7 inches or so. Longer channels of 15 inches or so with two connectors will have retimers, but Gen 3 has used retimers - now we will need to use them for shorter long channels".

It looks like you can't count game designer Warren Spector as one of those interested in developing VR video games, with the man best known for Deus Ex, saying VR won't be anything more than a fad. The Oculus Rift drew major attention during E3 2015 earlier this month, but Spector said he "didn't see much interest in VR or AR." However, he's an overall fan of the technology, but hasn't seen enough to become a "true-believer" in it... yet. Maybe?

"The other VR/AR stuff seemed like a big ho-hum to me. Maybe that's just my prejudice - I think VR's going to be a fad (again) and at best a minor part of gaming's future, not unlike stereoscopic 3D, which I also called out as a fad," Spector recently said in a blog post. However, he clarified his viewpoint in a follow up blog post:

"As an individual, I find VR cool, interesting and compelling. I'm not anti-VR. The content is coming, I have no doubt - I know too many super smart, super creative people working to create the unique content that will make the VR experience desirable if not irresistible."

The outer reaches of space are no boundaries for Chris Roberts' far reaching space shooter/economy/adventure/everything game, with Star Citizen to allow players to become a transporter in the game.

The developer has just unveiled a very in-depth transportation career, something that will be propelled with the use of the first transport ship: the Genesis Starliner. The Genesis Starliner can transport up to 40 people, where you can customize the ship and its modular interior to your liking. You could splash out and throw in some expensive state rooms, where you can charge more for people to stay there.

Roberts Space Industries, the developer behind the game, explains: "Whether it's the centerpiece of a private spaceline or part of a larger system of passenger transports, the Genesis can be used for a variety of support roles. Potential owners and operators can rest easy: the Starliner is a ship designed to pay for itself!"

With the release of Crystal Dynamics' second game in the rebooted Tomb Raider series due out in November for the Xbox One and Xbox 360, it looks like Microsoft might have a huge one-year timed exclusive for Rise of the Tomb Raider.

The news is coming from YouTuber 'The Know' who has said that Rise of the Tomb Raider won't hit the PlayStation 4 until November of next year, but Square Enix will drop the price of the PS4 version of Rise of the Tomb Raider to $40 to entice games. As for the PC version, there's no concrete release date, but we could be waiting as long as PS4 gamers for the PC version of Rise of the Tomb Raider.

And if you haven't seen it, we've included some Rise of the Tomb Raider gameplay, dubbed 'Siberian Wilderness', showing Lara Croft in the super-cold environments, playing through the game and showing the improved crafting system.

It's no secret that Deus Ex games don't shy away from sometimes touchy subjects, and while Deus Ex: Mankind Divided has its own curious plot points, don't expect Eidos Montreal to directly touch on religion.

"One thing that we never touch on from the front is religion," said Jean-Francois Dugas, game director at Eidos Montreal, in the latest issue of GamesMaster. "The subject we're tackling, it goes into religion from the aspect of do we choose to play God or not? But we try to keep it as agnostic as we can because the field is too sensitive. We also don't want to be offensive in any way, or tackle something we don't really understand ourselves. Instead we distill transhumanism, and what it does for human beings regardless of your beliefs."

Eidos Montreal showed off the game during E3 2015, and featured a game preview and a second portion demonstrating its actual gameplay. The studio wants to focus on allowing players to mix in a bit of stealth and head-to-head action, providing gamers the chance to play through the game how they feel most comfortable.

An officer from the North Charleston Police Department has been fired after he foolishly posted a picture in which he was wearing nothing but Confederate flag boxer shorts. Not surprisingly, the post by former Sgt. Shannon Dildine - which was online for a few days - quickly spread on the Internet, and found its way to his commanding officers.

"Your posting in this manner led you to being publicly identified as a North Charleston Police officer and associated both you and the Department with an image that symbolizes hate and oppression to a significant portion of the citizens we are sworn to serve," said Police Chief Eddie Driggers, in a termination letter to Sgt. Dildine.

Following a violent gun incident in which nine black worshipers were killed in a South Carolina church by a self-proclaimed white supremacist, the Confederate flag has become a topic of national debate. Even for those arguing the officer has the right to free speech, he clearly lacked a bit of common sense by posting the picture.

Samsung Electronics' research arm has just created something that will truly trump Apple in a few years time, where the South Korean giant has just developed a new technology that will pave the way for all-day battery life on smartphones and tablets.

The new technology will see Samsung create a silicon cathode material for coating high crystal graphene on a silicon surface to usher in an energy density that is nearly two times more than existing lithium batteries. Current lithium batteries were developed and commercialized by Sony in the 90s, and have slowly been getting better and better, but the material itself has its limitations.

Most of the development of high-capacity battery materials has been done in the US, but there is a major technological problem that shortens the life of a lithium battery from constant charging and discharging. The R&D center of Samsung Electronics has succeeded where no one else has, developing a high-density and very durable cathode material by coating the strong and conductive graphene on the surface of the silicon, in order to create a type of protective shell around the silicon.

We're only 15 years away from the year 2030, where we're expected to see human brains assisted by nanobot implants that will turn us into "hybrids", according to one of the world's leading thinkers.

The Director of Engineering at Google, Ray Kurzweil, has said that in the 2030s, we will see implants connecting humans to the cloud. We would then be able to pull information from the cloud, from our own brains, all while information will be allowed from your brain to the cloud, letting you back your brain up to the cloud. You know, in case of a bad hangover one night, you could just restore your brain to the night before. #backsupforlife

Kurzweil has said that as the cloud accessing our brain improves (and before Skynet takes over), our thinking and cognitive abilities would expand quicker than we can imagine. At first, it would be a "hybrid of biological and non-biological thinking", but as we shift into the 2040s, most of our thinking will be done off-brain, and would thus be non-biological. Think, "OK Google, can I afford to buy pizza tonight" or "OK Google, what is 5.2 million divided by 2.39".

Forbes' Jason Evangelho has kicked one of the most awesome things I've ever seen for video cards, where he started off by posting a picture of himself on his Facebook cuddled up to the HBM-powered AMD Radeon R9 Fury X.

AMD's Roy Taylor kicked in posting his own photo, and then offering $2 to the charity of Jason's choice for every picture, up until $500 is raised for the hashtag #guyscuddlingwithvideocards. Well, I have countless video cards here in my office, so I covered my daughter from head to toe in video cards and snapped the above photo! Great fun!

You can support Jason right here.

With Intel all set to unveil their new Skylake-S series of processors at Gamescom 2015 in August, we're hearing that the new 'K-series' enthusiast processors will not ship with a stock cooler.

Intel is set to release its Core i7-6700K processor a week after Windows 10 is released, with Intel aiming at enthusiasts buying their own high-performance air, or liquid cooling system for their new CPU. The chipmaker will be offering a new PCG 2015D high performance air and liquid cooling solutions, but the processor itself will ship without a HSF.

The next question is, will Intel drop the price to counter that the processor doesn't include a stock cooler, or will Intel make more profit per K-series CPU it ships, thanks to not giving consumers a cooler.

BlackBerry isn't giving up on smartphones, and is looking for opportunities to create phones in the workplace - including in hospitals, where a bacteria-free device could be needed.

BlackBerry CEO John Chen didn't confirm if the company is already working on a bacteria-free smartphone, but has shown interest. "Healthcare workers have to be worried about one less thing to wipe down" if they have a bacteria-free phone, Chen recently noted.

Bacteria and infections are transferred between doctors and patients, causing a "huge issue," said Dr. Aviv Gladman, chief medical information officer at Mackenzie Health, in a statement published by Bloomberg.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently sent an email to all of the company's employees, as everyone anxiously awaits the Windows 10 launch, and wants to help "empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more."

Not surprisingly, gaming earned its own spot in the email:

"We will pursue our gaming ambition as part of this broader vision for Windows and increase its appeal to consumers," Nadella said in his email to employees. "We will bring Xbox Live and our first-party gaming efforts across PC, console, mobile and new categories like HoloLens into one integrated play."

Electronic Arts was happy with the reception that Star Wars Battlefront received during E3, and is continuing to push forward with the latest Star Wars game.

EA COO Peter Moore noted that the company would delay the game if it wasn't right, and another company official noted the "10,000 ways to f***" up game development - and how it's promoted to the public.

"No, but I think we've reached a point where we're worrying less about what we are doing and what we have done. Before you a show a game to the world, there's ongoing speculation about it," said Patrick Bach, GM at DICE, in a statement to GameSpot. "There are 10,000 ways to f*** this up, and people are super detailed on how we will screw up. And I read these posts and I think, hey, I think fans are going to be super happy with what we're doing."

Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick wants to release quality game titles to its customers, and that doesn't mean risking game quality - and possible burnout - just to launch a title.

Take-Two has been criticized in the past for heavy reliance on Grand Theft Auto, but Zelnick noted that while the company has evolved, there has been added diversification of its product lineup. In addition, Zelnick is aware of a common concern among game studios and publishers: burning out a franchise with sometimes unnecessary yearly releases:

"I think the biggest distinction between us and some of our competitors is we don't annualize our non-sports titles, and that's for a couple of reasons," Zelnick recently told Games Industry. "One is we want to have the highest quality in the business and that takes time, and two, we like to rest our IP in between releases because we believe that's what keeps it fresh and permanent. We don't want to burn off our franchises. It's an unusual strategy - I think we stand alone with that strategy, but it's really paying off."