Latest News - Page 2703

With Avengers: Age of Ultron already on screens around the world, and later this week in the US, news is beginning to leak on Avengers: Infinity War. Avengers: Infinity War is a two-part movie, which is expected to feature "an interplaterary battle between Thanos, The Avengers and maybe even the Guardians of the Galaxy" reports Slashfilm.

Marvel has been building up to this point in its Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) for the last 7 years, with Captain America himself, Chris Evans, teasing that he will be shooting both Infinity War movies for around 9 months. Evans will begin shooting Captain America: Civil War in August/September with Robert Downey Jr, after which he will have a few months off before kicking things into overdrive for Infinity War.

Evans spoke exclusively with Esquire, where he said: "You know, you plan around the Marvel responsibilities. You have to. We start [Captain America: Civil War] in a couple weeks, and then that shoots until August or something like that. August or September. Then I've got some downtime and I can do with it as I please. I don't know if I want to take time off or go pursue another directing job or find a movie to act in or, you know, do whatever I'm creatively inclined to pursue or wait, relax, enjoy my life. And then we start the Infinity War, I think, some time in the third quarter. Fall or winter of 2016. That's going to be like nine months to shoot both movies back to back".

Apple has reported its post-holiday quarter results, where we have seen the company pull in $58 billion in revenue, with a net profit of $13.6 billion. These numbers beat Wall Street expectations, with analysts begging Apple to report somewhere in between $52 billion and $55 billion in revenue.

During the same quarter of 2014, Apple made $45.6 billion in revenue with $10.2 billion in profits. So we can see a decent improvement year-over-year, with nearly an extra $13 billion in revenue and 30% increase in profits.

We know that Apple sold a huge 61.2 million iPhones during the quarter, which is the second highest number of iPhones sold in a single quarter to date. But, while iPhone sales continue to grow, iPad sales are dwindling. Apple sold just 12.6 million iPads during the three-month period, down from 16.4 million in the same quarter of 2014. Mac sales were also strong, with 4.6 million units being sold, up from the 4.1 million in the same quarter of last year.

Microsoft wants people to be excited about Windows 10, which will be available later this year for PCs, smartphones, and other devices. However, it looks like Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is especially excited about Cortana, the digital personal assistant currently available on Microsoft-powered smartphones.

Cortana is able to browse the Web, find things on a PC, remind users of calendar updates, and serve as the ultimate personal assistant. If used properly, Microsoft hopes Cortana will become a frequently used tool that can make interacting in the OS - and on the Internet - even easier.

"Cortana, that's perhaps the thing that's going to change personal productivity even most and especially with Windows 10 and how Cortana comes to Windows, both to the browser as well as to the Start [menu]," Sadella recently said during a financial analyst briefing. "I think it completely changes what personal productivity software means from a day-to-day experience."

Often referred to as the 'most intelligent man on Earth', Professor Stephen Hawking has told audiences in Australia that the future of humankind is grim if we don't master interplanetary travel by the end of the millennium.

From his office in Cambridge, Hawking appeared via hologram to sold-out crowds at Sydney's Opera House, telling crowds that he didn't "think we will survive another 1,000 years without escaping beyond our fragile planet... We must continue to go into space for the future of humanity". Hawking's comments echo many other respected scientists who urge authorities to prepare for the need to leave our big blue planet - a topic at the heart of the 2014 feature film 'Interstellar'.

In a lighter topic, Hawking also fielded a question on the "cosmological effect of Zayn leaving One Direction and consequently breaking the hearts of millions of teenage girls across the world", to which he replied "Finally, a question about something important" before delivering a response outlining the theory of an alternate universe where the boy band member stayed.

KAIST researchers in South Korea are working on creating a thermoelectric generator that can be used to help power wearable electronics. The team developed a glass fabric TE generator that is able to produce electricity based on heat created by the human body.

"Our technology presents an easy and simple way of fabricating an extremely flexible, light, and high-performance TE generator," said Byung Jin Cho, head of the KAIST research team, in a statement to the media. "We expect that this technology will find further applications in scale-up systems such as automobiles, factories, aircrafts, and vessels where we see abundant thermal energy being wasted."

There have been organic and inorganic material TE generators manufactured in the past, while Cho's team is interested in a new concept that is able to be flexible yet not lose much thermal energy. KAIST's design utilizes a self-sustaining structure that is able to accurately trap inorganic TE materials in between upper and lower substrates.

A new scientific report finds three out of four extremely hot days are caused by humans and greenhouse gases - and it's an important metric considering there is more talk regarding climate change.

Researchers took a look at one-tenth of one percent of hot days, picking the hottest and most extreme days - and used 25 computer models to find that these extreme weather days occurred once in three years, assuming there were no greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans. However, when the current level of greenhouse gases is included, the number jumps to four days.

"This new study helps get the actual probability or odds of human influence," said Jonathan Overpeck, climate scientist at the University of Arizona, in a statement published by the AP. "This is key: If you don't like hot temperature extremes that we're getting, you now know how you can reduce the odds of such events by reducing greenhouse gas emissions."

Seth McFarlane's 2012 debut feature film 'Ted', starring Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis was a huge success for Universal Studios, grossing over half a billion dollars on a $50 million budget. It's no surprise that a sequel is on the way, and today the studio have released a risque red band trailer for the film - but only if you're over 18....

This time around, Ted has given up his bachelor ways and married his girlfriend Tami-Lyn, but when the couple decide to expand the family, the oversize teddy bear must prove he is a human in the eyes of the low to retain custody of a child. Directed by 'Family Guy' and 'American Dad' creator Seth McFarlane the sequel returns stars Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis and adds Amanda Seyfried, Liam Neeson and Morgan Freeman.

'Ted 2' hits cinemas in Australia on June 25th, and on June 26th in the United States.

Halo 5: Guardians won't be available until this fall, but it looks like Microsoft Xbox One gamers can be excited about the possibility of picking up a limited edition Guardians Xbox One console.

"There is a limited edition console coming, yes. It hasn't been revealed yet, but it's pretty sweet," said Josh Holmes, studio head for Halo 5: Guardians, in a tweet posted yesterday (which has been deleted).

Details giving us additional information about single player, vehicles, weapons, and other game details remain unknown. However, Microsoft is enjoying the hype surrounding Halo 5, and while the company put together an Xbox One bundle for its Halo: The Master Chief Collection, nothing has been confirmed about a Guardians bundle just yet. Expect the title to receive attention during E3 2015 from Los Angeles in June.

Last week, Comcast dropped its effort to take over Time Warner Cable, as antitrust regulators and business watchdog groups showed their displeasure with the takeover attempt.

"Today, we move on," said Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast, following news of Comcast's decision to leave behind TWC. "Of course, we would have liked to bring our great products to new cities, but we structured this deal so that if the government didn't agree, we could walk away."

However, it looks like Charter Communications, the No. 4 largest cable company in the United States, is considering another effort to acquire TWC. Prior to Comcast's effort to purchase TWC last year for almost $159 per share, Charter offered $130 and $132 per share for TWC - which the company rejected.

Even though mobile malware targeting the Google Android operating system is increasing, actual infection rates are still relatively low, according to cybersecurity experts. Unfortunately, it looks like almost 1 out of every 5 Android apps were "malware in disguise," according to the newest Symantec Internet Security Threat Report.

Over one-third of all Android apps are "madware," or "grayware," designed to increase the number of ads that a mobile user sees. In addition, Symantec noted the first infection by mobile ransomware, which encrypts data on a victim's phone until a ransom is paid.

Android, the No. 1 mobile OS based on market share, has an open infrastructure that makes it even more flexible to use by each phone manufacturer - but also gives cybercriminals the ability to create better malicious apps.

There might be numerous instances of mobile malware in the wild, but the matter is overhyped and not as frightening as perceived, according to advanced threat detection firm Damballa. It turns out you're more likely to be struck by lightning than suffer a mobile malware infection.

In network traffic monitored in 2014, 9,688 of 151 million mobile devices tried to access black list domains from mobile devices. Mobile operators are focusing more on security for smartphones and tablets, which is making it more difficult for malicious apps to compromise devices.

"This research shows that mobile malware in the United States is very much like Ebola - harmful, but greatly over exaggerated, and contained to a limited percentage of the population that are engaging in behavior that puts them at risk for infection," said Charles Lever, senior scientific researcher at Damballa.

Exclusive: According to our industry sources, AMD has a few surprises in store for us when it comes to the Radeon R9 390X, and the other GPUs that will arrive with the Radeon 300 series.

Our source wouldn't elaborate, but they did say that the new Radeon R9 390X will arrive with specifications and possibly features that are different to what the rumors currently suggest. We've reported that the Radeon R9 390X would come with two versions; the 4GB and 8GB products with GDDR5 or High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM1) from SK Hynix. But, we've heard from other industry sources not long ago that there would be tight stock when the 390X launches, which could be caused by yield issues on HBM1. We've also reported that the R9 390X would arrive as a watercooled version, but now we're getting new information.

Something interesting that our source said, was that if HBM1 provides what it on paper should provide very easily, "NVIDIA are in trouble". Now, for what we know, there are only a few launches from NVIDIA for this year. First, the rumored GeForce GTX 980 Ti, which will be a cutdown GM200 GPU, the same found on the Titan X. Second, there's also news of NVIDIA allowing add-in board (AIB) partners to use aftermarket coolers on the Titan X, which will see a big injection of speed from Titan X cards from the likes of MSI, ASUS, and more.

The week is starting off quite well, with two rumors about AMD's upcoming video cards. The first was that the Radeon R9 390X should feature 8GB of HBM thanks to a "Dual Link Interposer" slapping two 4GB HBM stacks together, but the second rumor has us excited.

Reports have surfaced on the dual GPU from AMD, the Radeon R9 395X2. The Radeon R9 395X2 will most likely be unveiled later on in the year at its own event, but it is currently known as the "Fiji VR". An interesting name, but AMD has really doubled down on its VR investment, something we saw at the AMD event Down Under last month.

But the Radeon R9 395X2 is going to be quite the beast, with up to 16GB of stacked HBM, and its huge 4096-bit wide memory bus. We should expect up to 17 TFlops of performance, and two Fiji VR GPUs to drive its price up to around $1499. The big note to this is the Fiji VR codename, which should gel well with Liquid VR. This is something AMD was very open with last month, and something I think we're going to see much more of going into the second half of 2015, and even more so as we move into the New Year.

Rumors of the Radeon R9 390X are beginning to fly again as the new week begins, with reports suggesting that AMD will be slapping not just 4GB of HBM RAM onto its Fiji XT-powered VGA card, but 8GB of the deliciously-fast RAM. We've heard that there will be two versions of the Radeon R9 390X, with a watercooled variant to be unveiled, too.

The new reports suggest that AMD's new GPU will be using a dual link interposer, which will make 8GB of HBM possible on the Radeon R9 390X by stacking two 4-HI HBM components together, for a total of 8GB. AMD will be using SK Hynix's "Dual Link Interposer" to push 8GB of RAM onto the R9 390X, most likely in a move that has forced their hand thanks to the 12GB of framebuffer on the GM200-powered GeForce GTX Titan X from NVIDIA.

But, AMD will be using the next-gen HBM RAM to have a serious jump on its competitor, something that was previously unattainable with HBM1, and required HBM2. This is where the "Dual Link Interposer" comes into play, as it allows AMD to use 4GB of HBM, but just double-stack it for 8GB total.

With the original Gears of War coming out nearly 10 years ago now, news of a remaster for the Xbox One shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Especially since Microsoft acquired the Gears of War IP from Epic Games not too long ago, but now Splash Damage is reportedly behind the remaster of Gears of War for the Xbox One.

With news of a new Gears of War game coming soon teasing gamers, a remaster of what started it all makes sense. Back in March, Black Tusk studio boss Rod Fergusson told Polygon last month: "I love the passion, but there's no Marcus Fenix Collection. We ARE working on other exciting Gears projects. I'll see you at E3!".

Polygon is reporting that the Gears of War remaster will feature 60FPS multiplayer, which I'm sure will be in the singleplayer side of the game too. Here's hoping for a full 1080p 60FPS, considering how much faster the Xbox One is than the Xbox 360.

When Silent Hills started its very underground, but very vocal push into the market, it excited most people. It was fresh, completely new, and totally terrifying. But, it looks like we'll never see that game released.

Horror director Guillermo del Toro has told attendees at a film festival in San Francisco that Silent Hills "is not gonna happen", something he was co-directing with Hideo Kojima. He added that "it breaks my greasy heart", and my heart too, I might add. Norman Reedus, who plays Daryl on The Walking Dead, has said on Twitter "super bummed about this was really looking forward to it. Hopefully it'll come back around. Sorry everyone".

The game looks like it'll be completely disappearing, as it will P.T., the "playable teaser" of Silent Hills, will be removed from the PlayStation Network on April 30. With all of the issues that Hideo Kojima seems to be facing, I would dare say it was the controversy happening behind the scenes that led to the disappointing breakdown of Silent Hills.

We knew it was coming, but Activision and Treyarch have confirmed Call of Duty: Black Ops III. The 2015 version of Call of Duty will be playable at E3 2015 in June, and will feature a new movement system, which will make it feel more like Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, and Titanfall, than ever before.

Activision explains it as: "Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is a dark, gritty future where a new breed of Black Ops soldier emerges and the lines are blurred between our own humanity and the cutting-edge military robotics that define the future of combat".

There will be a Destiny-like multiplayer system with 9 specialists to play as, with each of them including two unique abilities. These abilities will include nice tricks like seeing through walls, or transforming your robot arm into a gun. Black Ops III players can choose their specialists, as well as one power to use before they begin the match. There are three multiplayer maps that are known at this point, these maps include:

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is less than one month from release, so what better way to continue cranking the last-minute marketing campaign than with new screenshots that show off the sheer beauty of what CD Projekt Red has created.

Level Designer on the game Miles Tost has posted some impressive new screenshots to Twitter, adding that the life bar fades out from the UI when it's not needed. In fact, most of the UI itself can be permanently disabled, which is a nice touch. Community & Website Coordinator, Marcin Momot, has also said that the screenshots we have here were taken on the PC, with a combination of high and ultra settings.

We know that there are over 100 hours of game time for The Witcher 3, with speedruns by internal testers taking over 25 hours to complete. Death can also be permanent in the game, if you want to play on the Dark side of things. The full game has a launch date of May 19, 2015 for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

We know that Red Dead Redemption 2 should be unveiled at E3 2015 for the Xbox One, PS4 and PC, but this recreation in Unreal Engine 4 is looking seriously nice. Check out some screenshots below.

The screenshots are courtesy of Polycount member 'Matt_Billeci', with a Red Dead Redemption inspired look at a saloon environment using Unreal Engine 4. He explains: "For a while now I have been working on a saloon interior that is inspired by the Red Dead series. I am going for a bit of a high-end saloon and I still have loads of work left to do. With this project, I really wanted to dive into the PBR workflow and UE4. Probably around 60 % of the textures in here have place holder textures. I had used some of Unreal's textures just to make sure that my lighting would bake out correctly. Most of everything is UVed/Lightmap UVed. The goal is to finish the rest of the those and get to texturing and creating a more dynamically lit scene. Any comments or critiques would be much appreciated!"

Google might not be pushing along with the first generation of its Glass product, but it looks like the company is still working on something Glass-like, by sending in a new "smart BLE" device through to the FCC for approval.

The A4R-CAP1 device has a few things that let us know it's a new wearable, such as the digital FCC label below looking just like the Glass interface cards, something that you see when you swipe across. This shows us that we should expect a touchstrip of some kind, just as Google Glass featured.

We could see another device that uses Glass-like navigation, but I think we're going to see the next iteration of Glass shown off at Google I/O in a couple of months time, what do you think?