Latest News - Page 2707

It's been a rough few months for the CS:GO community, seeing six top figures from the North American and Canadian scene get pinned with match-fixing, a betting ring scandal and then a plethora of bans from almost-all major tournaments across the globe.

In unusual fashion, even Valve spoke up - damning the betting ring and match-fixing, personally banning the players involved from all future Valve major events.

One of the players involved in this scandal was 17-year-old Braxton Pierce - gamer name 'swag'. Name aside, he first hit it big in the North American Counter Strike 1.6 scene where he competed in many top level tournaments at the ripe old age of 15, often surpassing many players 10 years his senior and proving himself as a major player to watch in the future.

As of today, YouTube will now default to HTML5 video on your web browser when available - if not, Flash will still be used. This is said to promote faster video loading, better compression and smoother frame rates.

Flash was was seen on almost every major website, providing a once-new aged feel and expansive additions to various companies who loved to auto-play music, display animations and provide interactive experiences. Now these features are long gone, along with Flash and their default integration with the massive online streaming service, YouTube.

Explained as a four-year development cycle, HTML5 will enable YouTube videos to load "15 to 80 percent" faster due to this process including updates for MediaSource extensions, enabling ABR and the potential for time-shifted live video broadcasts. This HTML5 inclusion supports Ultra HD and 60 frames per second streaming, hinging on Google's open-source VP9 codec - often known as WebM. WebM is said to continue the video quality trend of H.264, but will reduce bandwidth requirements by 35 percent as explained by Gizmodo.

When Valve launched Steam Workshop, I don't think most people could have imagined it would grow this large. Well, it has continued to grow and there's no signs of it stopping, with the company announcing it has given out over $57 million to content creators since 2011.

Creators of in-game content for titles like Team Fortress 2, DOTA 2, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive have made quite a lot of money over the years, with over 1500 creators in 75 different countries. Valve has also announced that it has curated Workshops opening for two non-Valve games which will allow gamers to purchase in-game items for Dungeon Defenders: Eternity and Chivalry: Medieval Warfare.

Valve has also added that "We expect more curated Workshops to become available for creators and players in various games over the coming weeks and months". The company also teased that it would soon be releasing new tools for these content creators, something that will allow them to keep track of their sales, for both individual items and overall, both in real-time.

It looks like LG is about to jump ahead of the competition with an impressive successor to its flexible OLED displays, which will have double the bending radius. Right now we have 2.95-inch (or 30mm), but the new displays will flex much more, right up to an insane 1.18-inch (or 75mm).

Not only will the new screens be much more flexible, but they'll be shatter-proof, too. This is thanks to LG adopting a "true flexible" plastic OLED display instead of using glass. Tech spec wise, this is what we can expect: 60lm/W efficiency, 75lm (807 nits) peak brightness output, 3000K in color temperature, and CRI over 85.

What devices will these new all-plastic flexible OLEDs be going into? We don't know just yet, but we could expect the G Flex 3, G4 and many other devices. Maybe a new wearable, too.

According to Qualcomm's Q4 earnings release, we have learned a few things. We've seen that the chip giant has revised its profits estimations to between $26 billion and $28 billion, compared to $26.8 billion and $28.8 billion.

But, it was something else stated in this release, that should have people opening their eyes. The company said "Expectations that our Snapdragon 810 processor will not be in the upcoming design cycle of a large customer's flagship device". We would dare say that this would be the Samsung Galaxy S6 not using its Snapdragon 810 processor, with the South Korean giant being a "large customer", something most could agree on.

We know that AMD will be announcing and then launching its Radeon R9 300 series, but the latest video could be a very big tease of an imminent announcement, we hope. Take a look at AMD's 'The Fixer 3' teaser below.

It really is just a teaser, as it shows off absolutely nothing. A man is walking away from the camera holding a Radeon video card of some sort, with the "The FIX3R" showing up on the screen. We have already seen Fixer 1 and Fixer 2, so the Fixer 3 could be totally unrelated to the Radeon R9 300 series, but there's still hope.

We know that AMD will be launching its Radeon R9 300 series in Q2 2015, so we should expect AMD to begin its marketing machine in the coming weeks and months, for sure.

Dying Light launched yesterday, but it looks like the PC version is filled with various performance-related issues, as most games are these days that are multi-platform.

Techland has been seeing Dying Light gamers experience random crashes and stuttering issues, low FPS or FPS drops, sound stuttering or noise and sound lag issues, DLL crashes on startup of "DyingLight.exe has stopped working", SLI problems, and even a total failure of starting the game itself. There are various things you can do to get around these issues, but I think there's a bigger issue at hand here: why are these problems here in the first place?

Dying Light isn't a small game on Early Access (which if it was, it would probably not have 75% of these issues). But, if you need to get it working and you're experiencing these issues, you're going to have to do some work to get it working.

Nintendo has posted its latest financial report, where we can see just how successful its consoles and handhelds are. Starting with the New 3DS, it has helped Nintendo push the "3DS family" over the 50 million mark.

This is all while the New 3DS hasn't even launched in the United States or Europe, with these sales scooting along in Japan and Australia for now. When it comes to the Wii U console, Nintendo pushed 1.91 million units during the holiday quarter, while Wii U sales are sitting at a total of 9.2 million systems. Wii U software sales are sitting at 52.87 million.

Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. were big sellers for Nintendo across 2014, with Mario Kart 8 selling 4.77 million units while Super Smash Bros. sold a nice 3.39 million units. In total, New Super Smash Bros. had sold 4.16 million units.

Count Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates as a fan of the HoloLens technology Microsoft recently showed off, though said it will take a few years of development. Speaking during a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" chat, this marked the first public statement Gates had regarding the emerging technology.

"The HoloLens is pretty amazing," Gates recently said. "Microsoft has put a lot into the chips and the software. It is the start of virtual reality. Making the device so you don't get dizzy or nauseous is really hard - the speed of the alignment has to be super, super fast. It will take a few years of software applications being built to realize the full promise of this."

Both augmented reality and virtual reality have seen numerous breakthroughs in recent years, but there are a number of challenges both technologies face. Microsoft says there is nothing like HoloLens currently available, and the headset won't directly compete with Oculus Rift, Project Morpheus or other VR headsets being developed.

The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is currently engaged in a widespread license plate reader program nationwide, and millions of license plates have been collected, according to a report from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The campaign started in 2008 and focused on taking pictures of vehicles, occupants and license plates, in an effort to identify and better track suspected criminals smuggling drugs and money to and from Mexico.

"It's not the kind of information government should be compiling," said Jay Stanley, a policy analyst for the ACLU, in a statement to the media. "Location data is very powerful information."

The following states were targeted, based on popular drug smuggling routes on highways: California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas, Georgia, Florida and New Jersey. Once collected and archived, the DEA shared information with local and state policy officials. Data was stored on record for two years until 2012, when program officials dropped it down to six months, the ACLU report found.

Microsoft clearly is excited about the potential for its HoloLens platform to succeed in gaming, with Xbox boss Phil Spencer and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella both promoting how augmented reality can boost the gaming experience. Microsoft hasn't disclosed gaming projects for its HoloLens platform, but gaming is expected to be a major effort to help push AR mainstream.

"It's also getting clearer how the games people love today will evolve to mind-blowing experiences in the future when designed for the mixed reality that Windows 10 and HoloLens create," Nadella said during a Microsoft financial call. "Just imagine what is possible with Minecraft. Gaming truly is a valuable part of millions of people's lives and Microsoft will excel and increase our lead."

The HoloLens headset and Windows Holographic platform can be paired with video games to provide a unique environment - while Microsoft and Mojang have already created two HoloLens demonstrations that they look forward to launching.

Professor Stephen Hawking and other leading experts might be concerned that artificial intelligence could pose a threat to mankind - but don't count Microsoft Research chief Eric Horvitz as one of the skeptics. Instead, Horvitz believes AI will be extremely beneficial to humans in the long-term, as AI research ramps up.

"There have been concerns about the long-term prospect that we lose control of certain kinds of intelligences," Horvitz said in a statement to BBC. "I fundamentally don't think that's going to happen. I think that we will be very proactive in terms of how we field AI systems, and that in the end we'll be able to get incredible benefits from machine intelligence in all realms of life, from science to education to economics to daily life."

Microsoft has more than 1,000 scientists and engineers engaged in projects with its research department, and Horvitz disclosed a quarter of resources and focus are dedicated to AI-based projects.

Ideum has launched a new line of smart tables that will run either Windows or Android operating systems, and users can switch between the operating systems easily. The Duet smart tables are available in 42 and 46-inch models, and they support a standard 1080p resolution. The tables support up to 60 simultaneous touch points in Windows 8, and 12 touchpoints with Android. The table itself is built with aircraft aluminum and cold rolled steel, and the screen has an anti-glare coating.

The tabletop is only 2.4 inches thick and has a slim bezel on top. Internally the table features two independent computers that run different operating systems, and users can switch via a hardware or software switch on the table. For Android use the table sports a 2.0Ghz Rockchip RK3288 with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage to power KitKat 4.4.

The table runs two different processors for Windows 8, depending upon the size of the table. A 3.2Ghz i5-4570R with onboard graphics, 8GB of RAM, and a 256 GB SSD, powers the 42 inch version. The 46-inch version is powered by a 3.5Ghz i7-4710 with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, but also employs a beefy NVIDIA GTX 760 CPU.

Ubisoft isn't going to win many customer appreciation awards with their recent move to ban game key licenses purchased through third-party key resellers. Sites such as G2A and Kinguin (among others) buy license keys in countries where prices are lower, then offer them for sale globally. Ubisoft isn't appreciative of the practice, so they took the step of wantonly deploying the Ubisoft Banhammer and revoking the keys. The problem with this approach is that it punishes the customer, instead of pursuing litigation or other methods against the resellers. In many cases, the user who purchased the key is unaware there is an issue with the practice.

G2A has taken to Facebook to respond, and first denied involvement in any wrongdoing, and then offered refunds on all keys purchased with G2A Shield. It is important to note that only G2A Shield customers are protected, and that other situations will be decided individually.

"As some of you may already know, steps have been taken to remove games purchased indirectly from a publisher, via main marketplaces in the web. G2A.COM is not in any case responsible for any of these procedures. However, we are well aware of this process and will do everything possible to compensate for that. For users who have made transactions without G2A Shield, we will check if the corresponding merchant was responsible for the withdrawal of the code. If so, these users will get a compensation. Any user who used G2A Shield affected by the current process will get either a new code for the game or the money back. G2A.COM will make every possible exertion to prevent this kind of procedures in the future and exclude merchants responsible for such incidents from the marketplace."

We are lucky enough here at TweakTown to be on the cutting edge of storage devices, and right now the bleeding edge is currently NVMe (Covered in our Defining NVMe article). As part of our standard testing, and also for daily operating system usage, we have been using NVMe SSDs for some time. The only problem has been spotty boot support. We have went through a merry-go-round of various motherboards to find models that will actually support booting an NVMe device, as none are officially certified as NVMe compatible...until now.

MSI has announced they are in fact the first consumer motherboard manufacturer to fully support NVMe. The compatible motherboards are confined to the 9 series chipset, but encompass the X99, Z97, and H97 models. Current users can head over to MSI to find a BIOS update for their motherboard that enables the functionality.

The new BIOS revisions support NVMe devices in Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 in 64-bit flavors. They also fully support booting from NVMe devices. Consumer-oriented NVMe devices are still in the pipeline and yet to be released. However, bleeding-edge enterprise devices can be used in a desktop environment if one has the cash to spare, so check out a review by our RAID expert Jon Coulter in standard desktop usage in his Intel DC P3700 800GB NVMe vs. Intel 730 Series SATA SSD RAID Report.

Hackers hijacked Taylor Swift's Twitter and Instagram accounts today, threatening to release naked pictures of the popular singer. Swift has bitten back, announcing on her Twitter that there are no 'nudes' to be had and the only way they could 'uncover' anything would be to use Photoshop.

After stating that her Twitter had been compromised though Tumblr, she later announced that her Instagram had also fallen victim. People are questioning if the superstar has been using the same password for multiple social media accounts, as it's uncommon to see a small amount of accounts compromised like this - usually its a singular service taken or its everything in one go.

The hacker-made tweets have now been deleted from her account and everything has gone back to normal. Seemingly Swift has been able to shake it off quite well - laughing in the face of the hackers.

We've already been warned of one major issue with smartwatch usage - Not only do the manufacturers all seemingly list a nightly-charge routine, but it seems likely that these devices will barely last a full working day idling without requiring a charging cable to be used.

Obviously this isn't optimal, with users often charging their smartphones daily alongside other portable devices including tablets. Apple have been reportedly aiming for a 19-hour window, alongside 2.5 to 4 hours when in constant use. This is a stark contrast to ASUS, who are apparently going to use a simplified chipset and mobile operating system to ensure extended use.

ASUS chairman Jonney Shih has proudly stated "the ZenWatch is defined by us as a companion of a smartphone, and we think it still has a lot of room for improvement," further commenting that "as a companion device, its central processing unit and operating system should be more simplified than the current version, so that I can use it for up to seven days on one charge, rather than for just two days."

According to Nikkei business daily, Sony is planning to cut another 1,000 workers from their mobile division in order to bring it back to profitability.

These layoffs are said to affect the European and Chinese branches, with the cuts expected to be made public knowledge soon as part of an announced restructuring plan. Rumors state that this information will be brought to light on February the 4th, during their quarterly result report.

After acquiring Sony Ericsson fully in 2012, Sony has been on the warpath to increase their smartphone operations with limited success. Q3 2013 results for Sony reported sales of $2.8 billion, showing a small 1 percent rise. This was coupled with reports that then mentioned Sony was thrown $27.56 billion into the red thanks to a "large write-off in the perceived value of the company's brand" as explained by PC World.

With over 50,000 current downloads, this free medical app for the Android platform is called Sleeping pills. Stated by their staff to send you to sleep in 10 minutes without the aide of tablets or special training, it's based on yoga breathing methods.

Released in January, this app is free and has just seen an iOS release - both versions are available in 25 different languages.

It's not some kind of wizardry, their press release claims that the app works by sending a beam of light to your ceiling. This light becomes brighter and darker, pulsating slowly. You must then match your breathing with the light pulsations, allowing for the production of cortisol to cease and for you to fall asleep.

Researchers have now apparently solved the small issue of lithium-ion batteries having the possibility of catching fire or exploding. This has been achieved by using a material derived from Kevlar to insulate specific parts of the device that are responsible for storage and discharge of energy.

Leaks within these walls can cause short circuits followed by fire or explosions, however Kevlar is a tough customer. With the ability to stop some bullets from penetrating human skin, the researchers have used it to bar leaks in batteries with great success. These batteries will be first used in robots and military services, seeing them later come over to laptops, tablets, smartphones, electric cars and various other household goods as according to Dan VanderLey, the CIO and co-founder of Elegus Technologies - a startup that's attempting to commercialize this finding.

Wondering how lithium-ion batteries actually work? PC World stated in their recent article that "lithium-ion batteries have two electrodes and an electrolyte fluid that allows the lithium ions to flow between them. They're separated currently by a film of polyethylene or polypropylene, but it's porous and if material passes through it a short circuit can result."