Latest News - Page 2740

Destiny has been super successful for Activision and Bungie, with the former company investing some $500 million into it before things even kicked off. Well, gamers across the world are addicted, but I think we just found one that takes the cake.

'yavin427' has constructed himself a "servomechanism" that make meleeing automated, while the character in Destiny stands in one place. This leaves Yavin with the ability to open up an early Ocean of Storms level on the moon, and just let the 'robot' have at it. Enemies will rush the character, while the bot either performs a melee attack, or shoots until it dies. Once it has died, it will reload the level to that checkpoint, and let the character do it all over again.

This leaves Yavin to sleep and level up, and once he wakes up he enjoys the higher level, and all of the glorious weapon drops and experience rewards, all while he rests. Yavin took to Reddit, where he wrote: "Woke up this morning to a brand new 20! Had about 3600 kills, and 900 deaths (lol), and like 50 green engrams. I started at level 16.5 yesterday afternoon, and reached 20 sometime while I was asleep. With the armor I had waiting for him he is now a 26. Seems to be getting anywhere from 15 to 215 exp per run, depending on timing".

Leon Panetta previously served as the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and also the country's Secretary of Defense. According to a recent announcement, he's just made the move over to Oracle, joining their board of directors.

Set to be the 12th member on this board, he begun work as of yesterday - marking the beginning of his one-year term, before standing for re-election in November at Oracle's annual shareholder meeting.

Previously listed as the Secretary of Defense under the Barack Obama's leadership throughout 2011 to 2013, Panetta also saw a two-year employment through the CIA following his work as a presidential Professor at the Santa Clara University.

Late last year, many 'Star Wars' fans raised an eyebrow on the news that the creator of the franchise hasn't watched the trailer for JJ Abrams 'The Force Awakens', despite it smashing records worldwide as it hit the most viewed movie trailer of all time. Now, Lucas has revealed he has now seen it, but he didn't have that much to say about it.

Speaking to Page Six on the publicity trail for Lucasfilm and Disney (via the subsidiary Touchstone label) animated feature 'Strange Magic', Lucas was asked if he had now had a chance to check out the trailer for himself, to which he replied "I saw the trailer. I saw it in a theater because I don't watch movies online." When pressed on whether he liked it, he smiled and said "Yeah, it was intriguing."

It's not to imagine that Lucas sounds a bit like a man who is still somewhat struggling with the loss of a franchise he created and carried for 35 years.

It's had not one, but two false starts, but the Steve Jobs movie is finally a go and filming now underway, confirmed by CNET releasing pictures from the movie's set.

Dropped by Sony Pictures late last year, the project was put into turn around and promptly picked up by Universal Pictures and production fast tracked, with filming now started at the original location of Steve Jobs childhood home. Whilst the studio has not yet announced who will be playing the Apple co-founder, word is that he will be played by 'X-Men: Days of Future Past' and 'Prometheus' star Michael Fassbender. Seth Rogen is said to be playing Steve Wozniak.

'Steve Jobs' is due for release in late 2016.

A lot of us don't have the time, energy or skill-set to complete our very own high-end custom modified system. There's no shame in picking up a pre-loved system for yourself and that's exactly what we're talking about with this article.

Wae Waefamily is looking to offload this kick-ass system, complete with an EVGA 780ti, and a massive 1TB data-storage SSD, this system isn't for the faint of heart - built to post a striking presence no matter where it lay.

It's currently listed for £2,500 ($3,780 US) complete with the 1TB SSD or as £2,200 ($3,325 US) without - this build certainly isn't feature packed with copious amounts of tech, but it's still going to play any games you want at respectable resolutions and frame-rates for months to come.

Microsoft will show off more details regarding its upcoming Windows 10 operating system later this week, as partners, corporate clients, and consumers wait patiently. There is a renewed optimism that the desktop and laptop will have a proper next-generation operating system, but Microsoft hopes Windows 10 will succeed where it has struggled the most - in the mobile space, powering smartphones and tablets.

Microsoft has less than three percent of the global phone market OS - and won't be able to catch up to Google Android or Apple iOS anytime soon - but just a larger chunk of the market would be valuable in itself.

Even with mobile potential of Windows 10, Microsoft opened up Office for Android and iOS devices, along with enhancing developer tools for other mobile OSes. Both steps are important, but a seamless OS between mobile, laptops, and PCs could give Microsoft a major advantage that it has been unable to create for years.

If you're in the market for a new case, HEX GEAR has just announced a mere six hours ago that their new R40 case will have both mATX and reverse mATX support.

This will allow consumers to switch between the two modes without any modding taking place, further adding to case versatility, features and build options. On top of this, their case look awesome - giving me somewhat of a 'modded Fractal' type feel, by taking the nice simplistic and elegant Fractal design, then spicing it up with some accents.

You may not have heard of this company before, so you can read more about HEX GEAR on their official website if you wish.

Sir Patrick Stewart, known best to audiences as Captain Picard on 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' and Professor X in the 'X-Men' movie franchise, has been somewhat of a lucky charm for the series, having appeared in all the films and spin-offs except for 2011's 'X-Men: First Class'. Well, it now looks that Stewart and co-star Ian McKellen will be sitting out the next X adventure; 'Apocalypse'.

Interviewed by Larry King (via Yahoo! News), Stewart was asked whether he would return, and gave a very forthright answer:

'X-Men: Apocalypse' will hit US theatres on May 27, 2016 and looks to return the complete cast of younger X-Men characters, including Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy, and may also feature the debut of Channing Tatum as Gambit.

Diablo 3 gamers are reporting problems with "major lag" while trying to play online, with the issue first surfacing over the weekend.

"We've been asked to collect some information for our network engineers on this issue," a Blizzard support rep said in a Battle.Net forum thread. "We'd like to have your trace route info when you trace to 12.168.209.68. We'd also like to see the results when you run our Looking Glass utility to see the return path of the trace from Blizzard to you."

Blizzard also wants gamers to identify their ISP and geographic location when reporting data in the public thread. With that information, Blizzard engineers will work as quickly as possible to solve gamer lag problems.

Facebook has released some of their software to the Torch Open Source group. Torch focuses on providing deep learning software. Deep learning software mimics brain function and is a key component to artificial intelligence programs. These programs are used to analyze large amounts of information in search of patterns, which it can then use to make predictions.

Torch speeds pattern recognition by up to 23.5 times. Facebook, and other web titans such as Google, Microsoft, and Twitter, use Torch to predict image contents and to place ads. Torch also has other uses, such as recognizing physical objects and for question answering programs. For instance, "The Lord of the Rings" novels were loaded into Torch, and Torch allows the computer to understand and answer questions about the book.

Speech recognition software also benefits from deep learning analysis, and new functions are under development that will predict the users intentions when they enter an internet search. The tools Facebook is donating will be used to speed training of multiple computer processors simultaneously.

Despite a high-quality screener version of "American Sniper" hitting the Internet days before the film's box office release, the movie still grossed $90.2 million from Friday to Sunday - the most successful opening weekend between December and February.

It's hard to estimate what role piracy could have had on the box office, as some viewers likely skipped the theater when they found the online version. However, it is possible people impressed after watching the film used word-of-mouth to help tell friends and family how good the movie is.

The film features Bradley Cooper portraying Chris Kyle, a former Navy SEAL and most prolific sniper in US military history, and Sienna Miller serving as Kyle's wife. Kyle survived four tours of service in Iraq, and was murdered on a Texas gun range by a fellow veteran. The Clint Eastwood-directed film has generated a high amount of controversy, though has the support of Kyle's wife and military members.

Not surprisingly, President Barack Obama has sided with UK Prime Minister David Cameron's demand that computer companies provide a backdoor to governments, even of encrypted communications. The US government has relied on a mix of warrants, wiretaps and direct access from technology companies so they have access to phone calls, social media, and other communications.

Simply demanding access to encrypted communication isn't worthwhile, so Obama played to emotions with his justification: "If we find evidence of a terrorist plot... and despite having a phone number, despite having a social media address or email address, we can't penetrate that, that's a problem," Obama recently said.

Obama wants to ensure a way to keep data private from cybercriminals, but not from police authorities and federal investigators.

The FBI and other US government departments want to recruit cybersecurity specialists, while the private sector also is throwing big money at qualified job candidates. To help fill this jobs void, a growing number of universities are creating programs to develop the next wave of security specialists.

Cybersecurity jobs soared 74 percent from 2007 to 2013, and there are a number of appealing opportunities for candidates. With such fierce competition for the current crop of security specialists, universities are broadening security-themed offerings from one or two courses to minor and major programs, or certifications.

"The demand is very high. I've had students get into cyberspace companies with just one security class, never mind an entire major," said Kenneth Knapp, IT management professor at University of Tampa and head of its cybersecurity program. "With all of the high-profile breaches over this last year or so, more focus has been on security than I've ever seen, and I've been doing it since I was 21 years old in the Air Force."

Smartphones are virtually everywhere in the United States, and some banks are rolling out "cardless cash" ATMs that dispense money to consumers using their smartphones.

Wintrust Financial pairs its mobile app with the ATM, so consumers choose how much money they want to withdraw, sign into the mobile app using a four-digit PIN or password, and select the cardless cash option. From there, they touch the "cardless cash" button on the ATM screen, scan a QR code, click submit, and the ATM will provide the funds. Consumers only need to touch the ATM screen once - and provides a faster, streamlined option than inserting an ATM card.

"We anticipate the increasing convergence of ATMs and mobile banking," according to Mercator Advisory Group's "2015 Outlook: Banking Channels" report. Early testing reveals no significant problems - and if the smartphone is lost or stolen - the criminal would need a PIN/password to unlock the device, and know the password for the mobile app.

As more private drone operators take to the skies for the first time in 2015, privacy concerns appear to be at an all-time high. Drone Labs recently introduced its Drone Detector solution, alerting users to a drone's presence - able to detect recreational and commercial drones. Instead of using acoustics-based solutions, the Drone Detector uses multi-factor authentication to identify a drone's presence.

"To be clear, most [drone] pilots are responsible, law-abiding people," said Zain Naboulsi, co-founder and CEO of Drone Labs. "We [at Drone Labs] are drone pilots ourselves. Unfortunately there are some bad pilots out there who don't follow the rules. We are committed to protecting people from unwanted drone invasions."

The FAA estimates up to 30,000 commercial drones flying by 2030 over the United States, but hasn't estimated the number of private drones.

Chinese cybercriminals stole data related to the B-2 stealth bomber, F-22 Raptor, a nuclear submarine, and Australia's new F-35 Lighting II aircraft, according to data taken by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The Australian government plans to purchase 58 F-35 fighter jets for $12 billion, which will bring its JSF fleet up to 72 total.

Using a mix of its own research and development, along with data stolen from western political rivals, China continues to develop its own Shenyang J-31 and Chengdu J-20 aircraft. The J-31 is the most advanced Chinese fighter jet, while the J-20 is the country's first effort to develop a stealth fighter.

The Chinese government has been accused on numerous occasions of running sophisticated cyberespionage attacks against the United States - and its key allies - to steal software code, hardware designs, and military technology.

It would appear the National Security Agency (NSA) is responsible for breaching North Korea's computer systems years ago, before North Korea's alleged role in attacking Sony Pictures. With help from select allies, the NSA targeted North Korea's links to the outside world, such as China and Malaysia.

US security officials installed malware so they were able to monitor the online movements of North Korea's Bureau 121 hackers - a group growing in sophistication - as cyberespionage becomes more popular.

When the FBI was so quick to conclude North Korea was responsible for attacking SPE in late 2014, the cybersecurity industry was skeptical. FBI Director James Comey previously said the hackers got sloppy and forgot to mask their IP addresses. "We could see that the IP [Internet protocol] addresses that were being used to post and to send the emails were coming from IPs that were exclusively used by the North Koreans."

Microsoft Xbox One gamers can now sign up for the Neverwinter closed beta, beginning on February 5 and running for just three days, according to Perfect World Entertainment. Gamers are required to have an Xbox Live Gold subscription to play the title.

Neverwinter is scheduled to launch sometime during early 2015, and is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). "Consoles are a perfect fit for action-oriented MMORPGs like Neverwinter, and we are thrilled to be one of the first publishers to bring premium free-to-play titles to leading next-gen platforms," said Alan Chen, CEO of Perfect World, in a statement.

Neverwinter originally launched on the PC in 2013, with the Tyranny of Dragons expansion released in August 2014.

We've dug a little into the archives for this one. Too often do you see manufacturers and media outlets promoting, publishing and discussing crazily modified and custom-built computer systems, featuring hundreds of dollars worth of specialized water cooling loops, between two and four video cards and more SSD storage than most have HDD space on their personal rigs.

So why not combat that by sharing something that even I can do - meaning it has to be pretty simple! Back in 2013, GGF LAN produced a promotional build for Thermaltake Australia - this was to show off their new Core V71 case and a simple 'extreme rig' build that anyone could complete to help them play any current-generation games, at respectable graphical settings, with a decent frame rate.

In order to do this, Stuart Tonks threw an Intel 3690x @ 4.5GHz together with an ASUS ROG Mars GTX 760 and two Kingston HyperX 120GB SSD's. Once again, this certainly wasn't the cheapest build on offer, however it was something realistic that people with a little spare money to throw around could obtain.

LG Australia has told customers today that G3 owners should expect their Android 5.0 Lollipop updates to begin appearing as soon as the 23rd of January, with this model being one of many to finally get the latest OS release.

Set as a staged roll-out, users will see their phone receiving update capabilities ranging from the 23rd of January right through until late February, so if you're not on the of the first to get it, don't be worried.

Android 5.0 Lollipop has been toted by many as a new major advancement in the Android Operating System, claiming that this is their first foray into 'real' design, with some claiming that this is directly fighting against Apple's swanky offerings, animations and little tricks.