Latest News - Page 2989

Google have just pushed out Chrome 26 in beta form, which includes improved spell checking abilities with updated dictionaries and added support for Korean, Tamil and Albanian. You can also sync custom dictionaries across multiple devices.

Added dictionaries aren't the only things Chrome 26 receives, support for grammar, homonym and context-sensitive checking, which is the same technology we see baked into Google search and Docs. The improved engine will correct proper nouns, such as the misspelling of Stephen Spielberg - whereas "Steven" is the correct way of spelling his name. This feature is currently locked to English users who have to enable the "Ask Google for suggestions" spell check option.

Other changes include:

Last week, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer pissed off a bunch of her employees by banning them from working remotely. Working from home can be great for some people, but now if you did that at Yahoo, you'll have to completely change your day-to-day life and work at a Yahoo office.

Jackie Reses, Yahoo's Human Resources boss, sent a memo out, advising that all remote employees would need to be working in Yahoo offices by June. This will mostly affect parents of young children, where working from home can be a massive benefit. Where it gets weird, is that Mayer herself had a child last year, and is a CEO of one of the biggest companies in the world - so how does she do it? How does she balance the trials and tribulations of motherhood, with the responsibilities of being a CEO?

Well, she builds her own nursery in her office, that's how! This will not bode well with mothers at Yahoo who currently work remotely, and so they should be upset. If it's good for Mayer, and not for them, what does that mean for working parents at Yahoo? Why not just build a nursery and staff it within Yahoo to keep everyone happy? I know that's what I'd do - keep your employees happy, at all costs.

We've heard so much about the PlayStation 4 in the last week or so, but what about the cost of games? Surely these next-gen games cost more to develop? Yes, yes they do, and that cost will see games rise by 5-10% at launch, thanks to the higher development costs on the PS4.

The news comes from EA's latest investor call, where the company's Chief Financial Officer, Blake Jorgensen, stated that there will be a 5-10% increase in development costs for PS4 titles. This means we should expect to see PS4 titles priced at $69.99 at launch, where over time, they'll eventually fall down to $59.99. In order to back this up, EA's Chief Technology Officer, Rajat Taneja, has said that PS4 games will be capable of 8-10 times the graphic capabilities of current-gen games, where we'll see games in 1080p at 60fps.

One last surprise, Taneja also said that he's seen Battlefield 4 and that "it's stunning."

If you thought THQ had sold everything they owned when we first reported on the case, you were wrong, as they still have plenty to get rid of. The remaining franchises that THQ own are now being sold as part of a "court-approved sales process".

This court-approved sale is getting rid of THQ properties such as Darksiders, Homeworld, Red Faction and Destroy All Humans! If you want to get in quick, the final bids on the properties are due no later than April 15. THQ have said that they've already received over "100 expressions of interest" regarding "various titles" they still hold the rights to. There will be six items to be sold off, with four properties available individually, and two "bundle" deals, one for internal properties, the other for licensed IP.

The games to be sold separately include Darksiders, Homeworld, MX and Red Faction. The internal bundle will include Big Beach Sports, Destroy All Humans!, Summoner and "more". Marvel Super Hero, Supreme Commander, Worms and "more" will be included in the licensed bundle.

I'm pretty excited about the PlayStation 4, mainly because it's going to give the PC a much needed injection of next-gen games instead of sub-par ports. Ubisoft were asked what they wanted the PlayStation 4 to be like, with Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot telling Kotaku last week:

Ubisoft's reply was something we all wanted to hear, with some of us expecting it:

EA has sat down with VentureBeat to talk about a future of gaming with EA under a single identity across multiple platforms, even if that platform is Xbox 360, iOS, or Mac. This move will see EA follow gamers across all platforms, where they can track their activity and even move into new business models that would better target consumers. EA's chief technology officer, Rajat Taneja, said:

All of this is the work of 1500 engineers, and more than 18 months of pure time. It's all part of a major investment that EA chief executive John Riccitiello has made, in order to help the company bridge from being just a game publisher, to a multi-platform digital games company.

Last week I wrote about a copyright activist group called The Rights Alliance who planned on suing the Swedish Pirate Party for its role in hosting the infamous torrent search site The Pirate Bay. All initial indications alluded to the Pirate Party standing its ground, but I guess the old saying "when the going gets tough, the tough get going", is true.

Rights Alliance Group is backed by all the major Hollywood studios, and therefore has virtually unlimited monetary resources and an entire army of lawyers who are just itching to rack up thousands of billable hours. The Swedish Pirate Party knows this and they did what they had to do to survive.

The Pirate Bay has been handed off to not one, but two Pirate Parties in separate countries: Norway and Catalonia, a small country within the borders of Spain. Swedish Pirate Party officials said that they knew that the resources backing Rights Alliance were simply too massive for them to go head to head with, and that they did what they deemed necessary to ensure that The Pirate Bay lives on.

Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) has been available for Windows 8 since the OS launch, but Windows 7 users were stuck with IE9 until now. This morning Microsoft released Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7, which brings forth greater support for HTML5, improved speed and better privacy protection for users.

IE10 is said to be about 20% faster than its predecessor IE9, and utilizes DirectX 11 for the browser's graphics hardware acceleration speed-ups. HTML5 support is improved by more than 60% bringing forth a wealth of new feature rich web elements that developers will be sure to take advantage of.

Another feature worth noting is that Do Not Track is enabled by default. This feature blocks certain sites from tracking your browsing habits, such as Google who uses your browsing history to serve up targeted ads. Users must be running Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 installed in order to install Internet Explorer 10. You can download IE10 from the source link below.

Wireless charging of mobile devices is the next big thing, and we will definitely see more of it this year. Foreseeing the future, LG has released a tiny yet powerful wireless charging base.

Being billed as the "world's smallest" wireless charging device, the WCP-300 is a 6.9cm, round little pad that is compatible with any standard 5-pin micro-USB charger. Unfortunately at the moment there are only two devices available in the US that support wireless charging: the LG Spectrum and the Nexus 4.

The recently announced LG Optimus G Pro will support wireless charging as well as a few other smartphones released this week at the Mobile World Congress. The WCP-300 will hit shelves in South Korea next week with a worldwide roll-out to follow. MSRP is said to be $60 USD, but that number is unofficial.

Today Micron is unveiling their new P410m SSD. This is Micron's first SAS SSD, and is designed for data center servers and storage platforms. Providing a SAS solution rounds out Micron's impressive portfolio of enterprise SSDs. This new SAS SSD comes hot on the heels of the, mainstream SATA P400m, the entry level SATA P400e, and the high end PCIe P320h. A quick click of each link will take you to our full product evaluations of the entire Micron Enterprise SSD line of products.

The P410m adds another facet to the Micron line of products by providing a high endurance 25nm MLC SSD for SAS customers. The robust feature set of SAS is rooted in its early origins in aircraft, providing bulletproof reliability in an environment that requires always-on accessibility. The P410m features SAS's standard dual-port functionality which provides multipath and failover capability.

This 25nm MLC NAND SSD provides surprising endurance from standard MLC, with up to 10 full drive writes per day for five years. This provides an overall endurance of up to 7PB of lifetime data written to the drive depending upon the capacity utilized. Micron is backing up this endurance promise with a five-year warranty for this new product. The P400m comes in a slim 7mm form factor with capacities available in 100GB, 200GB and 400GB. The P400m is already validated through several key OEM partners and is available for immediate purchase.

Dell have updated their Latitude 10, releasing the "Enhanced Security" version of their 10.1-inch slate. Dell's updated Latitude 10 Enhanced Security is the only dual-authentication Windows 8-based tablet on the block, providing an integrated SmartCard and fingerprint reader.

If you thought they were the only two security measures, the tablet boasts Dell Data Protection, Trusted Platform Module 1.2, Microsoft BitLocker full-drive encryption, Computrace, and a Noble Lock slot. Inside the updated Latitude 10 Enhanced Security we find the aforementioned 10.1-inch 1366x768 IPS display with five-finger touch support and Gorilla Glass, an Intel Atom Z2760, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, 64GB SSD, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, HSPA+ support, a 720p front-facing camera backed up by an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and finally, a swappable 30Whr battery.

As for price, it is $200 more than the standard Latitude 10, at $779. Dell have also mande a point of their testing with Principled Technologies, which compared how easy it was to implement the Latitude 10 against the iPad in large scale environments. Their testing reported that the Latitude 10 is 17% faster and 94% less expensive to deploy, saving an incredible 580 hours in system preparation and installing applications.

Direct from Mobile World Congress, Sony have announced that their latest smartphone and tablet, the Xperia Z and Xperia Tablet Z respectively, will launch globally on March 1. Yes, globally - not just a localized launch, but a complete global launch.

Sony's Tablet Z sports a nice 1920x1200 display, Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 Pro processor and 2GB of RAM. It'll launch with Android 4.1 but Sony have noted that it will be upgraded to Android 4.2 in the near future. Sony are also pushing the Tablet Z as the thinnest tablet on the market, and it is both water- and dust-proof, just like the Xperia Z.

Upon launch, the Tablet Z will see a few first-party accessories, such as a charging dock and leather carrying case.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is set to offer their highest accolade to an individual in recognition of an outstanding and exceptional contribution to games, the Fellowship. The recipient? Valve CEO Gabe Newell. When Newell found out he was to be donned with the award, he said:

Chair of BAFTA's Games Committee, Harvey Elliott, said:

We reported a couple of weeks ago on the New York Times piece about the Tesla S, where the reviewer had made some shifty moves - but now we're seeing the results of this review rippling through the industry. Tesla CEO Elon Musk sat down with Bloomberg TV's Betty Liu on "In the Loop", where he talked about the Model S and the NYT's piece on his vehicle.

Musk has said that the New York Times review of the Model S might have cost the company as much as $100 million in value, and the cancellation of 'hundreds' of orders from customers. Musk said, "It probably affected us to the tune of tens of millions, to the order of $100 million, so it's not trivial." So it looks like Tesla were on the losing end of the Times' piece on their Model S.

Musk continues, saying:

Bittorrent users in the United States will now be subject to the "six-strikes" copyright alert system. Customers of AT&T, Cablevision, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, and Comcast will face "mitigation measures" if a movie studio or other copyright holder asserts that they were illegally downloading a copyrighted work.

Theoretically the program will affect all users who pirate copyrighted material, though studios and other content owners can only really easily track bittorrent swarms. The program features escalating tiers of warnings, starting out with a simple notice that they were found to be downloading copyrighted material.

The second tier will see users facing more invasive measures, such as being forced to watch a video. The final tier of punishment can see users having their download speed reduced, though no service can be disconnected as a result of these accusations. Users can appeal for $35 to the American Arbitration Association. If a user wins the appeal, the fee is refunded.

Opera seems to be making headlines on a weekly basis in 2013, A couple of weeks ago I reported on the companies adoption of Webkit, then a few days later, covered the layoff of over 90 employees. Now Opera is announcing the formation of an entirely new subsidiary.

Over the last few months Opera has made a few strategic acquisitions with the intention of bolstering it's mobile advertising business. The company has spent in excess of $100 million snatching up companies like AdMarvel, 4th Screen Advertising and Mobile Theory and has announced today the formation of Opera Mediaworks.

Opera Mediaworks is a fully-owned subsidiary, which is being touted as the world's largest mobile ad platform. The new arm of Opera includes ad mediation and exchange services AdMarvel and Opera Mediaworks, mobile advertising networks Mobile Theory and 4th Screen Advertising, and the Opera Mobile Store and Opera Payment Exchange to monetize ad solutions.

When digital camera's came onto the mainstream scene, the film camera industry was all but wiped out overnight, and we may be on the verge of a similar event now. Aptina, maker of most of the image sensors in high-end mobile phones has just released two next-generation image sensors that could change everything.

At the Mobile World Congress, Aptina has announced it's newest 12MP and 13MP mobile image sensors, that are aimed at use in flagship smartphones. The 12MP AR1230 is a 1.1-micron pixel device, with 4k video at 30fps support as well as 1080p at 96fps. The 13MP AR1330 sports image stabilization at 1080P and includes 4K UHD and 4K Cinema formats at 30fps.

Aptina also released a new image sensor designed for use in the tablet PC / TV segment of the market. The AR0261 is a 1080p sensor that features 1.4-micron pixels, and is reported to be able to handle 60fps at 720p, can work with apps that utilize gesture recognition and 3D video capture.

MWC 2013 - ASUS have just unveiled their latest smartphone during their conference at Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona, Spain - enter the Padfone Infinity. Sporting a 5-inch 1080p display, we have the ability to dock the Padfone Infinity with a 10.1-inch 1920x1200-capable tablet.

You should be used to this by now with the previous Padfone, but this new Padfone Infinity bumps the specs up as well as offering a "sleek aluminum body", and inside we find Qualcomm's 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 - which is quite an amazing piece of kit.

ASUS chairman Jonney Shih took the stage, unveiling the Padfone Infinity itself. Something ASUS are calling "Customer Happiness 2.0" is the central part of the Padfone Infinity's design - touch, responsiveness, uniquity and more. A whole new design is behind the Padfone Infinity using aerospace-grade aluminum alloy, unibody frame and brushed metal finish, twice-anodized diamond cut edge glass display.

I only became aware of Watch Dogs last week when a friend pointed it out to me, I was blown away - it looks truly incredible. The game was then shown off during the PlayStation 4 unveiling late last week and now we're hearing some discussion from developer Ubisoft Montreal on the game. Senior producer on the game Dominic Guay, has said that the PS4 version of Watch Dogs pushes all aspects of the game further, he told Digital Spy:

The PS4 version of Watch Dogs will use the PlayStation 4's new touch pad to control the protagonists phone in-game, something that has been described as a "direct translation", and a "really cool" feature. As for the development of Watch Dogs on the PS4, Guay said that it's "definitely easier to get in" to as a platform, elaborating:

We knew it was coming, and we knew of a day, but now Samsung have confirmed it - the Galaxy S IV will be unveiled on March 14. Edaily has reported that Samsung mobile top dog, JK Shin, has said that the successor to the Galaxy S III will definitely be unveiled at the Samsung Unpacked event in New York City.

This might not sound special, but it is, as it is the first time a flagship Samsung smartphone has been unveiled in the US - the last one? Samsung's original Galaxy S all the way back in 2010. There's not much concrete info on the Galaxy S IV, but I'm hoping we don't just see a few things changed from the S III. I hope we see the material used being of better quality, a higher resolution display (5-inch 1080p has been rumored), and something else 'magical' - more than one magical thing would be nice.