Adam Sandler works with Netflix because it 'rhymes with Wet Chicks'

Anthony Garreffa | Business, Financial & Legal | Dec 23, 2015 5:44 AM CST

With the debut of Adam Sandler's first show on Netflix, 'Ridiculous 6', the comedian is back in the headlines in a very big way. Something we seemed to have missed when the deal went through between Sandler and Netflix, is the reason why he signed with the content streaming giant.

Back in October 2014, Sandler said that when Netflix called him up with the deal, he "immediately said yes for one reason and one reason only. Netflix rhymes with Wet Chicks". Interesting reason, Mr. Sandler. The full statement from Sandler was "When these fine people came to me with an offer to make four movies for them, I immediately said yes for one reason and one reason only. Netflix rhymes with Wet Chicks. Let the streaming begin!!!!"

Netflix Chief Content Officer, Ted Sarandos, said "People love Adam's films on Netflix and often watch them again and again. His appeal spans across viewers of all ages - everybody has a favorite movie, everyone has a favourite line - not just in the US but all over the world. Sandler also reportedly makes $80 million per movie in Hollywood, and Netflix has pockets deep enough to keep handing over servers full of money to the creator of huge hits like Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore.

Continue reading: Adam Sandler works with Netflix because it 'rhymes with Wet Chicks' (full post)

One dedicated Star Wars fan sat through The Force Awakens nine times

Anthony Garreffa | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Dec 23, 2015 4:23 AM CST

While The Force Awakens has made $610 million worldwide so far, there is one fan that would be the biggest Star Wars fan of all time. Jim Barden from Austin, Texas enjoyed a 30-hour Star Wars marathon, afterwhich he was named the biggest Star Wars fan.

The Alamo Drafthouse declared Bardin the biggest Star Wars fan after they invited nine people from around the United States to sit through the original Star Wars trilogy, the prequel trilogy and then various screenings of The Force Awakens. Barden has now seen The Force Awakens nine times, taking out the award of the biggest Star Wars fan ever.

The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Barden, asking how he managed to stay away, and to not go crazy after the huge Star Wars marathon. Barden said: "I guess I took a sort of scientific approach. I planned accordingly". Barden snacked on peppermint chewing gum and smelling lime wedges to keep himself awake, instead of chowing down on energy drinks and heavy meals that can push you into a food coma.

Continue reading: One dedicated Star Wars fan sat through The Force Awakens nine times (full post)

James Cameron confirms Christmas 2017 as the Avatar 2 release window

Anthony Garreffa | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Dec 23, 2015 2:27 AM CST

With all of the news headlines glued to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which has just passed $610 million worldwide breaking countless records in its process, James Cameron has come out talking about his Avatar sequels.

Cameron said in an interview with the Montreal Gazette that Avatar 2 will be released in Christmas 2017, he said: "Christmas of '17 is the target... At least, that's what we've announced. But I don't consider that to be as important as the fact that when we get all three films done, we drop them a year apart. I call it a meta-narrative that runs across the three movies. Each film stands alone, but it also tells one much larger story".

Until now, Avatar 2's release date had been rumored for 2014, 2015 and even 2016 - waiting another two years shouldn't hurt too much. As for whether Cameron and his team will reach the promised Christmas 2017 window, he said: "We have design more or less finished, which is an enormous task. It's been about a two-year task. [We've finished] all the creatures and the landscapes, and the new world's within the world of Pandora that you see. The writing is ongoing, but almost finished. Technical development is done. Stages are done. Infrastructure. So we're really poised to start after the first of the year".

Continue reading: James Cameron confirms Christmas 2017 as the Avatar 2 release window (full post)

ASUS AU builds a kick-ass gaming PC for 16-year-old disabled gamer

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Dec 23, 2015 1:22 AM CST

The holiday season is here, and ASUS Australia has really struck a chord with us here at TweakTown by having their handover event for a new gaming PC for a disabled Australian gamer.

ASUS AU builds a kick-ass gaming PC for 16-year-old disabled gamer

16-year-old Kieren Watts has Congenital Muscular Dystrophy, which is a general term for a group of genetic muscle diseases that occur at birth (congenital) or early during infancy. ASUS Australia teamed up with the Australian departments of Cooler Master, NVIDIA, Intel as well as community members like Good Gaming Fun (GGF, run by Stuart Tonks), Simple Modz (run by Alex Ciobanu), Mods by ACS (Drew Lawrence), IMFACEROLL Gaming (Corey Gregory) and members of the "Australian PC Gaming and Enthusiasts", and the "Australian PC Modders and Enthusiasts" Facebook groups.

Everyone came together to build a rather kick ass gaming PC, which consists of the following components:

Continue reading: ASUS AU builds a kick-ass gaming PC for 16-year-old disabled gamer (full post)

Just Cause 3's latest patch for the PC improves memory management

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Dec 22, 2015 11:22 PM CST

The latest v1.021 patch for Just Cause 3 on the PC offers improved memory management, as well as fixing up the stability when you exit to the desktop from the game. The new patch is just 99MB in size.

Avalanche Studios only just released the v1.02 patch for the PC and consoles last week, with the PC patch weighing in at 132MB - but the consoles were slapped with a huge 3GB patch. The v1.02 patch offered improved loading times, performance improvements and more. Avalanche explains the improved stability when exiting to the desktop: "As some of you will be aware, there was an issue that would sometimes cause the game to crash when exiting to desktop. The cause of this issue has been identified and addressed with this update".

The studio explains the memory management improvements: "In addition to fixing the exit to desktop crash, this update also improves Just Cause 3's memory management across a variety of hardware configurations. Some systems will feel this beneficial impact more than others".

Continue reading: Just Cause 3's latest patch for the PC improves memory management (full post)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has already pulled $610 million worldwide

Anthony Garreffa | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Dec 22, 2015 10:07 PM CST

Star Wars: The Force Awakens continues to print money, with Disney's latest blockbuster flying past $610 million in worldwide ticket sales. In the US alone, it has become the fastest movie to hit $250 million.

The Force Awakens has outperformed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 for Saturday sales, in a big way. Star Wars: The Force Awakens has broken pretty much every record possible: largest Thursday preview, global IMAX opening record, largest Friday, largest Saturday, largest Sunday, largest Monday, largest 4-day gross, biggest domestic opening, biggest worldwide opening and so many more records.

The latest news is that The Force Awakens will beat the current #1 box office champion: Avatar. Considering Avatar pulled in $580 in its first week, The Force Awakens is definitely doing a good job towards its battle to the #1 grossing movie of all time. Avatar sits at the top of the worldwide gross of $2.78 billion, which I think The Force Awakens will beat in the end.

Continue reading: Star Wars: The Force Awakens has already pulled $610 million worldwide (full post)

Oculus says the Rift is still on target for Q1 2016 launch

We know that the Oculus Rift would be released in early 2016, with pre-orders opening up "soon after New Year", but now the Oculus founder himself, Palmer Luckey, is providing more concrete details on the VR headset.

Luckey took to Twitter, where he said that preorders "are coming soon after new year. Enjoy a stress-free holiday, we won't launch preorders without warning!" Luckey said in another tweet "thrilled to share some news: Manufacturing continues to go well, and we are still on-target for an awesome Rift launch in Q1!"

The first Oculus Rift rolled off of the production line earlier this year during the Oculus Connect developer conference in September, which you can see in the above image. Oculus Hardware Project Manager, Stephanie Lue, said on stage at Oculus Connect: "We set a date out for ourselves for when we wanted to build the first product and we hit that date on the nose. Our hardware teams are pouring our hearts and souls to get it just right for the experience and for manufacturability so that we can get this out to as many people as possible. It's definitely worth the wait".

Continue reading: Oculus says the Rift is still on target for Q1 2016 launch (full post)

AMD 'adjusts' its dual-GPU launch plans to Q2 2016 for VR headsets

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Dec 22, 2015 7:57 PM CST

After promising that their dual GPU video card would be released in late 2015, AMD has delayed its Radeon R9 Fury X2. The reason? Because they expected the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive to be out in late 2015, but both VR headsets were delayed into early next year, forcing AMD to delay its dual-GPU efforts.

Hardware.fr talked with AMD, which said: "The product schedule for Fiji Gemini had initially been aligned with consumer HMD (Head Mounted Display) availability, which had been scheduled for Q415 back in June. Due to some delays in overall VR (Virtual Reality) ecosystem readiness, HMDs are now expected to be available to consumers by early Q216. To ensure the optimal VR experience, we're adjusting the Fiji Gemini launch schedule to better align with the market". AMD continued: "Working samples of Fiji Gemini have shipped to a variety of B2B customers in Q415, and initial customer reaction has been very positive".

AMD has reportedly sent out key people their new dual Fiji card, with these lucky people including DICE god Johan Andersson. We should expect AMD to show off the "Gemini" dual-GPU card at CES hopefully, but I think we're going to see an April-June launch - possibly at Computex in early June 2016.

Continue reading: AMD 'adjusts' its dual-GPU launch plans to Q2 2016 for VR headsets (full post)

Google is testing a new passwordless login system

Derek Strickland | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Dec 22, 2015 5:10 PM CST

In an effort to bolster account security, tech giant Google has confirmed that it's testing a new login system that doesn't require passwords.

Google is currently testing a new authentication method that could pave the way to password-free accounts in the near future. Google's method is very much like Yahoo's Account Key logins, which uses smartphone push notifications instead of manual passwords to log into Google accounts. The company's new sans password login method with a small batch of users, and one Reddit user has shared a few details on the new system.

According to an early access tester, the new method is pretty simple and is very much like linking a smartphone to a Roku to use a remote, or tethering a phone to an Xbox One to use Smartglass. Once your phone is linked and authorized to login to your Google account, the app sends a code that's shown on both screens, and users must type the same code to link the devices. Once that's done, users are logged in and can freely use their accounts. Basically Google's new method hinges on syncing, meaning you'll be matching digital pairs rather than typing in a per-session password.

Continue reading: Google is testing a new passwordless login system (full post)

Now GIGABYTE wants to launch their own VR headset too

There seems to be some chatter among Taiwanese supply-chain suppliers that GIGABYTE is also going to attempt to enter the VR headset market, along with ASUS.

But we already knew ASUS was interested in their own solution for use with their gaming notebooks, because that would allow for a first party solution to their products that would let consumers use an ASUS only ecosystem.

According to DigiTimes GIGABYTE is going to work with VR developer 3Glasses, which already have a few interesting and competitive VR solutions in their product lineup. The above is their flagship D2 Vanguard Edition with a 2K screen and latency that's less than 13ms, something needed for a good VR experience.

Continue reading: Now GIGABYTE wants to launch their own VR headset too (full post)